"... And Counting!" (Letter Three)

This is bare bones theatre – no set, no costumes, not one single lighting effect (no lights up at the beginning or lights down at the end), no music – nothing, nothing at all in the way of support. The only thing present is an actor brimming with energy, invention and precision, armed only with his anger, his intelligence, his humour and… his laptop. The third installment of Tony Nardi’s theatrical letters series is a postmortem of Two Letters: a journey into the present state of theatre, culture and funding. To tell the tale, to recount the loss of direction and the complacency of an artistic milieu ensconced in a society too afraid to silence its artists and too spineless to support them, Tony Nardi demonstrates the pointlessness of theatre and, in keeping with the secular spirit of grand traditions – particularly commedia dell’arte– delights in reminding us that theatre is fundamentally a civic art conveyed through the body and voice of the actor. In his masterly tirade Nardi generates indignation and laughter, invoking Dante and Shakespeare, polemics and passion. Thoughts are given form, the word is made flesh, theatre is born.