#145 - Oliver Bennett & Morgan Watkins - They Were Trained To Perform The Greatest Works In Western Civilisation And They Say The Whole Thing Has Now Been Captured By Cowards And Liars

Oliver Bennett and Morgan Watkins are the co-founders of The Base and RADA-trained actors with nearly twenty years of experience in British film, television, and theatre. In this conversation, we think out loud about: What The Base is and why it exists  The campification of British theatre and the shame around the Western canon The Edinburgh Fringe as a monument to progressive capture and why the RSC is rehearsing a lesbian Othello set against the climate crisis Meeting Shakespeare on his own terms (the third position beyond progressive deconstruction and conservative nostalgia) The working men’s club with a library, what the working class built and what was taken from them  Why not a single pro-Brexit play was produced in a country that voted 52% to leave Why today’s rebels know nothing about the past they claim to be rebelling against Whether counter-institutions like The Base can survive without funding The return of masculinity and the need for men to stand up Find The Base:  thebasecreates.com  X: @thebasecreates Substack YouTube Related:  Pierre d’Alancaisez — The Custodians Of Beauty Became Its Gravediggers: https://youtu.be/KXn2z3mfCDk Carl Trueman — The West Killed God. Then It Killed Man: https://youtu.be/zwhbWVc1PgU Frank Furedi — In Defence of Populism: https://youtu.be/qTdxAR40T4E Watch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ  Albion Institute: albioninstitute.org Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping England, Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West. Hosted by John Gillam.  ▶ YouTube ✍ Substack 🎧 Spotify 🍎 Apple 🐦 X New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.