Talkin' 'bout a revolution

Creative director of Horizon Arts Philip Stokes returns to Edinburgh with his own brand of punk rock artistry

Feature by Ben Judge | 16 Jul 2010

Philip Stokes doesn’t pull his punches. As the creative director of the highly acclaimed Horizon Arts theatre company, he is the man behind some of the most provocative new theatre productions to have made their debut in Edinburgh over the past few years. But more than this, he is also a man determined to challenge what he sees as a staid theatrical establishment.

The results, so far, have been pretty spectacular. Last year’s Heroin(e) for Breakfast, which followed the short and brutal lives of three young heroin addicts, was one of the 2009 Fringe’s stand-out shows. After starting off in Edinburgh, it has since toured the country and made a critically lauded appearance at the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival, ruffling a few feathers on the way. This year, Horizon Arts return with a brand new production, Über Hate Gang, which follows a band of young revolutionaries "raging against the machine".

The idea of youth challenging the established way of doing things is one that seems to strike a chord with Stokes. “I love theatre, but 90 per cent of what I see is wank,” he says. “The one thing I hate most is that a lot of people think of theatre as an educational thing. When you’re at school you are dragged to the theatre; it’s sort of forced upon you. And so a lot of people’s first experience of theatre is through Shakespeare because it’s on the syllabus or through groups that go into schools saying ‘we can teach you something about how to be better people.’

“If you go up to a kid of 16 now and say ‘do you want to go to the cinema or the theatre?’ they’d say cinema every time. I’m aiming to attract people who enjoy film. I mean, I enjoy film but I don’t really like the majority of theatre. I think film manages to mix mass appeal and entertainment value with building characters better.”

Stokes is fascinated by the idea of bringing the dynamism and excitement more traditionally associated with blockbuster movies to the stage, both as a point of principle and as a means of engaging young people. Horizon Arts has adopted "theatre for a new generation" as its slogan and this is a theme that emerges time and again during our conversation.

“What I quite like is taking real, gritty subjects and giving them a really sort of dramatic spin. If someone was to talk about Heroin(e) for Breakfast and say it's about three junkies, you’d think ‘oh God, it’s a morality tale’ but when we personified heroin as Marilyn Monroe, that took it into the realm of theatricality. Elvis Hates Me [Horizon Arts’ 2008 Edinburgh show] was about mental illness, but we did it through the lens of disabled Elvis impersonators, which obviously had the potential for a lot of comedy. So it’s dealing with issues that everybody can relate to, but in a way that is engaging and funny.

“‘Theatre for a new generation’ is more than just theatre for young people. It’s about wanting to make people laugh, getting a reaction out of people whether good or bad, just so long as people aren’t indifferent. If you want to get a message across, you’re only going to be able to do that if it’s entertaining otherwise the audience switch off. So, I mean, the bottom line is however intellectual you feel you’re being, you want people to come out thinking about it, or talking about it. I’d rather someone walk out of our show and think ‘that was fucking crap’ than just pop out thinking ‘okay, what’s next?’" 

It's an ethos perhaps suggested by Stokes's past as a wannabe rockstar: “My background is being in a band, and I like the rock ‘n’ roll mentality. Theatre is very much you’ll sit in the dark and its very serious. I mean, obviously you can’t crowd surf in theatre, but that sort of idea of breaking down the fourth wall and getting a reaction from the audience is a part of that punk mentality."

Über Hate Gang is the latest realization of this punk-inspired vision of theatre. As Stokes explains, “it’s essentially about four people forming a gang to cause a revolution and that revolution is against a mediocre and average society,” – a fitting metaphor for Stokes' own revolution against mediocre, average theatre.

Über Hate Gang
Underbelly
5-29 August, (not 16), 12:00pm, £9-£10