10.11.16
I was onstage with the cast of The Turquoise Elephant doing an audience post-show Q&A last week when the subject of the US election came up. Belinda Giblin, who magnificently plays Olympia, predicted a win for Trump, talking of the world gone crazy. She was still in costume as she was speaking, so her incredibly perceptive words were coming from behind her almost clown-like mask of makeup, but her observations on that night haunt me today.
It is hard not to see the loss of Hillary Clinton as evidence of how much men do not want women to lead. Of course I understand that there are so many other factors in play. So as usual I look to the satirical newspaper The Onion to make some sense of the disaster.
Writers, you must speak to us in ways our journalists cannot. Playwrights you must conjure our best selves to inspire us (Lorena in Ladies Day) and our worst selves to warn us (Olympia in The Turquoise Elephant). Artists you must lead us when it is now so obvious that our politicians will not. You have to give us some hope that one day there will be actual equality, because today equality only exists in our imagined worlds.
Love
Lee
Lee Lewis
Artistic Director
