#it wasn't too long ago that lots of theatres had fossil fuel sponsorships. they're certainly not innocent here

[thelawsofdaylight]

I have a lot of respect for the Just Stop Oil protestors who interrupted Les Mis last night. I've done disruptive actions before and it's fucking hard. Any kind of direct action is hard, and anyone who participates in civil disobedience (or uncivil disobedience!) will know that.

But still. It's incredibly disheartening to see the negative responses from people who (presumably, seeing as they either follow the account and/or bought tickets to the show) are fans of Les Mis.

And like, I don't know, it's just making me reflect a lot on how popularised versions of Les Mis (mainly the musical) still fail to get through to people. It doesn't hammer home the message in the book's prologue, it's too easy for people to see it as that was then and this is now, that was over there and this is here, etc, etc. Like... I can't stop thinking about how quickly the protestors were thrown under the bus by both the audience and the theatre. How it's easy for people to exercise hypothetical solidarity towards a bunch of fictional characters yet not extend that to real life contexts. How everyone will unanimously agree that the National Guard are the bad guys and then turn around and cheer on the IRL cops for removing protestors. I don't know.

And I've been to productions of Les Mis before where people will cry during the barricade sequence or comment on how upsetting Fantine's story is and then come out of the theatre and walk straight past the unhoused people on the streets. It's not new. But it is particularly jarring when as soon as the lights come up people seem to forget how fervently they hoped that things would be different, and not realise they have to play a part in that change in order for that to happen. Like, the message of Les Mis is supposed to be if you do nothing, nothing will change.

The amount of people who don't seem to grasp that Les Mis condemns people exactly like them, who stood by, who turned away from the people trying to change things, it's just... It's so fucking frustrating.

#anyway i blame turning. fuck that song #and like. i will be the first to admit i don't agree with all of jso's tactics or targets. but i think this was a pretty good one #if only to expose the absolute hypocrisy at play between the themes of the show and the corporate interests of those at the top #it wasn't too long ago that lots of theatres had fossil fuel sponsorships. they're certainly not innocent here #and the people that i know within jso are some of the loveliest people ever. it hurts to see how much hate they're getting for this #les miserables #les mis