Why did the ladies take their trousers off?

I remember going to see Forced Entertainment in Cardiff at the lovely Chapter Arts Theartre, in my first year of university back in 1997(Yup, I'm a bit old). My lecturers, Richard and Mike, who must have been in their late thirties took us. I remember someone peed on stage, there was a microphone and a horse head and some fairy lights.
I didn't understand it but I thought it was ace. I found myself thinking about Richard and Mike on Wednesday afternoon over ten years later, with my own students  at the BAC Grand Hall. That they probably saw them when they were at University, ten years previously and here I was repeating the cycle. In fact, the whole audience, which must have been 200 strong, largely consisted of students and the odd teacher who was probably also taken to see them too when they were at University. Admittedly, this was a Wednesday matinee, who else was the performance going to be for if not students, but it made me think about the role that theatre plays in our culture. Here we have an internationally renown company, who have successfully managed, together, to continue to produce relevant and controversial work consistently for over a quarter of a century. Antagonising and infuriating each new generation of students; challenging them to reinvent their understanding of theatre.

Isn't that weird? A bunch of fifty year olds, producing the same  kind of stuff that they did when they were in their twenties and still shocking twenty somethings and challenging their understanding of what theatre is. Outside of lecturers, students and artists, I suspect very few people in Britain have heard of Forced Entertainment yet they are probably one of our most successful creative exports. What does that say about the relevance of theatre? A theatre company only performing to students who then go off and make work and perform to students who go off and make work and perform to students and on and on and on. Yet perhaps thats what a successful interrogative theatre company is supposed to do, always existing on the fringes, never falling into the blandness of the mainstream, just continuing to aggravate and tweak from the outside. Seemingly, about nothing, but actually about everything.

I'm proud of Forced Entertainment. The name of the company alone makes me proud to be British. My only criticism is; why is it only the women who strip down to their underwear? The problem is, I think I know the answer but will choose to ignore it on this occasion, which is testament to how good they are.