Playwright unsettled by the Left’s ‘absolute moral clarity’
THE playwright James Graham has said the “absolute moral clarity” of Left-wingers can be “unsettling”, as he criticised the tone of modern political debate.
The 39-year-old, who is famed for his portrayal of political topics and challenging liberal theatre audiences, warned of the regressive impact of people becoming entrenched in their views.
He opened up ahead of his new play, Best of Enemies, opening this week at London’s Young Vic theatre, which delves into historical fissures in American politics.
It is set in the 1968 year of protest, when the US presidential campaign was marked by a series of 10 heated televised cultural debates between William F Buckley, the father of modern US conservatism, and the liberal Gore Vidal. At one point Vidal labelled Buckley a “crypto-nazi”, only for him to retort: “Stop calling me a crypto-nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddam face, and you’ll stay plastered…”
Discussing polarised online debates, Mr Graham criticised “the absolute death of the ability or the desire to take somebody with you”. He said the “absolute moral clarity” of the Left can be “a little unsettling”.
The award-winning writer, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, raised zealous tactics of Jeremy Corbyn’s last UK election campaign as an example, telling The Sunday Times: “How is that ever going to be successful? And do they not care?”
His new production follows his 2012 breakthrough This House, which charted the relationship between whips in the House of Commons, and his 2017 hit Labour of Love which focused on the alienation of so-called Red Wall voters.
“The big problem of modern political discourse is that there is no expectation, or celebration, of changing your mind,” he added. “And when you set up a debate like it’s a boxing match that you’ve got to win, then why would you concede anything?”
Mr Graham said Black Lives Matter protests in recent years made him “very aware of how utterly avoidant I’d been” of racism within the theatre industry. But he also understood why some white working class communities in his hometown rejected being painted as “a bad person” during the BLM furore in 2020.