A New World
Shakespeare’s Globe, London
The recent news that protestors are creating climate camps is a heartening reminder that idealism is an essential part of the human spirit. History has plenty of examples of both radical visions and the sense that social change is possible. Even William Wordsworth, the zealous poet who became a cantankerous old reactionary, remembered how it felt when news of the French Revolution arrived on these shores: “Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive/ But to be young was very heaven.”
Tom Paine, the revolutionary firebrand who promulgated the universal gospel of human rights, has long been the hero of playwright Trevor Griffiths. In our deeply cynical age, idealism is in short supply, so it’s great that he has been given the opportunity to realise one of his long-cherished projects: to tell the life of Paine, whose radical pamphlets – Common Sense (1776) and The Rights of Man (1791) – lit up the darkness of late-18th century politics with the beacon of revolution.
In A New World, a panoramic account of a life that included active participation in both the American War of Independence and the French Revolution, Paine comes across as a member of the awkward squad, whose well-argued ideas about reason, liberty and the universal human rights of men and women make him enemies almost everywhere.
During the American Revolution, Paine – as Griffiths clearly shows – not only played a vital role in rousing the population with his thrilling writings, but also clashed with the representatives of big business, who were soon profiting from the opportunities afforded by independence. Their interpretation of the slogan of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was, unsurprisingly, a rather narrow one.
After this, Paine returned to Britain and supported the French Revolution, clashing with the reactionary Edmund Burke, the chief propagandist of the right. But in France, things turned sour for Paine. He opposed the death penalty on King Louis XVI and then argued against the Terror. Thrown into prison by the Jacobins, he was on death row for about a year, before the deaths of Danton and Robespierre led to his release.
Undaunted, he carried on campaigning for liberties and turned his attention to attacking established religion. When he moved to America once again, he managed to offend their puritan sensibilities with these attitudes and he found himself unpopular in the land of liberty. Oh well, at least he was rational and argumentative. And history has proved him right.
Played with restraint and psychological depth by John Light, in the play we see Paine’s transformation from a relatively youthful firebrand, who was appalled at the treatment of slaves when he arrived in the American colonies on the eve of their struggle for independence, through his incarceration by the French revolutionaries, to his last days as an exile.
Griffiths uses Benjamin Franklin, portrayed with great charm by Keith Bartlett, as his narrator, and peoples the stage – in Dominic Dromgoole’s well-paced and engrossing production – with a host of characters, from American President George Washington (Dominic Rowan) to Paris revolutionary Danton (James Garnon). Griffiths deftly outlines the main points of conflict and tells a thrilling tale with enormous gusto.
Love interest is provided by Laura Rogers as Marthe in the American scenes and Alix Riemer as Carnet in the French ones, with music, both sombre and rousing, from the excellent Stephen Warbeck. This is a long, epic play that somehow remains interesting, and indeed humorous, for most of its three hours of running time. At a time when the big issues of the day tend to be met with indifference, a good dose of idealism about the possibility of change is surely to be warmly welcomed.
Aleks Sierz
