A new play critiquing the university experience is set to run at the Northcott theatre on Friday 24 January.
Sellout, written by David Lane, examines “universities mutating in a capitalist world” with 48 year-old disillusioned lecturer Frank at its centre.
The play traces Frank’s earnest endeavours to “push” students to achieve their best against the heads of department who “time [their] student allocations against the minute”.
In an interview with Exeposé Arts, Lane, a teacher of eight years, described “Sellout” as “all the things you wanted to know about your lecturer’s workplace and its critical impact on you – and some that you probably didn’t.”
Inspired by his own student’s feelings about their course, and his colleagues’ experience of “a managerial culture choking their ability to engage fully with scholarly endeavours”, Lane decided to structure his research-based piece for the Hall for Cornwall theatre around these themes. The resulting piece was branded by Times Higher Education as “an amusingly bleak view of university life”.
Though the play only amalgamates “about 10% of [his] own experience and 90% everybody else’s”, as a 2001 Exeter graduate himself, some of the more autobiographical elements will no doubt ring true for Exeter students and lecturers alike, as Lane himself graduated from the university’s Drama Department in 2001.
Pertinently for Lane, the play will be performed at the Northcott Theatre, which he describes as “really exciting”.
He also feels the setting to be relevant owing to Andrew Sparkes’ recent paper which “kicked off a series of accusations of a pressure-cooker working culture at Exeter University”.
This Friday’s performance will take the form of a one-off reading in order that “Sellout” can prove its potential to become a fully-fledged production.
Tickets can be purchased here on the Exeter Northcott Theatre website.
View the full interview with Sellout’s playwright, David Lane, here.
Bethany Stuart spoke to David Lane, playwright of the groundbreaking play, SELLOUT, which he hopes will spark debate about the higher education system.
David Lane is an Exeter graduate turned playwright with eight years of experience teaching at various institutions. His experiences revealed certain uncomfortable truths about the higher education system bending to the will of an increasingly capitalist society.
SELLOUT Image credit: The Northcott
His new piece of political theatre – SELLOUT – brings to the surface these realities in the hope that they gain a platform for debate, not just amongst students and those intrinsically connected to the education system, but on a national scale. With the upcoming performance at the Northcott Theatre, Mr Lane was enthusiastic to communicate with the students, for whom his work is especially relevant:
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Can you sum up SELLOUT in one statement?
All the things you wanted to know about your lecturers’ workplace and its critical impact on you – and some that you probably didn’t.
Whilst most of us would consider the implications of an increasingly capitalist higher education system from a student perspective, from your experiences teaching what can you tell us about the implications for lecturers?
…Burnout, disillusionment, a managerial culture choking their ability to engage fully with scholarly endeavours, reduction of people and their work to numbers and ratings, a utilitarian view of what education is for (getting a job, rather than discovering knowledge that illuminates the world and how we live) and at worst, an environment that encourages feelings of fraudulence, loss of confidence and bullying. Put all of that together inside the person who’s standing in front of you trying to teach, and you have a problem.
You state that the “universities are mutating in a capitalist world” – do you think there is anyway to prevent this, or is it inevitable?
If I knew the answer to that I’d go and file it at Westminster! I think the job of a playwright is to dramatise recognisable human experience by communicating it through stories that engage an audience, so that’s my priority.
David Lane, Playwright of SELLOUT Image credit: David Lane
Other than your own experiences, did anything else inspire or influence the thought-process behind SELLOUT?
It has been inspired by about 10% of my own experience and 90% everybody else’s. This play began when students on one of my modules were seeking to confide in me some feelings about their course and their tutors: but as non-permanent staff there was little I could do about it, so I spoke to a trusted colleague. What he described in response was much of what I have already mentioned, but he also handed me a fantastic paper by an academic called Andrew Sparkes, titled ‘Embodiment, academics, and the audit culture: a story seeking consideration’.
Sounds pretty dry, but he had converted various pieces of evidence from lecturers’ experiences of being continually ‘measured’ into a short fiction narrative that showed me the other side of the story: that the work culture was incredibly damaging to the values many lecturers had, and their health and happiness too. This kick-started a much longer consultative research process…Playwriting is a craft and requires rigour so it’s been a long process.
If the audience leave with just one message, what would you like it to be?
Stick it to the man even when the man is still kicking you when you’re down.
Is it especially important to you that SELLOUT is performed at Exeter in the Northcott Theatre?
Yes, for two very different reasons. Firstly I’m a graduate of the Drama department here at Exeter (2001) and I remember going to the Northcott to see performances, so to have a play up there, even just a reading, is really exciting. Secondly, very recently I’ve learned that the paper Andrew Sparkes wrote also kicked off a series of accusations of a pressure-cooker working culture at Exeter University so it feels rather relevant that the play is getting an outing here.
In recent years you mentored a member of EUTCO, what advice would you give to aspiring playwrights?
Can I steal some advice? The best I was given was from Sarah Dickenson, a former dramaturg of Theatre 503 and Soho Theatre in London: ‘don’t get it right, get it written’…Nobody can teach you how to start – you have to do that bit yourself…Oh, and have something to say that people will want to sit in a dark room for two hours and hear your actors banging on about…theatre is a hard enough sell as it is, so if you’re going to write something, make it worth your audience’s while.
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The Northcott Theatre will be showcasing SELLOUT in a one-off reading on Friday 24th January at 7.30pm to raise awareness so that it can become a fully-fledged production, allowing Lane’s eye-opening and relevant message to spread nationwide. As Mr Lane so aptly stated, let’s all go “stick it to the man” and get involved in the politics of a system which has such a huge influence over our futures!
Every week we bring you our special selection of all things arty. From interesting websites to highly anticipated performances for your diary, there is something to spark all kinds of creative interest.
1. The Independent’s arts highlights of the year
Click here to see The Independent’s arts highlights of the year, including the opening of The Shed, the National Theatre’s temporary performance space on London’s South Bank.
2. National Geographic Photography Contest
“A polar bear peers up from beneath the melting sea ice on Hudson Bay as the setting midnight sun glows red from the smoke of distant fires during a record-breaking spell of hot weather. The Manitoba population of polar bears, the southernmost in the world, is particularly threatened by a warming climate and reduced sea ice.” Photo and caption by Paul Souders
The winners of the annual National Geographic Photo Contest were announced last week, and the photographs are breathtaking. Over 7000 people entered from over 150 countries, submitting work in three categories: nature, people and place. There is also a ‘Grand-Prize Winner’ which is the best photograph out of all three, shown above. Clickhere to see all of the winners.
3. Colossal’s top 15 posts of 2013
From sandwich bag illustrations to flexible paper sculptures, the art and visual ingenuity blog Colossal has shared some incredible things in the past year. Check out their top posts of 2013 here.
4. SELLOUT @ The Northcott
SELLOUT is new political play about the higher education system which tells the story of the “ever-distorting relationship between students’ discovery of new knowledge and institutions’ attainment of league-table profiles”. Written by a graduate and ex-visiting tutor of the Drama department, this play explores relevant and interesting issues for those in university. There is a script-in-hand reading at the Northcott Theatre on 24th January, and tickets can be purchased here.
5. If Only For a Second
This video ‘If Only For a Second’ speaks for itself, watch it below.
Giverny Masso and Bryony James
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