Free Speech
David Edgar writes about defending free speech in the performing arts. I didn’t think it was so under attack, still Edgar writes convincingly:
“…Behind all of this is the idea that there are subjects too important, too profound, too dangerous for writing (and painting, and performing, and even reporting) to touch. Behind that is an assumption that fiction writing in particular has no positive value, that it is a trivial pursuit, a luxury pastime which if it proves to be dangerous to its consumers should be suppressed for the greater good, like high-risk sports, keeping attack dogs, or eating meat off the bone.
We have been intimidated by such accusations – aided and abetted as they have been by post-modern critics in the universities – to ignore or devalue the positive role of art in our lives.
The telling and hearing of stories (in whatever medium) is not an optional extra or a trivial pursuit. It is central to our being as humans. Indeed, certain crucial aspects of humanness could not exist without it.
The most obvious is our ability to imagine other worlds and other times through stories told either from or about them.
The second is our capacity to plan, which relies on the ability to imagine a series of actions and their consequences and, on the basis of that speculation, to choose between them.
But third, fiction teaches us to empathise….”
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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