Social atrophy and what it means for theatre club
Early in November 2026 I travelled to Leeds to host a theatre club with Northern Opera Group for Their Eyes Looking for God, an opera that is really a hip-hop and dance show featuring an operatic voice. Although the theatre club was quite small, it captured exactly what I love about these conversations, created exactly what I always hope might be possible. In the circle were a 95-year-old white English woman and, opposite her, a black American woman, a dance student no older than 25, discussing a gorgeous story about two young black men from Toxteth that becomes devastating in the face of police violence . Where else might two people of such different backgrounds and diverse experiences share and hear what each other think about this work ? Of course, your response might be : why does it matter whether or not they do? Especially if they’ll never see each other again? But conversations across difference feel profoundly important to me. They require curiosity, listening, receptivity: s...