Against community: ambivalent identities in Actors Touring Company and David Greig's The Events

This article explores the ambivalent presentations of identity in David Greig and Actors Touring Company’s 2013 staging of The Events at the Young Vic. I analyse the choice made by the company of casting a south Asian actor to play a white supremacist and consider the lesbianism of the play’s other main character, in order to reflect on the racial and sexual tensions which underpin liberal conceptions of multiculturalism. I further explore the role of the local community choirs invited each night to perform on stage. This serves as a springboard to discuss critiques of liberal multiculturalism in Europe, revealing the contradictions between the way The Events was staged and director Ramin Gray’s statements about the production. Whilst Gray declares the play to be about the defence of multiculturalism and the communal space of the theatre, my own reading of the show points to a fundamental ambivalence towards both, especially through the casting choices.