 Okay, so thank you very much for your time and just a short introduction of this series. Although, although Roma are the largest ethnic minority in Europe, they still experience high level of racism and have to deal with many societal issues. Additionally, Roma are being represented in a very stereotypical way in the media and artwork as well. But the Roma Theatre has more than a century long past with active professional theatre groups in many European countries, but unfortunately they are still hardly known. The Roma Heroes Theatre Festival, initiated by the Independent Theatre Hungary, is the only international Roma actor encountering the world, which has been organized since 2017. Some of the present artists and their work are introduced in our series and today my guest is Richard O'Neill, the writer of the play The Hardest World. Hi Richard, how are you? Hello, I'm very well, thank you. Okay, so my first question to you is just very quickly, could you please summarize briefly what the play is about? The play is based on a real life happening up in Scotland and there is a long history in England and Scotland, because there is no physical border between England and Scotland, so Romani people have travelled between Northern England and Scotland as my family did for many years. The Scottish Gypsy people, the travelling people of Scotland were treated incredibly badly as they were in England and one of my friends and dear colleagues wanted the Scottish Government to apologise for all of the things that had happened in the past, some of the terrible things and she had this campaign and tried and tried and tried to get the Scottish Government to apologise and that gave me the idea for the play about this woman who has this campaign and she is desperate just to get this apology and it's called The Hardest Word because we often say that that little word sorry is the hardest word to say and really that's what the play about, how far she's prepared to go, a mild-mannered but strong-willed woman, how far she's prepared to go to get that apology. Thank you, it sounds very interesting, I already saw it in Budapest two or three years ago as far as I remember it was, you were then here in Budapest. Okay, Richard what is your art creed, what are your principles in your work when you are creating art? The first thing in any of the work that I do is I have to tell a really good story, that's where my family heritage is in storytelling and it always has to be a really really good story, it has to come from the heart first and then the head afterwards, it has to be something that I feel passionately about so if I'm going to write something, create something I have to feel it, it has to be a really powerful feeling for me otherwise I don't think it really gets across to the audience so that's my starting point that it has to come from here, I have to feel it and then the head writes it. And who and what inspires you during this process, in general in your life? So many people, the old traveling people because I grew up with the very old English and Scottish Romani people who were sort of almost around at the turn of the century some of those so I was a child 50 years ago and some of them had been born in the previous century so they had this amazing tales, stories of struggle and triumph but it was always about the family and I think you know when we talk about the Roma people in Budapest, we talk about the Roma people in different parts of the world, we are in fact one big Roma family and all of those different Roma people from all the different groups, they inspire me because we haven't given up you know of all the things that have happened to us throughout history, we're still here and we're still making art and we might be doing it virtually at the moment but we're still here and we're still doing it and you know every time I see somebody do a flamenco dance, every time I see somebody sing, every time I see somebody tell a story from the Roma tradition just inspires me to keep going and to do even more. And what do you think about the representation of Roma in general in the art world also in media? Well first of all in media it's generally negative and that's you know that's the media for most people I think they want to show the negative, the sensational and because we don't have many Roma reporters, we don't have many people in the media for us then it tends to just be very stereotypical as you mentioned and it tends to be negative. We always make a good negative story you know that that's just the nature of it and I think because we don't have the protection of that a lot of other groups have then people feel as though they can just have a go. In the arts it's a really interesting one because our culture has inspired so much art from Van Gogh through to writers, other painters, musicians and yet we haven't been the makers of that art so we've been there and we've been used you know our culture has often been appropriated by others and it's just so wonderful now that I see so many young people coming through writers as dancers and just thinking you know as artists and and we are doing our own arts and that's just one of the best things. So we've got a really terrible history of it but that's changing and the independent theatre in Grifes are one of the most amazing groups who are you know in the past three years previously but in the past three years just doing amazing things getting our work as you are around the world to share it with other people. Thank you and I'm connecting to this question what does Roma theatre mean to you? The Roma theatre means so much to me because they asked people, Romani people from all over the world all over Europe specifically to go to Budapest to do this amazing professionally performed theatre with a director who is Roma with actors who are Roma but also non-Roma actors as well and to put our work on the world stage and for a small theatre company I think that's just absolutely amazing you know it would be like trying to go to the moon in an old car you know people would think it's not possible but you know they they built the most amazing rocket ship with this theatre and we're flying now so they mean I think they mean everything in terms of you know my plays have been performed in England but to have the play the hardest word that we talked about performed in Budapest in Hungarian and to be watched by the British ambassador you know it's just wow fantastic and their work is ongoing you know that this isn't this isn't the end for them this is just the beginning. What does Roma theatre mean to you do you think it's necessary or important to have Roma theatre? The Roma theatre is really really important because it's the one place in the whole of Europe where we as Roma artists can have our work professionally performed by a really really superb team so it actually means everything to me because when we went over there together and I took my play the hardest word and we rehearsed it and we workshopped it and there was such an amazing buzz with so many people came to watch it and to have one of your plays that you've written in England and to go over to Budapest with all of the other Roma people from around Europe and then you watch your play being performed in Hungarian and you're sat next to the British ambassador it's one of those wow moments and so it's really really important I think probably in the future Roma artists the younger ones coming through will look back and they'll look at the Roma theatre and they'll see the independent theatre they'll see what an amazing job they've done and how I think especially from 2017 how things have just changed for the better how positive they are how hard working they are and the results they've had and you know and just as you and I are talking now that work is going around the world and it continues to go around the world and they're commissioning new work you know I'm working with them on a new piece at the moment so to me artistically I think for a Roma artist the independent theatre are just brilliant they're just the best really fantastic thank you lastly I would ask you what are your future plans or goals I think I just want to keep on improving as an artist you know as a writer I want to write more I want to get more Roma material out into the world whether that's on stage whether that's on TV or film you know I mean one of the things I'd really like to do is to get some of my work onto TV get some of my work into film write more plays to work with more Roma people as a as a collective and see if we can actually you know raise the profile and open some doors for younger Roma artists coming through you know we've got to create this this this Roma space where people can come in and you know give us that give us the latest stuff you know I'm I write about the past I write about the present and I think we need to start writing about the future more as well so hopefully all of the work that we're doing will allow us to do that so I'm very positive at the moment about the future and what we can do and the part that I can play in it yeah definitely thank you that sounds great so thank you for the discussion now you can see the performance called the hardest word created by Richard O'Neill and I just stopped recording and