Thursday 24 February 2011

Who are you calling Great?

At his Q&A session at the University of Qatar yesterday, David Cameron was asked how he was going to make Britain "Great" again. Cameron starting banging on about Britain's universities, its inventions, its language. It wasn't his best response of the day but since he no doubt had spent the morning preparing for questions on Libya, the Middle East and football, I am not going to criticise. I am more interested in the question rather than his answer since it rather supposes that Britain is no longer "Great" and that it is obvious that we should be working to make it Great again. Well Britain is great in many respects but I am pretty sure not in the way the questioner meant. I am certain she was talking about Britain's status in the world, our place on the international stage. Now I am not saying we are now insignificant but we are kidding ourselves if we think we are still Great. Britain likes to think of itself as Great and use our permanent seat on the UN Security Committee, our membership of the G8, our "special relationship" with the US (how many acres of newsprint will be spent on as a result of the Obama state visit) this as evidence of its greatness. But just a look at our shambolic efforts to evacuate British nationals from Libya will tell you otherwise. While the Polish president was sending his official jet to Tripoli, the Montenegrins a liner and the Turks trucks to get their citizens home, we were was still scrambling about trying to find a spare plane. FCO officials have reportedly been negotiating with a supplier for the lease of a plane - I am a bit confused why we weren't able to use RAF aircraft that we actually own. The truth is Britain is no more powerful politically than France or Germany but this is only bad if we don't accept it. Equally, Britain has immense cultural power globally beating France, Germany and so many others. Perhaps Cameron wasn't too much off the beat after all.

Creating a drama

Last night I went to the theatre. Not that unusual, I probably go one or twice a month. But last night I saw the best thing I have ever seen on the stage (so far): Frankenstein at the National. It was directed by Danny Boyle whose film work I greatly admire but how, I and the rest of the audience wondered, would he manage in this very different medium? In a word: tremendously. Of course it helped that he had a great cast but he delivered a play which emphasised the humanity of the creature - a monster because we made him so. The opening sequence in which we see the Creature emerge from its artifical womb, bloody, naked, vulnerable, was won of the most mesmorising I have ever seen. Last night the Creature was played by Benedict Cumberbatch while Jonny Lee Miller was the misguided egotistical scientist (the schtick of the play if they need one is that Cumberbatch and Miller will switch roles every night). Both were extraordinary. I would also give a special mention to lighting and design teams on the production which were simple yet exceptionally powerful. Get a ticket if you can.