What's Good? (Rough Mix, The Philosophical Open Mic)

I have been offended twice by plays in the recent past. One of them because they took a very important issue, which gave the script its justification and moral force, and made it the reveal. Another one because, following some fairly controlled and innocuous discussion about sex, suddenly asked the audience how many of them had been affected by sexual violence.

One of the most important moments in my theatre experiences came about because I had been offended. Almost inevitably, it was The Tiger Lilies who did it (Not Safe for Christians). I remember sitting in the audience, listening to Martyn Jacques banging on, and the audience around me laughing (nervously or hysterically). It didn't see the funny side, and felt isolated. At the end of the show, I ran away from Jacques, who was standing at the stage door, chatting to the audience like a transvestite priest bidding farewell to the congregation.

It was only half-way down the road that I realised how brilliant the experience had been, and that "being offended" is an exciting response. It challenges deeply held beliefs and compels serious thought.

The events that recently offended me took on a different quality. In the past weeks, the two plays that recently upset me haven't resolved into life-changing experiences: what I was annoyed by was the casual use of serious issues, not any bold challenge to my sense of morality. And there was a lack of theatrical skill involved. As it happens, the moral message of these plays were almost conservative in their intention. They weren't trying to present a counter-cultural morality, or assault my beliefs.

Being offended is pretty difficult these days - five minutes on the internet, and I am reading memes that are variously racist, homophobic or misogynistic (key thing: I hope I am laughing at them, not with them). I'm almost ashamed to admit to any morality beyond a bland, generic liberalism (sexism is bad, mmokay?). When I read fierce, passionate morality - say in my occasional visits to Rad Fem discussion boards, I spend more time wondering who benefits from the rage than assessing the virtue of the philosophical positions.

But in the theatre, I want to be offended. I want to be confronted with values that are not my own, and be forced to respond. I want to see a political play that sets up a rational explanation for joining UKIP, or looks sympathetically at racism.

The best I get is nihilism: Howard Barker does the trick.