Somewhere still in my 1970s memory, there are moments of clarity that I can track back to and identify as to when my childhood ended and the after trek began. Moments when ‘the adult world’ came into focus. Moments when the toys were put away and responsibility and reality were the name of the game. Opening a bank account, buying my own shoes, my first holiday without the parents, the end of the Christmas stocking…….seeing water for sale in a plastic bottle in a shop!
The confusion! Surely water was just there. Water wasn’t like chocolate or football cards or comics or sweets. Water wasn’t for sale!
Out of the mists of this nascent remnant, I have recently chanced upon We, Madmen and Dreamers who ‘write, record, and perform rock musicals about current issues……’ Their most recent production, Water Inc, is a masterful piece of musical theatre delving into the force of the corporate against the ‘little man’. The water companies are now all-powerful conglomerates that wield their muscles whenever they need to. Money is the name of their game, and they always get what they want.
Mark A. Durstewitz and Christine Hull use this template as a way into writing about the ever-intriguing power plays in human existence. The interaction between the characters and the carefully constructed plot in Water Inc demonstrates how there is a continual conflict, an unresolved drama, a battle between the ‘right’ and the ‘wrong’ things to do. The acting throughout is emotive and beguiling and enables the audience to become involved in the developing web of the narrative. The musical input is impeccable. The musicianship is excellent, and the variety and tightness of the songwriting is a benchmark of the production. Show ballads, prog sensibilities, assorted rhythmical marvels, strong melodies, great singing, assorted dynamics and just good old fashioned catchy songs.
You are left at the end of Water Inc holding onto a feeling of anger, desperation, sadness and hope. We are in a new time. We are in a time of action. A time of change.
As one of the characters says:
‘The industrial age gave way to the corporate age.’
Water Inc paints a perceptive and disturbing picture of the new world in which we are all now living. It also points to the responsibility we have, to try to make this world a better more balanced place for ourselves and our children.
Martin Clarke -Those Men- 20/1/25