INTERVIEW: Mark Thomas on sheds and solidarity

Mark Thomas is a man of many hats — he’s a presenter, political campaigner, writer and comic. He’s wearing all his hats when he comes to Stratford with his new show tomorrow (Thursday, 8th December).

He’s travelled back to his university town of Wakefield and to a place which has huge significance for him: the Red Shed, a labour club there, home to Mark’s first public performances as well as the beginnings of his political awakening in the early 1980s.

Gill Sutherland talked to him about sheds, politics, family, dogs and which Shakespeare character he would be…

So Red Shed — what’s that about, can you tell us in a soundbite? I don’t really do soundbites... The show follows on from the stuff I’ve been doing which is a mix of stand up, theatre and journalism. It is a story about me going back to the place where I politically came of age. I’m trying to find if a memory is true — so that’s basically the story.

What do you mean by finding out ‘if a memory is true’? During the miners’ strike [1984-1985] I was invited on a march and I’ve completely forgotten where it was, but what I do remember was the children singing in the playground as the miners, who had been on strike for a year, marched past this primary school. The children sang Solidarity Forever at the miners… and that has always been a really important memory for me.

Whenever people talk about politics, I always say when you see something like that, everything changes. It somehow epitomises everything that has gone on. Because politics isn’t just about ministers or leaders it’s about every single one of us. It’s about all of us being connected — it’s about communities and hope.

So I go and try to find the pit village — I have no idea where it is, all I know is it’s a 40 minute bus drive from where I used to live in Wakefield — and we set out with some friends to try and find it.

I see that you’ve tagged the Red Shed show ‘a topical tale about the miners’ strike’ is that just irony or has this relevance for the modern age? It’s both. We walk with those events and political decisions still. Everything spirals out from there and goes back to that event. We live with all it — because without Thatcher beating the miners the privatisation programme would not have gone on the way it has.

It is possible we wouldn’t have the ludicrous situation where PFI (private finance initiative) contracts which mean that government buildings are now owned by private contractors in offshore tax havens — so we are renting public buildings by paying public money to people who don’t pay tax.

And it might be that the anger that fuelled Brexit might have been different.

Tell us about how you first became involved in the Red Shed. I went to Bretton Hall College and studied drama. It was so different to my world, being brought up in South London. I’d been to France but Yorkshire seemed even further away from what I knew. So it was exciting, me and my mates got involved in the Labour Club, and I started to write shows to raise money for local causes. My first public gigs were at the Red Shed.

There’s been a lot of political craziness in the world [this interview took place before Trump was elected]. What is going on?! I just think we are living on the verge of a breakdown. [Referring to the High Court decision that triggering Article 50 must be debated in parliament] The pro Brexit crowd don’t know what they want. And the Daily Mail is a piece of filth — calling those high court judges the enemies of the people is straight out of a fascist playbook. It’s outrageous to whip up hatred on the grounds that parliament wants to discuss Brexit and say it’s not democratic. It’s just irrational nastiness and it’s fuelled by anti immigration sentiment.

I take it you voted remain? Actually I was going to vote leave. There is a very good argument that the EU is a club for neo liberal privateers. Look at how the European Central Bank handled democratically elected governments in Spain, Greece and Ireland — it was outrageous.

I like all the nice bits of the EU, like the European convention on human rights. But the actual motor of it is money; so I thought OK let’s pull out of that and make our own decisions. But six weeks before the vote I realised it had changed into a plebiscite on immigration, and I thought what are the consequences of the leave vote? Racism and a right-wing government. And I was right. I think in the short to medium term we are screwed. We are about to see prices go up and productivity go down; the next election will be won on how much food costs.

I was interested to read that your dad was a lay preacher, aspects of your performance are like sermonizing… There’s a running gag that I have narrowly missed the family profession, because my granddad was a Baptist non-conformist preacher, my dad was a lay preacher and my sister is a Church of England vicar.

My dad was a mixture of many things: he was a lay preacher, a builder, and he was an incredibly rude man. He was a man who left school with literally no qualifications and went on to do very well for himself as a self-employed builder, and he loved opera. He was a man of huge contradictions, a larger than life character. Like anyone’s parents, they leave a dent in you when they go.

As you’re coming to Stratford, a local question: what Shakespeare character do you identify with or would you play? I’ve never really thought about that, how interesting. [Long pause] Oberon — all the power, mischief and misrule. I also really like Richard III, a great comic villain.

Is there any time that you just zone out and relax? Yeah of course, you have to. I have a dog and we go for walks. He’s a beautiful cockerpoo called Ralph. Why’s he called Ralph? It depends who you speak to in the family. But I say it’s after Ralph Steadman [the cartoonist].

You’ve (quite rightly) upset a lot of bad people over the years, have you got any new enemies? I’ve really got enough already — how many do you want me to have?! I’ve got most of the set. Some of them I didn’t even pick, they came to me. I’m not collecting at the moment, the club is closed to new members.

You did a show based on acts of dissent — I wondered what your last such act was? Me and my mates have plotted a big one which I can’t tell you about but it’s a goodie. I guess my last act of dissent was inviting home secretary Amber Rudd to see the Red Shed show in her constituency after she refused to order an inquiry into Orgreave [the scene of a violent confrontation between police and miners in 1984]. I left her a note with the tickets saying that I understood that money might be tight…

When and where: Mark Thomas’s show Red Shed comes to the Stratford ArtsHouse on Thursday, 8th December. Tickets are still available - £16 (£12 concessions) available from the box office on 01789 207100 or from www. stratfordartshouse.co.uk