time was - going back in time for drama

Drama and the past add an extra dimention to invisAble Me.

The vast majority of those working on InvisAble Me as performers were born during this century or late of the last.

It's a generation used to fast cars fast living and fast communications.

It's a world away from when I grew up ofcourse and it perhaps is not surprising that I look back in time for much of the drama inspiration - to a period this generation have little knowledge about.

This approach is not without its problems - as when times change so do attitudes.

It is important to understand as an actor that actions and attitudes of the past produced our present and our future.

Depiction of say 1960's youth almost certainly would mean smoking by the charaacters. Attitudes regarding race, sex and family values are very different then to now.

In some ways the young were more restricted, in others they were more free.

Go back further to the second world war then attitudes and horrors can be hard to reflect or understand - but drama is not about being edited by today's values but those of the time. Complaints about actions depicted in the past even controversial ones such as slavery have to be put in context. I am not seriously going to reject Tom Sawyer because of its race overtones or ban All Quiet on the Western Front for it's pro-German stance. I expect actors and viewers of the work to understand it's depicting times past - only qualified by the fact it should be accurate or fair to it's time.

The film industry is full of great historic drama, and ok some awful examples too.

Classic theatre will often reflect attitudes of a past age - and actions too - Romeo and Juliet if strictly measured by the standards of today would not be suitable material for the schools curriculum.