Imagine you live in a world where everything was crumbling around you and you had nowhere to turn to but your own mind and the evil monsters that hide there; Imagine if the only way you feel any security at all is turn to a cult. Imagine that you've had enough and that you your blood lust is killing you, Imagine if you woke up in jail cell and remembered that you tried to kill someone. How would truly feel? How could you cope? Davey Anderson touches on a lot of themes and topics that face many young people in today's society. The number thing I got from this is that not all young offenders are criminals, sometimes they are the victims.
Political: The playwright has a social commentary on the way we handle potential criminals and how we deal with the youth of this country that commit violent crimes. How should they be rehabilitated or punished? I feel like there are tonnes of social commentaries on how the people in charge of this country don't do enough to prevent vulnerable young people from going down dark roads. I mean the warning signs were all there, at school when James' school when he starts dressing like a skinhead and walking round school menacingly and doing NAZI SALUTES, I think those were pretty big signs that something is going wrong because I would like to think that politically if someone did that at my school I would like to think the staff would get involved and take action against such a racist act... but maybe that's what Davey Anderson's trying to show that it is a racist community that simply brushes it off because it's not seen as important! He might even be trying to say that places like east Glasgow are still not up to scratch on handling political correctness maybe what do you think?
Social: James lives in a divided community segregated from other neighbours and families; I infer this from the fact that his dad was a woman-beater and his mother was too embarrassed to leave the house there would have been a metaphorical trench between him and the wider community denying him a lot of things a normal child would have whilst growing up giving him from a very young age feelings of isolation and neglect from society. It deals with bullying one of the foundations of most problems teenagers face in the 21st; Loss of identity is another problem is something nearly all people go through at one stage in their lives and feel this play tackles that and wrestles it down to the ground. I interpret the metamorphosis of "James" into a skinhead is because of this armour he puts himself on slowly creating this monster but it's the only way he can cope with the fact he is hurting so bad and that it is the only way he can protect himself. The play also deals with the influences of media and films into how subcultures are created. As demonstrated very clearly James watches films like Romper Stomper and American History X and it "isn't enough for him anymore" so he needs more and he sort of lusts and hungers after violence. Finally I see Davey Anderson deal with drugs; when James goes on his rampage he has been drugged up causing him to go haywire. One of the things I get from this is that drugs a bad but bad circumstances and bad people can make it even worse!
Cultural: Even though the play is set in Scotland we are basing our version around London which is bursting with culture we can add into our play. The whole task we did on subcultures and youth was very useful (*see Chloe Harris' blog for this work) so we can see that the play has loads of statements on skinhead culture and the general lifestyles of youths and young offenders. One of the main points in the play is the skinhead's and the way that that particular subculture appealed to James as a means of escape from his existence and becoming some completely different person, someone to be reckoned with, and the way they are portrayed in the piece shows that even though the fad may be over the extreme ideals and morals have managed to pass the test of time. I remember asking my parents about their skinhead experience (*see separate post) and that was at least 30 years ago! We see in the play the symbolic head shave as we he wants to escape the being called a goth and fully commit to the world of being a skinhead!
Blackout tackles many issues and depending on the final result of the way we decide to it I hope we can do justice to each and every one of the them!
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