So, going from being able to afford a long weekend abroad once every year, I was suddenly just invited to travel a lot.” “I had lots of opportunities to travel and see different cultures and different countries. “It got me into the bigger theatres and it got produced around the world,” he said. Ravenhill’s production of Puccini’s tale of 1890s bohemian Paris life, playing at London’s King’s Head theatre, casts two gay men in the lead roles of poet Rodolfo and the central female character of lowly seamstress Mimi.Īnd it changed his life – both professionally and financially, said Ravenhill. We don’t have to say this is terribly socially important and here are the issues that we’ve covered.” is emphasise the fun and joy of those things. “I’m not particularly interested in art as an agent of social change,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview ahead of Thursday’s gala opening. Known globally for his 1990s megahit “Shopping and Fucking”, Ravenhill said LGBTQ+ arts must first and foremost entertain he even rewrote the official website description of his new opera to reflect that priority. LONDON, May 4 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - LGBTQ+ theatre should put art before politics and stop pushing a social agenda, said top British playwright Mark Ravenhill ahead of his “queer reinvention” of Puccini’s opera “La Boheme”.
