The Resistible Rise of Isli-Crouch Upon-Thames: New Metropolitanism in New British Drama

In 2003, I attended a performance of Euan Rose and Laurie Hornsby's musical Wallop Mrs Cox at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Here I experienced something extraordinary. Set in the city's central market and shopping area known as the Bull Ring, Wallop Mrs Cox follows the life and times of Birmingham matriarch Emily Cox through a series of neo-epic scenes, taking us from the 1930s to the 1970s. The moment that had the most memorable effect came from words spoken by the narrator figure who suddenly announced: "1939: And Birmingham was at war." At the time I was struck both by how ridiculous the statement sounded and also admiration at the sentiments it expressed. Here was the city of Birmingham, UK, unapologetically putting itself at the epicenter of a national story. In fact, this air of exceptionalism became the watchword of the entire show, never more so than in the anthemic song Birmingham, with its rousing chorus "Birmingham / We're the city of a thousand trades / Forward in mind / Forward in heart / Every tomorrow is a brand new start/ In Birmingham/ Never pulling down the shades / We roll up our sleeves / Do what we can / Forward goes Birmingham."¹ As someone with family roots in the city going back to the 1920s and who has lived there on and off for over fifteen years, I understood something of the rapturous response the song received from the audience who filled the 900-seat main auditorium. Yet, at the same time, it was highly unusual to witness a theatre that commemorated and celebrated its city in such an unequivocal manner.

Wallop Mrs Cox was an unapologetic example of nostalgic popular theatre, and in part it fulfilled the remit for the sort of work that the Birmingham Repertory Theatre was originally conceived to do in 1971: to serve a wide number of constituency audiences throughout the West Midlands. This meant that part of its work would inevitably seem parochial to audiences beyond the region. This issue is directly addressed in Trevor Griffiths' play Comedians (1975) in one scene when one of its aspirant comics, Gethin Price, expresses his admiration for the veteran Lancashire music hall comedian Frank Randall to the London-based agent Bert Challenor, who has come up to Manchester to see Price and the other comics perform. A former comic himself known as "the Cockney Character," Challenor had once played on the same bill as Randall.² However, he is critical of his Lancastrian counterpart, pointing out that geography limited his comic appeal:

Price:

What was he [Frank Randall] like? Were he one of the best?

Challenor:

Best of his kind, I suppose.

Price:

How do you mean, of his kind?

Challenor:

He was local, wasn't he? South of Birmingham he was nothing.³

Unfortunately, Challenor's assessment of Randall seems to be one shared by artistic directors at several regional theatres in recent years. At the Birmingham Rep, for example, the nostalgic "Brummie" musical, as well as new writing with an emphasis on local concerns, have become much rarer occurrences. This article sets out to explore the fact that, alongside a decline in the kinds of new writing that placed localism at its center, since the 1990s it has become increasingly apparent that the tastes and preoccupations of London have steadily encroached to the point where they are now starting to dominate English playwriting culture.⁴ This, of course, is hardly a new observation. John Maynard Keynes, the chief figure responsible for setting up the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1945, had always envisaged that it would be "our business to make London a great artistic metropolis, a place to visit and to wonder at."⁵ And, as Olivia Turnbull has observed, Keynes' vision became the dominant policy adopted by the Arts Council whereby "artistic excellence was embodied primarily by London based professional companies."⁶ True, such Londoncentrism was at times curbed and modified, both through the setting up of regional arts boards and the building of theatres and arts centers across the country during the 1960s...