Self-described working-class playwright Keaton Saunders-Brown thought the Edinburgh Fringe was not for people like her—until the world’s largest arts festival established a fund to attract a more diverse cast of artists Went.
The 24-year-old Londoner, of Irish and Caribbean heritage, is using a grant from generated funds to stage his play “Block’d Off”, which runs through August 3 at the city’s Pleasance Theatre, to break the cycle of deprivation. which is central to the work.
Even more than race, class is the issue that touches everyone and “transcends everything”, Saunders-Brown argues, and yet, the stories of the working class remain untold.
“The reason they’re not there is because, in an almost scientific way, working class people have different struggles to deal with,” he said.
“You can’t do art if you don’t have food, if you don’t know when you’ll be physically safe.”
Unlike conservative Edinburgh fringe artists, secure in the knowledge that they could get back on the family money, Saunders-Brown said that her mother’s household budget was £3,000 ($3,650) a year. This is less than £5,000 from a fund that was set up by Pledges for Black, Asian and Global Majority Artists.
Nevertheless he was determined to act and won a scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).
The characters in his play, male and female – including a drug dealer and a white, middle-class tutor who try to help – are all played by a woman, Camilla Segal. She says the play fits into the theatrical trend of “moving towards authenticity.”
Segal left Brazil at the age of 10 when an aunt gave money to take her mother to England in search of a better life.
“I guess I’m this drama,” she said. “It’s very personal to me.”
Celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Edinburgh International Festival and the fringe that formed around it were founded after World War with the goal of using culture to heal the two divisions.
That ambition has never felt more relevant.
Anthony Alderson, artistic director of Pleasance, says that attracting the largest range of people is key to bridging the gaps in society that have widened during the COVID-19 pandemic and as inflation rises.
Pleasance isn’t the only venue with plans that support diversity. The nearby assembly says its performances are chosen “regardless of age, class, gender or race”.
Their success will become apparent by the end of Edinburgh’s first fully live festival after the pandemic.
Ticket sales are yet to match the 2019 record.
“The risks involved in growing this festival are enormous for everyone involved,” Alderson said. “Achieving break-even is incredibly difficult.”
read all breaking news And today’s fresh news Here