Noise at the Market Theatre

My play, Noise is currently in rehearsal at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, directed by the wonderful Dorothy Gould; also a brilliant actor.  I am very proud to have a production of mine at such a prestigious theatre, and more especially because of its stand against apartheid, which rightly earned it the title of the ‘Theatre of the Struggle’, a place where black and white actors and playwrights could mix and perform on equal terms during those controversial times.  Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times review of the Soho Theatre production of 'Noise' remarked: ‘Alex Jones writes with fury, passion and compassion about those whose voices are seldom heard’.  It has been written that the Market Theatre has uniquely provided a ‘voice to the voiceless’, so I hope ‘Noise’ is perhaps a play that will have resonances for an audience in South Africa as its themes are also about a struggle to be heard.

http://markettheatre.co.za/shows/watch/noise

The other Alex Jones and gun control

There is more than one Alex Jones, and one of them is the notorious right-wing commentator whose opinions on gun control is in my opinion both inflammatory and dangerous; just check out his interview with Piers Morgan to see what I mean.  Anyhow some American citizens occasionally mistakenly contact me believing me to be him, and a few years ago an American student got in touch with a series of questions about a proposed gun control bill.  I emailed back to let him know that I was ‘the British playwright Alex Jones’.  He confirmed that he had indeed thought he was contacting the American Alex Jones, but was still interested in my opinion, so I answered his questions for him.  Following more recent mass shootings in America, and President Obama’s plaintive and somewhat resigned response to a horrific crime which is now seemingly a terrifyingly common event, I thought I would post the answers to the questions posed to me by Shannon Miller for a paper he was presenting at Ivy Tech College Lawrenceburg …

1.       Why do you disagree with the Proposed Gun Ban?

I obviously don't disagree with the gun ban.  It puzzles me and my fellow countrymen that guns are so openly available in America.  Gun laws are extremely tight in our country, and gun licences are more or less only granted for shotguns for farmers or games sportsmen.  No one in our country is allowed to own a handgun, and automatic or semi-automatic rifles are simply not available here.  The safety of the public would to my mind be compromised if our laws allowed private citizens to own fire arms, and anyone found in possession in this country would certainly be looking at a hefty custodial sentence.

2.       Do you believe passing stricter background checks will help stop mass shootings and keep guns out of the hands of the criminals?

Criminals are criminals because they know how to subvert the law.  How could stricter checks possibly make that much difference to someone who is intent on owning a dangerous weapon?  The mass killings that seem to be something of annual event in America truly shock us.  It seems unbelievably crass that your government would actually allow anyone to own a weapon that could be used in this way.  And after the event, your gun lobbies and NRA are always the first on the scene to spout banalities about how the ownership of guns protects society against these maniacs.  It seems to me that when these events occur, the second amendment of your constitution is generally cited as if it was some sort of biblical truth: well that particular document was composed in 1791 together with the rest of the bill of rights when the world was a very different place - it's an historic document, and should be treated as such, and not wheeled out on it's creaky rusty wheels to justify mass murder.

3.       Why do you think private individuals should be allowed to own these types of semi auto rifles?

Not only should private individuals not be allowed to own semi automatic rifles, but no one in America should be allowed to own such weapons.  Why on earth would anyone need such deadly firepower; it's like taking a sledgehammer to crush a walnut.  But I would go even further; I fervently believe that American citizens should not be allowed to own fire arms of any description.  If these weapons were removed from American streets and the ownership of guns made entirely illegal, it seems obvious to me that gun crime would inevitably go down.  Our police force don't carry guns at present because they don't need to; there are of course some guns on our streets, but it's an extremely rare event when police here are called out to tackle gun crime, and criminals here are reticent to use these weapons because they understand that even being in possession of an illegal fire arm could lead to a possible life sentence.

4.       Do you think the government’s true goal behind the Proposed Gun Ban is to reduce gun crimes or do you think there is another agenda behind the ban?

I do believe that the Obama administration would like to tackle gun crime in your country, but even now they aren't going far enough.  I said some years ago that what America needs to do before the rest of the world listens to its opinions, is to take care of its own people and grow up as country.  I have always believed there were three different things USA needed to do in order to be taken seriously as a voice of reason; the first was to provide a national health service free at point of contact for all of its citizens, the second was to elect a black President, and lastly ban the sale of fire arms to all private individuals, even if they think their precious bill of rights tells them otherwise.  America has achieved one of these aims, perhaps one day it will be grown up enough to tackle the others.  When someone shoots someone there is a summary justice at work that is obviously morally reprehensible, and your senators and governors are always straight away rightly ready to label the perpetrators as being monsters and deplorable criminals, but some of those very spokespeople also condone the use of the death penalty in various states.  A question needs to be asked of America I think, and that question is – how much do you really care about your citizens?

The Dirty Harry Band

My band has had a busy summer playing local festivals and pubs, pulling in the crowds and getting people up on their feet dancing like nutters.  I really love strutting my stuff  like some middle-aged rock god and just to prove it here’s a link from the Mapp festival a few months ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fDbcPrhOOsY&app=desktop

River's Up Touring Again

River’s Up touring again…

The very first play to tackle the serious subject of climate change is touring again to retell the epic romance of Tom and Sally Millington.  Laugh and cry with two extraordinary everyday people, as they bravely battle cataclysmic odds and rediscover a deep-seated love and affection to help carry them through events which are truly global.   

The play…

Tom and Sally Millington’s house is about to be flooded yet again!  Sally blames the icebergs, but Tom is more concerned about losing custom from the drunken Brummie revellers he has to sail up the River Severn every weekend on his disco-boat.  But this time the water level shows no sign of retreating, and before long they’re drifting around a flooded landscape desperately searching for land – perhaps the floods haven’t yet reached France?  The irrepressible Millington's slowly begin to realise they are witnessing the results of a global cock-up.  Join them on their poignant journey in a dilemma that pits them against cataclysmic odds in a comic-tragedy of epic proportions...  Originally produced by Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, it has already proved to be an amazingly popular show both in this country and abroad, including major theatres in Rome, plus an acclaimed production for BBC drama too.  You can listen to a sound clip here: http://www.alex-jones.org/News.html

                     

Programme notes and press info for theatres…

It is now widely accepted by scientists and governments that global warming is with us, and that the consequences are far-reaching and probably irreversible.  One of the most profoundly unsettling events that points to this happened a few years ago when the Larsen B ice shelf, an area the size of Wales, thought to weigh almost 500 million billion tonnes, broke away form the Antarctic continent and shattered into thousands of icebergs.  Antarctica has warmed 2.5 degrees centigrade in just 50 years, and more similar events are predicted. 

As an environmental campaigner, I knew I had to bring this subject to the stage, and consequently wrote this play for Alan Ayckbourn's Theatre In Scarborough; it has since been produced by the Swan Theatre, Worcester and Oxford Theatre company, had a critically acclaimed BBC Radio production and two sell-out productions in Rome, where it is called Effetto Serra.  It is sobering to think I wrote this play back in 2000, before the recent dreadful flooding in Worcester, when I found myself stuck in my home town of Malvern completely surrounded by water and cut off from the outside world.

We can no longer ignore the consequences of our way of life - carbon dioxide emissions have caused weather patterns to become more extreme; from tornadoes to droughts and from floods to heat waves.  In addition sea levels have also risen by a foot in the last century.  For countries like Bangladesh that spells disaster.  But low-lying countries in Europe are also feeling the brunt of this phenomenon, as witnessed when Dresden and Prague were completely flooded and mass evacuations took place. 

River's Up is about how deforestation, pollution and the stripping of the earth's resources could affect every one of us, and I particularly wanted to tell this story through the eyes of ordinary people.  So welcome to the epic romance of Sally and Tom Millington, as they bravely battle cataclysmic odds and rediscover a deep-seated love and affection that carries them through events that are truly global.

Reviews

The Observer – This superbly realised play is also a memorable love story. 

Financial Times - A gently riveting story, its ecology worn lightly, beautifully acted. 

Sunday Telegraph - What starts as comedy promises an Old Testament denouement.

Radio Times – A small masterpiece; it could justifiably be described as a working man's Titanic.

Yorkshire Post - Few productions could be more timely and topical than this, and the tight dialogue remains superbly realistic.

Worcester Evening News - River's Up is a powerful, top quality play with a strong idea at its core

The Birmingham Post - In one poignant scene after another the tension builds in Alex Jones' highly watchable play.

The Stage - A finely wrought tragicomedy that provides laughs, tears and food for thought in equal measure – highly recommendable. 

The Oxford Times – A powerful evening of theatre which kept the audience on the edge of their seats throughout – a must see show.

Daily info, Oxford – Funny, poignant and heart-wrenching.

Acting role

I haven’t done any acting for literally ages and have really missed performing.  And then suddenly out of the blue I get a casting call for Doctors – a daytime soap on BBC TV.  I got the part, which was a character very similar to the one I play in another BBC soap – The Archers; ‘a drunken trouble-maker’.  So I spent a couple of days filming and loved every second of it.  Great feedback from the production team and then back to earth and back to work at the care homes!  Dunno why my acting career suddenly stalled; I used to get regular work on BBC Radio Drama and theatres all over the country, and that little taste of what I love doing has made me hope that there may be other roles out there…  Guess I should be a little more proactive, but I’m not great at networking or being dynamic.  By the way, my episode is on the telly 4^th June 2015 on BBC1 at 1.45 if you wanna check it.

Je suis Charlie

I think it is a pity that some newspapers and TV channels have decided not to portray the cartoon from the Charlie Hebdo cover when so many other news organisations have stood together in solidarity and featured it in their news outlets and publications.  Free speech is a vitally important function in our Western democracies, and we should stand up for it at all costs.  I understand that faith is of great consequence too for various communities, not only in France, but all over the world and of course here too in Briton, and I appreciate that certain people are going to be offended by such images; but when those people decide to elect themselves judge and jury and commit murder then a line has been crossed which threatens our very freedom.  The magazine, Charlie Hebdo celebrates satire, and so anyone and everyone are a potential target; including Judaism, Christianity and any other religious group.  If they were to make an exception for any one of them, then to my mind they are bowing to the pressure of psychopathic bullies who as we know threaten to make them pay with their very lives.  I have Muslim friends, I have Christian friends, I have Jewish friends and Sikh and Hindu friends; they all believe in something deeply spiritual and personal to their lives, but they should not be afraid of satire, because if we say that we cannot poke fun or scrutinise any belief system we want to, be it religious or political then we have lost a treasured freedom and we will all be the worse for it.  The people who were murdered in France were from many different faith groups; some of course had no belief at all, but one – a policeman was Muslim.  Perhaps he himself would have found depictions of the prophet Muhammad distasteful, who is to say?   But he bravely gave his life for the protection of democracy and the citizens of France, whatever their ethnic origin and whatever God they chose to worship.        

I know that sometimes my own work has caused offence, but I try to write honestly and from the heart, but sometimes as with my play Mr And Mrs Schultz, various people have tried to ban my work.  More recently my play A White Man In England has made the shortlist for a few literary awards, but theatres are reluctant to produce it in case it offends their audiences.  Mr And Mrs Schultz was well received by audiences and had some great reviews, but the campaign did mean that a few theatres cancelled the show.  I do believe in telling truth about important issues (as with my controversial play Noise), but I feel that theatre in this country is becoming more and more conservative in its choice of plays, and my kind of risky drama therefore takes a back seat.  Below for the record is synopses of the plays I mentioned…

Mr And Mrs Schultz - Following the defeat of Germany in 1945, South America furtively provides a safe haven for escaping Nazis and their loot.  High in the remote and beautiful Argentinean mountains, Hanna a German ex-patriot plays host to Mr Schultz a new houseguest and his attractive new companion Lotte Shultz, a dizzy self-absorbed blonde woman.  As the days pass, their disturbing story begins to unfold and the past tightens its grip on the fugitive present.  Oscar Shultz is seemingly a former SS officer and Hanna, the widow of a German soldier who has herself taken part in infamous medical experiments on concentration camp victims.  But all is not quite as it seems, and as time moves on it becomes clear that the charismatic Mr Schultz harbours a much darker secret that results in him meeting his nemesis and the revenge of 6 million people.

A White Man In England - Ray Cartwright is a disillusioned ex soldier suffering from 'gulf war syndrome', feeling betrayed and let down by the country he fought for, he has also recently separated from his wife and lives a sedentary life in a council flat, visited regularly by his doting daughter, Maria who has a mixed-race child from a partner who is now no longer around.  Maria concerned for her father, instigates a scheme where he mentors a couple of young men fresh from prison on a 'community payback' scheme.  At first it looks as if Ray has found a purpose in life, but before long a clash of cultures expose fault lines in all of them, stirring up a cocktail of confrontation and ultimate tragedy.   A challenging state-of-the-nation play about identity and belonging that seriously gets under the skin.