Comments on: England people not very nice

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:33:32 +0000

I saw ‘England People Very Nice’ last night, and NOBODY laughed at the term ‘nigger.’ It was actually a serious point the actor was making at that time, and it was not intended to be a joke - and nobody took it as such. So I believe Rabina Khan’s comments to be exaggerated, which really takes away from the legitimacy of her entire statement. Makes me feel she saw what she wanted to see, not what was really there.

My issues with the play were that I just felt it was slow-moving, repetitive, and amateur.

http://www.meanpolitics.com

By: Chrisantha Fernando

Chrisantha Fernando — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 09:04:08 +0000

I was born in Sri-Lanka and I have lived in England since I was 3. I went to see England People Very Nice”. I thought it was going to be racist, but I found it was very moving. I thought it was the only piece of drama about being English that I had been able to actually feel positive towards. The reason I was so moved by it was that it was all about how England was so influenced by waves of immigrants that eventually were assimilated into the values of being English. A wonderful line was…

ATTAR (An Indian restaurent owner) : No thats a personal thing. Make Englishman out of these boys, that is the highest goal, and not easy. Many English are not worthy of the title.

I was very moved by this sentence. Now think about this. This is an Indian character in a play, speaking about how wonderful the idea of an Englishman is, from which many English Men are even excluded. The play actually made me proud to be English, which no piece of art has ever done. This then is why I find it very worrying why the major newspapers and the BBC said it was racist. There WERE stereotypes, but these stereotypes were making fun of everyone not any one group. In fact they were the stereotypes that I felt any “assimilated” immigrant would gladly make of themselves. The English were the hardest criticized. All groups were made fun of. Why? Because every ethnic minority (including the “genetic” english) hates the next generation of immigrants. The play stopped at the Somali immigrants who the Bangladeshi immigrants hated! But the point was, ultimately they are assimilated and become English. I was so moved by some of the scenes where there were tender feelings between races made common in Englishness. It was such a FUNNY play as well. I think there is a racist white establishment who find it racist against themselves, but say in the newspapers that it is racist against the ethic minorities in the play. I really can’t understand how any newspaper can print that this play is racist. It is the ABSOLUTE OPPOSITE OF RACIST. Actually, another reason this play made me proud to be English is that I think it is a play that could not have been made anywhere else in the world, because only the English can so unashamedly destroy themselves with criticism.

Chrisantha Fernando

By: Thersites

Thersites — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:53:59 +0000

You ought to see Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh. A “comedy” about just the kind of cheap racist humour that constitutes the mainstay of this play set in a tipsy white middle class British living room and seen on T.V.- and later adapted for the stage- in the recent past.

By: Thersites

Thersites — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:21:14 +0000

"Now lets do a play on Jews, and see how far that goes eh?" Would this one do: http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/englandpeople/ ? I haven't seen it, but it seems to be satirising prejudice and stereotypes rather than inspired by them. Whether it succeeds is another matter.

By: Yakoub

Yakoub — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:28:23 +0000

Question: does the kind of cheap racist humour that constitutes the mainstay of this play adorn tipsy white middle class British living rooms, largely unseen? I suspect it does, but you can be sure as sugar we won’t be seeing a “comedy” about that at the National - or at any other UK theatre - in the near future.

By: James

James — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:34:32 +0000

No one expects a play to be educational, but racist, now that is not laughable - even if it is dispicable cartoons like South Park.

Now lets do a play on Jews, and see how far that goes eh?

By: LeedsLad

LeedsLad — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:33:59 +0000

The play is not suppose to educate anyone, but people do laugh because of the crassness. It is the sort of feeling you expect from watching South Park or The Sampson’s.