Fest
Dan Lerner

Bad Girl Makes Good - Interview with Van Badham
With a London transfer on the cards and a surge of interest in political theatre, Aussie radical anarchist and playwright Van Badham's time has come. Just don't mention the middle classes.
20 August 2003

It used to be said that this generation of twenty-somethings was apathetic. The 9/11 and the Iraq war came along and the silent generation found its voice. Previously apolitical students descended onto the streets in record numbers.

Vanessa Badham, Australian playwright, militant activist and radical anarchist, is like an outrider for that generation. Her plays, which cast dark shadows over the integrity of America and the West, are newly popular as and emboldened youth finds comfort and entertainment in her themes. This year Van Badham, as she now calls herself ("it sounds cooler"), is making it big on the fringe. Her shows Camarilla and Bedtime for Bastards have been well received by audiences and critics alike. All of a sudden, everyone wants a piece of her. She's just done a two hour interview with a Scandinavian socialist paper and the Independent is next.

Playwrighting is a curious profession for such a committed political activist - after all, she'd probably be better off making a run for elected office if she truly wants political change. But Badham is adamant that theatre matters: it allows the audience to "negotiate the text" and "formulate responses", she says. Camarilla is a model of this approach. Although it is quite clear where Badham's sympathies lie, she doesn't dismiss the point of view of any of her characters.

But despite surfing the wave of the newly political generation, Badham has none of the arrogance of fellow political scribe Adriano Shaplin of the Riot Group. Whereas he has been stirring things up this festival, throwing his weight around in public and accusing Badham of being sexist, Badham is a bit more retiring. Nevertheless, politics is core to her and her plays: "I'm a radical political activist - the only way to guarantee equality is radical social change. I can't look at inequality and not believe it is an immoral act." But hastily she adds: "I sound so full-on. I'm really not."

You get the sense that Badham is used to being in an environment where her bookish intelligence is out of place. She can talk at length about her personal political philosophy, but she litters her debate with rhetoric about class struggle (although she would never call it rhetoric). Many of her generation wouldn't use it, or even recognise it.

"I'm a product of class struggle," she says, "I am entirely a product of class education and I exist as a triumph of public policy tat was born out of that. I don't think that in the globalised economy we can pretend the struggle is over."

Perhaps Badham will mellow as she gets older and her talent is recognised, perhaps not. Maybe being fiery is all part of being a radical anarchist and a damned good playwright.