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| Why the Royal Court cancelling Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a grim joke | Why the Royal Court cancelling Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a grim joke |
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| Thu 14 Dec 2017 14.10 GMT | |
| Last modified on Fri 12 Jan 2018 16.14 GMT | |
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| Earlier this year I met the actor George Costigan on the steps of a boarded-up pub on the outskirts of Bradford. The pub was the Beacon, in Buttershaw, which featured heavily in the movie version of Andrea Dunbar’s play Rita, Sue and Bob Too; we were meeting to discuss the 30th anniversary of the film’s release. | Earlier this year I met the actor George Costigan on the steps of a boarded-up pub on the outskirts of Bradford. The pub was the Beacon, in Buttershaw, which featured heavily in the movie version of Andrea Dunbar’s play Rita, Sue and Bob Too; we were meeting to discuss the 30th anniversary of the film’s release. |
| Back in 1987, Costigan and the rest of the cast – Michelle Holmes, who played Sue, Siobhan Finneran (Rita) and Kulvinder Ghir, who was Sue’s Asian boyfriend, Aslam – gathered for the launch of the movie at the Brighton Film Festival. | Back in 1987, Costigan and the rest of the cast – Michelle Holmes, who played Sue, Siobhan Finneran (Rita) and Kulvinder Ghir, who was Sue’s Asian boyfriend, Aslam – gathered for the launch of the movie at the Brighton Film Festival. |
| Costigan recalled that the panel was left slightly nonplussed by a question from a reporter, basically asking why the actors and the director Alan Clarke had made this film, when it could obviously have no basis in reality. People didn’t really live their lives like that. It was the executive producer, Oscar Lewenstein, who stepped in to answer: “This is a report from the frontline. We’ve just dressed it up as entertainment.” | Costigan recalled that the panel was left slightly nonplussed by a question from a reporter, basically asking why the actors and the director Alan Clarke had made this film, when it could obviously have no basis in reality. People didn’t really live their lives like that. It was the executive producer, Oscar Lewenstein, who stepped in to answer: “This is a report from the frontline. We’ve just dressed it up as entertainment.” |
| Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a bleak and powerful indictment of a society that beat its poorest and most disaffected down as low as they would go, and kept them there. But it’s also very, very funny, because life – even life lived on the edge of an abyss – is funny. You have to laugh, because what’s the alternative? | Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a bleak and powerful indictment of a society that beat its poorest and most disaffected down as low as they would go, and kept them there. But it’s also very, very funny, because life – even life lived on the edge of an abyss – is funny. You have to laugh, because what’s the alternative? |
| But it’s a joke too far for the Royal Court theatre in London, which has announced that it is no longer going to be staging a planned production of Rita, Sue and Bob Too next year. Why? According to a statement from the Royal Court and the Out of Joint theatre company, which was putting on the production: “On our stage we recently heard 150 stories of sexual harassment and abuse and therefore the staging of this work, with its themes of grooming and abuses of power on young women, on that same stage now feels highly conflictual.” | But it’s a joke too far for the Royal Court theatre in London, which has announced that it is no longer going to be staging a planned production of Rita, Sue and Bob Too next year. Why? According to a statement from the Royal Court and the Out of Joint theatre company, which was putting on the production: “On our stage we recently heard 150 stories of sexual harassment and abuse and therefore the staging of this work, with its themes of grooming and abuses of power on young women, on that same stage now feels highly conflictual.” |
| Those 150 stories were part of a day of action to confront harassment and abuse in the theatre industry, which no one could find anything but laudable. But Rita, Sue and Bob Too becoming a casualty of that feels especially ironic. | Those 150 stories were part of a day of action to confront harassment and abuse in the theatre industry, which no one could find anything but laudable. But Rita, Sue and Bob Too becoming a casualty of that feels especially ironic. |
| When the movie came out 30 years ago, it carried the tagline “Thatcher’s Britain with its knickers down”. The main narrative revolved around aspirational upper-working-class Bob, who embarks upon a sexual affair with Rita and Sue, both in their final year of high school. Describing it like that, it almost sounds like a titillating sex comedy in the vein of Confessions of a Window Cleaner. But it’s anything but. It’s sordid, and grimy, and sad. And, yes, extremely funny. | When the movie came out 30 years ago, it carried the tagline “Thatcher’s Britain with its knickers down”. The main narrative revolved around aspirational upper-working-class Bob, who embarks upon a sexual affair with Rita and Sue, both in their final year of high school. Describing it like that, it almost sounds like a titillating sex comedy in the vein of Confessions of a Window Cleaner. But it’s anything but. It’s sordid, and grimy, and sad. And, yes, extremely funny. |
| But the entire point of Rita, Sue and Bob Too is that Lewenstein was right, it is a report from the frontline. It was written by Dunbar when she was just 19, and based on her own experiences in her ultimately tragic and short life. She grew up on the Buttershaw estate, where the play – and its predecessor, The Arbor – were set, and she insisted the movie was filmed on location, using local people as extras. | But the entire point of Rita, Sue and Bob Too is that Lewenstein was right, it is a report from the frontline. It was written by Dunbar when she was just 19, and based on her own experiences in her ultimately tragic and short life. She grew up on the Buttershaw estate, where the play – and its predecessor, The Arbor – were set, and she insisted the movie was filmed on location, using local people as extras. |
| The play, and especially the film, were divisive in Bradford at the time. There were those who didn’t appreciate the light it shone on Bradford’s shabbier corners, but at the same time Dunbar became a cause celebre in the city. Here was one of their own, writing plays and making films, a girl from the rough end of town doing things that just weren’t the preserve of working-class, council-estate kids, with no prospects other than signing on, getting pregnant and hoping for a decent flat from the local authority. Dunbar is still held up as an aspirational icon for kids living in one of the most deprived boroughs in the country. | The play, and especially the film, were divisive in Bradford at the time. There were those who didn’t appreciate the light it shone on Bradford’s shabbier corners, but at the same time Dunbar became a cause celebre in the city. Here was one of their own, writing plays and making films, a girl from the rough end of town doing things that just weren’t the preserve of working-class, council-estate kids, with no prospects other than signing on, getting pregnant and hoping for a decent flat from the local authority. Dunbar is still held up as an aspirational icon for kids living in one of the most deprived boroughs in the country. |
| Yes, Rita, Sue and Bob Too is about abuse perpetrated by an older man on two teenage girls. Yes, it’s shocking. No, there is no tidy resolution at the end. Dunbar wasn’t one for happy endings – she died in 1990, from a brain haemorrhage suffered while she was in the Beacon pub. She was a heavy drinker, a single mother and had spent time living in a women’s refuge. | Yes, Rita, Sue and Bob Too is about abuse perpetrated by an older man on two teenage girls. Yes, it’s shocking. No, there is no tidy resolution at the end. Dunbar wasn’t one for happy endings – she died in 1990, from a brain haemorrhage suffered while she was in the Beacon pub. She was a heavy drinker, a single mother and had spent time living in a women’s refuge. |
| The biggest irony of the Royal Court cancelling the revival of Dunbar’s celebrated play is that this was the place that first staged it in 1982, directed by Max Stafford-Clark. And therein lies the nub of the problem. In September, Stafford-Clark was forced out of Out of Joint, where he had been artistic director since 1993, after allegations of inappropriate, sexualised behaviour. The Royal Court’s statement says: “The departure of Max Stafford-Clark from Out of Joint and the recent allegations in the media have coincided with the Royal Court’s response to the spotlight on our industry and the rigorous interrogation of our own practices.” | The biggest irony of the Royal Court cancelling the revival of Dunbar’s celebrated play is that this was the place that first staged it in 1982, directed by Max Stafford-Clark. And therein lies the nub of the problem. In September, Stafford-Clark was forced out of Out of Joint, where he had been artistic director since 1993, after allegations of inappropriate, sexualised behaviour. The Royal Court’s statement says: “The departure of Max Stafford-Clark from Out of Joint and the recent allegations in the media have coincided with the Royal Court’s response to the spotlight on our industry and the rigorous interrogation of our own practices.” |
| Dunbar would possibly not be surprised that as a direct result of the misbehaviour of a man, her play will no longer be staged. Dunbar did nothing but tell the truth about life, but more than a quarter of a century after her death, her truth has been deemed unpalatable. Not because of anything she has done, but because of the actions of a man. | Dunbar would possibly not be surprised that as a direct result of the misbehaviour of a man, her play will no longer be staged. Dunbar did nothing but tell the truth about life, but more than a quarter of a century after her death, her truth has been deemed unpalatable. Not because of anything she has done, but because of the actions of a man. |
| Rita, Sue and Bob Too is an important portrait of real, harsh, brutal lives in the north, leavened by humour. Because that’s what we do in the north. Abusers in positions of power in the entertainment industry have been silencing women’s voices for decades. Andrea Dunbar refused to be silenced in her lifetime by men, she stood up and told it like it was. But now the theatre where she got her first break is doing the silencing. As when seedy Bob entices Rita and Sue into his car for urgent, loveless sex, it’s almost funny, in a horrific sort of way. | Rita, Sue and Bob Too is an important portrait of real, harsh, brutal lives in the north, leavened by humour. Because that’s what we do in the north. Abusers in positions of power in the entertainment industry have been silencing women’s voices for decades. Andrea Dunbar refused to be silenced in her lifetime by men, she stood up and told it like it was. But now the theatre where she got her first break is doing the silencing. As when seedy Bob entices Rita and Sue into his car for urgent, loveless sex, it’s almost funny, in a horrific sort of way. |
| • David Barnett is an arts writer | • David Barnett is an arts writer |
| Theatre | |
| Opinion | |
| Royal Court theatre | |
| Sexual harassment | |
| Women | |
| Andrea Dunbar | |
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