Remembering 2023: “Politics and Power: Wheels Keep Rolling”

In May, the Nottingham Rebels put on their first “proper” play, “Politics and Power: Wheels Keep Rolling”, written by Rebecca Morris and featuring many great speeches from Shakespeare’s works. Despite having various showcases, and many of the group members already performing in 2022’s “Rebellion” with the RSC, this would be the first time we’d worked together as a group to put on something of this scale.

The play took excerpts from Shakespeare’s political plays – such as Julius Caesar, Henry VI and Coriolanus – and interwove them with a story of politics on a much smaller scale, focusing on an argument over land ownership.

Rehearsing with the Rebels (L-R) Jayah, Freya, Becky, John, Nadeem, Penny, Peter, Anne, me, Yasmin, Gavin, Becky, Kenny, Neil and David

I took on the role of Liam, a single dad who, upon the death of his father, finds out he is now the rightful owner of a piece of land. Since ownership was previously unknown, and the land has been untended and become overgrown, the ownership has already been granted to pub landlord Jack (played by Gavin), who planned to extend his beer garden. As such, a battle commences – not quite on the scale of the Battle of Philippi from Julius Caesar, but a battle nonetheless.

The story is told by three factions of characters. As Liam, I was part of the travellers faction, along with Liam’s mother Anna (Penny) and daughters June and Sam (Jayah and Rosy). As a traveller, Anna has constantly faced discrimination, and she believes that the fight with the publicans is further discriminatory behaviour.

Rehearsing at the Theatre Royal, with Penny, Yasmin, Anne and Neil

As part of the publicans faction, Jack is supported by his wife Caroline (Ashreen) and punter Phil (Kenny). The council faction, meanwhile, holds all the power, and it is through their scenes that we see them begin to fracture, as councillors (Anne as Councillor James, Becky as Councillor Atkin and Yasmin as Councillor Donnelly) have differing opinions and get into multiple arguments.

Each scene is punctuated with Shakespeare speeches. I performed a speech from “The Book of Sir Thomas More”, which, whilst the play as a whole was not written by Shakespeare, several speeches (such as the one I did from Act 2 Scene 5) have been attributed to him. The speech is given by Thomas More to quell a riot that has broken out due to a sudden influx of immigrant workers. The speech still feels relevant today – at the time of the performance in May, asylum seekers arriving via boats crossing the Channel were in the news everyday. Thomas More asks the rioters to put themselves in the same position as the immigrants: “Say now the King […] should so much come too short of your great trespass as but to banish you, whither would you go? […] Why, you must needs be strangers!” Liam’s argument was that the travellers were being treated in the same way, discriminated against because of their lifestyles and history.

The full cast of Politics and Power – (back row L-R) Becky, Peter, Becky, Anne, Penny, me, John, Paul, Jules, Gavin, Kenny, (front row L-R) Katarina, Jayah, Spencer, Neil, Ashreen, Milo, Yasmin, Rosy

The play was performed on the “third stage” in the Theatre Royal dress circle, kicking off a week of Shakespeare which saw the RSC bring their production of Julius Caesar to town, and Becky give a “Live at Lunch” talk about the history of Shakespeare in Nottingham. The play was a great way to make Shakespeare feel relevant to a modern audience, especially an audience of people who may not usually go to watch a Shakespeare play. I think it was a great way to celebrate Rebels, linking with our past involvement with the RSC as well as helping us to create a new identity for ourselves. Becky did a great job with the script, which gave everyone in the group an opportunity to do as much or as little as they’d like. Great fun to put together, and a good opportunity to learn about some different Shakespeare plays.

Tom Morley, December 2023