tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24655319992911453442024-03-13T23:11:42.975+00:00performance ~ marks...to perform ~
from the Old French 'parfourmir' meaning 'to provide thru..., to provide for every...'
how might we make performance that provides exceptional experiences for the people we seek to connect with?mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-48707454655135860502011-03-06T13:04:00.001+00:002011-03-06T13:09:28.041+00:00performancemarks has moved to a new addressI am at last re-activating this blog at it its new address: www.performancemarks.com.<br />
Click on the title above to find my new home<br />
And Thank You for your interest....<br />
markmark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-83912220572383187062009-08-04T19:31:00.011+01:002009-08-25T00:06:47.507+01:00'white man's burden' at edinburgh, 19th august<div style="text-align: center;"></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZWvkBMX2nTc-xV0ivoZ_95TVSQTHYVNToMGmaM7gRWOdW51KYukWVvTxHz87Ue2m8BmXarLScawuisFyG1fwAke-9KkCq8dSPGf_d1_u8n-NyNIT7HNcvQjeaWySLdfyf7mHCJlpyOhMc/s400/WMB+FRONT+.jpg" /> <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjevp-wYL04yzMVTPk1vxBSPNbRzev6-3YuIvuFSATs4EyiARlIiypzlRVbInWoHggt6eLGt396CfRFNHzxfykEYGLcUvL8sQbODE4TZCbEGSS93zZ5MRlb1kR2INP-QB5APvbDSI7XOyxr/s400/WMB+back+.jpg" /><br />
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our show will be at edinburgh for one performance only as part of the Critical Incident Edinburgh day of events...<br />
<b>1700-1800, wednesday 19th august</b><br />
at The Melting Pot, 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh<br />
for full programme information and booking:<br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; white-space: pre;"><a href="http://www.thecriticalincident.com/index.html"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.thecriticalincident.com/index.html</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, -webkit-fantasy;"><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: small;">see also: </span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, fantasy;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111212391924&ref=share"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111212391924&ref=share</span></a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, fantasy; font-size: 100%;"><span style="white-space: pre;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">created by</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">mark trezona</span></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></b></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">&</span></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></b></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">martyn duffy</span></b></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">performed by</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">mark trezona with the audience</span></b></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">soundscape by</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">martyn duffy</span></b></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">video artist ~</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">vivienne harris</span></b></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">photography ~</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">tanya harris</span></b></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">graphic design ~</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">sue ridge</span></b></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">‘Preface’ to Wordsworth’s</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><i><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lyrical Ballads with a Few Other Poems</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">performed by</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">martyn duffy</span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lt Col Tim Collins’</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><i><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our Business Now Is North</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">address to his troops performed by</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">vivienne harris</span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rudyard Kipling’s</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><i><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The White Man’s Burden</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">performed by</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">jasper harris</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">rosa harris</span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mark Doty’s</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><i><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Citizens</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">performed by</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">mark trezona</span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Barack Obama’s</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">2009</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><i><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Inauguration Address</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: medium;">performed by himself</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="color: #cc9900;">alchemy</span></b><b><span style="color: #999999;"> aspires to make rich experience out of the ingredients</span></b><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">of live performance & audience memory and imagination.</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="color: #cc9900;">alchemy</span></b><b><span style="color: #999999;"> tries to make exceptional experience happen </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">in the space where performance and audience combine.</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="color: #cc9900;">alchemy</span></b><b><span style="color: #999999;"> is the performance~making wing of </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">BridgeBuilders STG Ltd., who create learning that aims</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">to help build a world of happier people who thrive on change </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">and inspire the people around them.</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Programme Notes from Critical Incident Brighton 2009</span></b></span><span style="color: #cccccc;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><b>Yoko Ono’s 1965 action </b></span><i><span style="color: #cccccc;"><b>Cut Piece</b></span></i><span style="color: #cccccc;">,</span></span><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"> in which she sat motionless on the stage after inviting the audience to come up and cut away her clothing, inspires t</span></span><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">his performance.</span></span><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Our performance began as a protest against the collusion and lack of responsibility for the damage and destruction that continues to be perpetuated by white men in suits. Two hundred years ago William Wordsworth wrote his fears of a new urban, industrial society's mass media and mass culture threatening to blunt the human mind's "discriminatory powers" and to "reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor”. And look at us now…But our ‘white man in a suit’ must also bear our own culpability:the ‘suit’ we are giving to the audience to cut is a presence caught inside the tensions of our time, between the generalised certainties of what our media and our own biases might have us believe and the more complex ambiguous personal realities of individual men, their intentions and their actions. For this reason we have set our re-imagining of Ono’s original performance standing, rather than sitting, and inside a soundscape of alpha-male voices: ~Barack Obama stepping up to the Presidency, ~the newly resigned Speaker of the House of Commons, ~bankers and Lords passing blame back and forth, ~Rudyard Kipling and Lt Col Tim Collins’ rallying calls to duty, ~ Mark Doty, a gay poet trying to live well through road rage in New York city. These voices have been chosen for their contemporary immediacy and contradictions: hope and catastrophe, new possibility and irredeemable ruin, wonder and terror.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: #cccccc;">What began with identity has become all about burden: the onerous burden on Barack Obama’s shoulders of all that responsibility and all our hopes, cut through with the loaded expectation to ‘stand up and be a man’; the weight of ‘America’ in our lives and of Doty’s held rage, cut through with the burdens of citizenship and the civil responsibilitywe all bear and the media bears as a public service; the oppressiveness / oppression of western male domination, still deadly in his smart 21st century suit of apparent liberalism,still owning and wielding and maintaining power, cut through with recognition that surface appearances must always be deceptive, and individual men can want and do good things.</span><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: #cccccc;">To all of this -and all the other things a man in a suit can mean - we offer to the audience to cut.And it is their coming up on the stage that makes the performance itself, and determines how much this is a show of destruction and/or creation.In this performance we are asking: what happens when we offer a man in a suit to an audience to cut?</span><span style="font-size: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span><span style="color: #cccccc;">The answers are up to the people in the room on the day...</span><span style="color: #cccccc;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">brighton, 19th may 2009</span></span><span style="color: #cccccc;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><b><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #f1c232;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>5 ***** review of this performance from Chris Hislop, fringe review</b></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.fringereview.co.uk/fringeReview/3101.html">http://www.fringereview.co.uk/fringeReview/3101.html</a><br />
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<b><span style="color: #f1c232;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a huge thank you to our very creative audience for making this show with us such an exceptional experience.<br />
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we're looking for a way to make the show in london now - watch this space as they say...</span></span></span></b><br />
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footage of yoko ono's original 'cut piece' in a video presentation of her work<br />
<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZcxLoS1C7KE&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZcxLoS1C7KE&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-13201036876112716002009-08-04T17:00:00.003+01:002009-08-04T17:04:22.494+01:00'gravity sucks' - simon faithfull @ bfi southbank gallery<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg56CgxWnSwjJ4Dn-KVunT3xCEYtfA1rknbFBrGMG7B09gDTpKDyMBtKkvSANCfl4_nzqpX2V4RPZAsQiNjxAZp9V0s3QaEEjDF04t33rhg-QGwnfRon07ZfNccjJ1WXUlowJFPn_KLdUAL/s1600-h/IMG_6250.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg56CgxWnSwjJ4Dn-KVunT3xCEYtfA1rknbFBrGMG7B09gDTpKDyMBtKkvSANCfl4_nzqpX2V4RPZAsQiNjxAZp9V0s3QaEEjDF04t33rhg-QGwnfRon07ZfNccjJ1WXUlowJFPn_KLdUAL/s320/IMG_6250.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366139640888791426" /></a>a completely delightful whimsical exhibition that reminded us of the same irrepressible will to flight that we saw in anca & alex's goldsmiths show.<div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihcIgmBXZPZPYPtlEqGsbro9pD2MacRidWm-Ypki8NdnO6u8HxlcGHyuNJli-X9be90sbrKsxGYwOMZ4Kk8vAT1ap6eS_XCgWgtZbIBwKm4Fhzj60lrWyMtsw8FMFd0hnlUJn87IGCJ4cO/s1600-h/IMG_6251.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihcIgmBXZPZPYPtlEqGsbro9pD2MacRidWm-Ypki8NdnO6u8HxlcGHyuNJli-X9be90sbrKsxGYwOMZ4Kk8vAT1ap6eS_XCgWgtZbIBwKm4Fhzj60lrWyMtsw8FMFd0hnlUJn87IGCJ4cO/s320/IMG_6251.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366139632320812466" /></a><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-64852209194329421232009-08-04T14:28:00.006+01:002009-08-04T15:07:49.130+01:00*** Bobby Baker's Diary Drawings: mental illness and me, 1997-2008<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhReyuv-SosLDgvuNyhCM9D83vDH5iBM3WbRsWn2_0gZY_i1MMQ7Y0N7krG5harIw21jxJlraAYZMwsVaapQ3BORAHR96uT1_KqiDVyUMPX66bGsm26vwK-RmWHRL-s7btDcqgcZip8sdtf/s1600-h/IMG_6248.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhReyuv-SosLDgvuNyhCM9D83vDH5iBM3WbRsWn2_0gZY_i1MMQ7Y0N7krG5harIw21jxJlraAYZMwsVaapQ3BORAHR96uT1_KqiDVyUMPX66bGsm26vwK-RmWHRL-s7btDcqgcZip8sdtf/s320/IMG_6248.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366109441273190466" /></a><br />at Wellcome Collection<br /><div><br /></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFF00;">stunning wonderful potent enlightening rich funny appalling extraordinary exceptional exhibition</span></span></b></div><div><br /></div><div> <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7yOak_9ncKN6OWP_YRF53tRLmjBoWpZNQlTR9jBgxzwF0Y0K3QYg60L8Y8uJ-L-0ArzZ-u7WSyWcT4lvSgSzkmj0wkGY1tA5i1bPk7th5BMZtgijQlRNS47hrHZJ2MedHu2Tr2B8kx7YR/s320/IMG_6245.JPG" /></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-49715146601937119352009-07-31T14:19:00.005+01:002009-07-31T15:00:00.940+01:00'jerusalem' by jez butterworth (w. mark rylance)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh92jbVOBxRXxJ6fxFrdbg0FqsO2FiT4QfhgjHer_y3ZmdMjH6bxWYDYCH6LExT7-34uvhqgcclTi8-MgGKM24MuwAMuYxE3ClrnkzuH9y-jgxaJcGpaMpPWmB-dx6wwm5NTDynpillLmiM/s1600-h/IMG_6244.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 209px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh92jbVOBxRXxJ6fxFrdbg0FqsO2FiT4QfhgjHer_y3ZmdMjH6bxWYDYCH6LExT7-34uvhqgcclTi8-MgGKM24MuwAMuYxE3ClrnkzuH9y-jgxaJcGpaMpPWmB-dx6wwm5NTDynpillLmiM/s320/IMG_6244.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364613830307021186" /></a><br /><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">JERWOOD THEATRE DOWNSTAIRS</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">The Royal Court Theatre presents...</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-font-family:Verdana;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-family:Verdana, fantasy;font-size:18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Jerusalem</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-font-family:Verdana;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana, fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">Written by</span> <b>Jez Butterworth</b></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-font-family:Verdana;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(255, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; font-family:Verdana, fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">10 Jul - 15 Aug</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-bidi-Arial Unicode MS"; font-family:";color:#FF9900;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-family:Arial, fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"My dad said he jumped buses. Horseboxes. Jumped an aqueduct once. He was gonna jump Stonehenge but the council put a stop to it."</span></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On St George's Day, the morning of the local county fair, Johnny Byron, local waster and modern day Pied Piper, is a wanted man. The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his children want their dad to take them to the fair, Troy Whitworth wants to give him a serious kicking and a motley crew of mates want his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.</span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-font-family:Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS"; font-family:";color:#006633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jez Butterworth's new play is a comic, contemporary vision of life in our green and pleasant land. His previous plays for the Royal Court include </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Winterling, The Night Heron</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> and</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Mojo</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">.</span></span><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-font-family:Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS"; font-family:";font-size:10.0pt;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">Director</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;"> </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;">Ian Rickson</span></span><br /></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">Designer</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;"> </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;">Ultz</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">Lighting</span> </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;">Mimi Jordan Sherin</span></span></b></span><span style="font-family:"Franklin Gothic Medium"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">Sound</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;"> </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;">Ian Dickinson for Autograph</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">Composer</span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;"> Stephen Warbeck</span></span></b></span><span style="font-family:"Franklin Gothic Medium"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">Cast includes </span></span></span><b><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;">Jessica Barden, Tom Brooke, Greg Burridge, Lewis Coppen, Mackenzie Crook, Alan David, Aimeé-Ffion Edwards, Lenny Harvey, Gerard Horan, Danny Kirrane, Charlotte Mills, Lucy Montgomery, Sarah Moyle, Dan Poole, Harvey Robinson, Mark Rylance, Barry Sloane</span></span></span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#99FF99;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">Running time </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">3hrs 10mins approx, including 2 intervals</span></span></b></span><span style="font-family:"Franklin Gothic Medium";mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Franklin Gothic Medium";mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-Franklin Gothic Medium"font-family:";"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">We walk in to see a fire curtain showing a faded grubby St George's cross. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">A strip of real park turf along the front littered with beer cars Vodka bottles and plastic bags. A couple of stumps - an empty beer glass on one - and a tin water tank.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Or the left a pile of firewood - its neatness in incongruous contrast to the dirty mess around it. and beside it an abandoned old car seat</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Vaughan Williams’ '<i>The Lark Ascending</i>' swells and soars.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">The smell of smoke. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"> 15 year old Phaedre comes on dressed as a fairy and sings 2 verses of Jerusalem before being drowned out by loud pounding rock music</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">The Curtain rises on a party in full swing seen through strobe lighting.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Blackout </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Lights up bright on two community liaison officers official in safety yellow waistcoats surveying the debris and then serving eviction notice from the Council on Rooster and his old silver metal Waterloo caravan. This despite the amplified dog noises Rooster is yelling through his loud hailer </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">From the first moment of his entrance we are held mesmerised watching him cast his spells over his court of motley youngsters left over from the party - and Ginger who has managed to miss it -and then the locals who are pulled in to his rubbishy drug & alcohol banked camp: the local professor who will wander through and enjoy the Fair day in their company tripping on the acid tabs they've slipped him; the landlord of Cooper 's pub festooned in full Morris Dancer bells and handkerchiefs for the village Fair and who needs to get high for the day to do it; the local bully boy looking for his missing daughter - the 15yr old Phaedre - and promising violence when he finds her. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">And Rooster drinks and charms and swaggers and spins his yarns and weaves his magic on us all.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">The second act reminds even move of a modern day Falstaff, enveloping his followers with tales of daring and fairytale and drugs and alcohol.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Then the arrival of a little boy Markey - Rooster's son - in place of the giant that might have been summoned by the drum - and his mother who is still caught in her appetite for Rooster and for his whizz despite now having a new man waiting. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms', fantasy;">Then the third act with the inevitable ostracising and street justice for Rooster before he is left to meet the official justice of the evicting bulldozer, bloodied, branded but defiantly unbowed.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms', fantasy;">The girls are vacuous and more thinly drawn than the boys and this is very much a play about men with no interest in the women beyond their relations with the main man Rooster and sometimes to other men. Ah me, it was ever thus but this is a frustrating weakness in a play called 'Jerusalem' and aspiring to give us an updated portrayal of England's pleasant pastures green turned unholy in small town small scale corruption. And while it is very funny, a number of the laughs sounded brutal to me - more the collusion of a mob at an easy weakling than the delighted sparkle of sprung enlightenment.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">There is nothing especially new in this story. But it's enormous charisma and potency comes from the writing and performance of Johnny "Rooster" Byron. Mark Rylance shows us a man who is mesmerising complex funny frightened fantastical and fierce. He is Falstaff in all his vainglorious boasting, he is Don Juan purring the women into helpless devotion, he is Don Quixote tilting at windmills, the misunderstood outsider, the sensitive friend, the disgusting drunk, the mischievous prankster, the amoral dealer and the brawling thug.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"> And throughout this three+ hours the balance is held dangerously tight between a recognisably malevolent reality of small town low life and an heroic poetic sweep of the noble epic - pitching the misunderstood and much maligned hero against a world of contemporary monsters.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Great theatre.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">So long as you don’t care about the invisibility of the women.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-2789165108293844842009-06-26T09:50:00.006+01:002009-08-04T15:32:25.562+01:00eonnagata<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfxxOjx4_FwNC4CpKDmknTQm7kAxUH2-SU90tV7uwWdYqGYjLfky2EAwEIUeFOIboruwQ9zG4pWLV8ALxc_DborEjzz7CCiYSRNsXwIloeDRs_31Em81b2gb5dZsvzihjdjqRoexoMe057/s1600-h/IMG_6249.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 310px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfxxOjx4_FwNC4CpKDmknTQm7kAxUH2-SU90tV7uwWdYqGYjLfky2EAwEIUeFOIboruwQ9zG4pWLV8ALxc_DborEjzz7CCiYSRNsXwIloeDRs_31Em81b2gb5dZsvzihjdjqRoexoMe057/s320/IMG_6249.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366111568882140370" /></a><br /><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Arial Unicode MS', fantasy;">conceived and performed by</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Sylvie Guillem, Robert Lepage,</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Russell Maliphant </span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Arial Unicode MS', fantasy;">Sadlers Wells in association with Ex Machina & Sylvie Guillem</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Arial Unicode MS', fantasy;">Lighting Designer ~ <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"><b>Michael Hulls</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Arial Unicode MS', -webkit-fantasy;">Costume Designer ~ <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Alexander McQueen</span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Arial Unicode MS', -webkit-fantasy;">Sound Designer - <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Jean-Sebastien Cote</span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Due to phenomenal demand for tickets during its world premiere season at Sadler's Wells earlier in 2009, Eonnagata returns for a limited run.<br /><br />This brand new Sadler's Wells production brings together three of the world's foremost creative minds: internationally acclaimed dancer</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Sylvie Guillem, world-renowned theatre-maker</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Robert Lepage</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">and award-winning choreographer</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Russell Maliphant.</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"><br /><br />Eonnagata</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">tells the story of the Chevalier d'</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">É</span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">on, Charles de Beaumont - diplomat, writer, swordsman and a member of the King's Secret, a network of spies under the control of Louis XV. De Beaumont was perhaps the first spy to use transvestitism in the furtherance of his duties and until the day he died his true gender was a source of constant speculation, even provoking public bets in the late 18th century.</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">"The alchemist of modern imagistic theatre, Robert Lepage is one of the most challenging and chimeric directors of our time" THE GUARDIAN</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"><br />For this remarkable collaboration,</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Guillem,</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Lepage</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">andMaliphant</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">draw not only from their respective backgrounds, but also from the ancient Kabuki technique of Onnegata - in which male actors portray female roles in an extremely stylised fashion.</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"><br /><br />The elaborate costumes of Louis XV's court will be evoked by legendary fashion designer</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Alexander McQueen, complemented by stunning lighting from</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC9933;">Michael Hulls.</span></b><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Arial Unicode MS', fantasy;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">mostly dreadful - i haven't been so bored or cross in a theatre for a very long time.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Le Page swinging tin foil swords </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">2.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Guillem telling us the whole Chevalier d'Eon story </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">3.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Maliphant emerging from a giant geisha</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">4.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Long boring bit skidding over tables to Bach </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">5.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Fan dance with Empress of Russia with a large red fan and singing up from bass profundo to soprano shrilling</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">6.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Fighting with a feather quill to a coarse poem & then writing with a sword to her mother then the old lady appears out of the table </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">7.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Twirling sticks </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">8.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Calico shadow show</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">9.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Nice story from "Plarto who we call Plato" about original species with both genders two heads & double arms & legs til Zeus decides to literally cut us down to more manageable size - in half like an apple - and ever since we've been looking for our other half </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">10.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Fighting with ring & stick </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">11.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Short guillotine sequence with a skull head </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">12.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Mirror tables including two tops with one mirrored bottom </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">13.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Post-mortem under a swinging neon light </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Lots of great ingredients that never quite manage to come together into anything very wonderful. The costumes are so exquisite and the lighting so visceral it often feels like watching an extra esoteric fashion show. The sound too is great and often dominant & rich enough to satisfy for itself.</span></span></span></div><div><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">there are moments that hold but the narrative interest is pierced by hearing the full story at the start, the spectacle of the scenography is insufficiently spectacular, and the performances are too often too lack-lustre and ordinary to hold so that I was actually bored through several sequences. And in the end it all just didn't add up to much more than very expensive looking flummery. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A sad story of how many talents can end up cancelling each other out. </span></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-39982758570039180812009-06-18T16:38:00.000+01:002009-06-18T16:53:50.788+01:00'a little night music' (stephen sondheim) ~ meinier chocolate factory @ garrick theatre<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTL-LymqRZ8HjNOATo_cKAkhbY7aHJeq8KcvGVU8iVGrBXHje-yp7Mw0CS5msEMJs9bglq0JaJqG53qlmm02f6ROdgR29JDCt4v0os58KmdoW2mWHtdXMLh9NsxCOjdYdBvt6j2KnGEi67/s1600-h/IMG_6216.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTL-LymqRZ8HjNOATo_cKAkhbY7aHJeq8KcvGVU8iVGrBXHje-yp7Mw0CS5msEMJs9bglq0JaJqG53qlmm02f6ROdgR29JDCt4v0os58KmdoW2mWHtdXMLh9NsxCOjdYdBvt6j2KnGEi67/s320/IMG_6216.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348695398978705842" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Tahoma;"> </span><br /></div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Clear clean simple and utterly engaging from the bare set with one chair we walk into see (echoed with outside</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">chair at start of second half), the simple design ideas - black costumes, interiors in first half in town, white costumes and mostly outdoor scenes for second half in country. The show puts all its trust in its raw materials: the writing, the music (made by a tiny quintet), its songs and its ac<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Tahoma;">tors. The sense of shadows and memory whispers through it with the quintet chorus of Missuses & Misters singing through the younger rememberances and providing a perpetual observation of the foolish love tangles of the protagonists (the programme notes point out the repeated use Sondheim has made of outside observation in his shows). So the words all arrive with an easy freshness and potency and - like the Jude Law Hamlet - gives us a world and its people who make complete sense - merely the slightest lift rather than any great leap of faith needed to enter here.</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Maureen Lipman's grande old courtesan is a masterclass in less-is-more timing and energy: everything she says arrives in your lap for your enjoyment perfectly formed and still very much alive, and even the familiar lines sound newly spoken. Around her central imperious stillness, the rest of the company convince and pull us lightly through their stories, even though this is wholeheartedly theatrical: all the characters sing directly out to us (again in much the same form as the Hamlet soliloquies) and<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Tahoma;"> the period grandness and highly coloured romanticism of the story are all exquisitely shown so we are never being duped into thinking this is real life, but we are able to float easily inside it like we might through music - simultaneously conscious and unconscious of its artfulness.</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It is funny and beautiful and poignant and wistful. And sweetly irrelevant except for two moments of great sadness in 'Every Day A Little Death' and 'Send In The Clowns' (which we understood literally for the first time: when there's been an accident at the circus like a fall from the trapeze, the clowns get sent o<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Tahoma;">n).<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> <span style="mso-fareast-Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span style="mso-fareast-Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Lovely birthday treat. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span style="mso-fareast-Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SAfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUV6lVVghf6hclV86uxLhs5hneL1RtQz0P-ZrsLuofjnucY2TzbCAa9nNJCsxY5q3qoqTQT208HioaZf8RE54Mn7Ru0MoIP0d73V4Gdp3TwcP0Br4v9nZhCO8TzwoTZEzsL3c7TbNhKzf-/s320/IMG_6217.JPG" /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-71355553158793079742009-06-18T13:38:00.006+01:002009-06-18T16:34:02.834+01:00'Kursk' (Sound&Fury) @ Young Vic<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style="mso-ansi-Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">A Young Vic</span> and <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Fuel</span> co-production, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Sound&Fury's</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:15.0pt;margin-bottom: 5.0pt;margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><b><span style="Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman";mso-font-kerning:18.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Kursk</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style="mso-ansi-Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">In collaboration with <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Bryony Lavery </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ02XzlZwMzPdw23RlyKb88SNZEPYYTbQ9kpi61r_JD3KVIZli-DbwSqxI1JpZBHQMH1XnirtwUlma9XJmLuzWnzzVsx0p0n2or1pRCCIdm_5vU3g5ovkTQFhKRCvNS_Kt1NBxRMnRnPtv/s320/IMG_6219.JPG" /></span></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">Commissioned by the Junction, Cambridge</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><b><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">3 June - 27 June 2009</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style=";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A powerful theatrical experience inspired by the Russian submarine disaster of August 2000.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style=";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A submarine is on patrol in the arctic. The crew sleep, eat, drill, long for word from home, and silently shadow their target. Their lives, at once extraordinary and mun</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255); line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">dane, are shattered by a global crisis from which uniquely personal stories emerge.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style=";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />Cutting edge theatre company Sound&Fury (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Watery Part of the World</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">) join Bryony Lavery (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Frozen</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">) to imagine the life of submariners, deep below the icy seas on the fraying front line of the cold war.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style=";font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><a href="http://www.soundandfury.org.uk/">http://www.soundandfury.org.uk/</a></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255); font-family:Arial;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidhj3UYPr6m0TUPZ6E2Tld05xSjc8LIXgyHFUvq8DRazrhUDUsAxjKiHmaVoa9BpUaXJaj-_1o5Sk7QAB6dvfSTl3WOy_RWucZlFrWg3WOQzvbn-yC28Zm7Ol-mCwI8vZwkOHcc09ZNnyO/s320/IMG_6221.JPG" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style="mso-ansi-Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Lucida Grande";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We walk in upstairs on to a metal walkway galley, looking down into low-light submarine spaces on raised platforms - (easily recognisable from films) - the technology of the bridge, the glowing screens of the control room, the captain's office, the mess, the head with a shower room and bunks. We have the choice of staying up and looking down on the action, or going down to experience it inside the space: after exploring downstairs we make the happy choice to watch from above and so avoid any of the claustrophobia panics i was steeling myself for. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style="mso-ansi-Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Lucida Grande";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We get a clearly told mostly un</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">embellished telling of the sinking of the Kursk, Russia's state-of-the-art 21st c</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">entury submarine from the viewpoint of a spying british sub crew who photograph her moments before the explosion that quickly sinks her. The secrecy of their presence prevents the captain from making any rescue attempt that would potentially set off an international furore. Inside this are the routines of submarine seamanship and the human back-stories of the crewmen.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style="mso-ansi-Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Lucida Grande";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There is much right with this show and it is pretty successful in its aim to avoid sensationalising the story - for me it was still over-acted and would have easily sustained a more neutral restrained portrayal of the men. This is banality made super-engaging because of the atmospheric danger of the space and the inherent suspense building out of the narrative of the mission. In fact the star of this show is the submarine environment and at every level: visually it is an easy leap of faith to believe we are inside the submarine; kinaesthetically we traded down a bit exchanging cramped and crowded disorientation for the air, distance and comfort of our upstairs position, which gave me the enjoyment of immersion simultaneously with awareness of being in a theatre. But it is the sound we are here for and the sonic dimension is the one that magics the space beyond the literal. I would have liked even more amplification to charge this up into an even more felt experience even at the expense of the accuracy Sound&Fury were wanting, and i would have liked a more constant sound so that even the silences were filled with the noise of submarine existence. But beyond these niggles there are some wonderful experiences inside this show. The atmospheric sounds are utterly convincing (to someone who can only imagine what a submarine is like from films) as are the dynamic sounds like the search (periscope) that we're pretty sure are on a soundscape the actors have had to learn to perform on cue to. The women's voices of wives and girlfriends arriving through the familygrams are scored together as music that counterpoints with the pop music loudspeakered into their before they are forced into stealth mission silence. It is the sounds that create the imagined real sense of the dives, the crash into a stray ship container, and the spooky threat of the unidentifiable tapping noise. All good and makes for highly believable and engaging docu-drama. The moments of exceptional experience come when the sounds are given centre stage: in a nearly complete blackout we hear sounds of water in an echoing chamber, people struggling to breathe, russian men talking - the sounds of the Kursk crewmen dying puts us inside this moment with them, first the emotions catch and tumble, then the mind whirls and stumbles, the breathing starts to race and just as I am feeling the panic of a breaching collision of sensations the lights return and the moment is left as an imprint. We could easily and potently sustained some time here in our own heads, watching the men routinely carry out their duties in a mute overlay of all that's been stopped in the Kursk. But the story in our sub continues and we are forced to surface to attend to the more immediate specifics of one man's tragedy - and in this we are given the space to bring our own sense in to mix with what we are watching.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style="mso-ansi-Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Lucida Grande";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This is a good show for us, and ready to be an exceptional one if it can have more development (although the men of Sound&Fury seem busy busy with other projects) now that its first five years of making have solved the problems of sightlines, design, soundscape and narrative accuracy. Waiting to be found now is the fine-tuning in the balance between elements to transcend a damn good docu-drama into a heightened theatre experience. For me the next work would be to tune down the acting into greyer performances, which the show can easily support, and tune up the sonics to make a more visceral experience. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style="mso-ansi-Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Lucida Grande";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Unless, of course, this is what the audience downstairs in the main submarine spaces are getting already, and we lost by swapping the intensity of being inside the story with the men for easier and more removed watching from above and outside?</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi- mso-bidi-Lucida Grande";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sound & Fury is directed by </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Mark Espiner, Tom Espiner and Dan Jones</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. It draws on the disciplines of theatre, Foley artistry, sound design, music and storytelling. Its key artistic interest is in developing the sound space of theatre and presenting new ways of experiencing theatre and stories by heightening the aural sense. To achieve these aims, Sound & Fury has, in the past, boldly immersed its audience in total darkness. This unique theatrical device combined with sophisticated surround sound design, imaginative acoustic devices, voice and subtle lighting effects creates a powerful new language for theatre which has gained the attention and interest of the media, critics and - most importantly - a new audience. Their work has been twice selected for an Arts Council UK tour billed as the future of British theatre and has been included by the British Council in its group of touring companies. The Guardian has described their performance style as: “Total theatre that doesn't just happen all around you, but that swallows you up completely ... you feel as if you are experiencing the whole thing through your skin.”</span></span></span></span></span><span style="mso-ansi-Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Lucida Grande";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style="mso-ansi-Arial Unicode MS";mso-hansi-Lucida Grande";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:11.25pt;mso-line-height-alt:8.25pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style="font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">From </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS"; background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow;mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";color:#666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Times</span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:11.25pt;line-height:14.4pt;mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";color:#666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">June 1, 2009</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <h1 style="margin-right:11.25pt;mso-line-height-alt:14.4pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Theatrical realism in Kursk</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h1> <h2 style="margin-right:11.25pt;line-height:13.2pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><b><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-bidi-letter-spacing: -.7pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk has inspired a bold experiment in theatrical realism</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></h2> <div style="border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0cm 0cm 8.0pt 0cm"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:11.25pt;margin-bottom: 3.75pt;margin-left:0cm;mso-line-height-alt:8.25pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan; border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0cm; mso-padding-alt:0cm 0cm 8.0pt 0cm"><span style="font-family: Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language: EN-GBfont-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.75pt;margin-right:11.25pt;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-line-height-alt:8.25pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt; padding:0cm;mso-padding-alt:0cm 0cm 8.0pt 0cm"><span style=" mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS"; background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow;mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 153);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Jasper Rees</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";font-size:8.5pt;color:black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Theatre is capable of taking its audience more or less anywhere merely through word and action and the odd prop. Even for the most imagination-stretching of art forms, however, life on board a submarine might be deemed a bridge too far. It’s been memorably done on film — the one that submariners all swear by is </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Das Boot</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> rather than </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Hunt for Red October.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> But how can theatre fully convey the cabin fever, the mental bends, the chronic uncertainty of the submerged life at sea?</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Audiences for a new play at the Young Vic will be taking what is perhaps the first, and certainly the most realistic, theatrical dive to the ocean depths. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kursk</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> takes place in the Maria, the box-like studio space where, as closely as possible, the interior of a hunter-killer submarine has been replicated in pipes, platforms, wires and blinking lights. Authenticity will be conveyed above all in the disembodied roar and hiss, growls and grunts both made and heard by the gigantic listening device that is a sub.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The title of the play gives at least some of the story away. It tells of the horrific death in 2000 of 118 Russian seamen aboard a stricken nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea. The majority of them died soon after an on-board explosion, but 23 survived in an airtight part of the cabin for several days while President Putin refused to let Nato come to the rescue.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The argument of the play is that Nato was very much in a position to help. The Russian Navy was testing new weapons systems and showing them off to the Chinese. At least two US submarines are known to have been watching closely. The supposition of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kursk</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is that a British submarine is also in the neighbourhood, and it is the one that picks up the aural evidence of distress. But as its commander of this sub (on which the play is set) says: “We’re an attack vessel, not a f***ing lifeboat.”</span></span></span><span style="mso-ansi-mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kursk</span></span></span></i><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is a collaboration between the theatre company Sound & Fury, which specialises in surround-sound designs of cinematic scope, and the playwright Bryony Lavery. They were first teamed four years ago by a funding initiative that pairs young companies with established writers. Staging a submarine drama appealed to all. For Lavery the lure was “the claustrophobia of the space”. For Dan Jones, of Sound & Fury, it was putting on stage “the extraordinary mind game of submarining combined with the absurdity of the submariner’s domestic life: making tea alongside a nuclear reactor”.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For a while they toyed with setting the drama on the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kursk</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> itself. The most bizarre ideas for realising the human tragedy were tested and discarded: the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kursk</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> as a nightmare vision of Chekhovian stasis; the disaster as dramatised by clowns. “It became clear that normal life at sea is so extraordinary,” explains Mark Espiner, of Sound & Fury, “that we were going to miss a trick if we didn’t actually use that as a benchmark against which to set the disaster. There was the potential for voyeurism. Also, how are you ever actually going to get the idea of what the last 23 survivors of the Kursk were dealing with?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Had a wackier idea prevailed, it’s very unlikely that the production would have had such enthusiastic support from the Royal Navy. Among the play’s consultants is the chairman of the international submariners association, who happened to meet the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kursk’s</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> crew in St Petersburg not long before she sailed. A former Polaris commander who now runs the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport also advised, as did an ex-coxswain who was serving at the time of the disaster.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">One adviser even ended up in the cast. Ian Ashpitel is a submariner turned actor who to this day lists reading Morse code at 25 words a minute on his CV. As a radio operator on a submarine at the height of the Cold War, he is full of tales of every hue: from breaking through the ice to play cricket at the North Pole to sneaking into Murmansk harbour to spy on a new Soviet aircraft carrier from ten metres under its keel. It may seem a strange career leap, but not to Ashpitel. “You don’t see daylight for 12 weeks and start doing things like putting raincoats on and umbrellas up, pretending it’s a rainy day. ‘Morning, terrible weather.’ Silly stuff. Watching TV programmes that aren’t there.” So it was but a step into the rehearsal room.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As part of their preparation, a visit to </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">HMS Devonport</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> was laid on. Jones took along his microphone to capture authentic sounds, while the five actors had a go on a simulator that fakes the sensation of a 60 degree dive. They also went aboard a real sub to get a feel for the actual cramped space. “It was like the first time you go to New York,” Lavery says. “You’ve seen it on film. It’s strangely alike but completely different”. For Ashpitel it was an unwelcome trip down memory lane. “I hadn’t been down one for 28 years and after ten minutes I thought: ‘I’ve got to get out of here’.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The idea is to reproduce that oppressive intimacy. It’s a promenade production, so the audience will be able to wander under the conning tower and loiter outside the karzi. By coincidence, a full house will tally numerically with the hundred-plus seamen aboard a nuclear sub. Naturally there’s no interval. It will be a unique mark of the play’s success if by the end they are all desperate to get out.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kursk</span></span></span></i><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:Georgia;mso-fareast-Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> previews at the Young Vic, London SE1 (020-7922 7922), from Wed and opens on June 8</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:widow-orphan"><span style="mso-ansi-font-family:"Franklin Gothic Medium";mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-bidi-mso-ansi-language:EN-GBfont-family:Arial;font-size:12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-66970255893728098172009-06-17T15:06:00.004+01:002009-06-18T16:32:08.552+01:00Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. @ ICA<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlUlkW3-dQpiI7HIwnFBjDF4OlZ4OJLB8RSiNWcaBwiFiT-mlK9ZSvht5PvOXjuKnqHQANmIFEfN4FoOScwiq4NkB3s2yWR8NIKP6ti8JbQF4IHKbNR2km9TFrYbxVVU5v6LVT3j9yKat9/s1600-h/IMG_6213.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 275px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlUlkW3-dQpiI7HIwnFBjDF4OlZ4OJLB8RSiNWcaBwiFiT-mlK9ZSvht5PvOXjuKnqHQANmIFEfN4FoOScwiq4NkB3s2yWR8NIKP6ti8JbQF4IHKbNR2km9TFrYbxVVU5v6LVT3j9yKat9/s320/IMG_6213.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348688766461785858" /></a><br /><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ICA 17 Jun - 23 Aug 2009</span></span><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; white-space: pre; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://www.ica.org.uk/Poor%20Old%20Tired%20Horse+19863.twl">http://www.ica.org.uk/Poor%20Old%20Tired%20Horse+19863.twl</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); font-weight: bold;font-size:25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Exhibiting artists:</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Vi</span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">to Acconci</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Carl Andre</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Anna Barham</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Matthew Brannon</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Henri Chopin</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Ian Hamilton Finlay</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Alasdair Gray</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Philip Guston</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">David Hockney</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Karl Holmqvist</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Dom Sylvester Houédard</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Janice Kerbel</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Christopher Knowles</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Ferdinand Kriwet</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Liliane Lijn</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Robert Smithson</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Frances Stark and Sue Tompkins</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.</span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Poor. Old. Tired. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Horse. takes an expansive look at text-based art practices, inspired by the concrete poetry movement of the 60s which explored both the literary and graphic potential of language.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Scottish artist and writer Ian Hamilton Finlay was an important promoter of concrete poetry in Britain, and our exhibition takes its title from the periodical that he ran from 1962 to 1968. Other figures here linked with concrete poetry include Henri Chopin, Liliane Lijn, Dom Sylvester Houédard and Ferdinand Kriwet.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Poor. Old. Tired. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Horse. allows the viewer to look afresh at a range of other text-based practices that originated in the 60s and 70s. Rob</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ert Smithson and Carl Andre are best known for their contributions to minimalist sculpture, and Vito Acconci for his performance work, but here they are represented by poetic and expressive works on paper. The ex</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">hibition also includes poems illuminated by Philip Guston and Alasdair Gray, typewriter works by outsider artist Christopher Knowles and a set of etchings by David Hockney inspired by Greek poet CP Cavafy.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. concludes with the work of a number of younger artists. Sue Tompkins, Janice Kerbel and Anna Barham are all represented by text-based pieces, including a film by Barham in which letters are assembled and disassembled by hand. Other artists explore the combination of tex</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">t and image, including Matthew Brannon and Frances Stark, while Karl Holmqvist is represented by a wall of xeroxed po</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ems and images from his Oneloveworld book. galleries: free: Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. is curated by Mark Sladen, ICA director of exhibitions. It is accompanied by issue two of Roland, the magazine of the ICA's visual art programme.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. features a number of</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><strong><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><a href="http://www.ica.org.uk/20554.twl" style="outline-style: none;outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial;background-attachment:initial;-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial;background-color:initial;background-position-x: 0%;background-position-y:2px;background-repeat:no-repeat"><strong><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">special events</span></span></span></strong></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">including gallery talks and a night of experimental poetry. The</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.ica.org.uk/20334.twl" style="outline-style: none;outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial;background-attachment:initial;-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial;background-color:initial;background-position-x: 0%;background-position-y:2px;background-repeat:no-repeat"><strong><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">second issue of Roland magazine</span></span></span></strong></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">is also now available in the gallery and online with a guide to the exhibition, essays and more. On this website you can find als</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">o guide a guide to the</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.ica.org.uk/20558.twl" style="outline-style: none;outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial;background-attachment:initial;-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial;background-color:initial;background-position-x: 0%;background-position-y:2px;background-repeat:no-repeat"><strong><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">artists in P.O.T.H.</span></span></span></strong></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.ica.org.uk/20557.twl" style="outline-style: none;outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial;background-attachment:initial;-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial;background-color:initial;background-position-x: 0%;background-position-y:2px;background-repeat:no-repeat"><strong><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">a gallery of images</span></span></span></strong></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">from the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> exhibition and an annotated</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.ica.org.uk/20556.twl" style="outline-style: none;outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial;background-attachment:initial;-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial;background-color:initial;background-position-x: 0%;background-position-y:2px;background-repeat:no-repeat"><strong><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:#777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">guide to further resources and websites</span></span></span></strong></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10.0pt;"></span><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBwzdoFUqfMtj7nmAsFKiCNtQ7eCFpGH-KmXKC2iXh4IgIDJfAqrC2VNbB4AoTu473bocttOLqJiTKE91G-UlyWQ-GVLe9i14-cMs49VJEMTWyxR6Ema713ptguiLhHrVccg8kCh4DPKWE/s320/IMG_6214.JPG" /> <o:p></o:p></p></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Downstairs:</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Visceral. Immersive. Falling inside the words. Looking for words inside words. circular words. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">To know it is to cut it (or similar - need to check this on return visit)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The typewritten witness report of a shooting written in vertical jangled innocence until it messes itself in confession then returns to vertical re-attempt to make a steady story. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Upstairs:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Hockney's articulation of gay coupledom told through images. Posters being what they said - magnificent feats. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Performance poetry using voice to lay bare contemporary song lyrics - Grace Jones 'Capital Cannibal'. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Another typewritten text that made you feel your way inside to find its sense - literally going inside the story. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A picture made from a piece of Samuel Beckett writing about 'the soil of my father and my mother and my father's father and my mother's mother and my father's mother and my mother's father ...' </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br /></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-4930400962418049522009-06-02T00:16:00.004+01:002009-06-18T17:20:38.478+01:00jude law as 'hamlet' - donmar west end at wyndam's<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqe57dGXir7brPOo73WXrTiRpNvjLnQzAZLCqv0su5NYi-RvxlFmBvIqzxubv5m8IgVWZA_XnBxnWf9w2aA61MMONouHiAc2QuhSyVkUv27kmQNpPW9PrIloszuaeqpbzyQC7R9k8RpjS/s1600-h/IMG_6215.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqe57dGXir7brPOo73WXrTiRpNvjLnQzAZLCqv0su5NYi-RvxlFmBvIqzxubv5m8IgVWZA_XnBxnWf9w2aA61MMONouHiAc2QuhSyVkUv27kmQNpPW9PrIloszuaeqpbzyQC7R9k8RpjS/s320/IMG_6215.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348699167773754178" /></a><br /><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.25pt"><strong><span style=" ;font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Creative Team</span></span></span></strong><span class="apple-style-span"><span style=" ;font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.25pt"><span class="role"><b><span style=" ;font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Director:</span></span></span></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style=" ;font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></b></span><strong><span style=" ;font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Michael Grandage</span></span></span></strong><span style=" ;font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="role"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Designer:</span></span></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></b></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Christopher Oram</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="role"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Lighting Designer:</span></span></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></b></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Neil Austin</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="role"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Composer & Sound Designer:</span></span></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></b></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Adam Cork</span></span></strong></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hamlet: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Jud</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">e Law</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Polonius: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Ron Cook</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Claudius: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Kevin R. McNally</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Gertrude: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Penelope Wilton</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10.0pt;">v</span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ery still & clean & clear putting all emphasis on language </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">jude law's Hamlet works as a character easy to feel sympathy with as he processes through depression ~ denial ~ fury ~ impetuous tenderness with his mother ~ to cool well-bred alpha-mastery. He is always credible but never dangerous.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Fresh insight comes in the 'get thee to nunnery'' scene when it suddenly seems obvious that he is saying to Ophelia everything he has repressed saying to his mother, and this makes his avowed love for Ophelia at her graveside more believable than usual.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Ron Cook's Polonius is fine. Penelope Wilton's Gertrude manages to shine through her horrible business woman's woman's suit costume. Kevin R. McNally's Claudius too is crafted with sureness. Sadly the younger leads are all thin, and most ruinously thin vocally. Ophelia's mad scene was too pretty and much much too prettily sung (Tara Fitzgerald is still the only actor i have been convinced by in this scene). </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There is no ambiguity and no emotional force in this version and I drifted</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">out a number of times - not so much from boredom as through distraction: the fullest experience this show gave me came from Shakespeare's words, here are given a full invigoration so that the vitality of the words and the images they conjure combined with the wide openness of the</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> space </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">design and the held still energy and focus in the performances kept making a head full of rich imaginings that took me away from what was happening on stage.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And what emerges above all else is the apparent straight-forwardness of Hamlet - the character makes perfect sense and it is hard after watching this show to remember why or how countless essays have been written about his bewildering complexities. In this end this reduces the play to a series of stills and a more prosaic domestic drama than it should be. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">i will go back and watch again peter brook's 'hamlet' with adrian lester and try and figure out why the held energy in this startles and vibrates even out of the screen, whereas the apparently same kind of energy in this production arrives clear and fully formed and then evaporates almost without trace...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br /></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-53601965497826609162009-04-04T12:51:00.018+01:002009-05-27T14:11:49.266+01:00Inferno/Purgatorio/Paradiso - Romeo Castellucci<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre; font-family:'Lucida Grande';font-size:11px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Inferno/Purgatorio/Paradiso</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Romeo Castellucci<br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Societas Raffaello Sanzio</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><a href="http://www.raffaellosanzio.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);">http://www.raffaellosanzio.org/</span></span></span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);">Spill Festival 2009</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><a href="http://www.spillfestival.com/index.php?plid=4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);">http://www.spillfestival.com/index.php?plid=4</span></span></span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);">at Barbican Theatre</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: normal; font-family:Arial;"><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-family:Verdana;"><p color="transparent" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background- margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; background-position: initial initial; "></p><blockquote><p style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background- margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; background-position: initial initial; color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);">Presented as three separate events – Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, Romeo Castellucci has dismantled, exposed and transformed Dante’s epic text into a truly lived experience.<br />Using a profoundly visual style, Castellucci creates a deeply unsettling world forcing you into a hauntingly beautiful nightmare, engaging all your senses in an experience you are unlikely to forget. This is highly visceral theatre, full of provocative experiences not for the faint-hearted.</span></span></p><p style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background- margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; background-position: initial initial; color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><br />Inferno traditionally tells the epic tale of a struggle between heaven and hell, between God and the devil and between the living and the dead. Castellucci transports this story to the here and now, placing into question the future of humanity.</span></span></p><p style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background- margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; background-position: initial initial; color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><br />Depicting images of family life, Purgatorio is uncomfortably set in a fraught domestic space where the use of vivid imagination protects against a tormenting reality.<br />In an intimate installation, Paradiso creates the ultimate frame where small groups of viewers are sent on a journey to try and find paradise.</span></span></p><p style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background- margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; background-position: initial initial; color:transparent;"><span style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background- background-position: initial initial; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);">Credits:</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><br />Direction, set design, lighting and costumes by Romeo Castellucci<br />Original music by Scott Gibbons<br />Choreography by Cindy Van Acker and Romeo Castellucci<br /></span></span></p></blockquote><p style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; background-position: initial initial; "></p></span></span></blockquote></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: normal; font-family:Arial;"><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The work of </span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Romeo Castellucci</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> and Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio is considered by artists and audiences worldwide to be highly influential in contemporary performance. Having created a new non-narrative theatre, a visual language that directly challenges traditional forms, Castellucci’s visionary work is uncompromising and always surprising. Making impressive large-scale work that questions our entire human condition, </span><i><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">has a company of over 60.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"></span></span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio has previously been presented in London as part of LIFT; </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Tragedia Endogonidia </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">at Laban (2004), </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Genesi </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">at Sadler’s Wells (2001) and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Giulio Cesare </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">at Southbank Centre (1999), also at Battersea Arts Centre with</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Buchettino </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">(2001).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"></span></span></span></span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Having been performed as part of the Festival D’Avignon 2008, this is the UK premiere of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Inferno, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-family:Arial;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Purgatorio, Paradiso </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">(bite</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">09 </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">SPILL Festival of Performance) and one of the few opportunities to see the complete trilogy performed together.</span></span></span></span></i></span></span></blockquote></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Inferno</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Inferno" with each of these digits displayed back-to-front </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">gatewaying out to us: it is us who are in this hell. each united </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">letter is spluttering white light and soundscape of electrical </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">shorting and buzzing is loud and abrasive.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">throughout this piece the sound provides its centre moving </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">through dangerous electrical sounds and loud noises of </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">violence to choral sweetness.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">one by one each of the "Inferno" units are removed leaving </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">only the framing " " which remain for the duration at each </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">side of the stage.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Romeo Castellucci comes on stage, announces who he is </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and is dressed in protective soft armour as eight large </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">alsatian dogs are brought on and and chained across the </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">front of the stage. loud barking offstage and by the dogs </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">in front of us. one by one three dogs run on to the stage </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">an attack Romeo, holding on to him. we have to take the </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">image of aggression and animal attack while filtering out </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the happy tail wagging by the dogs.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a large black cube slowing arrives in the centre of the stage, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a huge black sail billowing above it. the black drapes are </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">pulled up to reveal a cubed crèche of toddlers happily encased </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and playing.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Andy Warhol walks slowly on with a polaroid, takes a picture of </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">us, turns to look at the children, turns back to us and slowly </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">falls in on himself.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The children are re-covered and removed, a shiny skull is left </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">behind which Andy Warhol takes and places beneath a huge </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">mirrored swinging wall, which lowers slowly on to break it like </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a nut.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A boy with a basketball, each bounce amplified to terrifying </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">sounds, a sense of something else behind him</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A great sea of people with their different coloured clothes </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">slowly pout across the stage, fall down and wash as one </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">mass backwards while differently aged individuals step </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">forward to hold the ball replacing the boy at the front. the </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">final older woman appears to greedily eat the ball </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">accompanied by sickening sounds of gluttonous eating.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And so it drifts through a series of images, always slowed </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and certain and seemingly endless: </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a series of loving tableaux replaced later by a series of </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">mimed throat slashings, the slow climb one by one on to </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the returned black cube, then the arms spread wide in </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">some sort of universal supplication only to fall backwards, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">again and again, backgrounded by a projected list of </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Andy Warhol's works with their dates, a back projection </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of the names of deceased members of Societas that </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">seemed sentimentally discordant with the rest of the piece, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a grand piano is set alight and we watch it burn</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a white horse the arrives as the sea of people are rewound </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">slowly back from whence they came to then be poured </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">over with vivid red blood.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and then the return of Andy Warhol to take another </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">polaroid of us and then to disappear into the wreck of </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a smashed car.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">somehow while it is all interesting enough the </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">accumulative effect is of a scenographic hypermarket </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">with the chance to view what's hot in this season's range </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">- a bit too look at me look at me. but a treat for all </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">that to get theatre this different from our more </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">usual literary plays...</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Purgatorio</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Paradiso</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">after a long queue we are let in to the space to see a huge </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">dazzlingly white cube structure, a small entrance in one </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">corner into another smaller white light cubed space, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">around black hole entrance into darkness. inside this final </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">space is first the sound of falling water and as eyes adjust </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">we can see we are in a larger black space with a waterfall </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">cascading down the back wall. there are other sounds too </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and looking up we see the naked upper torso of a man at </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the top of the waterfall apparently struggling - to free </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">himself? to communicate? - evidently unhappy and caught </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">in this perpetuity, and yet dangerously precarious suspended </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">above this black waterfall: misery in his stuckedness but were </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">he to get himself free the drop would destroy him. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">this is an apparently small piece but absolutely perfectly formed </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">- the fusion of image and sound burn a permanent imprint so </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">that - unusually for me - i can still easily re-summon up the </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">remembered pictures days afterwards. this is a vision of life </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ever after that is oppressive in its small stuck foreverness, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">somehow all the more plausible for its absence of fire and </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">brimstone or colour and movement. a superbly realised perhaps </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">even heightened by our having to make a special trip to the </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">barbican and queue for some time for this 5minute moment.</span></span></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-48799174654846531912009-03-22T22:24:00.006+00:002009-03-22T23:03:28.694+00:00*** Kinkan Shonen + Toki (Sankai Juku)<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisKtIbjJm7N6uOWFRTaTb6yBOC3uQbzfg0f5K7Hh4mvSJal55plFn8V9fX0gav1Nfc6TNvQYkxntCFYota3yEFFX7TE8516mP92udL1reGvK4_iIaGnWqpR1vK4HMKQSgynUBAsCUmaiM-/s1600-h/IMG_5760.JPG"><img style="WIDTH: 320px; HEIGHT: 309px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316148663488781170" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisKtIbjJm7N6uOWFRTaTb6yBOC3uQbzfg0f5K7Hh4mvSJal55plFn8V9fX0gav1Nfc6TNvQYkxntCFYota3yEFFX7TE8516mP92udL1reGvK4_iIaGnWqpR1vK4HMKQSgynUBAsCUmaiM-/s320/IMG_5760.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"><strong>19 November 2008</strong></span> <div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Kinkan Shonen (Kumquat Seed)</strong></span></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg22RkoaG0hbdjuKYYsX-kZxkFQe9_gJ7OqLoy9ziV9JWq6B6L0ijf_vG_BunJP5DH5Dh0Gj9AeOQ0r1K-B1JSoCo2Lvz2yu7Hg4ZfBTmMWK78ho2vPbTLITC2js8rLM11gYfYfFILOfYxx/s1600-h/IMG_5764.JPG"><img style="WIDTH: 320px; HEIGHT: 166px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316148661106139378" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg22RkoaG0hbdjuKYYsX-kZxkFQe9_gJ7OqLoy9ziV9JWq6B6L0ijf_vG_BunJP5DH5Dh0Gj9AeOQ0r1K-B1JSoCo2Lvz2yu7Hg4ZfBTmMWK78ho2vPbTLITC2js8rLM11gYfYfFILOfYxx/s320/IMG_5764.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"><strong>23 November 2008</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Toki (Time)</strong></span></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgotQ7EfCsPn3T22yuISw1AGn1tD6THoGP6pAyF5BiRKd1yjIBE4tQ4MhyphenhyphenWCVt-Ymh7vpb9Xm8BgkMXQ7aujo8OSpc_04dZ9M59G5-lgqd9JHVnocaMu0xlGLFVTxkFbVX0PPllF0q5rwrU/s1600-h/IMG_5765.JPG"><img style="WIDTH: 320px; HEIGHT: 165px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316148651180853666" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgotQ7EfCsPn3T22yuISw1AGn1tD6THoGP6pAyF5BiRKd1yjIBE4tQ4MhyphenhyphenWCVt-Ymh7vpb9Xm8BgkMXQ7aujo8OSpc_04dZ9M59G5-lgqd9JHVnocaMu0xlGLFVTxkFbVX0PPllF0q5rwrU/s320/IMG_5765.JPG" /></a><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Sankai Juku</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Direction, Choreography and Design ~~~~~~~~~~ <span style="font-size:130%;">Ushio Amagatsu</span></strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"><strong></strong></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Dancers</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Ushio Amagatsu (toki)</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Semimaru (toki)</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Sho Takeuchi</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Akhito Ichihara</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Taiyo Tochiaki</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Ichiro Haseqawa</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Dai Matsuoka</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Nobuyoshi Asai</strong></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"><strong></strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"><strong>Sadlers Wells</strong></span></div><div><a href="http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Sankai-Juku">http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Sankai-Juku</a></div><div> </div><div></div><div>A soldier - he comes towards us - salutes - eats sand - grins eats sand again - grins again - eats sand<br /><br />Four men in long skirts and masks of artful disfigurement dance together - their hands are huge and sometimes claws - then they are entwined together almost loving - then they are a gyrating diagonal line - now they are still gyrating bare bottoms in our faces - sexy rude funny subversive<br /><br />A man and a peacock locked together face to beak come towards us - slow - they are one entity - then they are two separates dancing together - then they are man and ornamental bird the cock perched on his back - then they are apart: the dancer sinuously moving the bird still and watching - he will stay present for the rest of the show<br /><br />Then another three dancers arrive so we are given a couple a single man and a man and a peacock - near naked the couple show us fighters wrestlers determined and cruel then increasingly tender until they are lovers - the single two men find each other and become a couple - counterpointing fighting with the other couple's loving and vice versa<br /><br />A dancer comes on squashed into a small box version of himself - his face widely pleased and comic<br /><br />A near-naked man hangs upside down slowly turning from a golden kite triangle of against vivid blue….<br /><br />intoxicating<br />mesmerising<br />transcendental<br />breathtaking<br />moving ….</div><div> </div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibCXY65XdlBPbqvg3hW29FETi1OqTXOhhcb9VCVNd721H_V7uazRFubxuucPaY6cMaz3g6FjjO26THKg62a5r8rfEeyHv87xE7uv3KFvXxEPcLAKxAPX8DrMzRZilFoUfVnw69-vD1B82Q/s1600-h/IMG_5774.JPG"><img style="WIDTH: 320px; HEIGHT: 161px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316148672180771490" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibCXY65XdlBPbqvg3hW29FETi1OqTXOhhcb9VCVNd721H_V7uazRFubxuucPaY6cMaz3g6FjjO26THKg62a5r8rfEeyHv87xE7uv3KFvXxEPcLAKxAPX8DrMzRZilFoUfVnw69-vD1B82Q/s320/IMG_5774.JPG" /></a></div><div> </div><div><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/SankaiJuku?authkey=Gv1sRgCKaouu-v1MK8-gE#">http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/SankaiJuku?authkey=Gv1sRgCKaouu-v1MK8-gE#</a>#<br /><br /><br /></div><div></div><div><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div></div><div><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div></div></div></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-9349641555581606422009-03-21T09:18:00.003+00:002009-03-22T23:16:43.613+00:00Faure' Requiem (Bradenburg Sinfonia & Whitehall Choir)<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWgcPCys-R3y44jUX6a2iSouMtBbV9Ku21ifKXqP6rDqhSkkHEuJWa6jBwpnaURMwa724qqxH4J9RxdHqCtjpsyx0deN5ovXWG0KukW_e_Jjjm5KbuVicUiLCs41RTJqcLCm1PWrSWxKFl/s1600-h/IMG_5738.JPG"><img style="WIDTH: 240px; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316154591968803426" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWgcPCys-R3y44jUX6a2iSouMtBbV9Ku21ifKXqP6rDqhSkkHEuJWa6jBwpnaURMwa724qqxH4J9RxdHqCtjpsyx0deN5ovXWG0KukW_e_Jjjm5KbuVicUiLCs41RTJqcLCm1PWrSWxKFl/s320/IMG_5738.JPG" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5n4jwINzaxjLUC2FLAf66Fds_akR293wX30hZ7FsFYjfme7ISM9HK-E6Eb5l8h3C90PeYG_x8gSiBwAbBFsEm5BlEzQLQ5QVZvRDBETUzLZ-L8DflGjVJdLDF6nWEITyyX8zeNRF9eA6f/s1600-h/IMG_5739.JPG"><img style="WIDTH: 240px; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316154601226584578" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5n4jwINzaxjLUC2FLAf66Fds_akR293wX30hZ7FsFYjfme7ISM9HK-E6Eb5l8h3C90PeYG_x8gSiBwAbBFsEm5BlEzQLQ5QVZvRDBETUzLZ-L8DflGjVJdLDF6nWEITyyX8zeNRF9eA6f/s320/IMG_5739.JPG" /></a><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#990000;"></span></strong></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#990000;">Faure' Requiem at St Martin the Fields</span></strong></div><br /><div></div><div>wonderful treat in the newly refurbished st martin in the fields with its fabulous new window</div><div></div><br /><div>as well as the requiem, the two other highlights were the Cantique de Jean Racine (Faure') and the Air (Andante religioso) from the Holberg Suite (Greig)</div></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-76333006929716403082009-03-17T00:04:00.006+00:002009-03-22T22:17:59.472+00:00'madame de sade'<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkpDykMcwqtqp5488D7FpDuBX2iMuWM9hdV6pFn-h-SFBY_d_WzsXPfoNQsYltNBhhF4BluzXJE_EilJYWUPcMFcF2ygfmKZX2N2cqcm-HPdIJycZRkUZviiCtC9BSsG7k3gdxsRdLB00Y/s1600-h/IMG_5731.JPG"><img style="WIDTH: 320px; HEIGHT: 241px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316138603068353266" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkpDykMcwqtqp5488D7FpDuBX2iMuWM9hdV6pFn-h-SFBY_d_WzsXPfoNQsYltNBhhF4BluzXJE_EilJYWUPcMFcF2ygfmKZX2N2cqcm-HPdIJycZRkUZviiCtC9BSsG7k3gdxsRdLB00Y/s320/IMG_5731.JPG" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl7asFCNRYf0ERdt2gsrQLRr_nGPmZG672oaYKftziWSW6ccGBCxk1go-tK_Wyei32ZdvfaF4xeZKh2RKtVv8zrI7q3hkwQQ8Mdz29ARrMSUHw-Mxbikh7YdRMnFx27HAgsx83rp2yQSTZ/s1600-h/IMG_5727.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 204px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316131826426628514" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl7asFCNRYf0ERdt2gsrQLRr_nGPmZG672oaYKftziWSW6ccGBCxk1go-tK_Wyei32ZdvfaF4xeZKh2RKtVv8zrI7q3hkwQQ8Mdz29ARrMSUHw-Mxbikh7YdRMnFx27HAgsx83rp2yQSTZ/s320/IMG_5727.JPG" /></a><br /><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Comtesse de Saint-Fond ~~~~~~~ Frances Barber</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Baronesse de Simaine ~~~~~~~~~ Deborah Findlay</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Charlotte ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jenny Galloway</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Madame de Montreuil ~~~~~~~~~ Judi Dench</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Anne ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fiona Button</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Renee, Madame de Sade ~~~~~~~ Rosamund Pike</span></strong></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"></span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Director ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Michale Grandage</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Designer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Christopher Oram</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Lighting Designer ~~~~~~~~~~~ Neil Austin</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Composer & Sound Designer ~~~~ Adam Cork</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Video Art & Projection Designer ~ Lorna Heavy</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"></span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"></span></strong> </div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Act I</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">1772 The salon in Madame de Montreuil's house. Autumn.</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Act 2</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">1778 The same. September.</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Act 3</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">1790 The same. April, nine months sonce the outbreak of the French Revolution.</span></strong><br /></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>A difficult play - intellectual in its preponderance of words, ideas, argument - and wonderful for this, and for bringing us something non-naturalistic and this good in the west end. Annoying that a lot of the critics seem incapable of reviewing the actual piece rather than trotting out their different lists of what theatre should be as if a) their tastes are that authoritative and b) that theatre should be just one thing. (e.g. Susannah Clapp’s requirement for ‘fast pace’, and ‘women to be like women’ whatever that might mean.)<br /><br />So this is an expressionist piece much closer to Brechtian theatre than the usual naturalistic fare. Played against an opulent gold-walled salon that shines and reflects wealth and purposelessness<br />Lighting, colours (browns to greens to icy metallic blues) and projections are used expressionistically. Played out between six articulate certain women who all arrive in impossibly ornate and heavy architectural concoctions to position themselves to present their views of the matter and who all easily breach the confines of their character types.<br /><br />The women arrive and place themselves and are mostly still - Frances Barber's character getting the only real action from her whip play. All are strong and full in their characters, and listening to them reason and debate their different certainties from such fine actors who all bring such total presence makes the show compelling. And the substance of the piece is made stark and unremitting by the absolute absence of editorial comment - there are no easy indulgences of knowing who or what is right or wrong here: hear the arguments and make up your own mind. Listening to what is said in the onslaught of words is as problematic as the Marquis de Sade himself - overly ornamental sex & violations or philosophical testings on the nature of devotion? The inevitable decay of an aristocracy redolent with its own pointlessness or a new libertarian emancipation? Salacious gossip-mongering or high-minded argument?<br /><br />This is a show of dense & relentless words counterbalanced by performances of crystal clarity and vibrating stillness masquerading as a richly made flummery of period opulence.<br /><br />Mishima apparently wanted to make something that showed 'fire through ice', and to a greater extent this is what we get: the burning passions and pulsations of craving control are in every case perfectly glazed in icy stillness and religiously constructed manners.<br /><br />And difficult in a personal sense perhaps in its investigation of a woman under the ruinous spell of a potently toxic man, not unlike a woman I know. And actually in this case (too?) it turns out not to be him she is so fettered to, but her own construction of him as a symbol of holiness which his actual presence could only shatter ...<br /></div><br /><div>cf. Chrstopher Harts's Sunday Times review </div><div><a href="http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article5934217.ece">http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article5934217.ece</a><br /></div><br /><div></div><div><a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/MadameDeSade?authkey=Gv1sRgCKr55vPEm6WJqgE">http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/MadameDeSade?authkey=Gv1sRgCKr55vPEm6WJqgE#</a><br /></div><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><div></div></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-24999731431387022162009-03-12T01:02:00.006+00:002009-03-12T03:07:13.501+00:00'fall of the peacock throne' (wildbird)<span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#6600cc;"><strong>Wildbird</strong> presents<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Fall of the Peacock Throne</strong></span><br />by <strong>Chris Lee</strong><br />Southwark Playhouse<br /></span></span><a href="http://www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/whatson_detail.php?record_number=114"><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#6600cc;">http://www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/whatson_detail.php?record_number=114</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#6600cc;"><br />March 5th 2009 - March 28th 2009<br />Show starts: 7.30pm<br />Running time: 100mins<br /><br /><br /><strong>Directed by - Chris Lee</strong><br /><strong>Multimedia - Graeme Roger</strong><br /><strong>Sound Design - Dave Martin</strong><br /><strong>Lighting Design - Ali Ross </strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Creative Team</strong><br />Directed by - </span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#6600cc;"><strong>Chris Lee<br /></strong>Multimedia - </span></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#6600cc;"><strong>Graeme Roger<br /></strong>Sound Design - <strong>Dave Martin</strong><br />Lighting Design - <strong>Ali Ross</strong><br /></span></span><a href="http://www.wildbird.org.uk/"><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#6600cc;">http://www.wildbird.org.uk/</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#6600cc;"><br /><br />Innovative new Highland theatre company, Wildbird, presents the world premiere of Fall of the Peacock Throne.<br />Raymond Chandler meets Greek tragedy in this political thriller charting the story of the 1953 Iranian coup alongside that of Alexander’s invasion of Persia in 333BC.<br />Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic revolution the play depicts the moment when fledging Iranian democracy was strangled at birth in favour of British oil interests and US cold war strategy. This is one of the biggest skeletons in the western closet and the root cause of the so-called ‘war on terror’, a defining event that lies at the heart of western fear of the Islamic world.<br />Intimate in its design and execution, but epic in reach, Fall of the Peacock Throne tackles issues of conscience, empire, freedom, and power. This is a story everyone should know, whose timeless echoes thunder in our ears, demanding to be heard.<br />Wildbird are a new contemporary performance and multi arts company from Moray in the north east of Scotland. The artistic team was originally brought together to work on National Theatre of Scotland’s Crucible and Macbeth projects and formed Wildbird in 2006. Wildbird set out to make work that is epic, political and truly theatrical, tackling difficult and important subjects. Fall of the Peacock Throne is their second full length theatre production.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">We walk into a hazy disorientating space cut through with laser beams. A projection says Tehran 1953 and when this simple sign is multiplied around the walls and the great vaulted brick ceiling we feel like we are not just getting information but inhabiting Tehran 1953. After this the film & lighting effects are more cosmetic diversions than integrated into the performance.<br /><br />Athena arrives as the chorus - supplying narration, commentary and with us witness to the dual stories of opposing powers - FBI man Kermit Roosevelt vs. Mossadeq and Alexander vs. Darius in a much earlier coup. Athena is given power to apparently manipulate too - both by incitement to violent domination and in her apparent arrangements of battles. A pity then that the only female character has to be such a stereotypical sex symbol.<br /><br />The play is mostly words and there are a lot of them. It seems amateur in the old fashioned sense of people doing it because they cared altho unfortunately the acting has too much of an amateurish quality and needed a much stronger performance style - more in the Brechtian mould and less or much better focused naturalism. But you sense great integrity in the writing- we trusted the material and the ethics that come with it. And it is most certainly a story that wants telling.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Playing it traverse does not harm it at all, but it didn’t add anything either: the adversarial tension of the two opposing forces wasn't revealed any more sharply in this stand-off spatial arrangement in the ways it was used so effectively in scotland thing and russian one.<br />The show remains Earthbound by perhaps too much stuff and too many words and probably too little distance by its writer to fully make the performance soar. But the material is good enough to easily imagine another director or company with greater objective distance giving it fuller flight.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong>Post Show Talk with Chris Lee<br /></strong>Script a combination of real stuff and stuff I've written<br />Also cf. 'Counter Coup' by Kermit Roosevelt<br /><br />This coup was the first prototype american coup -there have been 36 since then<br /><br />Iran was riddled with MI6 at this time, the British had only recently been kicked out<br /><br />One of the things I wanted to explore living is Aberdeenshire where most families are employed by BP The most important thing I wanted you to get was that Mossadeq stayed true to his principles<br /><br />For the last decade most plays seem to be about two people or stage talking about their feelings but I don’t get out to theatre much<br /><br />I wanted to look at the idea of power - power as a moral force. But also about leadership. But also it’s about empire as well. And also to address the issue that our politicians stand up and say one thing but do another and lie about it.<br /><br />Meant to make it feel like a film noi with Athena as femme fatale<br />The battle scene film from Cecil B de Mille's ‘Ten Commandments’<br /><br />Inspiration was wanting to say something about the Iraq war. And I’ve known Ali since I was born and l wanted to honour that. Wrote the first bits in 2000. and its the 3Oth anniversary of the revolution this year. If you didn't know this story you could be fooled into fighting a war thinking it was ‘a just war’.<br /><br />For these things to be done and then swept under the carpet isn't right so we need to tell stories about it.<br /><br />Churchill’s memo to Eisenhower: ‘After we've got rid of Mossadeq I won't touch your oil in Saudi Arabia if you don't touch mine in Iraq’.<br />Mossadeq’s last speech 'They will say about me...’ are all things they did say about him in the commons.</span>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-27406020153932616982009-01-03T12:56:00.003+00:002009-01-03T13:17:51.046+00:00'La Ronde' (The Marjanishvili State Drama Theatre of Tbilisi)<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#009900;"><strong>'La Ronde'</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#009900;">by Arthur Schnitzler</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#009900;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Directed by Levan Tsuladze</span></strong> </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#009900;">In Georgian with a live English translation</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#009900;"><strong>The Marjanishvili State Drama Theatre of Tbilisi</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#009900;">at Arcola</span><br /><a href="http://www.arcolatheatre.com/?action=showtemplate&sid=327"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#009900;">http://www.arcolatheatre.com/?action=showtemplate&sid=327</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#009900;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#009900;">Tsuladze last charmed London audiences with his production of Faust as part of the Gate Theatre’s East Meets West Festival in 2002. Here he makes a bold interpretation of Schniztler's classic, employing his particular brand of satirical humour and warmth to convey the absurd tragedy of an indulgence in loveless sexuality.<br />This production is the latest in a series of Georgian Theatrical pieces that have had enormous impact on British audiences. The Georgian tradition is renowned for its inventiveness and romanticism. In a reaction perhaps to the tumultuous history of Georgia from its recent confrontation with Russia to the civil war of the 90s, Soviet oppression and two hundred years of sitting at an important international crossroads, Georgians really do know how to find humour in our crazy capacity to needlessly and repeatedly inflict pain upon ourselves. Rarely bleak, this production exudes warmth and a profound sense of humanity and will amuse and delight in equal measure. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#009900;"><span></span></span><br /><span>this was such a treat of pure joyous exquisitely crafted theatre by this expert Georgian company. the levels were too low to hear a lot of the the simultaneous translation being overdubbed in microphones by two voice actors sitting to one side and having their own little interplay, but the physical performances were so clear that it was easy to read what what happening in the dance from loveless coupling to the next. the period costumes looked especially lush and expensive in the knocked back (and knocked up) set which of black panels which would slide on a rail to reveal the bare and perfect essentials of a new scene, superbly illuminated: the rain for the prostitute and the soldier to play in, the set of doorways to view the parade of strolling people, the bath for the young gentleman and the maid, the enormous brass bed for the young gentleman and the wife, the chaise longue for the wife and the husband (with the soldier at their window), the artist's studio for the writer and the young miss, the dressing room for the actress and the count. and a motif of butterflies seen only by those in moments of feeling free and happy: the prostitute and the count in a great flock of them at the end.</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>my only gripe was the space - our first visit to Arcola and it's quite a schlep (home at 1am) and for this setting the sight lines were appalling so a lot of us sitting in the middle missed whole characters obscured by the central iron beam, and nothing was visible at ground level (and as this was a show about people having sex there was quite a lot of that!)</span>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-78303073508739825062009-01-01T15:14:00.012+00:002009-01-01T17:58:03.932+00:00'August: Osage County' by Tracy Letts<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">August:</span> <span style="color:#ffcc00;">Osage County</span></span></strong><br /><strong>National Theatre presents Steppenwolf’s production<br /><a href="http://www.steppenwolf.org/">http://www.steppenwolf.org/</a></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong>by Tracy Letts</strong><br />Broadway's biggest hit comes to London for 8 weeks only. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">-->Cast credits:</span></strong><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">Little Charles : </span></span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41560/company-members/ian-barford.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"><span style="color:#ffcc00;">Ian <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Barford</span></span> </span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Steve <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Heidebrecht</span> : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41567/company-members/gary-cole.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;">Gary Cole</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Violet Weston : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41572/company-members/deanna-dunagan.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;">Deanna <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Dunagan</span></span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Johnna <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Monevata</span> : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41578/company-members/kimberly-guerrero.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;">Kimberly Guerrero</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Karen Weston : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41501/company-members/mariann-mayberry.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;">Mariann <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">Mayberry</span></span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Barbara <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">Fordham</span> : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41584/company-members/amy-morton.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;">Amy Morton</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Ivy Weston : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41595/company-members/sally-murphy.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;">Sally Murphy</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Charlie Aiken : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41590/company-members/paul-vincent-oconnor.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;">Paul Vincent O'Connor</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Bill <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">Fordham</span> : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41586/company-members/jeff-perry.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;">Jeff Perry</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Jean <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">Fordham</span> : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41588/company-members/molly-ranson.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;">Molly <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">Ranson</span></span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Mattie Fay Aiken : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41597/company-members/rondi-reed.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">Rondi</span> Reed</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Beverly Weston : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/42451/company-members/chelcie-ross.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">Chelcie</span> Ross</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;">Sheriff Deon <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_11" class="blsp-spelling-error">Gilbeau</span> : </span><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/41592/company-members/troy-west.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ffcc00;">Troy West</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>Production credits:<br /></strong>Director: <span style="color:#ffcc00;">Anna D Shapiro<br /></span>Set Designer: <span style="color:#ffcc00;">Todd <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" class="blsp-spelling-error">Rosenthal</span></span><br />Costume Designer: <span style="color:#ffcc00;">Ana <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_13" class="blsp-spelling-error">Kuzmanic</span></span><br />Lighting Designer:<span style="color:#ffcc00;"> Ann G <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_14" class="blsp-spelling-error">Wrightson</span><br /></span>Music: <span style="color:#ffcc00;">David Singer</span><br />Fights: <span style="color:#ffcc00;">Chuck <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_15" class="blsp-spelling-error">Coyl</span></span><br />Sound Designer: </span><span style="color:#ffcc00;">Richard <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_16" class="blsp-spelling-error">Woodbury</span><br /></span><strong>at <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_17" class="blsp-spelling-error">Lyttleton</span>, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_18" class="blsp-spelling-error">RNT</span></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites in Oklahoma, after their father disappears, their home explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. This new play unflinchingly – and uproariously – exposes the dark side of the Midwestern American family.<br />The internationally renowned <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_19" class="blsp-spelling-error">Steppenwolf</span> Company, last seen at the National Theatre with The Grapes of Wrath, returns to London with this Broadway smash-hit production, winner of the 2008 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize for Best Play.</span><br /></span><br />this is is a difficult show and a difficult show for me to chronicle my experience of: there is much to admire and it is completely engaging from start to finish, and yet i hung back through most of it, held firmly in place as a witness rather than being drawn in to the action or stirred emotionally at all by these people and their crashing stories. It is like watching a world - a microcosm of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_20" class="blsp-spelling-error">america</span> we suppose - collapse in on itself. and finding it has no substance at its centre to either smash itself against or rekindle itself from, we <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_21" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">watch</span> it simply disappear into its own vacuum with less and less debris left behind to show what was once there.<br />one by one we watch each of the family members bring their own self-consumed versions of unhappy self-righteousness rage into the this claustrophobic house to thrash and wail about. None of them are entirely unlikeable, all are recognisable to us from our television and film stories and the constant ghosts of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_22" class="blsp-spelling-error">williams</span>, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_23" class="blsp-spelling-error">albee</span>, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_24" class="blsp-spelling-error">o'neil</span>. Their stories, as in most families, are inescapably woven together in an increasingly mucky soup of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_25" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">interdependencies</span> and stored up wrongs. And in this play it is the women who are shown to be the matter: Violet the drug addled <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_26" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">matriarch</span>, brewing her spells of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_27" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">vicious</span> poisons around the rest of the family; her sister, Mattie Fay, stewing her own guilty secret into an unreasonably but determined rage at her bumbling son; Barbara, number one daughter, hissing her fury and hurt at not being able to keep intact the better family life she had thought to have determined for herself; Ivy, number two daughter, screeching and stamping and screening her independence into the most unholy of alliances with Little Charles; Karen, number three daughter, festooning her west coast foolishness as ludicrously brittle and transparent <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_28" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">drapery</span> to her repetitive <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_29" class="blsp-spelling-error">victimhood</span>; and Barbara's daughter, Jean, stoned and precociously <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_30" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">unaffected</span>, even by her own near rape. even Johnna, hired to be of service to family by the checking-out <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_31" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">patriarch</span>, while fulfilling her function with charm and efficiency, is unable to raise her own needs as a person above her need for a job.<br /><br />so far so not so good but in a good way.<br /><br />and the world we are shown is one where there are no longer any moral consequences - whatever people do, whatever rules, codes, behavioural ethics are trashed and transgressed, the only consequences that register are the immediately personal. so, Violet's drug-taking is only 'wrong' in the consequential effects this has on her behaviour (it's a joke she is able to blackmail <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_32" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">doctors</span> into writing her prescriptions); Ivy's incest is only 'wrong' when it has to be faced up to in conversation; 14 year old Jean's dope smoking goes uncensored; Bill's adultery is only measured in terms of the hurt it makes to Barbara and Jean; Steve's sexual <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_33" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">harassment</span> of Jean is allowed to go unchecked by police or any other possibility of retribution. this is a world where behaviour exists beyond or outside any moral coding, held up for notice or judgement only when and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_34" class="blsp-spelling-error">in terms</span> of its infringement on what other people want or are stopped from having.<br /><br />still so far so good - both as portrayal of the domestic secular story in our post-modern western world, as much as a <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_35" class="blsp-spelling-error">dystopic</span> state of the nation view of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_36" class="blsp-spelling-error">america</span>.<br /><br />but in this dissolute decaying fizzing <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_37" class="blsp-spelling-error">petri</span> dish of a species gone beyond its purpose or <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_38" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">possibilities</span>, the women are treated to the basest of cheap jokes and stereotypes. in a household of highly-read highly-educated people, we get the ghastly old horrors of 'you look like a lesbian', a medley of vagina-word <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_39" class="blsp-spelling-error">sniggers</span> (from the daughters); and barely more than a brief interruption in proceedings in response to Jean's molestation by the seedy Steve. and this is wrong in a very bad way. because i think for this show to matter beyond the moment of its happening in the theatre, we need to accept that these women are their own constructions made of and from themselves. just as we need to see their world as the mutually dependent <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_40" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">dysfunctional</span> system they have created for themselves (cf. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_41" class="blsp-spelling-error">albee's</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_42" class="blsp-spelling-error">george</span> and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_43" class="blsp-spelling-error">martha</span>; cf. dysfunctional relationships we have known and watched ...), so too do we need to believe these women are self-made and self-perpetuated. and i do not: they are men in women's clothing. i think both watching it and now thinking back on it, i cannot accept these women as anything other than a man's creation, his pieces in an elaborate domestic computer game, where all the characters are inevitably variations of the creator.<br /><br />and this is <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_44" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">misogynism</span> in a most destructively veiled way.<br /><br />above and beyond this, the best of the show is the staging together with the acting which is fierce and forced through with an absolute intensity of single mindedness, so that all the characters arrive onstage fully fleshed. they then disappear from our view without carrying with them a hint of future story to wonder about: again like a computer game, they are all only manifest while they are deployed as competitors in action before us.<br /><br /><em>'this is the way the world ends</em><br /><em>this is the way the world ends</em><br /><em>this is the way the world ends</em><br /><em>not with a bang but a whimper'</em> (T.S. Eliot, <em>The Wasteland</em>)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~/42706/programme-extracts/programme-extract-for-emaugust-osage-countyem.html">Read an extract from the programme</a>. <a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/42706/programme-extracts/programme-extract-for-emaugust-osage-countyem.html">http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/42706/programme-extracts/programme-extract-for-emaugust-osage-countyem.html</a><br /><br />Read in the Guardian how <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/nov/11/theatre-tracy-letts-august-osage-county-weinstein-company-broadway">August: Osage County will be made into a film</a> by the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_45" class="blsp-spelling-error">Weinstein</span> brothers. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/nov/11/theatre-tracy-letts-august-osage-county-weinstein-company-broadway">http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/nov/11/theatre-tracy-letts-august-osage-county-weinstein-company-broadway</a><br />Read <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/t/~http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/11/13/btaugust113.xml">Tracy <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_46" class="blsp-spelling-error">Lett's</span> interview in the Telegraph</a> where he talks about his experience with August: Osage County. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/3563234/August-Osage-County%2C-the-first-great-American-play-of-the-century.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/3563234/August-Osage-County%2C-the-first-great-American-play-of-the-century.html</a>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-83248336021581903272008-12-08T23:49:00.004+00:002009-01-01T17:21:36.722+00:00Twelfth Night ~ Donmar West EndTwelfth Night<br /><br /><a href="http://www.donmarwarehouse.com/pl84.html">http://www.donmarwarehouse.com/pl84.html</a><br /><br />nicely lit in summer at the seaside<br /><br />as is often the case, the unholy mess of Toby, Mary, Aguecheek, Feste and Malvolio were the highlights<br /><br />not sure why this production was made - nice and good and perfectly formed and pretty and clear and easy - a sort of posh panto for the season perhapsmark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-31956911134874549292008-12-01T15:42:00.018+00:002008-12-02T01:20:18.023+00:00***Audio Forensics @ I M T + Electra<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7sfiuhU-CMHJuDe0zkP61O6uMd2Z3JXnOp7W9KRIiFPE2-uzjm31xoZ7TG8ON8tKtJklQJhlkZpOi8oE0iwDeOdSgGH3Y3GAxjqmV3BIPoCHav9g8ZSfAwoIhUl5Rpp5QlugTWk5M8jRR/s1600-h/poster+-+mark+shorey.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274996176545460898" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 229px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7sfiuhU-CMHJuDe0zkP61O6uMd2Z3JXnOp7W9KRIiFPE2-uzjm31xoZ7TG8ON8tKtJklQJhlkZpOi8oE0iwDeOdSgGH3Y3GAxjqmV3BIPoCHav9g8ZSfAwoIhUl5Rpp5QlugTWk5M8jRR/s320/poster+-+mark+shorey.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Audio Forensics</span></strong><br /><strong>MA in Sound Arts graduate show</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;">University of the Arts : London College of Communication</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;">Venue: I M T, </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;">Unit 2/210 Cambridge Heath Road,London, E2 9NQ </span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;">Contact: 020 8980 5475 (for booking)<br /></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"></span></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;">Comprising of ambitious works by nine artists who employ sound as the principle media of their practice, <strong>Audio Forensics</strong> demonstrates the breadth of engagement with sound in the arts, and how it can be re-evaluated in the context of an increasingly noisy world.<br />Sound art encompasses a wide range of forms and concerns and has its precedence across many creative fields, yet, as these artists demonstrate, the acknowledgment of sound’s significance in the arts is becoming of greater importance as technologies develop, and as the public become ever more aware of the interactions between sound, space and artistic practice.<br /><strong>Audio Forensics</strong> provides an extraordinarily comprehensive inquiry into how sound, and its manipulation, influences our experience and understanding of our environment.Audio Forensics is an exhibition and symposium presenting the final work of the first MA Sound Arts graduates of London College of Communication. The groundbreaking work in the exhibition demonstrates the high level of critical debate in sonic disciplines fostered by the university’s Department of Sound Art and Design since 1998.<br />The exhibition is co-curated by Electra and IMT<br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"></span><br /><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ff6666;"><strong>Artists & Exhibits:</strong></span></p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong>Libero Colimberti</strong> ~ <em>Frame</em> 2008</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#ff6666;">Short film (7mins)</span><br />A sound film installed in the bathroom and projected backwards through various reflections on to tiles, walls and ceiling showing a digital clock countdown from 7.00.00mins and subtitles of what is being heard - sometimes in the form of a script, as in (passerby) you won't kill yourself jumping from that height. The sound sweeps us through a huge narrative of a fight between two lovers with him on the ledge threatening suicide - gripping and for a time compelling in the possibility that we are about to actually hear someone die. Being locked away listening to this in the bathroom is perfect - simultaneously safely away from the conflict going on 'outside' and redolent with imagined self-violence - pills, drowning, razor blades, broken glass to cut with, slippery surfaces to fall from …<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong>Jan Hendrickse</strong> ~ <em>Harmonic Motion: Composition for Prepared Bass Guitar and Fans</em> 2008</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#ff6666;">Prepared bass guitars and fans</span><br />Quirky and gentle and fun - i loved having to go 'looking' for its sound hidden within the sweep of sound i had already triggered from <em>Dear Dust<br /></em><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong>Simone Izzi</strong> ~ <em>The Emperor's Mind</em> 2008</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#ff6666;">Mixed media installation <a href="http://www.simoneizzi.com/home.php">http://www.simoneizzi.com/home.php</a></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong>Nitin Lachhani</strong> ~ <em>Bhagvapad</em> 2008 Polymer rapid prototype 232mm x 350mm x 10mm; <em>Gautam</em> 2008 100% Dense titanium rapid prototype and vero white, 200mm x 200mm x 100mm; <em>Brhaspati</em> 2008 Glass, polyurethane resin, iron filings, 500mm x 500mm x 10mm</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong>Luc Messinezis</strong> ~ <em>Wunderkammer: The Sound Cabinet of Curiosities</em> 2008</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#ff6666;">Sound installation <a href="http://www.artselector.com/collective/directory/audio/Sonologik/">http://www.artselector.com/collective/directory/audio/Sonologik/</a></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong>Maria Papadomanolaki</strong> ~ <em>Trajectory</em> 2008</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#ff6666;">Performance; video documentation</span><br />An intriguing and captivating piece that we loved and that i’ll have to come back to write about when i have time:<br />audience in gallery – different people wearing headphones and microphone walking to gallery describing what they see and following text instructions from the gallery.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong>Vytis Puronas</strong> ~ <em>Dear Dust</em> 2008</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#ff6666;">Interactive video projection and sound <a href="http://www.superfield.org/">http://www.superfield.org/</a></span><br />sound of breathing that for me was all about the sound of the sea and kinaesthetically worked its image of floating 'dust' and wind-blown hair watching it with the fan blowing the guitar sounds<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong>Mark Shorey</strong> ~ <em>8.5</em> 2008</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#ff6666;">Mixed media installation; video documentation </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#ff6666;">the image for the poster is from 8.5 and see his video documentaion on his website @ <a href="http://www.peace.talktalk.net/PEACE.html">http://www.peace.talktalk.net/PEACE.html</a></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong>Mark Peter Wright</strong> ~ <em>A Quiet Reverie</em> 2008</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#ff6666;">Headphone installation (18mins) <a href="http://www.a-quiet-reverie.blogspot.com/">http://www.a-quiet-reverie.blogspot.com/</a></span><br /><br /><p><a href="http://www.myspace.com/handsofsand">http://www.myspace.com/handsofsand</a></p><br /><p>The star of the show for us – an exceptional experience for all the fullness and its space it gives in the listening.<br />A table with four clear plastic 'coffins' each containing dried materials from the four ruined sites and perched up on soil from them - leaves feathers stone shell flowers berries cones - all dry and dead but still resonating with remembered-imagined life<br /><br />The 18 min 'psycho phonography' moves and moves us through a fragile deeply felt sonic narrative that for me was an oscillation of flickering images, fleeing associations and pooled moments of intense presence. The sounds move through ‘stone’ ~ a sort echoed resonant cascade of resonating troubled air - or the noise of ‘dust’ banging (to steal language from another exhibit) - through ‘water’ ~ coming in soft rain which we can know and name but without losing any magic from this literal recognition and making its narrative of 'textured time' (to steal language again) ~ listening in to water moving and feeling both the heightened immediacy of each water soundfall and simultaneously the inexhaustible stretched out continuum of time beyond life, lives, living. Then 'wing' and the choral backchat of birdsong going abrasive and scarring and making me think of living systems of immortal species as the uncaring witnesses to human insubstantiality and transience. Then through 'blood' ~ a swelling of sound rushing throbbing bringing up a sonorously chiming alarm coming through a crackle of rainfall that I first took to be fire ~ and lastly 'mouth' ~ we hear an echo of monks chanting or perhaps just the endlessly repeated prayers echoing back to us from the stone and then a slow ebbing abandonment into pulsating absence.<br />And I hand over the headphones emotionally charged and emotionally changed.<br /><br />extracted from Mark’s book of ‘A Quiet Reverie’<br />A quiet reverie investigates the ruined abbeys of North East England, and creates a sonic experience from the architecture, space, and surrounding natural environment.<br /><br />The work extends the practice of phonography into a dynamic and acoustically creative portrayal of time and journey through space and site. I will use the term ‘psycho phonography’ to label my practice and define it as a perceptual appreciation of field recording rather than an ecological or documental one.<br /><br />By relocating, transferring and manipulation recordings from the ruined abbeys, the work connects each location in a metaphorical and sonic chain. It explores sounds inherent ability to spill between time and sense and into other perceived realms and modes of perception and listening.<br /><br />A Quiet Reverie is a psycho phonographic sound piece, a mode of of aural imaginary awakening.<br /><br />extracted from Mark’s research poster<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="color:#ffcccc;"><strong>Research Conclusions:</strong><br />* A subjective absence in the sound is necessary to encourage a deeper sonorous listener<br />* Do ruins contain traces of sonic past? As poetic & compositional tool yes. In places of ruin or abandonment a perpetual & psychological space exists for the listener to complete, the journey to complete this absence is the soundscape narrative<br /><strong>Essential Listening:<br /></strong>B J Nilsen, <em>The short night</em><br />Chris Watson, <em>Stepping into the dark<br /></em>Hilgegarde Westerkamp, <em>Transformations</em><br />Richard Skelton, Landings Steven Peters, <em>Hereings</em></span></span><br /></p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">+ External Symposium:</span></strong><br />Date: 30 NOVEMBER<br />Time: 15:00-18:00 RSVP<br />Symposium in which <strong>Steven Connor</strong> *, Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck,<br /></span><a href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/english/skc/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;">http://www.bbk.ac.uk/english/skc/</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;">and sound artist <strong>David Toop</strong>**, Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts London and Senior Research Fellow at the Sound Arts & Design Department of the London College of Communication </span><a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=112997086"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;">http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=112997086</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;"> address issues of sonic practice raised by Audio Forensics.<br />* see Steven's lecture @ </span><a href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/english/skc/earroom/earroom.pdf"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;">http://www.bbk.ac.uk/english/skc/earroom/earroom.pdf</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff6666;">** replaced Ben Borthwick, Assistant Curator at Tate Modern</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Steven Connor: <em>Ear Room</em><br /></span></strong>Seated. Listening. In session. Seance.<br />Hearing seems different to sight and touch and taste and smell<br />Hear from where the sounds are rather than where we are – sound occupies & evacuates<br />Sound Space. We can hear textures qualities inside things<br />Ventriloquism - how fragile & volatile our sense of sound space is - when it really counts we are very poor at hearing well<br />Unlike vision not immediately intelligible – hearing asks questions – which we then often seek to answer by the eye<br />Cartesian Grid - pinpoint - the ideal of point of view. There can only be a corresponding point of audition in most optimistic sense. Lines or fields of sight. Ears far less able to pinpoint - sound and we are multiple positioned through them<br />‘I am All Ears’ – we hear through distribution not convergence. You cannot sleep on both ears at once. There is no listening post: listening is listing & leaning<br />And sounds don't stay still – the eye commands space – the ear occupies – the ear makes room<br />Ear Room title of this lecture<br />We use Germanic words for animals & Latin words for cooked equivalents<br />Germanic for body parts - Latin for ‘cooked body’ like ‘mortality’<br />Germanic for raw corporeal ‘thing’ and ‘feeling’ – Latin for ‘object’ & ‘sensation’<br />In the dual coding: Latin ‘space’ is for sound; Latin ‘room’ is for sight: What becomes of ‘auditory space’ when one translates it into ‘ear-room’?<br />Space ready for occupation, able to be modified, presents a vacancy, defined from the outside in. Room inhabited, defined from the inside out, can be easily co-joined 'leg-room'<br />No relation direct between sound & hearing: the ear comes & goes with what it's hearing. Sight however automatically makes what sees an ‘object’<br />John Hull writing about going blind in ‘Touching the Rock’ “When you are blind, a hand suddenly grabs you. A voice suddenly addresses you. There is no anticipation or preparation. There is no hiding round the corner. There is no lying low. I am grasped. I am greeted. I am passive in the presence of that which accosts me. I cannot escape it … For the blind person, people are in motion, they are temporal, they come and they go. They come out of nothing, they disappear”<br />For the eye there is always a scene, whether seen or unseen. For the ear there is either something audible or there is nothing – there is no place in which to repose.<br />We can hear textures tonalities tensions time - sound energies intensities<br />Tonic - muscle & musicality<br />Space is free; a room costs.<br />In gallery ear-space must accommodate within eye-space. Ear-Room is only what & when it is made, which is why it can so easily escape the gallery. Ear-Room insists on a blind here & now<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">David Toop</span></strong><br />Sound is always in a state of becoming & disappearing - so perhaps my unpreparedness for this is good<br />Readings from my notebook beginning 6th august<br />Trip to Marfa Sessions, Texas made famous by Donald Judd<br />Space used to inter German soldiers in WWII - Chinati Foundation - space for work to be made in <a href="http://www.chinati.org/visit/missionhistory.php">http://www.chinati.org/visit/missionhistory.php</a><br />Christina Kublish (?)- nothing to see - abandoned building to listen to sound in - 'memory room' closed factories abandoned farms - old barn with abandoned tools<br />Memory room with no clues - just sounds of digital production - up to listener to make own meaning<br /><br />Silent but Poem by Sugasi (?) b. 1889 anti war imprisoned for being<br /><br />Cormach McCarthy: The Road<br />“The blackness I awoke with on those nights ...<br /><br />Dickens – “many people unhappy to spend night in church - because of the roaming wind …”<br /><br />A musical instrument is a small room - sound can linger - dispersing into air<br /><br />the Confessional - grille like amplifier to image-less ear – talking into ear of god<br /><br />Kafka: “Everyone carries a room inside them ... rattling of mirrors”<br /><br />In America the sound of the trains is so romantic, mythic but it wakes me in the night – both absorbing & irritant<br /><br />a rich woman shows me her hearing implant – “it’s no good for listening to classical music but fine for experimental …”<br /><br />Donald Judd - huge library with few music books except eg Glass. And bagpipes he learned to play. (And music collection)<br /><br /><strong>Q&A</strong><br />S - two poles sound is moving between - sound art is changing - we can capture & see sounds more easily now<br />D - previously sound recorded though text, oral tradition, painting, sculpture … very few writers on paintings refer to sound because outside their discipline? because the sound is no longer there? A difficulty of sound art having to squat in others’ rooms, houses. Best sound art when it completely accepts the contexts they move in with. How do you reveal the work to audience?<br /><br />A(udience) - Idea frm Greek 'to see' - system of thought grown in sight not sound<br />S - But oral cultures are violent formulaic conservative very resistant to variation from norms - obedience comes from need to hear - change requires ability to put things down. Have just read a new dissertation on use of sound in torture<br />D – Should be wary of idealising silence – silence can easily make people uncomfortable - many examples of silence that is oppressive - censoring - power<br /><br />A - In our culture do we (over)separate sound, sight & tactile sensing? - sound calls for use of memory<br />D - work with auditory artist - you work to her requirements.<br />A – reading Mark Cuzens - thought was born by Greeks when we could write and free brains for new thinking<br />S - animals are all memory - I look forward to not needing any memory.<br />A - Writing music has led to incredible architecture of sound - exact notation leads to conservativism vs. lack of notation leads to conservativism. Fixedness allows you to go somewhere else<br />S - writing preserves fantasy of permanence<br />A - Stanley Fish - always subjective - the work is made at moment of reading<br />(Me thought - sound must always be moving whereas sights can be more seemingly still - or we move - or what we're looking at moves)<br />D - does recording fix something that's not meant to be fixed? What sound does best is texture time rather than pure time - how would we know this without sound? In a film, sound is the plasma that holds things together. Beckett thought the silent film had demised too soon. We exist in space time<br />D – this idea is too much for me to grasp in one thought – need to separate each idea to get sense of space time.<br /><br /><br />see a blog review of this exhibition at <a href="http://www.fadwebsite.com/2008/11/26/audio-forensics-ambitious-works-by-nine-artists-who-employ-sound-to-open-at-imt/#more-2582">http://www.fadwebsite.com/2008/11/26/audio-forensics-ambitious-works-by-nine-artists-who-employ-sound-to-open-at-imt/#more-2582</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/marktrezona/AudioForensics#">http://picasaweb.google.com/marktrezona/AudioForensics#</a></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-36323428407375056852008-11-27T00:05:00.005+00:002008-12-07T18:03:17.773+00:00ferran adria' at qeh<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyR0aLvzvzu-JkoSlr7D90ZTERSn8JR3U86YRFcy-4M4Cnyx2TtnxjIAu4aaQS99Ygb2Eg04xYWFOg3IpxbyQmT_nf1kt1oS5U3FfOhQM3Lcbz_O2yG5tRaP53mrhpJk4ngx1QJGcF3rx8/s1600-h/IMG_5182.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277098468788331922" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyR0aLvzvzu-JkoSlr7D90ZTERSn8JR3U86YRFcy-4M4Cnyx2TtnxjIAu4aaQS99Ygb2Eg04xYWFOg3IpxbyQmT_nf1kt1oS5U3FfOhQM3Lcbz_O2yG5tRaP53mrhpJk4ngx1QJGcF3rx8/s320/IMG_5182.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#cc6600;"><strong>ferran adria'</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#cc6600;">from el bulli talking to jay rayner</span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#cc6600;">QEH</span></div><div> </div><div>chef as rock god</div><div> </div><div>chef as artist</div><div> </div><div>fab and fun</div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-59380097627331866062008-11-22T15:13:00.008+00:002009-09-10T19:04:03.787+01:00'don juan. who?' - athletes of the heart + mladinsko theatre<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2rpezY8XjOqbJLMXAx86Qu4NnEJpIvTS4D7xHFjlZ980e4gZuCyU1VcOpKZxaUnKIOAsyStmPLRJrciwW0hYkF8DYXkT5XUS0jRdiw9OcoMg_rdROXYRQ9lmv6m9pI2ON__prm5eK66PZ/s1600-h/IMG_5328.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277111434756694338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2rpezY8XjOqbJLMXAx86Qu4NnEJpIvTS4D7xHFjlZ980e4gZuCyU1VcOpKZxaUnKIOAsyStmPLRJrciwW0hYkF8DYXkT5XUS0jRdiw9OcoMg_rdROXYRQ9lmv6m9pI2ON__prm5eK66PZ/s320/IMG_5328.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 218px;" /></a><br />
<div><br />
</div><div><span style="color: #66cccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span></div><div><br />
</div><div><span style="color: #66cccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">ANNA FURSE Athletes of the Heart (UK) in co-production with </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span style="color: #99ffff;"><span style="color: #66cccc;">Mladinsko Theatre, Ljubljana (Slovenia)</span><br />
</span><strong><span style="color: #ffcccc;">DON JUAN. KDO?/Don Juan.WHO?</span></strong><br />
<span style="color: #66cccc;">from cyber space to theatre space</span></span></div><div></div><div><a href="http://www.athletesoftheheart.org/present.html"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">http://www.athletesoftheheart.org/present.html</span></a></div><div><br />
</div><div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span></div><div><span style="color: #ffcccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><strong>directed by Anna Furse</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span style="color: #ffcccc;"><strong>with Damjana Černe, Željko Hrs, Mare Mlačnik, Tanya Myers, Matej Recer, Giovanna Rogante, Marie-Gabrielle Rotie</strong></span> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span></div><div><span style="color: #66cccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">at riverside studios</span></div><div><a href="http://www.riversidestudios.co.uk/cgi-bin/page.pl?l=1223562661"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">http://www.riversidestudios.co.uk/cgi-bin/page.pl?l=1223562661</span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span></div><div></div><div><span style="color: red; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">FeEast - Festival of Central and Eastern European Arts at Riverside Studios</span></div><div><a href="http://www.feeast.com/"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">http://www.feeast.com/</span></a></div><div></div><div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span></div><div><span style="color: #66cccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">This international company worked in a private ‘cyber studio’ for 18 months. Confessions of darkest dreams and desires then gave rise to a haunting work that pulsates with passionate physicality, bittersweet irony, 1000 feather pillows, a drag king and a man who cries at too much beauty. DON JUAN.WHO? is about men and women and why we still fight. It’s about seduction, love, sex, power, and the Man who never stays for breakfast. With over sixty million three hundred thousand web hits in his name, how come Don Juan still grips us?<br />
</span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span style="color: #66cccc;"><em>A poetic, complex, simple, intelligently directed performance, bounding in<br />
eroticism and desire… Don Juan. Who? is a unique piece.</em> Marjana<br />
Ravnjak TV SLOVENIA </span></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span style="color: #66cccc;"><em>Complex, complicated, and totally simple at the same time…very sincere, full of<br />
passion and love...fascinating….More performances of this kind!</em> Amelia Kraigher<br />
VECER, Slovenia </span></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span style="color: #66cccc;"><em>An unusual, provocative performance that both avoids and employs<br />
cliches.</em> Gregor Butala DNEVNIK, Slovenia</span></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span style="color: #66cccc;"><em>The performance is even more provocative when it ventures into existential,<br />
erotic, sexual extremes….a kind of melancholic aura..a kind of transcendental<br />
dimension..reaches beyond the known, the verified and the<br />
expected.</em> Blaz Lukan DELO, Slovenia<em> </em></span></span></blockquote><span style="color: #66cccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">Following sell-out performances at </span><a href="http://www.mladinsko.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #66cccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">Mladinsko Theatre</span></a><span style="color: #66cccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">, Ljubljana and previews at the Shunt Vaults, the production is at </span><a href="http://www.riversidestudios.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #66cccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">Riverside Studios</span></a><span style="color: #66cccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"> for 4 performances only as part of </span><a href="http://www.feeast.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #66cccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">FeEast</span></a><span style="color: #66cccc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"> Festival 2008.</span></div><div><br />
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<strong>Post-show chaired by Nick Flood<br />
</strong><br />
Ensemble traditions<br />
<br />
Tanya Myers<br />
18months in cyber space<br />
Sunday evening - every - turn up and improvise in cyber space -anonymity of being able to imagine I was a man<br />
<br />
Zeljko Hrs<br />
We were sure we know who wrote what lines and always we were wrong<br />
<br />
Anna Furse<br />
What really worked was setting a theme. Vomitic work - the process obliges you to work with interruption: there are sentences that have been written by more than one voice - ego-less creation<br />
<br />
Giovanna Rogante<br />
I had to learn to type<br />
<br />
Anna Furse<br />
Lost two who couldn't cope with process<br />
We had to meet religiouly two hours every sunday - we had to do this to make the work - very dedicated work - this was a a deliberate strategy to try to respond to the new financial restriction on making work<br />
<br />
T<br />
We could pretend to be the boss<br />
<br />
A<br />
Then workshop<br />
Then text<br />
Then 3 and half months rehearsal<br />
Then premiere<br />
<br />
G<br />
I am used to speaking english even with my mistakes - English is the language of the western world - when I speak a language I think that language<br />
<br />
Z<br />
All we wrote was in english and then translated most into slovenian<br />
<br />
Marie-Gabrielle Rotie<br />
I was not part of the writing and Anna gave me a lot of artistic freedom - everything i did was entirely responsive to the text using my own physical vocabularies<br />
<br />
A<br />
Alot of work taking a scrap of text an applying physical language we had made together - the structure came very late in process<br />
We had reading list and films we watched etc<br />
Someone wrote a wonderful parody of the byron don juan for us and this became a key reference - it's there in the work but even more its about the don juan in our minds<br />
<br />
What is hell for you?<br />
M<br />
just an invention a special place we can go running off to - another woman<br />
A<br />
Men and women who still can't talk to each other - I don't subscribe to an idea of post-feminism - we haven't achieved what feminism reached for yet<br />
<br />
What did you miss from this process?<br />
A<br />
Embarrassment -all the social issues that come up when people are in the same space together by being So well- masked you could become unmasked a lot- of nakedness<br />
<br />
Would you do it again? </div><div>Yes but a lot of work involved<br />
<br />
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<b><span style="color: #ea9999;">Don Juan. Who? as a performance.</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #f4cccc;">Don Juan. Who? is a ‘timeless scenario where sexual politics are sweated out on a red carpet’ by an ensemble of seven and a supporting pillow-throwing chorus of several more. It begins with an evocation of Venus and Vulcan: from out of the darkness we see a welder, masked and stooped over the sparks of his work: Vulcan, god of fire and metalworking. We watch a naked man approaching from behind, embracing and undressing the welder, who naked is revealed to be a woman: Venus, unfaithful wife of Vulcan and goddess of love, beauty and fertility. ‘She downs her tools, reluctantly yields to him.’ And this non-verbal opening scene contains and signposts the potency, contradictions and deceptions that this theatre will show us: the story of relationships between men and women is never straightforward nor as obvious as our cliché’s and postmodern savoire faire may beguile us into believing. Don Juan. Who? animates an apparently archetypal Don Juan coupling, and the first words of spoken text - ‘ZELJKO: Seducer / DAMJANA: Seduced’ - establish an emphatic Male v. Female duality. But during the journey from the ‘Dressing Don Juan and his Prey for Seduction’ all the way through to ‘She and He After He Quit’, the simultaneously amplified inner monologues from the Chorus of ‘Her’s and ‘Him’s repeatedly confound the over-easy stereotypes of ‘Him, Tarzan; Her Jane’, and we cannot be sure the roles of ‘Seducer’ and ‘Seduced’ are cast and engendered in stone quite as given. In each of the four Seduction scenes, although we seem to be getting a pretty traditional Alpha male controlling the story and pulling the strings, it is ‘She’ who is actually the protagonist: in ‘Seduction 2’ and ‘Seduction 3’ it is she who makes the moves, and then in the first and last Seduction scenes, she is very much the writer of her own seduction story, almost irrespectively of what he actually does or doesn’t do.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f4cccc;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #f4cccc;">Through its storytelling of this one tale we see and hear the many voices of women and men trying to make sense of how men and women can come together without fighting, what they love, what they want, what they don’t want, what drives them together, what drives them apart. And as might be expected in a show about Don Juan, it appears to be full of male and female archetypes and cliché’s. And the play is deliberately structured with heavy gender scorings, both in the language - ‘TANYA: She’s made of her childhood dreams that pull her on a lead like a dog. / MATEJ + ZELJKO: In the same way his dick does.’ - and performatively with the men’s team lining up around ‘Don Juan’ and the women around ‘Her’ from the start.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f4cccc;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #f4cccc;">But, of course, to be interesting and new this play must, and does, show us that things cannot be what they initially seem or are expected to be from the Don Juan branding. This complexities illustrated in the symbolic opening are woven throughout and into this show, revealing the first appearances of superficial and almost careless familiarity to be a mirage of deeper patterns of much richer and contrary counterpoints and opposites: ‘She’ is not given the authority of a name, but this apparent disempowerment means also that she can never be fully pinned down (as well as giving the audience our ‘everywo(man)’ entry into the story); ‘She’ talks about appearance, ‘He’ talks strategy, but it is the women who continually provide the dynamic propulsion for the story and demand progress and action, the men’s talk being more fixed on results and outcomes whether actually realised or merely fantasised. And the voiced inner thoughts often let us in to hear the errors in supposed certainties, and test our own assumptions, such as ‘His’ sureness that ‘She’ is obsessed with ‘Him’, when in fact she is more often obsessed with ‘Herself’, and that being Don Juan is all about domination and conquests: and in ‘A Drag King Dong Juan’ we hear that ‘Her’ fantasy Don Juan is about being herself rather than conquests and being dominant: ‘GIOVANNA: I don’t want to feel I have to be bad to be Don Juan. I don’t want to kill anyone. / TANYA: no no no / GIOVANNA: I don’t want to control any body … I want this person to love me though.’ </span><br />
<span style="color: #f4cccc;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #f4cccc;">Textural analysis of this play brings constant surprises, such as finding in the seeming equal spread of ‘His’ and ‘Her’ words quite unequal preoccupations in that ‘His’ thoughts are spread between thinking about himself and projecting what he is sure ‘She’ is thinking, whereas ‘Her’ thoughts are almost entirely about ‘Herself’ and rarely does she talk out thoughts about him. In the final scene, ‘Friends Re-united.com’, we hear ‘Her’ finally get her happiness and her freedom when ‘He’ throws her out the window: ‘GIOVANNA: And I’m flying / TANYA: Flying / GIOVANNA: Flying / DMAJANA: Flying.’ And still in control of telling her own story.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f4cccc;">It is only from the penultimate scene, voiced by ‘Dolores, Don Juan’s Faithful Steed: A Perspective’, that we get to hear anything that sounds possible long term, and a more lasting, mutually dependent and symbiotic relationship is imagined than any the Don Juan mythology leads us into: ‘… He loves me. We’re a team, a pas de deux. I love his jumping out of windows on to my back … I want sparks to fly from my hooves. I want to give Don Juan the world. Reader: I carried him.’ </span><br />
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</div><a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/DonJuanWho#">http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/DonJuanWho#</a><br />
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</div><div></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-66841900804592565152008-10-18T23:50:00.007+01:002008-10-19T21:30:00.106+01:00*** 'drawing breath recycled' - jean fraser, sue ridge, rosa ainley, annie whitehead<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4e51LAKiaS5kD67QG0IT5KFZqS_Cu0he08GQoYXLWg246qlJip3cuXZwiqSGEOG-86M08G00Vbeo4owASgoMAX7jP-p58OkmfCXD52hZ-5hVwGekMIvzT67bGcosQ1cwVAUaneUJx8pEa/s1600-h/IMG_4979.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258964214756203250" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4e51LAKiaS5kD67QG0IT5KFZqS_Cu0he08GQoYXLWg246qlJip3cuXZwiqSGEOG-86M08G00Vbeo4owASgoMAX7jP-p58OkmfCXD52hZ-5hVwGekMIvzT67bGcosQ1cwVAUaneUJx8pEa/s320/IMG_4979.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#9999ff;"><strong></strong></span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#9999ff;"><strong>Drawing Breath Recycled<br />... maps and journeys .......<br />an exhibition about breathing with:<br />Jean Fraser</strong></span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#9999ff;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Rosa Ainley </span></strong></span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#9999ff;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Sue Ridge</span></strong> </span></div><br /><br /><div><a href="http://www.sueridge.com/HOME.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#663366;">http://www.sueridge.com/HOME.html</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#9999ff;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Herne Bay Junior School<br />Annie Whitehead </span></strong></span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#9999ff;"><a href="http://www.earthmusic.com/annie.htm">http://www.earthmusic.com/annie.htm</a></span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#9999ff;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">and<br />Betteshanger Brass Band</span></strong><br /><br />@ Horsebridge Galleries, Whitstabe<br /><a href="http://www.horsebridge-centre.org.uk/index.php?q=node/911">http://www.horsebridge-centre.org.uk/index.php?q=node/911</a><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Curated by Jean Fraser<br /></span></strong></span><a href="http://www.drawingbreath.org/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#993399;">www.drawingbreath.org </span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#9999ff;"></span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#9999ff;"><br />An arts and health project about breath and breathing, the Drawing Breath project is based around a cycle ride during the summer of 2007 searching for oxygen on the Kent and East Sussex coast, and the conversations and conditions encountered on the way - a landscape adventure about survival and what remains possible as we grow older. </span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#9999ff;">Featuring a life-size driftwood bicyle sculpture, a new brass band composition and new photographic work and maps of the journey, plus a sound piece about breath and vocalisation. A wall of air will be constructed by the audience during the exhibition. </span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#9999ff;">Special thanks to the individuals and groups who contributed to the journey, including Canterbury & District Breathe Easy support group and the Eastern & Coastal Kent Respiratory team. </span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#9999ff;">Artists and participants include: Rosa Ainley – multi-media practitioner Betteshanger Brass Band Jean Fraser – photographic artist Herne Bay Junior School pupils Sue Ridge – multi-media artist Annie Whitehead – jazz trombonist and composer Artists and participants include: Rosa Ainley – multi-media practitioner Betteshanger Brass Band Jean Fraser – photographic artist Herne Bay Junior School pupils Sue Ridge – multi-media artist Annie Whitehead – jazz trombonist and composer.</span></div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div>the experience of this show is all about listening and noticing - the overall effect is somehow still and resonantly present: jean fraser's potraits are all moments of people captured with an easy joyful glowing presence; sue ridge's maps make you stop and enjoy minute journey details and repetition, and her x-rays of jean’s lungs overlaid with the journey map outline and together with rosa ainley's sound piece – that has you empathetically holding your breath and aaahing into the air around you – suggests a simultaneous fragility alongside substantial strength and resilience; jean and her daughter’s video to play with annie whitehead’s music makes the movement of air mesmerising, and the driftwood bicycle made with year 5 at herne bay junior school is just magic.<br />there is nothing competitive or hard in this show. it does not boast endurance or mileage or impressive technology. neither does it pretend to find anything that isn’t already there waiting to be found and enjoyed and savoured, so that of brandishing it instead invites you to stop and look and look some more and listen and remember and smile and wonder a few ‘what if’s...’ and breathe a little slower, a little deeper.<br /></div><br /><br /><div>life enhancing.</div><br /><div></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcfbriHmiZx6HPdNnzxvQY8ZAXQCUR5OYRDRBgjkgXQeN90xhb-8kIamTeZ4COhfzKwDjVJrlX4exAgdhMiZjVqqugHJOiAX-MCZZLmVhV6ugvQdc2PjD-6jDRubjDYdXDgOG5qbkkKYAX/s1600-h/IMG_4953.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258964610847895970" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcfbriHmiZx6HPdNnzxvQY8ZAXQCUR5OYRDRBgjkgXQeN90xhb-8kIamTeZ4COhfzKwDjVJrlX4exAgdhMiZjVqqugHJOiAX-MCZZLmVhV6ugvQdc2PjD-6jDRubjDYdXDgOG5qbkkKYAX/s320/IMG_4953.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDSGUBVTrTzja7ZFSpsba4U7gKCXV3dlyUxmbhe-DLDOJ-M4Fs0pDcuww1XDq4_KThr0sQEJPS-mfKgA5phqNGGeHT5IYtt_n87_6UFHjg3jtm6OEtyTk4iAEEwC26VaIx-TuF9IhXF2vn/s1600-h/IMG_4954.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258964617457098162" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDSGUBVTrTzja7ZFSpsba4U7gKCXV3dlyUxmbhe-DLDOJ-M4Fs0pDcuww1XDq4_KThr0sQEJPS-mfKgA5phqNGGeHT5IYtt_n87_6UFHjg3jtm6OEtyTk4iAEEwC26VaIx-TuF9IhXF2vn/s320/IMG_4954.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwoXmXc9KAE9SAvcJ-7CuH56UMlCaSR79LbJIkHE6Gbvj9uGbVcVY8ScWMtebZ2AL8xLNJZB0xLo0ov2fEmA8SuxSGWYV57hzIALSbwQnVXQeNmZIKftwSkKdUYH8q1apbfluwpjvs4TG/s1600-h/IMG_4955.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258964620146201458" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwoXmXc9KAE9SAvcJ-7CuH56UMlCaSR79LbJIkHE6Gbvj9uGbVcVY8ScWMtebZ2AL8xLNJZB0xLo0ov2fEmA8SuxSGWYV57hzIALSbwQnVXQeNmZIKftwSkKdUYH8q1apbfluwpjvs4TG/s320/IMG_4955.jpg" border="0" /></a></div></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-23803714376817259982008-10-18T23:49:00.005+01:002008-10-19T20:05:07.855+01:00'aphasiadisiac' - ted stoffer, les ballets C de la B<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9JbVGNcOJQesSPeJjixKUSZU0Ul6RzW18bvDku8X3-D6BfVnhYudvRkjoZWZSdGTltHop9g4FkmYfROoDF2OJ8lKB-TNHkFRsQmA99ks2hw5zfa0SXGyfMFkhG0qcy5AlDj12JajYxF2_/s1600-h/IMG_4980.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258942081969940482" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9JbVGNcOJQesSPeJjixKUSZU0Ul6RzW18bvDku8X3-D6BfVnhYudvRkjoZWZSdGTltHop9g4FkmYfROoDF2OJ8lKB-TNHkFRsQmA99ks2hw5zfa0SXGyfMFkhG0qcy5AlDj12JajYxF2_/s320/IMG_4980.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="color:#99ffff;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;"><strong><em></em></strong></span></span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#99ffff;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;"><strong><em>Aphasiadisiac</em><br />les ballets C de la B </strong></span></span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#99ffff;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;"><strong><a href="http://www.lesballetscdela.be/"><span style="font-size:100%;">http://www.lesballetscdela.be/</span></a><br />Ted Stoffer</strong></span><br /></div></span><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#33ffff;">Les Ballets C. de la B. return to Sadler’s Wells with <em>Aphasiadisiac</em> – the final instalment in a trilogy of work by guest choreographer Ted Stoffer. Based in Ghent, Belgium, Les Ballets C. de la B. is a collective of choreographers renowned for presenting powerful, theatrical performances of startling, anarchic beauty. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#33ffff;">American-born Ted Stoffer, a former Rambert dancer and founder of Aphasia Dance Company, derived the title <em>Aphasiadisiac</em> from ‘aphasia’ (the inability to express or understand thought in spoken or written words) and ‘aphrodisiac’ (arousing the mood of sexual excitement). Focusing on issues of communication and human relationships and featuring a cast of five performers who each represent a member of his own family, <em>Aphasiadisiac</em> sees Ted Stoffer exploring the private languages and politics of love.<br /><br /><blockquote>"Stoffer is a brave performer who bares both his body and his soul… a deeply<br />personal experience that reconnects you with your own humanity" THE STAGE</blockquote></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#33ffff;">Set to a soundtrack of pop, classical and traditional Czech music, plus live drumming, and set within a full-size onstage brick house (complete with furnishings), this promises to be a truly remarkable experience from one of Flander’s most important contemporary dance companies Les Ballets C. de la B. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#33ffff;">A Sadler's Wells co-production</span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#33ffff;">Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadlers Wells</span></div><br /><div><a href="http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Ballet-C-de-la-B-Stoffer">http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Ballet-C-de-la-B-Stoffer</a></div><br /><div><br />Four people on stage building hollow four-sided towers with wooden bricks - some with words on them and of course I try and put these into meaningful clusters until I remember we are in the strange messed up dimension of aphasia and let the attempt go.<br />A fifth performer Pietrejan Vervondel arrives in business shirt and tie - there are two towers now each encasing a performer who have to climb their structure to get head & hands above it to catch the new bricks they are being thrown by ‘the businessman’ - the feels wonderfully dangerous and the audience are vocally excited as each new brick is thrown high and mostly caught with varying degrees of threat to the catcher and their tower remaining upright. How special and rare to have this real and live danger in a theatre.<br />We then see a hand from each performer reach out and across - but not connect - from their tower - and then she finds she can pass bricks from her tower to him to add to his.<br />Then we get a glorious aphasiac real estate presentation jumbled to be right at the edge of coherency - and how satisfying to be able to pull sense from this delightfully and wittily scrambled volley of words.<br /><br />He breaks through the back wall.<br /><br />He climbs the wall to a suspended drum kit, harnesses himself into the seat which he then releases forward - another moment of thrilling peril - and we get raucous surging music with accordion playing girl (Kristyna Lhotakova) in stocking feet and man and woman lying prone and stretched over brick stacks playing trumpet and horn. This makes the background sound for Stoffer's sinewy dislocated head lead movement that seems the physical mirror of the scrambled words - somehow finding a sense and coherency from inverted and inhumanised movements<br />We also get a number of contact improvisation duets that are fluidly satisfying to watch. And we get achingly intimate and recognisable words with movements from Mieke de Groot who we later see in a very funny duet mime with Yvan Auzely After they have been stripped of their instruments and left alone together by the double-banging drummers Vervondel & Lhotakova.<br />She then gives us the clearest monologue telling us how much she loves 'him' while he undulates, unfolds and curls under and through the chair and table, before the remaining tower is noisily toppled and cleared and the two of them show us their relationship via a set of tight and variously competing / cooperating dances.<br />The final sequence is a fast flowing sexy contact duet with Stoffer and Lhotakova joined throughout at the eye & cheek.<br />This show is packed with ideas and imagery and associations and virtuoso displays interspersed with sudden clear moments of absolute truth and recognition. It is far too clever to leave me more than momentarily absorbed inside it, but the richness of ideas - intellectual and performative - more than justifies this. </div><div> </div><div><a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/Aphasiadisiac#">http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/Aphasiadisiac#</a></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-70507545775223913442008-10-17T11:08:00.007+01:002008-10-19T22:20:57.975+01:00*** the two gentlemen of verona (nos do morro)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZRGUHuDZku7bjqHAQom7YrVB07vosrb7dymTwLAPhPV4dicx845Wpf6Wsw0Ldff8-p8-WJvCi0InT-NclIzp8Fi3vKZyvofsXBUr4s78Kcz0St5cIZenazft_NbewslwnituA7y5sx-Re/s1600-h/IMG_4984.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258977038515424834" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZRGUHuDZku7bjqHAQom7YrVB07vosrb7dymTwLAPhPV4dicx845Wpf6Wsw0Ldff8-p8-WJvCi0InT-NclIzp8Fi3vKZyvofsXBUr4s78Kcz0St5cIZenazft_NbewslwnituA7y5sx-Re/s320/IMG_4984.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#cccccc;"><strong></strong></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#cccccc;"><strong>The Two Gentlemen of Verona</strong></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#cccccc;"><strong>Nós do Morro</strong></span></div><br /><div><a href="http://www.nosdomorro.com.br/eng/institucional.htm"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#cccccc;">http://www.nosdomorro.com.br/eng/institucional.htm</span></a></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#cccccc;"><strong>The Pit </strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#cccccc;"><strong>bite08</strong></span></div><br /><div><a href="http://www.barbican.org.uk/news/artformnews/theatredance/nos-do-morro"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#cccccc;">http://www.barbican.org.uk/news/artformnews/theatredance/nos-do-morro</span></a></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#cccccc;"></span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#cccccc;">The Barbican brings the Brazilian theatre company Nós do Morro to London for the first time with its production of Shakespeare’s comedy <em>The Two Gentlemen of Verona</em> directed by Gutti Fraga. The production was originally commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of the Complete Works festival in 2006 where it received a one-off performance following collaboration with Cicely Berry and now comes to the capital for 11 performances. Switching effortlessly from comic to serious, the energetic young company infuse the text with song, movement and capoeira in a beautifully uncomplicated production. Location and mood are indicated through the use of the actors’ bodies and simple props take on a life of their own. <em>The Two Gentlemen of Verona</em> is performed in Portuguese with English surtitles. It is presented in association with People’s Palace Projects. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#cccccc;">Nós do Morro (Portuguese for ‘us from the hillside’) was founded in 1986 by Fraga and is based in Vidigal, one of the toughest favelas in Rio de Janeiro. It provides young people from this disadvantaged community an opportunity to experience culture, art and citizenship through the theatre and visual arts. The company has achieved significant public recognition, won several awards and now runs a theatre and cultural centre. It aims to provide training in technical skills and creative work for theatre and cinema and many of its actors have appeared in TV series, soap operas and films including the 2002 award-winning <em>City Of God</em>. </span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#cccccc;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#cccccc;">Coinciding with the Barbican run of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Nós do Morro and Theatre Centre present an adaptation of Shakespeare’s <em>The Tempest</em> entitled <em>Knock Against My Heart</em> written by Oladipo Agboluaje and directed by Michael Judge. Knock Against My Heart tours the UK from 18 September – 20 November including a run at the Unicorn Theatre from 7 – 18 October.</span> </div><div><a href="http://www.theatre-centre.co.uk/index.php?plid=64">http://www.theatre-centre.co.uk/index.php?plid=64</a></div><br /><br /><div></div><p><br />What a wonderful joyous funny warm experience was this!<br /><br />The lights come up in one corner from a blackout to show a tightly clustered group of young performers singing - and instantly we know we are in the company of troubadour players about to make a show for us with just themselves, a few instruments and some motley scraps of cloth they will use for costumes and the many letters that feature through Shakespeare's story. This is his first play and - as with Chekhov's Ivanov - it's great to be able to see so many of the characters and ideas he will recreate again in his later plays: Julia who dresses as man - brilliantly achieved and utterly convincing as a disguise with a stretch of cloth over one eye so attention is grabbed by the disability rather than a sense of recognition - and heads off from Verona to Milan to teach her man how to love (As You Like It); there are balcony scenes (Romeo & Juliet), Julia lists her suitors for her maid to strip of their vanities with gleeful cruelty (The Merchant of Venice), and her initial dismissal of Proteus reminds of Kate and Beatrice; there's a there is even a Friar Laurence. </p><p>It is somehow an easy step to accept these young performers as the young lovers – they convey a freshness and vitality that exactly suits Shakespeare’s characters. And something i have never before seen so effectively achieved is the way all the performers step instantly in and away from their characters, so that even those playing leads manage to completely lose every hint of their characters to meld seamlessly into the ensemble. So I found I was even searching for actors who seemed to have disappeared in the chorus scenes, and conversely people I had barely noticed before would suddenly emerge as apparently unmissable large and dynamic presences when they stepped into an individual role.<br /><br />The staging uses a variety of disciplined simplicity: performers bond together to make human architecture and furniture - seats, walls, doors, headless busts, a balcony, and a dangerous forest is conjured with lighting, a smoke machine and another length of cloth. We get a mimed slow motion duel or contest in the early scenes while Valentine & Proteus are all devoted and true friendship forever more that physically lays out everything the story of these two young Veronese gentlemen will unfold. And we get live music - instrumental and singing - to both move the story on, take us too new places (memorably from Verona to Milan), and to underscore or change the mood.<br /></p><p>From start to finish this show vibrates with spirit and exuberance so you feel swept along and caught inside the performers’ zest and drive to bring their story, and yet for all their youthful energy there is nothing amateurish or unfinished and the moments of poignancy and realisation arrive with a crystalline focus that is deeply moving and utterly true. And then just as seamlessly the moment is gone, moved on and we are delighted and laughing again or surfing the story or beaming off the radiant music and movement.<br />And one more jewel I have to record for permanent remembrance: the performance of the dog is everything this show has encapsulated: truth, humour, discipline, spirit, delight, poignancy, immense fun and quiet understated sadness. Brilliant!<br />It ends with a final bright song, through which the players take their smiling bows, and then they again converge into their tight and tightly lit ensemble spot - all individuality again extinguished. Blackout and they are gone.<br /><br />And i'm still glowing from the experience they made for us. </p><a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/TwoGentlemenOfVerona#">http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/TwoGentlemenOfVerona#</a><br /><p></p><br /><p><br /></p><br /><div></div>mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465531999291145344.post-60541090504833075382008-10-17T11:07:00.005+01:002008-10-19T22:55:43.644+01:00stalla duffy at cottlesloe<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ffff66;">Stella Duffy in conversation with Adjoa Andoh<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;color:#ffff66;"><span style="font-size:100%;">In her new novel, <em><span style="font-size:130%;">The Room of Lost Things</span></em>, writer and actor Stella Duffy paints a vivid picture of life in a South London dry-cleaning shop, where secrets and lies are revealed in its customers’ pockets.</span> </span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/38100/platforms/stella-duffy.html">http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/38100/platforms/stella-duffy.html</a><br /><br />Another masterclass from stella - this time in how good a platform conversation can be<br />Two artists who cared about us and at the same time knew how to look utterly comfortable and at home on a borrowed set on a borrowed stage<br />Both women shine with charm and fizz with wit and energy. And each have a care for us: adjoa knowing and remembering to explain references when they arise (tv show 'the wire') and always repeating audience questions and so obviously listening in every moment; and stella too clarifying references (walter mosley) and blending her passions (craft rather than art, magic in the mistakes, the need to give a voice to white working class men as much as young british asian men, letting the story find itself) with real and practical advice (for getting published, for writing, for getting started).<br />i suspect if i hadn’t known stella already i’d have come away believing that i now did, as i came away feeling i’d met adjoa.<br />if only these two women would be watched and learned from!<br /><br />p.s. <em>The Room Of Lost Things</em> is a brilliant read!mark trezonahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05086761948522133228noreply@blogger.com0