The Language of Art

An Interview with Richard Demarco

What is a quick-fire Q&A?

We have our interviewee pick a number at random (between 1-42) and we ask them the general question listed next to it.

Shortly after we switch to asking book-specific questions (1-22), to give you a brief insight into our wonderful writers and their books.

Have you always wanted to write books?

Yes.

Mainly because it's the only way I can make sense of this reality of my life in relation to the Edinburgh Festival. I've now got the problem of considering the pictorial record of the festival in the form of all the photographs I've taken.

I have brought to Edinburgh something like 10,000 human beings who would never have come. I invited them from the most unlikely places, from Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, the Baltic States and Siberia. I made a point because I can't stand a festival which is only English-speaking. I hate the sound of the English language which dominates the festival.

If I go to Venice Benali, I can hear every language under the sun, every single language, every country is represented.

I think that the Edinburgh Festival has a big problem. It's not international.

It defines itself as an international vertical. And of course, there is the enormous problem of the fringe, which now the fringe is so important that it doesn't need the official.

I mean, nobody has worked out the exact number of festivalgoers out there because of the fringe. Nobody is asking that question, which is a huge question, because the queues of people you see now going into the headquarters of the Church of Scotland are not going to see Shakespeare Productions, some of the most important plays ever presented by the festival, they're going to experience a standup comic. It's got nothing to do with art.

I am constantly asking the question, what is the difference between a cabaret, which the festival was once famous for, and standup comedy? You don't need any lighting and any set, or any costume design. You just turn up and the way you're dressed, usually with no music unless it's recorded. If you ask anybody what is the most important thing that happened over the 75 years, the answer will probably be Beyond the Fringe.

I was at the world premiere of the festival.

I'm the only human being alive saying that I have experienced the whole festival. There's no such thing as a national festival headquarters, which can give you an indication of how many times certain people have become world famous through the festival when they first appeared. I mean, I'm thinking of Rowan Atkinson, he was completely and utterly unknown but is now a world figure. But where can you go in Edinburgh to find out?

It's about how £150 million is spent over a period of three weeks.

All festivals in the world have to be so organised that they can guarantee an audience for each performance. It's mayhem and madness. The gap between the festival and the Fringe is now so wide that there's no contact whatsoever.

The language of the arts is the only language we have, which is not the language of politics – a waste of time because the world of politics is now so questionable and can't give you any sense of a stable future. It can't deal with global warming. It can't deal with the people who litter the streets of any major city homeless. It can't deal with the fact that our educational system has broken down. It can't deal with the fact that the health services are obviously not working.

Everything I'm saying is obvious. Nobody can tell me that the festival improves because it gets bigger and bigger. It will burst.

People are desperate, rushing around, pleading with you to come and see their show.

That shouldn't be the case.

Just how many people have gone bankrupt by being the vessel on the fringe?

I think the festival is run by people who have a memory of recent events, but there's no sense of what has come before. That’s why I wanted to write books. My memory of what has become before needs to be recorded.

You need someone who was actually there

What are your three favourite books?

Festival in the North: Story of the Edinburgh International Festival of the Arts by George Bruce. It was simply telling the truth of how wonderful the festival was.

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. It was all about recovering one's health, mental and physical. It was first published in the German language, which is important for me.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. The film became very famous, and the hero of the film was a German soldier. It wasn't about the goodies in Europe or fighting in the trenches, it was about the First World War from the point of view of the enemy. It twisted it.

History books have combined to make me who I am.

Where is your happy place?

On the road because it's a journey you must make from birth to death. Life is about a journey.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Be very, very careful to always remember the words of the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, who was the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the vessel in 1947.

He said that the festival was in no way an event of a commercial venture and that the festival is about the flowering of the human spirit.

I don't think the Edinburgh Festival should be limited to the boundaries of Edinburgh. It should benefit the people who live in all these outlandish, marvellous, wonderful parts of Scotland because I think Scotland and its landscape are second to none anywhere in the world.

Why do you think people should read Demarco’s Edinburgh?

It's not enough to know that you have experienced the last five festivals, or even the last ten or twenty. Your life should be blessed with all the festivals that have come before.

Why did you choose the cover that you did?

I identify the festival with the word nocturnal. It's not in daylight. That’s why I painted it this way.

What is the main message you would like people to take from the book?

You must be very careful not to think in terms of the way the festival has developed. You must go back to the thoughts of the founding fathers and mothers, the people who created it.

What did they want it to be?

They wanted it to be all about the language of art as a language of healing. Healing the terrible wounds inflicted by the Second World War. Millions and millions of people had died. Terrifying thought.

Therefore, you have to think of the one language, the only language we've got which can help us in surviving that awful period of mourning, of the loss of loved ones.

What was your favourite thing about writing the book?

It came at a difficult time.

Being in my nineties, everything was becoming harder. I had to rely on one person day and night. I put terrifying pressure on her. Thankfully she's an artist and I respect her.

I'm talking about Terry Ann Newman.

I don't want to call her my assistant. She's my co-creator of this work of art, and I'm very proud of the fact that she's admired as an artist.

She is also very much aware of the use of art language as a process of healing, not just the human body, but the human soul and the human mind.

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