12 ★ FT Weekend 4 April/5 April 2020Arts
I
really intense two weeks,”
says Jonty Claypole, director ofarts
at the BBC. He speaks for everyone.
Most ofus can barely recognise our
livesfrom just afew weeks ago,and
Claypole’s job,now that staying in has
become the new going out,has acquired
a sharp newfocus.“When we began to
go into lockdown,” he says, “I sawthat
the role ofBBC Arts over the coming
months is going tobeaboutkeeping cul-
ture alive in people’s lives.”
The BBC’sfirst priority, in an emer-
gency ofthis magnitude, is undoubtedly
factual, he adds. But he echoes the senti-
ments ofBen Okrion these pages afort-
night ago: that in times ofcrisis the arts
become more important, not less.
“We know that the impact ofarts and
creativity on mental health is massive,”
says Claypole. “And mental health is
going to beahuge issueover the coming
months ofisolation. There are a lot of
people whose greatest solace comesThe play’s still the thing
CultureinQuarantine|TheBBC’svirtualartsfestivalaimstobringthethrill
oftheliveviewingexperienceintoourhomes.Sarah Hemmingreports
Clockwise from main: BalletBoyz
perform their new work ‘Deluxe’;
the RSC’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’;
BBC director of arts Jonty Claypole
George Piper; Matt Burlemtoms, our identity.Tokeep gettingcam-
eras in there when the doors are closed
is really important.”
There will surely be a bittersweet feel
to watching thesefilms: a glimpse of
whatis,for the moment, lost to us. Pos-
sibly the most poignant will befootage
of National Gallery director Gabriele
Finaldi closing down the recentTitian
exhibitionjust days after it opened.
“Those Titian paintings were com-
missioned as a suite,”Claypole is keen to
point out.“They hadn’t been together
for 300 years, they were brought back
together — and three days later the exhi-
bition closes.”
An even keener loss, perhaps, are the
live arts — all suddenly gone, overnight.
“Now is a moment when we realise how
important the live communal experi-
ence is and we crave it,”Claypole agrees.
“And I think as we come out ofthis crisis,
we are going to be looking for it.”
How, though, to plug that gap in the
meantime? TheCulture in Quarantine
plans include becoming a “repertory
theatrefor audiences at home”. But
what does that mean in practice? It’s
one thing to guide a camera arounda
gallery, but how do you replicate the
communal experience oflive drama,
dance ormusic?
One resource, says Claypole, is to
expedite the broadcast ofrecently
filmed live theatre, such as Mike Bar-
tlett’s state-of-the-nation playAlbion
and Emma Rice’s joyous rollercoaster of
ashowWise Children, based on the
Angela Carter novel.
Hehaslinkedup too withother com-
panies — including the RSC, Birming-
ham Royal Ballet and the BalletBoyz —
to broadcast theirfilmed productions,and can draw on the BBC’s own large
bank ofaudio and screen drama(such
asHamletwith Andrew Scott). And
while the online experience can’t repro-
duce the buzz ofwatching, live, ina
packed auditorium, it can bring the sort
ofproximity to actors’expressions only
dreamt ofat the back ofthe stalls.
These areshowsthathavealready
made it on to the stage. The trickier
issue is how to generatefresh content.
With rehearsals out of the question dur-
ing lockdown, all the original drama
about to reachfruition has been stopped
in its tracks.Might the crisis prompt dif-
ferent ways ofworking — and, indeed,
storylines that reflect our current pre-dicament? Could the video conference,
suddenly a staple of daily working life,
become something altogether more
delightful in the hands of a playwright?
“I’m definitely in the market for that,”
says Claypole.“I’d love to see that screen
with nine actors doing a live reading ofa
great play with a great director. [On
screen]is increasingly where our emo-
tionallives arehappening,sothere isa
huge creative opportunity there — not
because it’s agimmick, but because it’s
the reality.”
He adds that artists are already find-
ing innovative ways ofworking and new
subjects todramatise.David Greig’s
next playAdventures with the Painted
People,for instance, originally headed
for the stage, is now being recorded as an
audio play, with the team working
remotely around the UK, and will have
its premiere on BBC Radio 3. Meanwhile,a link-up with the National Theatre of
Scotland will deliverScenesforSurvival,a
series oforiginal theatre pieces to be
both broadcast and streamed online.
TheBBC’sroleas a large-scale com-
missioner becomes critical now, says
Claypole. A new Culture in Quarantine
fund,in partnership with Arts Council
England, will enable 2 5 artists ofany
discipline to produce workin creative
media — video, audio and interactive —
underself-isolation principles. And he
can see otherfreshforms ofdramatic
storytelling emerging.
“We’re still at the start ofthis experi-
ence. But you can certainly imaginehow
you could have a room set up with cam-
eras, as iffor a documentary, and then
have actors coming in at different times
or being a large distance from each
other. I think we will start seeing differ-
entforms ofdrama that reflect this
period we are living through now.”
And perhaps one upside ofavery
bleakperiodis that new ideas, methods,
platforms and partnerships could
emerge. Meanwhile, streaming more
theatre and dance into people’s living
rooms may switch a whole new audi-
ence on to live performance — even
those who previously felt it wasn’t for
them — when it finally comes back.
“I don’t think the world will ever be
the same and I don’t think arts and cul-
ture will ever be the same again after-
wards,”says Claypole.“There’s going to
be a lot ofdifficult stuffbecause arts
organisations are under extreme strain.
But I think there’s going to be a shiftin
how we produce andconsume culture
that will stay with us beyond the crisis.”bbc.co.uk‘Nowisamomentwhenwe
realisehowimportantthe
livecommunalexperienceisandwecraveit’
I
tkicks offwithasnare-drum
attacklikeamilitary callto
attention, before singer Michael
Stipe unleashes a rapid-fire stream
oflyrics beginningwith:“That’s
great, it starts withan earthquake,
birds and snakes, an airplane...”
buildingup staccato tension untilthe
secondchorus, where Stipe wailsthe
title, whilebassist MikeMillschime
witha more upbeatharmony, singin
“TimeIhad sometimealone.”
“It’s theEndoftheWorldasWe
Know It(And I Feel Fine)”was buil
from the melody ofan earlier, more
straightforward R.E.M. track,
1985 ’s“Bad Day”, sometimes also
referred to as“PSA”,or“Public
ServiceAnnouncement”.Ademo
of “Bad Day(PSA)”was rejected
fortheband’s 19 86 albumLifes
RichPageant.By 1987, thegroup
hadreworkedthe song: increasing
its tempo, openingwiththat call-to
arms drumbeat and retrofittingthe
lyrics to reflect a dream ofStipe’sab
an apocalyptic party:“Birthday par
cheesecake,jellybean, boom!”,
withguests with the initials“LB”:
Lenny Bruce, LeonidBrezhnev,
Lester Bangs, LeonardBernstein.
R.E.M.haveconfessed a debt
to “SubterraneanHomesick
Blues”. “EndoftheWorld”
started awave
ofsongs that built on Bob
Dylan’s template, reelingoff a
list of observationsonthe state
of theworldinastream-of-
consciousness style: INXS’s
“Mediate”( 1987 ), The Escape
Club’s“Wild, Wild West”
( 1988 )andBilly Joel’s much-
memed “WeDidn’t Startthe
Fire”( 1989 ), which
condensed headlines of the previous 40
years into afive-minute singsong.Innews cycles. It plays over the opening
sequence ofthe 1996filmIndependence
Dayyy, as the invading aliens’ signal is
detected, and, in that moment, it’s
clearthe humanswillwin.
That said, it’s not a soundtrackfor
every battle: in 2015, R.E.M. calledfor
then presidentialcandidate Donald
Trump to cease and desist after using
“EndoftheWorld” ashiswalkout
music to a Stop the Iran Dealrally, with
Mills sayingat the time,“Personally,I
thinkthe OrangeClown will do
anythingfor attention. I hategivingit
to him.”Stipe’s response was stronger:
“Gof*** yourselves, the lot ofyou—
you sad, attention-grabbing, power-
hungrylittle men. Do not use our
music or my voicefor your moronic
charade ofa campaign.”This didn’t
stop Trumpfrom usingother R.E.M.
songsathis rallies, without permission:
thegroup are stillconsideringlegal
sto prevent this.
dDay”was eventually released in
withavideo that imagines the
as news anchorsdescribing
adoes andrainstorms that appear
de livingrooms, offices and even
eir TV studio,aschyrons and
ollingtickerfeeds reel offupdates
fthesituationthat areasbanal
sany ofthe lyrics ofthe list
ongs previously mentionedare
izarre. Recently,“End ofthe
World”broke into the top 100 in
eUS iTunesdownloadcharts, its
ularity spikingas Covid-1 9
ed pandemic levels.(It last saw
cant sales in 2012, the year ofthe
ted Mayan apocalypse.)
at’s eerieishowitsvideo
anticipates coronavirus
ockdown: a teenageboy
wanders around a rural house
with a knocked-out wall and a
floor full of domestic detritus.
He looks serious, clutches
portraits, cuddles his dog,
dances to the music. For all the
chaos, it’s a relaxed, comfortable
solation, very focused on the
present, even if in the outside
world the news just gets
weirder:TimeIhadsometime
alone.Theboy practises
kateboard tricks as the camera
pans out to a field of grass, a
waiting dog and a sunny day.
EmilyBick
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wMichael Stipe of R.E.M. in 1987 MTHELIFE
OFASONGIT’STHEENDOF
THEWORLDAS
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(ANDIFEELFINE)(radio, television and digital). The task,
says Claypole, is essentially twofold:
first, to bring music, drama, dance, vis-
ual arts and even a virtual bookfestival
to the millions confined at home; and,
second, to support artists whose
projects and livelihoods have evapo-
ratedovernight.
In practice, that has meant sending
art critic Alastair Sooke into Tate Mod-
ern tofilm theWarholexhibitionjustas
it was being mothballed, as part of a new
Museums in Quarantine series. Further
plans include Simon Schama presenting
theYoung Rembrandtexhibitionat
Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, and
James Fox delivering a“visual essay”on
theworksin TateBritainthatresonate
most sharply with the current crisis.
Peering into the nation’s shuttered
galleries is something Claypole hopes to
continue.“Our national collectionsare,
to a degree, the soul ofthe nation,”he
says. “They carry our history, our cus-from culture,from books,from music. If
arts and culture disappeared over the
nextfew months,it would have a big
impact on wellbeing.”
His job, as he sees it now, is to stop that
from happening. The result is Culture in
Quarantine, an expansive virtualarts
festival running across all platforms1 993, Beck’s “Loser” was a late entrant
into this category, a laconic, mumbled
set of slacker musings that could have
been transcriptions ofbongfumes.
All ofthese songs cram as many
thoughts andhistoricalmoments and
images as possible into afew minutes,
andCanadiangroup Great BigSeahad
aminor hit in 1997 with an evenfaster,
countrified coverof “Endofthe
World”: aminute andahalfshorter
than the original,achievedby spitting
out thelyrics athyperventilating
speed, auctioneer-style.
The song’s title has beena
subeditor’sgift, inspiringeverything
fromheadlines to titles forSouthPark
episodes. It’s as versatile asDr
Strangelove’stagline,“How I Learned to
Stop Worryingand Love the Bomb”,to
evoke panic anddetachment, calmin
the storm ofacceleratingand absurd