ABSTRACT
The above comes from the programme for General Gathering (1983). It was written by John McGrath on behalf of his 7:84 Theatre Company, an assemblage of socialist theatre practitioners committed to producing radical performances for audiences that would not normally be found in conventional theatres. This is consistent with his claim earlier in the Prologue that he has sought ‘to mix profit [that is, moral instruction with our pleasure’ (Prologue 8). His argument is that the depiction of loose and morally reprehensible behaviour, ‘with such a deal of monstrous and forced action’, is there not to be savoured by the audience but to be learnt from. In a world divided almost entirely between con-artists and their victims – and the impotent virtues of Celia and Bonario in Volpone do little to disturb this dichotomy – it is not hard to see where the audience’s engagement, perhaps even its empathy, will lie.
