‘Playwrights are more important than politicians’

Mark Ravenhill comments in The Guardian: ‘Playwrights are more important than politicians. So why do powerful people mesmerise me?’

He claims: ‘I think what playwrights do is more important than what most politicians do. Being a dramatist isn’t just about writing. That part often takes just a few weeks. But we do spend a long time thinking about how people behave, how they live together, how they might live together better – as well as the great cruelties they are capable of. And we’re constantly testing language, time and space in our work, to extend the possibilities of human experience. Politicians are concerned with the pragmatic business of running the world; artists, meanwhile, dedicate themselves to finding new insights into our existence. Most of the insights are feeble or crackpot – but some are visionary.’ And, as he says, many are about politicians.