When I’m starting a new project as I am at the moment, I always ask myself WHY is this theatre? HOW can I give the audience a better experience of the story that will unfold in front of them so they’ll really think about the issues I’m writing about after the play is over? WHY am I telling this story now?

Looking at Intelligent Life magazine is month there’s a great article where Young Vic director David Lan talks about his inspiration: Natalia Koliada (find the article here) and how she inspires him to remember the reason why theatre is so important to cultural and political expression.

She is the artistic director of the Belarus Free Theatre, who despite no longer being able to make work in her home country because of police raids due to the repressive society in Belarus (they are now based in London), they still make political work designed to express and provoke emotions and opinions as they campaign for freedom of expression and human rights.

I haven’t seen their work myself, though Miki, our actress in Godless Monsters this year told some fascinating stories about working with them. There’s a festival to celebrate their work in London in November this year which I’m going to try and catch, but just reading this article is making me want to go further, write better to express the issues I write about in the attempt to more directly reach my audience.

Theatre is a live artform and the show is only complete after the audience has seen it. That’s the magic of it, but that also holds its power.