Ink

James Graham

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781350146341
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Subtopic: Escritura de obras de teatro

I want to tell you a story. And it's true. That's what makes it a good fucking story, right, 'cause all the best stories are true. Fleet Street. 1969. The Sun rises. James Graham's ruthless, red-topped play leads with the birth of this country's most influential newspaper – when a young and rebellious Rupert Murdoch asked the impossible and launched its first editor's quest, against all odds, to give the people what they want. Ink premiered at the Almeida Theatre in London before transferring to the West End and later Broadway. It was nominated for both the Olivier and Tony Award for Best New Play. This new edition features an introduction by Harry Derbyshire.

Act Two

A TV camera monitor flickers on . . .

A black-and-white close-up on Murdoch’s face, sitting in a chair in a TV studio. Prepping for an interview, checking his hair, a sip of water. Occasionally looking down the lens towards us . . .

Snippets of distorted sound, which we may recognise from the future – the football stadium chants of a football game ‘L – I – V – E – R – P . . . ’, the launch of the Falklands Armada to ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, the dialling in of a teenage girl’s voicemail, testimony to a Parliamentary Committee, ‘the most humble day of my life . . . ’, the aggressive, shouty tones of Fox News anchors – and, possibly, incongruously for now, the growing sound of pigs snuffling around in dirt . . .

The lights snap on. TV studio at London Weekend Television.

Murdoch Now look, I don’t pretend that we’re –

Host But the accusations, Mr Murdoch, not just accusations, the personal feelings of many people, including myself, when I’m – I have to say ‘forced’ to spend many dismal hours reading your paper, in order / to prepare for –

Murdoch It doesn’t bother me what you think, or other people in the London media, it bothers me what normal people in the rest of the country think, and it’s normal people who are buying it –

Host Well, yes, if you will wallow in material that is sleazy, and downmarket –

Murdoch I don’t agree that it’s sleazy, I think it’s fun, and I don’t like this term downmarket. Who is the arbiter of whether or not something is up, or down. You?

Host Well no, not just me actually, the Press Council has made a formal complaint about your paper, leading figures from the Church as you know – we played the Cardinal earlier. Even the royal family have expressed their concerns, you having personally made an enemy of His Royal Highness Prince Philip.

Murdoch (chuckles) Yes, I . . . (Beat, more serious.) Yes.

Host Explain to me then, the positive merits of this double- page spread. The Rolling Stones in their Hollywood mansion. With scantily clad or naked –

Murdoch The suggestion of nudity, never seen –

Host – girls, drinking, taking drugs, lounging about with all of their money?

Murdoch The positive merits are that people bought it. In soaring numbers.

Host And that’s it, is it?

Murdoch I’m not going to sugar-coat it, I shouldn’t have to. Every editor knows it, but if I have to be the first one that says it – fine, yes, the numbers are what matter.

Host So the news business then, for generations seen as a noble pursuit, engendering public debate, seen as exactly that by your own father –

Murdoch My . . . Let me tell you about my father –

Host You, on the other hand, his son, see the primary function of the Sun as no different from that of hawking soap, or shaving cream on a market stall, it’s solely about shifting volume.

Murdoch Listen . . .

When a political party increases its vote share, that’s seen as an indication of democratic intent and you place them into government. So why then is circulation not just as good a measure of the will of the people? Better, in fact, because the choice at the ballot box is a false choice. Two options, this or that. Whereas the marketplace . . . supply and demand, what you are willing to part with your pennies for – that’s pure democracy. Modern democracy. Real choice.

Host But beyond that, because what graces the pages of our newspapers – or do you disagree? – is about our own national narratives, the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, and what you’re saying, as we enter this new decade, a fresh start, is –

Murdoch What I’m saying is that countries reinvent themselves all the time, and –

Host And in reinventing England, then, Great Britain, in your own image – what will we be? Because judging by this, we are ruder, and coarser –

Murdoch Less reverential, I would say, and less in awe of – and I have to say actually, that any controversy, which I don’t happen to recognise, is being whipped up by a sort of Establishment who for so long –

Host Ah, now, you come back to this again and again, Mr Murdoch, and I have to say that is an Australian view of England – it really is, because it doesn’t work that way anymore. I mean of course, still, with the daft old-school ties and so on, but England is not some organised ‘conspiracy’ against people.

Murdoch You reckon?

Host Are you not part of this Establishment now? Seen being driven around town in your Rolls-Royce –

Murdoch Oh, so you’re talking about material things, well –

Host Well you, in the Sun, often talk of little else, free giveaways, what to buy, what to wear –

Murdoch It’s absolutely OK to want things, in my view, even though I actually have very little desire for lots of things myself, or for being the centre of attention –

Host And yet you’re here. On television . . .

Look – the cameras, they’re pointing at you. The other chairmen, owners, they’re behind their desks. Why are you here?

Murdoch We want to reach people.

Music kicks in. . .

The Sun team arrive. Brian, Joyce, Ray, Beverley, Bernard, Diana and more strutting down the Street, and t...