Referencing Jim Cartwright’s material, what are the merits and pitfalls of producing his

work within a non-northern setting.

This essay will investigate the positives and the negatives effects of the northern setting in Jim
Cartwright’s plays. Cartwright was born in the north in the outskirts of Bolton, so he is from the
north and he has set some of his work in the north, but they have not always been performed using
a northern accent or been set in the north where Cartwright writes it. By not setting the play in the
north can have an impact on the audience understanding certain plays that he has written this is due
to some of the factual and political issues he talks about and the way he writes his plays that are set
in the North as he writes it in the way he wants you to say it and that is in the North accent, but it
can also give a different impact if it is not set in the north because it will have a different meaning to
the people watching it due to the way the actors tell the story.

Cartwright uses the same themes throughout his plays and one of them are characters having
different Class and, a high or low status and it is a major part of his decision on setting his plays in
the north. The south was always known to have a higher status than the north in the 1980s and that
is something he likes to explore. In The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Cartwright, 1992, 2.1), Ray, who
is a wealthy and successful businessman is of higher status than Mari who is poor and unsuccessful
as well as having problems with alcohol. In this scene Ray is shouting at Mari and describing how
different they are due to their difference in status. By doing this Cartwright is showing that the rich
person is taking advantage and is therefore reminiscent of how the northern people felt about the
rich, southern people, especially businessmen used the north in order to gain wealth, but when they
were no longer useful to them to anymore, they showed their contempt and for example closed the
mines. This could be what Cartwright was trying to present, he used Ray as a metaphor for the rich
southern elite, taking advantage of Mari, who was presented as the poor northerners. “His early
work, funny and poetic and noted for its representation of the English north, especially the working
class, was bashed out quickly on a portable typewriter[…]” Is from the article Jim Cartwright: ‘When
my first play was staged, I felt like I’d won the pools’  (Plaice,2015) and it is what Cartwright said
about his plays and this shows that having a different class to another character in the play is
important to him to show what it was like. This theme of class and social status featured a lot in
Cartwrights work which directly helps to create a 1980s environment when on stage, this is
supported by the theme of unemployment.

Due to the fact the Cartwright lived in the north he was able to use his experiences to create an
emotional reaction in his audience who lived though the same times, he does this through the
theme of unemployment. In the United Kingdom being unemployed in the 1980’s was common, this
was due to the reccession that was going on in the 1980s. In Billy Eliott the musical (Billy Elliot: The
musical, London, Victoria Palace, 2005) Billy’s dad and family work in the mines and they were all on
strike because they are shutting the mines as Margret Thatcher and the government was changing
the policy of going away from fossil fules. At the end of this musical they all find out the they have to
go back and then they will all be unemployed, and Billy’s brother tells him what will happen and he
says “[…]everyone you know will be unemployed. In this village, in the next village, and the village
after that, and the village after that. In ten years there won’t be any pits left. We are dead, we are
dinosauers it is 200,000 men[…]” (Billy Elliot: The musical, London, Victoria Palace, 2005) This can be
seen in Cartwrites work in Road (Cartwright,1986, 1.14) as Joey and Clare both are unemployed and
they go on strike by starving themselves and they end up diying. By putting the unemployment
theme into his plays it gives the audience an insite to what people had to go though when they
were all unemployed. Clare says “I don’t know what els to do, everyday is the same now”
(Cartwright,1986, 1.14) She is saying this to joey and she is talking about her stuggles with the
situation she is in and it gives the audience a sence of what is going on in her head and how it is
being uneployed and going on strike. Being unemployed is a big theme thoughout Cartwrights work
and that helps the audience with connecting to the characters and story, this can also be helped by
the use of language he uses.

Cartwright uses different language techniques within his plays for example metaphors, and he does
this so that he gets the audience to use their imagination, this is because he wants to let people
know that they are only watching a play and not real life. In Joey’s monolouge in Cartwrights play
Road (Cartwright,1986, 2.16) he says “[…]my heart is like an elbow.” (Cartwright,1986, 2.16) This is a
metaphor as we don’t know why he has used the word ‘elbow’ so it is up to you what you think he is
suggesting. He also uses highenteded poetic language and this simblyfies the steady pace of the text
Cartwright intended to create, you can see that is the in the play I licked a slag’s deodrant
(Cartwright, 1996, 1.1) where he uses reportition to slow the monogue down and it helps the
audience to understand what was just said, “[…]leg bone, like a jabbing, jabbing elbow.” By
repeating a word it also shows the audience how important the word is so it stands out.

Cartwright likes to use his northern heritage in his writing by using a conversational northern tone in
his plays. He does this by writing how he would say it, so he would write it in the northern accent.
For example form the play The rise and fall of little voice (Cartwright, 1992) Mari says “she won’t
touch ‘em, Sadie” (Cartwright, 1992, 2.1) the word “ ‘em” is meant to be them but with the accent
and the way you would say it in a northern accent. The reason that Cartwright has written this in this
way is because it is set in the north and has a vision of it being in certain places in the north.
Cartwright has said in the podcast Octagon Theatre Podcast (Octagon Theatre Podcast,2020) that
every time he has watched different versions of his plays being performed it is amazing how
different they all are, even when they are in a foreign language because I understand it and the
audience still finds it so funny and it is amazing (Octagon Theatre Podcast, 2020, (10 minutes)) This is
showing that Cartwright can still understand what is being said in the play even without the English
language and the audience also understands as they are all laughing and enjoying themselves. This
means thatyou don’t need to have a northern dialect to understand Jim Cartwrights plays.

Bibliography
Cartwright, J. (1992) The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. Chorley: Methuen Drama

Billy Elliott: The musical (2005) 2005 west end, Victoria Palace, London (31 st March 2005 – 8th April
2016)

Cartwright, J (1986) Road. Great Britain: Methuen Drama

Cartwright, J (1996) I licked a slag’s deodorant. Great Britain: Methuen Modern

Plaice, A (2015) Jim Cartwright: ‘when my first play was staged, I felt like I’d won the pools’, The
stage
Octagon Theatre Podcast (2020) Episode 3- Jim Cartwright, 14 th August, Episode 3 - Jim Cartwright
| Octagon Theatre (octagonbolton.co.uk) Accessed on 16/12/2020