A worrying 2018 study shows the massive strides the industry needs to make if it is to be truly inclusive.

When I picked up the pitch for this article, entitled ‘how the working class experience theatre’, there was a bit of back and forth between myself and the editor to work out what our exact question was. Were we looking at working class characters in plays? Working class audience members? Those working in the industry?

Each would, I’m sure, make for very compelling reading. I was positive that, with being so impassioned about theatre and its importance, as soon as I opened a new document, my hands would type away furiously and the direction of the piece would become clear.

Instead, the opposite happened. I stared paralysed at the screen, feeling the weight of enormity and complexity of the subject press down on me like a rock. I thought about other recent articles I had written, on the importance of regional touring and outreach work, and put my head in my hands at the sheer connectedness of it all.

Because the truth is, this article, this argument, is about all of those things combined. Representation in the arts continues to be a vicious cycle of failure, with each problem fuelling the next. A recent study conducted by Create London and Arts Emergency found that only 12.4% of people working in the arts have a working-class origin.

I feel qualified to write about this because I firmly include myself in that statistic, coming from a family where my parents did not work and no one but myself went to college or university. Plus someone I once worked with constantly insisted that I was middle class because I had a Masters Degree and worked in theatre.

(Yes, that’s right, someone else felt that they were justified in explaining my class to me).

Although it is a classic chicken and egg situation, let’s try to address the audience issue first. With most of the highest paid jobs still taken by white, middle class men, we are essentially creating an echo chamber within the arts.

Notwithstanding all the barriers to access for lower class people (cost, travel etc.), think of how many working class characters you have actually seen portrayed on stage over the last 50 or so years, and of those, how many have been reduced to the ‘Cor Blimey Guvnor,’ knees-up stereotype? It’s a sobering reality.

I once led a piece of audience development work where I asked young audience members in areas of cultural low engagement, many of whom were working class, why they didn’t attend the theatre. The main reason stated by over 200 of these teenagers was “It’s boring or irrelevant to me”.

It stands to reason then, if working class people aren’t attending or including theatre as part of their cultural lexicon (because they see it as something ‘other’ or ‘not for them’), they are much less likely to consider it as a viable career path. This then perpetuates the class gap amongst industry workers, and fuels the lack of representation on stage.

Another consideration needs to be that, before one can even hope to earn any kind of living in the arts, getting into the industry in itself can be hugely expensive. Audition fees. Drama school. Training. Subscriptions. Specialist equipment. Not to mention being expected to work all hours for insufficient, or sometimes even zero wage.

Once trained in their chosen field, working class graduates are much more likely to have to support themselves through working numerous casual or low pay jobs, leaving little time to jumpstart a creative career. Typically, theatre work is also still very London-centric, meaning sky high rents and cramped house shares are not uncommon.

I’m now in my early 30s, and every year I see more and more of my friends drop out of the industry because they realise it simply cannot sustain their other life ambitions.

I was a student at CSSD when then Principal Gavin Henderson openly stated that diversity quotas could lower the institution's standards. Although met with huge outrage, I worry that, whilst this representation loop continues, those with the power to affect change simply won’t act because they aren’t directly affected due to their privilege.

But with the problem of class so entrenched and so cyclical, what can we possibly do to break it? For all the schemes and movements and incentives (and there are many great ones), how far have we really come since commoners were packed into the pits of The Globe whilst the gentry looked on from their cushioned boxes?

Cyclical problems often have cyclical answers. From my experiences, the solutions all come back to outreach, access and education. We need more regional arts, more subsidised programs and tickets, more work experience, more people who are already established supporting those just starting out. 

In short, we need a massive shift in the culture of culture.

Because if young working-class people see people like them within companies, venues and as freelancers, they are much more likely to feel like theatre is a viable career. And the more that happens, the more they will become the decision makers and so the more likely we are to see working class people represented on stage as fully rounded individuals, not stereotypes.

With better representation on stage, we will draw in a wider demographic of audience, and the whole process starts again. I am not naïve enough to think that I’ve hit on anything revolutionary here – this is stuff that many have known for years – but I feel like now is a time where the industry needs to face its shortcomings in the class divide and commit to doing better. Otherwise, we run the risk of losing a magnitude of talents and ideas, simply because of a lack of wealth and opportunity.

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Written by Fiona Moon

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