Yearly Archives: 2009

On Raised Voices

This entry was posted in In Response and tagged Arts Council Funding Why The Arts Matter on by

I’m not really here – I’ve ingested far too many lemsip-type medications in the last 48 hours to be left in charge of either a computer or a blog – but I saw the link to the following article and I couldn’t help but come here.

Today Alan Davey, Chief Executive of Arts Council England, gave a speech at the ‘Culture is Right’ conference which set about making a case for maintaining investment in the arts.

I’ve not yet had chance to read Davey’s full speech but I cannot state how important I think it is that we – all of us – start making our voices heard. Arts matter. And some times that needs to be restated.

Unasked Questions

This entry was posted in In Response and tagged New Writing Now Writing on by

Yet another interesting post over at 99seats – this time about the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of writing rather than the ‘how’. For, as I know from my own experience, writing groups tend to focus only on the ‘how’:

“There is a problem, though, and it’s exactly this: the focus is on craft, style, but rarely, if ever on substance. The focus is on the How and never on the What. Or even more importantly on the Why.”

Of course people need to know how to structure and use form and image and metaphor and etc etc (sadly my experience of reading unsolicited scripts points to the fact that these aspects of the ‘craft’ of playwriting do get ignored) but some times you do need someone to stop you and ask: why?

If there is one question which haunted everyone during my MA it was the one which our course convener would utter at some point during every class: why now? And, I would argue, the case can always be made for good art (case in point: Alan Bennett’s The History Boys would have withered at that question and that play is, however you look at it, bloody brilliant). Whilst equally I do not want to sit through a hundred different plays about – say the financial crisis – because it is a ‘now’ topic. But what was so brilliant about asking us that question is that it forces you to examine what you’re writing and why you’re writing it. And – maybe most importantly if you’re looking to have a play put on and suchlike – why anyone else should care.

Over the course of the year we spent many, many more hours talking about the whats and the whys than we did about the hows. That meant that some times you would have to say ‘ I don’t know’ or question someone on the ideology of their play which some times made you want to go somewhere quiet and rock in a corner.  And whilst I can’t speak for anyone else, just having that question floating around made me a better writer. My answer to ‘why now?’ may be as simple as ‘because I have to’. But I’m not scared of either asking it or having to answer it – and the more writers who can say that the better.

Around The Blogs: Number 1 3

This entry was posted in Bloggery and tagged Blogging on by

One of my favourite recent-ish discoveries is the Clyde Fitch Report and one of the things I love about it is it’s From The Blogroll section that takes a brief look around, well, the Blogroll. So in blatant theft I’m going to start doing the same thing here once a fortnight. It’s a bit different to what I write for Whatsonstage as I’m going to stick to UK based blogs and undoubtedly be a little bit more flippant than I am over there.

So, if you’re sitting comfortably, here goes…

At A Younger Theatre Jake became part of the play and reviewed Tim Crouch’s The Author.

At Carousel of Fantasies Matt Trueman took Roger Foss to task for his dismissal of interactive audience-led theatre in The Stage. Given my documented obsession with One & Other I’m with Trueman on this. And I can say that and still be in raptures over Stoppard and Shakespeare etc etc. Because that’s what’s great about theatre. Difference.

At Confessions of a Playwright there was what can only be described as an accordion moment.

At HannahNicklin.com Hannah blogged about A City Staged and the kind of embracing of the possibilities of social media for theatre which makes me a little sick with excitement. It even made me want to have been in Derby so I could have taken part. (My only connection with Derby is an interesting evening in a club in the early noughties when my feet stuck to the floor and where I probably should have worn a polo neck. So, believe me, this is saying something).

At Helen Smith it was all about a giant knitted poem. And murder. Agatha Christie would be proud.

At Killing Time Dave Windass found paradox and Apostrophe Use Gone Mad in the same sign.

At Life in the Cheap Seats Webcowgirl quite probably could have done without having seen Jane Horrocks  in Annie Get Your Gun.

At Miching Malicho there was an adventure in the streets of York with Belt Up production of The Trial.

At Paul in London the interval of Mother Courage led to the revelation of what Rah-Rah Gay is.

At Pirate Dog it was all about a monkey upstaging Kevin Spacey on stage at the Old Vic. Which almost makes me want to see Inherit the Wind.

At Postcards from the Gods Andrew Haydon most definitely didn’t agree with Michael Billington on David Hare’s The Power of Yes.

At Russell’s Theatre Reviews the Young Vic’s production of Annie Get Your Gun continued to astoud – so much so that it was re-christened Annie Get Your Act Together.

At Shenton’s View Mark Shenton discussed the questions that the launch of Love Never Dies failed to answer. But not – WHY? For the love of God, why?

At the Guardian Theatre Blog Lyn Gardner sent out a plea for more Rupert Goolds in British theatre. Goold had me at his production of Six Characters in Search of an Author which delighted me more than almost anything I saw in the first few months of living in London. Also if we are to go by his photo on Gardner’s blog then he also has rather impressive hair. So winning all round.

At View From The Stalls there was Shakespeare aplenty in Lend Me Your Ears.

At West End Whingers it was third time unlucky for Annie Get Your Gun and, well, you should just go and read as it’s the Whingers doing what they do best.

Reasons For Writing

This entry was posted in In Response and tagged Asperger's Syndrome Autism Gary McKinnon Reasons For Listing on by

There are lots and lots of reasons that I wanted to write Reasons For Listing – both artistic and intensely personal – but I think some of the reasons are encapsulated in the story of Gary McKinnon. If you don’t know McKinnon hacked into the US’s military computer system and, as a UK citizen, is fighting extradition to the US (and has been doing so for the last five years, some sort of fast track extradition there then).

Oh, and he has Asperger’s Syndrome.

Now I’m more than aware that saying someone has Asperger’s Syndrome still leaves the proverbial ball park fairly open. But the alarm bells should be ringing. Particularly when it has been voiced in America that McKinnon will “almost certainly be exposed to neglectful care” in the American prison system.

There’s a whole ball of issues here – not least the UK’s extradition policy and how the legal system deals with those with Autism (and indeed other related conditions).

But there’s also the fact that I can’t help but feel totally appalled by how a vulnerable person is being dealt with.  Which is not to say that I condone McKinnon’s actions but that he is vulnerable. Full stop. After he was today refused permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court McKinnon’s lawyer called the treatment “inhumane”. And that’s certainly not hyperbole.

I can’t begin to imagine the impact that this is having on McKinnon and his family – or will continue to have. I was saddned but not surprised to hear McKinnon’s mother report that he is “suicidal”. And a glance at the statistics of suicide of those with high-functioning autism (of which Asperger’s Syndrome is a form) should suggest that is a real, and frightening, possibility.

In writing Reasons For Listing I’m not writing about the specifics of anyone other than the fictional Joseph but I am writing about some of what McKinnon’s story suggests.

As for McKinnon – make your voice heard.

il miglior fabbro

This entry was posted in Inspirations on by

Really I got in a little too early with my T S Eliot quote on my last post (the title is stolen from Eliot’s The Four Quartets) – for today is National Poetry Day and apparently Tom is the nation’s favourite poet. Tom’s got a lot to answer for in my own life – reading The Waste Land when I was 16 was the reason I made the decision to do an English Degree – but I was a little surprised, I confess, by his win (please, please don’t tell me it was for the cat poems…).  He’s bloody brilliant – but you can’t exactly hug him to your heart.

But then any list is going to be subjective and lacking many more worthy winners than it can possibly hold – me, I was a little sad to see Ted Hughes and W H Auden missing. Not to get me started on Wordsworth and Byron. Or indeed Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage. And since I’m here, where was Seamus Heaney (who I would have thought would have been a shoe-in for the top ten)?.

And then – well, how does one ever see past the spectre of William Shakespeare?

If all time is eternally present/ Then all time is unredeemable 1

This entry was posted in Inspirations and tagged Ideas Physics Time on by

It’s pretty standard for me to have ideas float around in my head for a few years until something happens and then – bam, out they come. At the moment – possibly because I’m actively working on one project that popped out in a reasonably formed state a few months ago and another that has gestitated in my brain for less than a year – I’m indulging in some free form research for a nugget of an idea that quite possibly won’t surface in any concrete form for some time yet. But it’s still getting me excited nonetheless – especially when I read this:

“Although we think of the Universe we see through our telescopes as existing now, this is a mistaken view. We can never know what the Universe is like at this instant. The farther across space we look, the farther back in time we see. If we look far enough across space we can actually see close to the Big Bang itself, 13.7 billion years back in time. Space and time are inextricably bound together”.

Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, Marcus Chown.

Which is all  a little bit terrifying. But also a little bit beautiful.