On a sunny afternoon in the mid-90s, a young ginger-haired boy is making his way across town to reach his psychologist appointment. This weekly Thursday afternoon excursion comes off no less a godsend to the young lad, where this escape from school and venture into the upmarket West End of Glasgow is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise turbulent life, stepping into an unfamiliar, enthralling yet placid world free from the persistent threat of violence in Pollok. But this brief respite is quickly forgotten: a group of local youths have spotted him. Far from approaching him with typical macho swagger, however, they fall deathly silent and look away, doing anything to avoid a confrontation. As they shuffle off, heads bowed, the young man is overcome with a mixture of confusion, pride and resentment: hard enough to be feared by some affluent children, but viewed as an entirely different species by the other half, and altogether voiceless.
An eclectic mix of discussions on issues that affect us in everyday life
For Darren McGarvey, becoming an Orwell Prize and BAFTA winner as well as one of the leading voices of class relations in the UK seems almost implausible when one looks back at snapshots from his youth, scenes that he brings to vivid life in his 2017 biography Poverty Safari. Where the latter would launch him into public consciousness, Common People does not idle on the Glaswegian’s hectic past, focusing upon the here and now with contemporary topics ranging from AI and technology to education and social mobility, all the while attending to its baseline: class, money and mental health. A podcast brought to the stage, Common People, is an eclectic mix of discussions on issues that affect us in everyday life as much as it attempts to “normalise a working class voice” in a world that actively deprives them of one.
On the night of this viewing, we saw psychologist and author of Unprocessed Kimberly Wilson and McGarvey’s personal trainer Nicki Small discuss dieting and exercise, and the viability of healthy lifestyles for the average person. In particular, it wrestles with the habit-driven mould that our dopamine-seeking brains have hardwired into us, and the difficulties of making changes in a life caged by routine. Attending to issues of causality and free will, it seeks to answer the question that if one is a product of their environment – particularly one where the cheapest food is the unhealthiest – how can one make individual choices for healthier lifestyles? With audience questions, the show gains traction for its intentions whilst showcasing McGarvey’s agile mind and sharp wit, and expands the discussion beyond the three on stage.
Nonetheless, the show’s greatest weakness lies not in its content as much as its location. Against a backdrop of rampant prices driven by the hyper-capitalism of Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival, one cannot feel there is a blatant irony in a show centred on social divide, especially given the audience’s composition being largely middle class. In a city burgeoning with gentrification and working class exodus, finding ‘common’ voices amidst a sea of tourists and ex-Southerners fleeing London prices feels unfeasible. This too begs further questions – is art and culture only reserved for the privileged, and if so, doesn’t this undermine a very show designed to give the common person a voice?
McGarvey, however, ever aware of his surroundings, draws attention to the paradoxical nature of Common People and the inaccessibility of high culture to the masses. Perhaps it does not disrupt the status quo as much as it recognises there is a problem with cultural capital, and a first blind viewing leaves an impression of middle class voices hidden under the guise of working class concerns – particularly when the middle-aged man from Kensington in the front row becomes visibly flustered at McGarvey’s skit on entitled cyclists in response to the audience member’s impassioned demand for more cycle lanes. But this is both the beauty and Achilles Heel of the show that, mercurial in nature and sporting a wide array of discussion topics and a varied audience, offers the viewer a more than valid reason for return.
