spotted this from Johann Hari in The Independent earlier this week on a vile new Edinburgh Fringe play, which seems a good companion piece to some of k-punk's (and friends) excellent recent posting on class
....but this looks like Sondheim compared to the most obnoxious show on the fringe: Chav – Its'a a Musical, Innit?' at the Underbelly. The only way to describe this show is to explain that a bunch of rich kids have put on a show for more rich kids, to ridicule a particular branch of the poor, because they talk and dress differently to them.
Two sub-human "chav" girls waddle on to the stage, talking like this: "I ain't had a period in three months, Precious."
"You know what that means, Destiny?"
Her face crumples: "It means I'm dying, don't it?"
"No, you're pregnant."
"Oh yeah, OK, I'll go nick a pregnancy kit."
"Yeah nick me some lip gloss an' all."
The expensively dressed audience gurgles with glee.
Imagine an hour of it. With Little Britain and Catherine Tate, we do not see the effect of this undiluted class hate, because it is dispersed across a thousand television screens. But here, it is concentrated into one audience, and I spent most of the show watching them, their faces contorted with chuckling hatred for the voices, clothes and even the names of people who live on estates. Those people who say hatred of "chavs" is not hatred of the poor should hear the punch lines here: "I want to spend my life with you/ and our little baby too/ in our council home," sings one girl, and that's it; that's the joke – living in a council house. Oh, how the audience roars.
This "musical" exemplifies the contradictory abuse directed at "chavs". For much of the play, they are sneered at as BNP-supporting racists. But then – another hilarious punch line – they are jeered at for having actually having sex with black and Asian people and producing mixed-race kids, when one of the characters sings upon seeing "his" newborn baby: "There's nothing here of me/ It's a brown baby." What will the company stage next – Wog – The Musical?
....but this looks like Sondheim compared to the most obnoxious show on the fringe: Chav – Its'a a Musical, Innit?' at the Underbelly. The only way to describe this show is to explain that a bunch of rich kids have put on a show for more rich kids, to ridicule a particular branch of the poor, because they talk and dress differently to them.
Two sub-human "chav" girls waddle on to the stage, talking like this: "I ain't had a period in three months, Precious."
"You know what that means, Destiny?"
Her face crumples: "It means I'm dying, don't it?"
"No, you're pregnant."
"Oh yeah, OK, I'll go nick a pregnancy kit."
"Yeah nick me some lip gloss an' all."
The expensively dressed audience gurgles with glee.
Imagine an hour of it. With Little Britain and Catherine Tate, we do not see the effect of this undiluted class hate, because it is dispersed across a thousand television screens. But here, it is concentrated into one audience, and I spent most of the show watching them, their faces contorted with chuckling hatred for the voices, clothes and even the names of people who live on estates. Those people who say hatred of "chavs" is not hatred of the poor should hear the punch lines here: "I want to spend my life with you/ and our little baby too/ in our council home," sings one girl, and that's it; that's the joke – living in a council house. Oh, how the audience roars.
This "musical" exemplifies the contradictory abuse directed at "chavs". For much of the play, they are sneered at as BNP-supporting racists. But then – another hilarious punch line – they are jeered at for having actually having sex with black and Asian people and producing mixed-race kids, when one of the characters sings upon seeing "his" newborn baby: "There's nothing here of me/ It's a brown baby." What will the company stage next – Wog – The Musical?
