'Mogadishu' fits into zeitgeist of moral confusion

Once upon a time, subsidised theatre was a left-wing hobby. Now, two years on, subsidised theatre has effortlessly conformed to the prevailing, much more right-wing trend. After all, Toneelgroep Amsterdam has a stage adaptation of Ayn Roland's rabidly anti-social novel and Tea Party bible The Fountainhead on the programme. And on Thursday 24 January, Utrecht-based city theatre company De Utrechtse Spelen announced a play that falls back on Theodor Dalrymple's socially bitter texts for its content.

The play 'Mogadishu', which premieres in late February, is the only play by British writer Vivienne Franzmann and deals with the consequences of a false accusation. I saw the first scenes during the presentation, and was particularly impressed by the play by Kenneth Herdigein, who as a father did an intimidating 10-minute interview with a weak headmaster, played by Bart Klever. The performance may not be as penetrating as Thomas Vinterberg's Jagten, but remarkably, director Matthias Mooij said he got a lot out of Dalrymple's work. This former prison psychiatrist has been successfully kicking the shins of what he calls the aid mafia for a few years now. De Volkskrant, in the aftermath of the riots in a number of British cities in 2011, posted an article by him, in which his thinking came across perfectly:

"Somehow, they have managed not to see what is obvious to anyone who takes a walk down a busy British street and keeps their eyes open: that a significant proportion of the country's young population is ugly, aggressive, mean, badly behaved, rude and has criminal tendencies. That youth has no self-respect, but a lot of self-importance. It thinks it is entitled to a high standard of living and other things, without making the slightest effort to do so."

This tirade indicates exactly why Dalrymple is as popular as it is controversial: it is not the environment that makes people do bad things: it is their character that tends to evil, and our tendency to pamper them only makes them worse. From this view, any effort by social workers to do something about the conditions of slum dwellers is a priori suspect. If people do not solve their own shit, no one is compelled to stand up for them.

It is now remarkable that a playwright chooses this ideological rationale for a play about good and evil and racism in a schoolyard. For the first time since Hamlet doubted the justification for his wrath is being thought about characters who are downright evil. Until a few years ago, any playwright would rush to loudly condemn Dalrymple's thinking as racist, facile and populist. Now that same work provides a solid foundation for a play about how well-meaning social workers do a lot of harm.

Together with that announcement by Toneelgroep Amsterdam to do Ayn Rands paean to selfishness The Fountainhead the honour of a stage adaptation, it is fair to say that the theatre is at least seamlessly in tune with the zeitgeist: total moral confusion.

 Mogadishu plays from 24 February. Information.

The Fountainhead will premiere at the Holland Festival in June 2014