The North/South Divide

It’s well known that my boss is a bit of a cultural philistine, but I’m not sure I like being tarred with the same brush!

We’re ‘down south’, chatting before a meeting, and M is telling me of her son’s audition at RADA. I ask about his audition speeches. Apparently he’s doing something from Romeo and Juliet, ‘and something from a play called ‘Bouncers’ – have you heard of it? I laugh, and comment that of course I know it, it’s Godber, it’s Hull. She’s clearly never heard of this ‘northern’ play.

My boss chips in that he once saw ‘Confessions of a Hull City Supporter’ and that he was brought up not to do theatre, or opera, or golf, as they’re posh. M comments that ‘you find that people are like that, in that they only like to do certain things’. It’s pitched in the nicest possible (but slightly condescending) terms but the inference clearly is that ‘it’s grim up north’, and we’re all still kicking the coal dust off our boots.

I mutter a comment that ‘we’re not all like that!’ and put my head down. Inwardly, I’m seething a little, as I don’t like being seen as a cultural stereotype!