Culture

Theatre Watch: Me For You

A new play by Rachel E. Thorn.

Gaydar Girls

Jul 31, 2024 — 3 min read

Rachel E. Thorn's new play is Me For You and it’s all about the utter selfishness of true love.

Me For You tackles the fundamental paradox of modern life - we want to be good people but we’re just so self-absorbed. The play is about a queer couple who join Extinction Rebellion in a bid to save the planet. In the process, they have to face the fact that we do good things for personal gain. After all, what could be more selfish than being in love?

The inspiration for Me For You came from the way climate activism is represented in a country where the latest government has worked hard to diminish our right to protest.

We caught up with Rachel E. Thorn for a behind-the-scenes look at the production.

Why do you feel that climate activism is readily demonised by politicians and the media?

Well, it’s an inconvenient truth, isn’t it? We’re wilfully participating in our own destruction.

Even if you don’t believe in climate change as a global concept, there are so many things that human beings do to make our environment less liveable-in. Pretty annoying. And the people who manage to escape the negative consequences of that tend to be the wealthiest and the most powerful, including politicians.

We’ve done a great job of ignoring this problem for decades, so now we’ve moved into the phase where we demonise the people who point out the problem. Why? Because that’s still easier than change.

Is the intention of the play to encourage more people to become positively engaged in climate activism?

I don’t like to put the onus on the individual. I think we need to look to our systems if we’re going to get meaningful change. But every system is made up of individuals. It’s a horrible loop.

The good news is that there genuinely are so many ways that individuals can feel empowered to contribute to making our systems better, and if more people feel like that’s true after watching Me For You, then that’s fab.

However, there’s nothing worse than a lecture dressed up as a piece of theatre, so Me For You is a play. And it has as much power as you think a piece of art can have.

Selfishness is a theme that you're exploring in this play. Are we conditioned to somehow mask that we're frequently motivated by self-interest?

Of course. It’s part of being a social creature. We need to behave in a way that is acceptable to the group in order to survive.

Another interesting question is how much we accept self-interest in ourselves. We don’t criticise the selfish gene or the selfish clothes moths that have taken up residence in my wardrobe or the selfish lions eating the antelope. But human beings have - at least - seven deadly sins that we berate ourselves for, all driven by self-interest, all of which we need to survive. It’s another horrible loop.

You've written audio descriptions into the dialogue of the play to make it as accessible as possible. How does that work in practice?

Me For You is non-realist with direct address, so I can slide the AD into the dialogue without it sounding like a third voice or an add-on.

I also perform my radio sketches live under the banner Sketch Up, and I make sure those shows are always suitable for audiences with a visual impairment too.

I think people working in the performing arts would do well to consider access at the point of creation a little more. You’d be amazed how it can enhance the art itself.

Plus we’re all going to lose some of our sight, hearing, physical ability and mental ability, so it makes sense to think about these things ahead of time. Unless you plan to die young, that is.

What do you hope that people feel when they come to see Me For You?

I hope audiences leave with a feeling of hope. Despite the utter agony of being alive and the pure selfishness of true love.