Comedy / grace petrie
Grace Petrie explains why ‘THIS IS NO TIME TO PANIC!’
“Depressed by fascism, misogyny and eco-destruction?” asks acclaimed folk singer, standup and activist Grace Petrie, in the billing for her new “feel-good show”: THIS IS NO TIME TO PANIC!
Following the huge success of her debut standup show Butch Ado About Nothing, Petrie is back with her characteristic blend of music and comedy – with an extra matinee show added to her Bristol Beacon date on January 24.
“Folk songs won’t save the world”, she admits. “Neither will standup. But both at the same time? Read it and weep, Putin!”
Talking to Bristol24/7, Petrie shared some reflections about engaging with difficult subjects, the uniquely disarming power of music, and life as a touring artist.
You are characterised for your genre-defying blend of standup, music and political activism. How do you sum up your performance style – and how has it changed?
“I have always tried to keep connection with the audience at the heart of what I do. I’ve always worked in both folk music and comedy and spent a lot of years feeling like I should ‘choose’ between them, because I think our arts industry is quite bad at putting people into Tory little marketing boxes.
“But I’ve never really been able to separate the elements of humour from my folk music and the elements of earnestness from my comedy. With this show I finally decided to just forget about the labels and do whatever comes naturally, which has predictably ended up being a blend of both.!
Can you give us a flavour of THIS IS NO TIME TO PANIC!, and explain what it means to you?
“It’s a response to what I think of as mass-distraction culture. The world is in the most perilous state it has ever been in but most people are committed to finding ways of blocking that out in order to be happy. I found that I was starting to feel like part of the problem – like what right do any of us have to be performing comedy at a time like this, and am I just adding to the false hope that is keeping people sedated when they need to be agitated and act?
“But then I found a way to make the show about that friction between offering toxic positivity – ‘everything is fine!’ when it isn’t – and offering genuine encouragement to solidarity to an audience struggling with the same existential anxiety that I am.”
To what extent is it difficult to engage with some of the difficult, depressing or alarming facets of life today, let alone to make them funny?
“There’s plenty going on right now that defies humour entirely but British politics has been giving me material to laugh or rage or tear out my hair at for as long as I’ve been performing. I was on tour for 60 per cent of Liz Truss’s premiership and I had been saying on stage that it was a race between us who would get done first. It was meant to be a joke, but she quit halfway through my tour. Sometimes with politics as unbelievable as ours currently are, the danger is any satire you write can’t possibly ‘out-ridiculous’ them.”
Do you believe that music has a unique power to disarm people – and if so, can it also propel them to take action?
“I think all art can disarm people but music has a way of bringing them together that I think is special. It is so easy in this world to feel isolated and that is the most disempowering feeling imaginable. Very few people have the fortitude to set out to change the world alone but the idea that you are part of a union is an encouraging and galvanising idea. Nothing inspires that feeling better than singing together in a room full of people who share your vision for the world.”
What sort of feedback from fans is most fulfilling to you?
“Because this show is all about hope – whether it is sensible or not to have it right now – I’ve been taking great comfort from the folks who have written to me to tell me how my songs have kept them hopeful. Half the battle is imagining a better world and everything is stacked against us being able to do that right now, so if I have helped anyone keep their flame lit then I will feel like it was worth it.”
You’ve been on tour since September, and Bristol Beacon is your penultimate date. How much does it mean to you to perform to audiences all around the country, and to what extent does engaging with your audience impact the direction of your art?
“As an independent musician, live touring is the lifeblood of my career. Lots of artists say ‘I couldn’t do it without the fans’ but I really, financially, literally couldn’t do it without the fans. The fact that so many people are still with me after 15 years is astonishing to me, and I wouldn’t have believed it if you’d told me when I was 15 I would get to do this and year after year folks would still come out and support and engage with it so full-heartedly.
“I think engaging with the audience impacts a lot of the decisions I make about how to move forward; there are so many tools for unsigned artists to commune directly with their fans and that direct relationship allows me to be a lot freer in my writing. There is no label or management company constraining what I do and say, and I’m afforded that artistic freedom because of that audience relationship, which is a position I feel grateful to be in everyday.”
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Grace Petrie: THIS IS NO TIME TO PANIC! is at Lantern Hall, Bristol Beacon on January 24 at 4pm and 8pm. For ticket availability, check www.bristolbeacon.org.
All photos: Fraser West
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