Politics & Power Quote by Howard Barker

Barker turns rejection into a diagnostic tool, a kind of institutional eye exam. The line is funny in the way a slammed door is funny: blunt, slightly cruel, and entirely revealing. He’s not begging the National Theatre for validation; he’s using it as a calibration point. If the flagship stage says no, Barker can trust he hasn’t unconsciously drifted toward the tasteful middle where British cultural power likes its art: legible, affirming, exportable.

The intent is provocation with a purpose. Barker’s theatre has long positioned itself against naturalism, moral tidiness, and the “well-made play” that reassures audiences they’ve understood the world correctly. Submitting work “for rejection” is a performance of artistic autonomy, but it also confesses a dependence: even dissent needs an object to dissent from. The National Theatre becomes his negative benchmark, the institutional weather vane telling him which way the consensus wind is blowing.

The subtext is a critique of gatekeeping dressed up as self-care. “To assure myself I am seeing clearly” suggests that acceptance can blur perception; praise can be the fog that makes you mistake comfort for truth. Barker implies that clarity, for him, lives in friction with the cultural center. Rejection proves he’s still writing in a key the establishment can’t harmonize.

Context matters: postwar British theatre built prestige on social realism and public subsidy, with the National Theatre as both patron and filter. Barker’s quip exposes how “national” culture often polices risk under the banner of serving everyone. He’s not just outside the tent; he’s checking the tent’s boundaries to make sure his work still cuts.