People: we’re a funny old lot when it comes down to it.
Off we troop during summer high days and holidays to visit stately homes, frequently wearing headphones so we don’t miss the significance of anything we see.
And there we were again last Wednesday, visiting another national treasure: no, not South Holland Centre in Spalding, but Alan Bennett in the form of his first new play in three years, People.
In it, the playwright suggests that we – or the coffee and walnut cake-eating among us – visit National Trust properties to seek something of our past, but he suggests what we find instead is a “pretend England”, or a commodification of our history.
Far better, he seems to suggest, to either allow natural decay or use the stately homes of the once incredibly rich for some other more creative purpose, such as the setting for porn movies.
People was brought to Spalding with all the wizardry that allows audiences all over the country – the world even – to see National Theatre productions as though sitting in a live audience in London. An inauthentic experience, we might say: commodification of our culture? Perhaps.
But, just like visits to stately homes, it was an enjoyable experience and, like the genteel crowds leaving stately homes following a visit, there were the mutterings of, “Very good wasn’t it?” as we headed for home.
It was also thought provoking and, I thought, a little disjointed between the social observations and the hilarity of the porn film crew in the two halves.
Naturally, the cast was superb, in particular Frances de la Tour, but we have come to expect no less from National Theatre Live.
Now, where’s my book of stately homes to visit: I have another one I can tick off my list.
Jean Hodge