For the last 50 years at New Perspectives, our mission has been to create entertaining and ambitious productions that are relevant and comment on the world we live in. Here are a few New Perspectives productions from our archive that deal with political issues such as unemployment, racism and homophobia, as well as reflecting the society at the time.

 

All of these productions are part of our 50^th anniversary postcard collection which you can purchase from our shop here.

 

Wot a Waste (1978)

 

Wot a Waste was a music-based show devised and performed by the company with original songs by Andy Dodge and John O’Mahoney.

 

The show was free to attend and the company hoped it would “stimulate discussion about the many problems facing the young school-leaver searching for work”. As part of the research for the production, Perspectives visited youth clubs and spoke to school-leavers about the world of work and issues with employment to make sure they were accurately representing that audience.

 

 

Model Village by Anita Sullivan (2023)

 

In 2023, New Perspectives commissioned Anita Sullivan to write Model Village after a previous play Anita had been working on with New Perspectives, An Angel at My Table, had been halted due to COVID-19.

 

Model Village was a play with audience participation where Anita felt she could safely and comfortably tackle issues in society without it feeling too confronting or serious. In a Theatre Bubble interview Anita said: "Our country is so fractured now. Fault lines run through families and communication across divides is hard. I want to create a play that explores some of those tricky edges in a positive, contained way and a model village seemed the perfect setting."

 

 

Best of Friends by Noel Greig (1985-86 & 1995)

 

First performed in December of 1985 before touring in 1986 and 1995, Best of Friends was a play for teenagers which explored the sexual, personal and global politics of two generations of a Skegness family.

 

Despite having so many performances, the play was actually subjected to a lot of controversy. An article in Peace News from 1985 wrote: “The Director of Education for Nottinghamshire tried to ban them from performing this play in all Nottinghamshire schools, ostensibly because there wasn't the money. The real reason appeared to be homophobia. Fortunately the Education Committee voted unanimously to lift the ban after they saw the play. It would have been a terrible shame for so many young people not to have seen it; there can't be many plays that explore homosexuality so positively.”

 

Perspectives had to perform the play behind closed doors at Long Eaton Labour Club to the Education Committee to lift the ban of performing it in Notts schools. Some County Councillors were outraged by the page at the back of the programme which had 'gay phone numbers' i.e. details of organisations signposted to young people following the play.

 

In a review by Andy Armstrong, he wrote: “To me, this play was a breath of fresh air. It deals with male sexuality and masculinity in a way seldom seen.”

 

 

 

Playland by Athol Fugard (2015)

 

South African playwright Athol Fugard’s Playland was a partnership with Nottingham Academy and provoked debate around intolerance and political extremism in the run up to the 2015 general election. The play was set at an amusement park in rural South Africa during the apartheid regime.

 

A 5-star review from London Theatre 1 read: "This was not a tale of terrible white oppression or black uprising, but a tale of two men who helped each other at an unbelievably horrific time in their lives by talking about their problems. A lesson for all the world."

 

 

A State of Health by Tony Coult (1986)

 

A State of Health by Tony Coult followed “a nurse who cracks up under the strain of working in an under-funded national health service which imposes a whole heap of conflicting demands on her: be submissive, but be decisive; get more involved with patients, but do it in less time as work builds up; be young, charming, not questioning, but handle peoples’ sickness and death with all the experience of a trained counsellor”. The play was non-naturalistic and included visions, fantasies, dreams and ghosts!

 

In a letter from Tony Coult to Perspectives, he wrote: “Most people (I'm generalising, I know) in our audiences won't need satire to show them the NHS is in a state. They must know it from their everyday experience [...] I think we should try and be useful to the unions, and our audiences generally, by trying to prod them, and ourselves, into defining what is a socialist vision of Health Care. That means risking being provocative, perhaps, but not underestimating the capability of our audiences to take it and enjoy it.”

 

 

Gaining Ground by Paul Goetzee (1982/83)

 

Similarly to Wot a Waste, Gaining Ground explored youth unemployment and followed three unemployed teenagers who became involved with a factory owner who wants them to burn down his premises for insurance purposes.

 

Performances were followed by a post-show workshop and actor hot seating about unemployment which was "extremely well-received" by young people and youth workers.

 

Though the production was a hit with the youth, Mansfield Chad were less impressed by the production, writing: “Unfortunately the afternoon ended with a piece of crude Marxist propaganda as the factory owner was violently turfed out and the teenagers took over the factory giving a clenched fist salute to a cheery audience [...] There may have been people in the audience who would believe that they could successfully copy their actions”.

 

The Derby Evening Telegraph also felt conflicted about the play with their headline reading ‘Polished play with a crude message’. In the article they wrote: “It highlights the terrors of being young and unemployed, and spares no pitch of melodrama in doing so.”