‘Poetry makes nothing happen,’ claimed W.H. Auden.
Yet, points out playwright Noelle Janaczewska, writers are killed and imprisoned for their words, ‘From the Ancient Greeks to Shakespeare; the living newspapers of Russia, the revolutionary operas of North Korea; from Brecht to Caryl Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children to Tina Fey channelling, Sarah Palin the stage has long been a place where political issues are aired, explored, asserted and satirised.’
