Abstract
2014 is the tenth anniversary of a British theatre’s controversial decision to cancel performances of the play Behzti because of safety concerns after a Sikh protest. Playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti was forced into hiding at the time.
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti is about to return to the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where Behzti (Dishonour) was briefly staged in 2004, with a new play, Khandan (Family). She also writes for the long-running radio soap opera The Archers.
How do you think the arts and culture and freedom of expression have changed in the past 10 years?
One of the biggest changes is social media, if not the biggest change. So we have a whole other level of expression and participation in debate that didn’t exist when Behzti was around.
How do you think that social media would have affected the production of Behzti in 2004?
You would have had more demonstrators; you’d have had more activity and more discussion on both sides. However, how informed that debate would have been I don’t know because I do think that the Twittersphere can reduce things to quite a banal level. The issues are the same and, if anything, they may have got harder because of the economic climate. In some ways our culture has become more fear-ridden. The reasons not to do something are often what people talk about before they even think about what their feelings or even instincts are towards a piece of work.
Do you think that sort of approach is being shaped by financially difficult times?
In the arts, the notion of the right to fail generally is diminishing, but the issue of offence is a continual struggle and debate and it depends on the person leading the [cultural] institution. The climate is quite difficult for people to act from their hearts and to take risks, which can’t be good for artists, for institutions, for people
How are you feeling about going back to Birmingham?
I actually go back every month because I write for The Archers. But I’m really excited. The Rep has a new artistic director. And I’m looking forward to it.
Above: A man exits Birmingham Repertory Theatre after the cancellation of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s play Behzti in 2004
Credit: Darren Staples/Reuters
You don’t have those memories from 10 years ago sort of crowding in…
You know what, it happened. Life happens. And I have nothing to feel ashamed about or bad about. The theatre pulled my play, which I’m very sad about, but it happened. That play has lived on and that’s something that I’ve spoken about at length, in other ways. It’s been studied at universities. It’s been performed in Italy, France and Belgium. It’s more than me. For me it’s a play that I wrote and afterwards I went and did lots of other things. I have written extensively for stage, screen and radio over the past 10 years. So the thing of Behzti is bigger than me and my presence in a city. I don’t know how Birmingham will feel. I don’t know how certain sections of different communities will feel.
I suppose the obvious question is: could you see Behzti going on today and would there be a different reaction to it? Has the community moved on?
We’ve got to be really careful about talking about “the community” because it’s not a homogenous lump. Lots of people in the Sikh community were very supportive of me and of the play. I think the sections of the community who weren’t …we’d have to see. Are we in a kind of climate where people feel more separatist, feel the need to kind of define themselves more?
I’m sure there will be some people who find it difficult or outrageous but I’ve just got to get on with what I’m doing and my life and my work and follow that path. I don’t think anything has changed in the world to make people stop believing what they believed 10 years ago. Maybe people have mellowed. I don’t know.
Do you feel that the negative reaction came from a sense that part of the Sikh community was not feeling confident of how a wider British identity embraced them or that sense of insecurity?
We’ve been through so much in this country, so much racism. We’ve worked so hard. Why the need to kind of, you know, wash dirty linen in public? But for me that’s just such a reductive sort of argument. We have stories that we should be able to tell, regardless of who we are. And coming back to religion, as I’ve said many times before, it was the stuff to do with the faith that people found difficult. I can see that point of view, I understand from a sort of human point of view, but is your faith so weak that it can’t bear me and my tiny play?
Some people have argued that we’ve moved into a time when people are unwilling to accept a discussion that they think is offensive, particularly if it’s about religion. Do you think we have become more sensitive over time to those kinds of discussions?
I think that there is huge over-sensitivity alongside fear and it’s not a great combination. Fear and over-sensitivity are deadly to debate, to progress. I think in order to have a robust conversation about anything we must embark on that conversation with a strong sense of self and robustness and that is sometimes difficult to achieve.
Religions have a lot. They have money. They have buildings. They have structure. They have hierarchy. They have followers. They have literature. An artist is normally one person on his or her own who is doing his or her thing. I don’t believe in being a hooligan and just going out and attacking anybody or any institution just for the hell of it but I do think that they have quite a lot of power.
Do you think there needs to be any sort of sense of a right to reply in theatre as there is in a newspaper?
Again, in social media now you kind of have it. Literally when a show opens at 7.30 people can start tweeting at 7.31. People don’t have to buy tickets. We live in a democracy. People are free to demonstrate, free to say they hate something. There are myriads of ways in which people can respond to things they don’t like, through social media, through activism, protest. I think that’s absolutely as it should be.
In your view what is the relationship between religious freedom and the right to critique different religions? Do you think that people should be accepting of both?
I think we should be able to do that, but we also need to talk to each other honestly about the things that we don’t understand. So if one’s critique is based on ignorance then get informed and have a more informed debate. It’s about asking ourselves as people, if we want to work in the arts, where there is connection with others.
So do you think we have a responsibility to be informed before we begin a discussion?
Above: London’s West End theatre district. In the UK, “the issue of offence is a continual struggle and debate”, affecting artistic expression and the cultural institutions that support it
Credit: © LondonPhotos/Alamy
No. It helps, but we are free to say and do what we want within the law. I think there is a lot of Islamaphobia and there is a lot of stuff being talked about Islam that is really uninformed.
You could say the same thing about people on benefits in this country, who are perceived by many, many people as a homogeneous kind of lump. From people who I think should know better. Now they are free to say what they want but if they want to contribute to a serious debate about serious issues then go and get informed.
We have more media, we have more TV stations, we have more access to social media and more of an ability to find out things from people across the world than we’ve ever had before.
There’s not necessarily a multiplicity of views, of experiences. We think we’ve got more. Quantitatively we’ve got more. Qualitatively have we got more? I don’t know.
Do you think there are subjects and areas that playwrights or TV and radio writers won’t touch?
I think writers will always write stuff. Whether it gets made is a different thing and that comes down to commissioners and producers and, again, comes down to institutions willing to take risks. I don’t think there is an issue that I personally would think “oh god, I couldn’t go there”. I might not write a play about fishing because I’m not interested in it. When I talk to young writers I always say, you have to be brave, you have to be brave to do this and not be sensationalist for the sake of it.
Do you think that new media and social media give you more opportunities in some ways?
The fact that people can make a video and put it on YouTube is amazing. There are brilliant elements of it in terms of communication, in terms of freedom of expression, in terms of people being creative and taking ownership of their thoughts.
I just want to go back to one thing about whether you felt Behzti could be put on today…
I think it could be. I mean if somebody wanted to do it I’d be very open to talking to them.
And have you had any approaches to put it on recently?
Not in this country.
But do you think if it came out, it would be a different version?
Oh no, I’d keep it the same play. The story of that play is that I wrote it really quickly and suddenly it was on. So it was a little bit rough around the edges. But I wouldn’t change anything central to it. If people were offended then they would be offended now. So I would just kind of tidy it up in a playwriting sense. I hope that people would see it as a piece of theatre, which is what I always wanted.
So it could be produced without that sort of anger?
I hope it could be made without that sort of sensationalism around it. It would be up to a director or producer who liked the play and wanted to do it for its theatrical worth rather than anything else.
So it’s not something that, for instance, say, the Birmingham Rep has come back and said: “It’s been 10 years, we’d love to put it on?”
They haven’t, no. But they are doing my new one so that’s good. They’re enabling me to express myself.
So how does The Archers fit in with the playwriting? Do you have different days for different things?
When you do The Archers you do a week of episodes and so that’s what I’m doing at the moment. But I only do that four or five months of the year. So I have lots of time for doing my plays. It involves quite a lot of juggling but it’s all right.
It does tackle issues. All soaps do, I suppose, but it has something very Middle England about it.
It’s an institution. People find it hilarious that I write for it and that I write the sort of plays that I write. But for me it’s two aspects of myself and I really enjoy it. I think the show has great integrity and truth. It’s a lovely, lovely job.
Footnotes
Khandan will run at the Birmingham Rep from 22 May to 7 June 2014