10. ‘How much easier it is to honour the dead than to value the living’—The Tale of Trevithick’s Tower

Abstract

A key concept for the new show is ‘levels of pretence’—the principle derived from McGrath’s observations on the sophistication of popular engagement with issues of identity in the performance of pantomime. In One & All!, for example, who were we being when we were narrating? We could push the new show up one ‘layer of pretence’ and remove any implied authority figures: rather than ask audiences to take anyone on trust, we could insist they distrusted everybody. So we formulate the new show not as a play, but as a public meeting. In the real world the plan is afoot to take over Truro City Hall and turn it into a prestigious theatre. Our public meeting is part of a fictional campaign to demolish the City Hall to build the tower Trevithick designed in 1833 to commemorate the passing of the Reform Laws. Having pushed the execution of the play away from ourselves and into movement between the onion skins of ‘layers of pretence’, we use three bizarre contemporary characters to implicitly critique contemporary society and government. The Tale of Trevithick’s Tower premieres on Camborne Trevithick Day 1986 and tours Cornwall.