Back to index of Nerve 8 - Spring 2006

The Emperor’s New Clothes

By George McKane

I live and work in Liverpool, was born here, and my children and grandchildren live here.I am the founder of Yellow House, a cultural organisation, working for and with young people, firmly based in the daily life of Liverpool, with a world vision. I cannot conceive any work of art as having a separate existence from life itself. I am in complete agreement with Antonin Artaud’s theory of ‘Theatre and its Double’.

In the old days, my work with Yellow House was concerned with challenging the negative attitude of the media and most of the country towards Liverpool and its citizens. ‘Reclaiming The City for Artists Lovers and Poets’ - ran throughout 1998 and 1999, attracting major press attention, featuring in local, national and international radio and TV, and the young people involved raising and illustrating the positives about themselves and their city.

Why did we do it? Why do I and Gosia (who is my wife and partner) and all those involved with Yellow House, work on a daily basis with young people, raising not only our own cultural and social issues, but by practice and by the sheer quality and vision of our performances, films and projects. For money? Absolutely not. For career prospects, status, a line on our CV? No. We are here doing it because we have to, we have no alternatives, nothing to fall back on, this is it - it is our life, our work, our passion. We have no choice.

Yellow House is concerned about creating theatre, a cultural centre that has some meaning. We are interested in exposing to the world that which is not intended for the eyes of the world, we are interested in those spectators who have a genuine spiritual need who really wish through confrontation with our performances to analyse themselves and their world.

Our most recent performance, completely devised and performed by Yellow House, ‘Civil - Lies - Nation’, performed in central Liverpool in December 2005 made a powerful statement about today’s society seen by young people.
We are determined to create something special, wonderful, new, visionary, exciting, powerful; to create it ourselves, here in our city, for everyday use up to and beyond 2008. We will still live here, and the people we work with and for will still be here. We are not here until the money runs out. We have a long term investment in Liverpool. It’s called our lives, family, friends and love for all these and other things that are important to us beyond money and career.

I look around my city and hope to at least glimpse a sight of truth and vision, something to take my breath away, to raise and stir my emotions, to excite me.

What do I see? More buildings, blocks all looking the same, more bars, clubs. The city is becoming faceless; we could be anywhere. Where is its identity, its style? The vision?

The museums and art galleries in Liverpool are many and wondrous but where are the new venues, the spaces to explore and gamble on new theatre, music and poetry? Where is creative art that counts, not the ‘outputs’, or the number of boxes ticked or the bums on seats philosophy, but the burning desire to create something new?
Gosia and I have just returned from Florence, where we were talking to groups about showing our film of Dante’s Divine Comedy, filmed in Liverpool. Florence is a fantastic city, full of art, architecture and history. An overwhelmingly beautiful city created by the Medici, full of wonders. Do you remember the scene in The Third Man where Harry Lime (Orson Welles) says something about the comparison between Florence under the Medici, bribery and corruption, but also Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Botticelli and Switzerland, famous for one thousand years of peace but having only invented the cuckoo clock? We may not all agree with the analogy but everywhere in Florence I was reminded constantly of how great the Medici vision was, how great their city was and how they wanted to show it. Interestingly, we met several community groups while there, but they told us there is virtually no community arts scene in Florence and very little real community feeling.

Liverpool is a beautiful city, but building for building, art for art, does not compare with Florence, nor other European cities. For me it is not only bricks and mortar that make a city great but its people, spirit, tradition, beliefs, commitment, strengths and weakness. What makes Liverpool great is us, me, you, our friends and family, the people of Liverpool.

You know the story. The emperor was vain and arrogant, and believed that whatever was really happening in his empire the main thing was to look good. He employed some out of town tailors to make him look better than anyone else, to make something no one else had. They had no real interest in the emperor, his country or the people; they just wanted to make quick money. They were lazy and could not deliver anything so they invented a suit of clothes that were not really there. The emperor in his vanity or lack of real confidence - didn’t dare say anything in case it made him look foolish. And when the big day came and he was to show his new suit to his people, no one else dared say anything in case they looked silly or ignorant or maybe lost face. But there was an innocent, brave young child who just knew the truth. When the child saw the emperor he couldn’t believe his eyes, or believe that no one else saw what he saw, so he shouted ‘The emperor’s got no clothes on’.

Yellow House website: www.yellowhouse.info