Behind The Curtain (1 September, 2023)
Accessible Audio for this week’s Behind The Curtain will be available soon!
Saying that politics is theatre is at the same time true, a cliche, cynical, and not even close to a complete picture. It’s really more of a multidisciplinary art form with real-world ramifications. There’s both scripted and improv live performance, video and written content, there’s music that plays at rallies and in videos, and even visual arts in the form of campaign posters and other associated media. There is also all that backroom plotting, door knocking, phone banking, and email blasting, but what respectable theatre or production company doesn’t have an administration and marketing team, big or small?
Politics has its overarching narrative throughlines, its callbacks, and its reboots. It also has its stars, supporting cast, recurring characters, and bit players. And sometimes, the casting choices really conflict with the narrative. Case and point: Justin Trudeau owning an oil pipeline. That was just horrible optics, terrible casting, and a narrative that had completely lost the plot. At the time (now just under a decade ago), Trudeau was seen as the fresh, sexy, young new Prime Minister with a full head of glorious hair and tons of energy. When people think “oil baron”, I want them to think decrepit, sneering Mr. Burns from The Simpsons-type, not youthful energy. At least have the decency to hide something like that, so opposition parties, media, and people like me can uncover it, and use it to dispel the positive messaging. Don’t make it part of your narrative. That’s just bad writing.
These days all kinds of horrible right-wing talking points from the US seem to have infiltrated our local political discourse. A few months ago, I heard Quebec Premier François Legault use “woke” as a pejorative. Now, while that may be perfectly on-brand for him, and fit with his character’s narrative, he wasn’t answering a question in English. In fact he said “les woke”, which is, in no way, a French word. There is a French equivalent: réveillé (or réveillée in the feminine to preserve the gender binary, which I’m sure he likes to do), but using that instead would involve saying he is against people who are awake. I guess it’s preserving the French language at all costs, except when it gets in the way of deflecting via borrowed soundbite.
Speaking of characters, it’s not only the politicians who have one. The pundits do too. I have one, Jason C. McLean. That may be my actual name, if you replace the C with Colin, but I can assure you that Jason C. (or JC for short) is not the same as just Jason. JC is confident, opinionated, funny, entertaining, observant, humble, but not too humble, and all-around star. Jason is a shy goof who is generally good-natured, until he’s not, and sometimes obsesses about the weirdest things. Who are you reading now? Mostly JC, but who knows?
I bring this up because people, over the years, have suggested that I run for office. Not many, but enough. And it’s never the people who really know me, either, unless they think me running ironically would be fun. I usually give some response about probably having skeletons in my closet that even I don’t know about. The real reason is, though, that while Jason C. McLean would probably be a great campaigner (and I’d love doing it, too), Jason wouldn’t want to have to do all that boring administrative work if I won. Trust me, I could wow you with a speech, but you really don’t want me in charge of picking up snow outside of your place.
I’d much rather snipe, encourage, and analyze from the sidelines, as that’s what I’m good at, and that’s where I can be most effective. While I do play in what is properly known as theatre, as well as other art forms, with the theatre of politics, I’m a much better critic, and occasionally a promoter. Yes, I have volunteered for parties and candidates on the phone in the past, and probably will again. Only when I support them and really care about having them in power, or their opponent not.
I care about the real-world effect of politics on my community, and on me personally. I care about what it means for where I live. It’s not in spite of my personal focus on looking at politics as an art form, but rather because of it. It’s important that the right narratives, and the performers who stick to them and play them well are supported, and the shitty concepts and scenarios are rejected. A flawed, or partial implementation of the right idea can be forgiven, and re-electing the politician if they stick with the same idea and promise to get the job done can be good, because it means that we, as a community, still want the right thing. Rejecting the good narrative, and opting for a more effective implementer of a bad narrative is ultimately detrimental to everyone.
If all the world’s a stage, then we should not only get to choose our performers, but also what play they are staging.
Notes This Week
Ladies Weekend
When we write about something I haven’t heard of before here on the site, I will always take note. When we mention it twice, then I’m definitely intrigued. This weekend, the seventh edition of Ladyfest wraps up. Andrew Jamieson spoke with the organizers, and you can learn all about the history of the fest in his feature, then head over to McSweeney’s List to see what’s still on the schedule this weekend.
Help Us Be Seen
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Well, that’s it for this week, and for the summer, at least culturally (technically we still have another month of it). Welcome to September, Happy Labour Day, and see you next week!
FTB Founder Jason C. McLean returns every Friday for another installment in his series, Behind The Curtain.
