Performance Magazine 08 Oct Nov 1980

This issue of Performance Magazine has been reproduced as part of Performance Magazine Online (2017) with the permission
of the surviving Editors, Rob La Frenais and Gray Watson.

Copyright remains with Performance Magazine and/or the original creators of the work. The project has been produced in association with the Live Art Development Agency.
The
Survivor
And
The
Translator
A solo theatre work about
ncit having experienced the
Holocaust, by a daughter of
concentration camp survivors . OUR BOYS' TOWN
Conceived and performed
Written and performed by
by Leeny Sack
Neil Hornick & Joel Cutrara
Theatrespace, London, WC2
1st - 7th December
Nov 21-29 Box Office 836 2035 Enquiries 485 7476
ACTION SPACE
16 Chenies St. W.C.1.
ABRACADABRA HONEYMOON
(Goodge St. Tube)
01 637 8270 "indispensable" Michael Billington, Guardian
Some touring dates still available Spring 1981
The Phantom Captain, 10 Fleet Road,
London NW3 2QS
You meet the Most Interesting People ...
at the
INS & OUTS BOOKSTORE
O.Z . Achterburgwal 169
Amsterdam, Holland
tel. 276868
You also meet them
on the pages of
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HOLLAND .
1 .50 post paid
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underground literary tradition " Charles Plymell. 'Hell is Empty And All The Devils Are With Us'
This issue of Performance Magazine has been reproduced as part of Performance Magazine Online (2017) with the permission of the surviving Editors, Rob La Frenais and Gray Watson.
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The PerformanceMagazine. FILE UNDER PERFORMANCE 5
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+---... ' l l 10 Fleet Rd. London NW3 2QS.
01-485 7476
WOMEN'S PERFORMANCE 1
Editor Rob La Frenais AB0UTTIME6
Review Editor Luke Dixon
Design Editor Chloe Nevett
Associate Editors WOMEN'S PERFORMANCE 2
Pete Shelton I GISELLE 10
Marguerite McLaughlin
Bruce Bayley
Contributors TOM SADDINGTON
Lyn MacRitchie CIGARETTE PACKAGE PERFORMANCE 12
Andrea Hill
John Roberts
Neil Hornick PERFORMANCE BOOKS 1
Tom Castle STEFAN BRECHT ON ROaERT WILSON 13
Paddy Fletcher
Ian Hinchcliffe
Charles Hustwick VENUES: HOXTON HALL 15
Silvy Panet Raymond
Paul Burwell
Typesetting INTERVIEW WITH PIP SIMMONS 16
Blue Lotus
Printing
---1>--+---+--+---+-- -< , Calverts North Star Press Ltd PERFORMANCE BOOKS 2
DREAMS AND DECONSTRUCTIONS 20
Guest Contributors
Jeff Nuttall
Helen Craven PERFORMED MUSIC: ACTUAL MUSIC,
Gillian Clark FUTURAMA, MORGAN FISHER'S
MINATURES 21
Cover photo
Roberta Graham
REVIEWS: OVAL SPECTACULAR, ACME
Copyright 1980 ACTING, PHANTOM CAPTAIN, ALEX
ISSN No 0144-5901
MAVRO, THE GRAEAE, IMPACT THEATRE,
The Performance Magazine DOG CO 23
receives assistance from the
Arts Council of Great Britain.
HINCHCLIFFE CARTOON 27
2nd Issue out Nov 14
price 60p, on SM
expression and style. DESPATCHES, LETTERS 28
Published by Gallery
House Press, 23 Montrell LISTINGS 30
Rd, London S.W.2.
Dreams and Deconstructions .,

Alternative theatre
in Britain
Editor: Sandy Craig
BOB&BOB
About Time
Video, Performance and Installation
by 21 Women Artists
THE FIRSTFIVEYEARS
Thursday 30 Octob er - Su nday 9 November in the Main
and Concour se Galleri es . Performances at 1.00 and 7.00 BY LINDAFRYEBURNHAM
A BOOK ABOUT THEIR 1 00 pages . 37 color plates
Issue

Drawin gs
Painting s
$16 a t book stores or by m a il from
Social Strategies by Women Artists Perform an ces AstroArtz
Film s 2 40 South Br o adway , Fifth Floor
Friday 14 November Sunday ;1 : December
7
Lo s Angeles . C A 900 12
R ec ords
in the Mairi Concourse and Upper Galleries Writings
ICA THE MALL LONDON SW1
OCT 27, NOV 15 KEITH FRAKE

INSTALLATI ON
OCT30 PERFORMANCE BY
KEITH FRAKE
NOV6 PERFORMANCE BY
KEITH FRAKE
NOV20 PERFORMANCE BY
KATE ELWES
DEC 4, 5, 6. PERFORMANCE BY MIRANDA
TUFNELL + DENNIS GREENWOOD
NOV 1-29 Arts Council approaches to
education exhibitions.
IKON
58 -72 JOHN BRIGHT STREET , BIRMINGHAM 81 1BN OPEN MONDAY TO SATUR DAY 10 a.m . 6 p .m . (LAT E NI GHT T HURSQA Y 8 p .m .)
GALLERY TEL: (02 1) 64 3 0708
Is Mary Longford to be
allowed to perform on the
roof of the ICA or not? As
the Mall, London, is the
Blitz). It also manages to
mention the word situa-
tionism 13 times, and quotes
Guy Debord at various
that have been kicking off at
the Comedy Store plus
groups like The Outer
Limits, Furious Pig, Twen-
day, luckily treating it as a
'silly story' as opposed to an
'art-shock' story . The per-
former was quite seriously
.,,
r
street with the highest con- intervals. As one example of tieth Century Coyote etc. hurt, but is now recovering.
centration of military and spectacular cultural A sobering event, and a real
surveillance hardware this packaging to another, we Existing venues are as well as symbolic reminder
m
side of the Irish Sea, there ask - is this wise? having their share of the ex- of the genuine risks taken in
have in the past been cer- citement . The Bush performances that go beyond
tain setbacks in getting per- On the subject of situa- Theatre, London was the normal limits.
mission for this, and other tionists, we noticed in recently the scene of a police
performance assaults on the 'Anarchist Weekly' an in- raid during the Phantom To the Kings Head,
exterior of Nash House. But teresting little item that has Captains Abracadabra Islington for an Indian Ban-
now, after three years of
relative 'good behaviour' in
escaped further document-
ation. It seems that there
Honeymoon . They were not
present to call a halt to the
quet with Cabaret, organised
and cooked by Roger Ely,
C:
z
the eyes of the sensation- was an ad in the agitprop explicit scenes of carnal founder of PS and now
seeking media and the auth- columns of Time Out for a passion in the theatre up- visual arts correspondent of
orities, it seems that this, showing of a 'film of Guy stairs but to remove all the 'Where To Go' (where in-
and more is going to hap- Debord's Society of the beer in the pub. It is deed?) The compere was Loi
pen, and the ICA are going Spectacle'. It gave a phone alleged, apparently, that it Coxhill who, carried away
full steam ahead with a
major performance art sea-
number to ring, which the
writer did, who was directed
was all stolen. The absurdity
of this possibility was
by his latest recording ven-
ture 'Slow Music' on Pipe
C
m
son in the new year. (Sighs to an empty house in Fins- wasted on the management Records (see music feature)
the petulant Mary Longford, bury Park, London . of the theatre, (separate droned on and on until it
"I've been waiting for years (Others, appparently, were from the pub's ) when it was became apparent that he was
for this. I can't believe it's sent to completely different realised that the police attempting to produce 'vocal
really going to happen." ) locations where nothing hap- wanted to close the show muzak'. In other words,
The season includes, along
with Mary Longford inc.
Hesitate and Demonstrate,
the Phantom Captain, and
pened. ) After a while, a few
people turned up and they
all went in to find a room
adorned with a number of
and prevent any more cus-
tomers going around with
stolen propoerty in their
digestive systems. They
words to provide a soothing
background for other words.
As was explained at length
by Mr Coxhill, the honorary
::IJ
many others . John Ashford,
the Theatre Director, who
has been building up to the
found objects with notes
attached to them, mostly of
a situationist nature.
were however persuaded not
to do this, and resorted in-
stead to removing the
guest, Rob Con had not
turned up, but there were
presently announced guest -c
instigation of these events,
will be in Japan on sabbat-
ical, but is reputedly to be
sent videotapes of events as
Then, according to the
writer - 'a number of
autonomists turned up,
looking for a certain well
Burton (if such it was) from
the pub. How this was done
was not entirely clear, as our
informant was '100 floors up
artists, who had more or less
to force the compere off the
stage to take their turn .
There was Bert Smarts m
.,,
they happen by Tim Albery, in a Love Hotel' (the venue
JJ
known situationist ' and the Theatre of Jellyfish (slow
his replacement for the 'film' ended with the entire of the environmentalist s but moving), Ivor Cutler
duration. You too can watch audience being physically latest endeavour) at the and Phyllis April King (both
your arts centre being threatened. Of course there time . equally and magnificently
stormed by the SAS in the was no film, and never inscrutable ) a very dapper
comfort of your armchair would be, and the exercise Further excitement of a Ian Hinchcliffe, G.F . Fitz-
9000 miles away! was presumably a lesson to more horrific nature. gerald on guitar, and Dave
The collapse of the Seven

Arts group (Art & Artists,
Dance & Dancers, Plays &
those who still believed in a
spectacular society enough
to imagine that there might
be.
Lumiere and Son, (reviewed
in the last issue) in their
highly successful 'Circus
Lumiere ' experienced a
Stephens whose solo per-
formance s are getting better
and better and who could
cause Benny Hill to die of
0
Players etc. ) leave others
wondering just how big a
hole in the market has been
More new performance
venues sprouting up around
touch of grim irony that al-
most led to disaster in their
handling of the 'unfunny'
embarassment. A profusely
sweating Roger Ely emerged
shattered from the kitchens
::IJ
3::
left . While not suggesting London. An old building in aspects of clowning. A of the Kings Head after
the idea of Performance and Islington previously owned magician ends his act by sending before him several
Performers , one can't help by Becks Carnival Novelties handing a note to one of the different courses originating
feel that there are a lot of until the locally notorious audience (a plant, luckily) from various regions of the
ex-subscribers out there.
Who ever you are .. . forget
murder of Mr Beck (it was a
funny busines s) is becoming
indicating that they should
do what is written on the
sub-continent . Th e meal was
party to the presence of that
l>
z
about the other stuff - it the Almeida Theatre, .and note, This ends with words rare British Event: A large
was all redundant anyway. will be specialising in per- to the effect 'now stab me', Performance Art Audience
There are a lot of small formances from abroad . with which the member of Not Entirely Composed Of
struggling art magazines Meanwhile, an Existen- the audien ce complies highly Other Artists. The other
needing your support. Like tialist Cafe Theatre opens in realistically . Until the blood British Event was Mick
us, for example. And like
Primary Sources, our
nearest competitor . And like
Leicester Place, Soho,
masterminded by the Artaud
Company, who will be per-
appeared , the audien ce were
still treating it as a joke.
However the usual precau-
Banks , as Bert Smart and
his Jellyfish, named Anti-
disestablishm entarianism 0
it's new competitor ZG,
formed out of a thwarted
takeover bid for PS . Edited
forming adaptations of lesser
known work by Camus,
Sartre etc. Get out the black
tions protecting the per-
former had gone wrong and
the all-too-real knife had
'afte r th e Welsh Railway
Station ,' and Art s Council
of Great Brita-in, 'because of m

and produced by Rosetta jumpers and cigarette penetrated his body. The its spinelessne ss.' They did
Brooks, Juliet Ash and holders and see you there . show was stopped, and the everything but wobbl e to the
Garrad Martin , it has an I'm the one with the dead company was faced with re- tune of 'Th e Dambu sters'.
interview with Duggie carnation and the copy of Le rehearsing very fast for the For risking not only heavy
Monde. The Comic Strip, rest of the run . 'Clown

Fields , a pin-up of Silvia losses but also vats of un eaten
Ziranek and a survey of also in that area, opens at Stabbed As Joke Misfires' dahl, Ely is to be con gratul-
'Blitz Culture' (you know - the Boulevard Theatre and was the headline in the -ated , and it is to be hoped
the ones who go to the feature all the cult comics Daily Mirror the following that similar initiat ives follow.
It is often difficult to see just what, if any, is the connec-
tion between art andpolitics. In Performance, however,
women have produced over the last ten years or so some
of the most daring and innovative work around. The con-
junction of this body of work with feminism and the
women's movement provides a positive example of such
a connection. The genre's lack of formal restriction, it's
opposition to hierarchy and systems have proved useful
to women struggling to articulate their own opposition to
oppressive structures in art and life. Performance art has
traditionally been the art worlds medium of social con-
frontation. 'About Time' is a ten-day show of perform-
ance, video, installation, tape-slide and film work, part of
the series of three womens shows being held at the ICA,
London. It provides a rare opportunity to look at current
work in this field. It is especially interesting to be able to
consider live work in the context of painting, sculpture,
and photography by women, (Womens images of Men,
and the exhibition 'Eight Artists, Women, and the Acme
Gallery) and political questions. 'Issues ' exhibition and
conference.)
The whole history of women as artists has been a history
of oppression through the total suppression of their work.
Even as a token, the appearance of woman on the pages of
art history is rare. And then it is not expressed in terms of
equality in tackling common problems of form and content,
but as a remarkable feat of 'holding her own' agianst the
inevitably superior work of men. To illustrate, it is rarely
the formal qualities of a woman artists' work which are
considered-the use of light and colour ofBerthe Morisot,
the heavily modelled figures of Paula Mohderson Becker -
but their subject matter - domestic interiors, or scenes
with mothers and children, cited as illustrative of women's
prime interest in offspring and the home. That, in the 19th
and early 20th century this was all women were allowed to
be interested in, is not mentioned . The male Impression-
ists use of cabaret and park scenes is considered to have
brought in a whole new range of subject matter. All that was
really new about it however, was the way it was painted. c...
C:
a.
Male recreation - hunting, fighting, lovemaking and war s:
- have been the subjects of paintings for all time. Even :r:
0
though much work has now been done by women art histor- (0
ians to make known work by women and begin to redress s

the balance, the subject of women's contribution to art is
still not an easy one to tackle .
i
3
A show such as 'About Time' is thus to be welcomed, for
it must of necessity challenge the status quo. In it, 21
women artists will be presenting work in live performance,
installation, video and film. The emergence of women as were eagerly utilised as womens work and the number of
strongly represented in 'the field of live work has an inter- women artists flourished throughout the decade. Theim-
esting history. Women have always made art work - of portance of the Womens Movement for this development
that there can be little doubt, even if its proper appreci- cannot be underestimated. It was only within an atmos-
ation requires a little stretching of the boundaries of the phere of shared struggle and mutual understanding that
subject to make room for tapestry, embroidery, or patch- some of the painful self exploration and revelation that
work quilts. The last decade however, has seen women women undertook in their art work and their lives (indica-
move out from these 'marginalised' areas to a position tive of their commitment to the personal as political) could
which consciously challenges the art world hierarchy which have been possible. Indeed, so successful were some of
makes such distinctions initially possible. The seizure of those works in epitomising the experience of all women in a
live or performance art by committed feminist artists has sexist society, that some younger women seem to feel that
played a vital part in this process. The first Women's Art such material has been 'done'. Thus, while acknowledging
programme was founded by Judy Chicago at Fresno State the impact and importance of the Women's Movement,
College, California, in 1970. Here, women turned to per- they feel that the battle is won, and that they really do
formance. As Judy Chicago put it 'Performance can be function as equals with men. Such an optimistic view is
fueled by rage in a way painting and sculpture can't. The understandable. After all, as Jacky Lansley points out later,
women at Fresno did performances with almost no skills, it gets boring always dealing with the same issues, of
but they were powerful performances because they came sexism, oppression and the rest. However, there can be
out of authentic feelings.' The work of Fresno and later at little doubt that the issues which made the emergence and
Cal Arts and Womanhouse had an immediate resonance for struggles of the womens movement so vital for all womens
women, and the possibilities of live and mixed media work lives are with us still.
6
At a Press conference at the ICA to introduce its series of much that oppression works to their benefit.
womens shows, Margaret Harrison read out a statement 'About Time' is not a survey show. Neither does it offer a
from the Artists Union. This made quite clear that the history of women in performance. The show was selected,
pos1t1on of women artists has in fact declined by Rose Garrard arid Kate Elwes, with Sandy Nairn from
first demonstration for parity held at the Hayward 'Con- the ICA, from an open submission, widely advertised to
dition of Sculpture' exhibition in 1975. That exhibition had eAcourag as many entries as possible. The criterion of sel-
36 men and four women taking part. This years Hayward ection was that the works should show 'an awareness of the
Annual has two women out of 35 exhibitors. The short list situation of women under the patriarchy'. Most of the work
for Arts Council Visual Arts Awards has no women on it, in the show, which includes live work, performance with
although 22% of applicants were women. The selection video, video itself, tape slide, film and installation is con-
committee was composed entirely of men, among them the cerned with the issues of identity and imge which existence
notoriously sexist Allen Jones. in another culture - male culture - makes crucial for
It is always hard to keep a struggle going. No-one wants women. The opportunity to consider work on this theme
to be angry for ten years. But women, having made clear to oyer the ten days alloted to it at the ICA is fill exciting
the benefit of all the way class, politics and sexism com- opportunity to begin to get some measure of its strength
bine to bruise all our lives, must not be pushed once more and range.
into the background. The appropriation of the language of However, the very decision to submit or not to submit
feminism as a metaphor of oppression for all (the recent use work for the show has been a question for some of its con-
of the term 'sexism' by men to describe their own diffi- tributors, and also some who have decided not to take part
culties within a repressive culture, for example) is a subtle - Th nature of performance itself has often served to
tactic on the part of those who have yet to admit just how make it difficult to keep track of and assess its develop-
7
Rose Garrard 'Surveillance' Marceline Mori 'Andro-Gyne'
ment. Many artists, fearful of inclusion in a system they artworld contexts - the street, unusual locations such as an
despise, do not like to have their work documented. Carlyle agricultural Show or an Ideal Home exhibition. Bobby
Reedy, for example, a pioneer of the performance form in Baker, who has tried to deal with this problem in her own
London, who appears in 'About Time', has no record of work, described a recent experience of performing in the
much of her early work. Many other women have only frag- Exhibition Centre at Birmingham. Here her piece 'Packed
ments, chance photographs, or planning notes of early Lunch' (also presented at the Hayward Annual', found a
pieces. Live work is, by its very nature, easy to miss, and receptive and aware audience, happy to settle down and
women, carefully conditioned into invisibility are often enjoy the free lunch she had prepared, but quick also to
expert at keeping their work out of sight. However, for appreciate its underlying questions. Bobby's piece in
some there is another, political dimension to this notion of 'About Time' will question the role of competition in the art
'absence'. For several of the women represented in the world, and indeed in the exhibition itself. For those who
present show have spent considerable time in questioning have suffered in their work and in their lives the effects of a
the role and relevance of the gallery as a suitable place to sexist system, an opportunity to make use of one of its facili-
show their or indeed any womens work. Thus some ties - the exhibition gallery at the ICA - must be
'absence' is a direct result of a decision not to be seen - approached with a caution born of experience.
seen that is in the context of an art world which many Some women have organised a separate show, at the
women artists have decided to reject as destructive to their Bakehouse Gallery, Blackheath, which under the title
own creativity. Performance Art has long been involved in 'Extended images of men' also includes some performance
this questioning of the art world dependence on the gallery work. Shirley Cameron presented a piece there which
system. It has often seen as part of its task the direct dealt humourously with some of the 'men in her life',
questioning of this relation by presenting work in non- father, lovers, husband, work partner and gallery director.
8
Belinda Williams 'The Way We Are' Bobby Baker 'An Edible Family in a Mobile Home
Both the ICA and the Bakehouse show raise the other more Programme 12.009.00pm each day excepting Monday
INSTALLATION Wall, Film and Video
general question of the danger of 'Ghettoising' women's art Sarah Bradpie ce Soap Service 30 0c t -9Nov
as such , a category which can be dealt with as separate, Susan Hiller 10Month s 300c t - 9Nov
T ina Keane See-Saw 300 ct -2Nov
and by implication, not to be taken seriously, safely dis- Jan e Rigby Counte r Poise 300c t -2Nov
missed after ten days. A reluctance to take part in any such Alex Meigh What do you think 4N ov - 9Nov
happened to Liz?
self marginalisation was frequently expressed by contri- VIDEO
butors to the ICA show. Marceline Mori Andro-gyne 30 Oct - 9 Nov
Julie Sheppard T his moment is different each day at intervals
Thus the situation faced by women artists is neither com-
TAPESLIDE
fortable nor easy. But, through their own struggles to be Sharon Morri s Family Portrait 30 and 3 I Oct
both seen and heard, there is beginning to come together a Pat Whit eread Journey of Human Error I and 2 Nov
Belinda Williams T he Way We Are 4 and S Nov
considerable body of work which will make it possible to Jud ith Higginbotto m Water into Wine 6 and 7 Nov
begin to look at women's work on its own terms. Within Robert a M . Graham Short Cuts to Sharp Looks8 and 9 Nov
PERFORMANCE
this context, it is possible to view 'About Time' as indeed a Rose Garrard Beyond Still Life 7.00pm 30 0 ct
step forward. For the next struggle is to have women accep- Catherine Elwes Ech Fine Strand 7.00pm31 Oct
Silvia Ziranek Rubbergl overama Dr ama 1.00&,7.00pm I Nov
ted as primary image makers, as innovators and concep- Rose Finn-Kelc ey Mind the Gap 1.00& 7.00pm 2Nov
tualisers of depth and power, whom it is necessary both to Celia Garbutt Supermarket 1.00& 7.00pm 4Nov
Sonia Knox Spring 1980 7.00pm S Nov
heed and to understand. The women taking part in 'About Bobby Baker My Cooking Competes ... 1.00& 7.00pm 6Nov
Time' are well aware of their part in that struggle. Carlyle Reedy Woman One 7.00pm 7Nov
& l.00p m9Nov
Hannah O 'Shea 'A VISUAL TI ME-SPAN' l.00 &7 .00pm 8Nov
(A Visual Diary)
Lyn MacRitchie TO WARDS A SOUN D
TRACK
Jacky Lansley has been working for most of this year on a their comeuppance in Albrecht, whom class, true love and
radical remake of the ballet 'Giselle'. Working in collabor- religion combine to save from their clutches. The status
ation with Fergus F.arly in what is now a company of five, quo, threatened by the group identity and power of the
they have tackled this 19th century mammoth, still a Wilis, is restored.
stalwart of the Covent Garden repertoire . Indeed, a pro- The combination of such powerful archetypes with
duction of the original 'Giselle' is scheduled in one such stunning displays of technique and theatricality had
venue at the same time as the new version is to open in ensured the ballet's continuing success as a vehicle of bour-
London. A direct comparison will thus be possible, for geois ideology well worth its government subsidy.
those with the time to visit Action Space and the money for 'I, Giselle' attempts to deconstruct the original's implicit
Covent Garden. I questioned Jacky about the new piece, assumptions about class and sexuality. Jacky is most con-
and our discussion attempted to follow through the political cerned with the transformation of the character of Giselle
implications of such an endeavour. But first the story ... ... . herself. The new piece for example, rounds out her
relationship with her mother, showing it as one of learning
The story of the original 'Giselle' was written by Theo- and support . It implies that there is a strong link between
phile Gautier, and the ballet, with choreography by Jean Giselle's mother and the Queen of the Wilis, that they
Coralli and music by Adolphe Adam, was first presented at might be one and the same woman, full of knowledge and
the Paris Opera in 1841. It is a strange story , mixing arche - skill. In the new piece, Giselle is not taken in by the hand-
type and folk tale in a melodrama of curious power . Giselle some prince. She knows what he is up to, and taxes him
lives with her mother in a Rhineland village. She loves to with it, exposing his soft white hands, betrayers of his class
dance, but she has a weak heart, and has been warned that origins in a clever piece of mime. In the climatic mad scene,
she may die and become a Wili . Wilis were the ghosts of kept from the original, it is not Giselle who goes mad, but
young women who had died before their wedding night. the rest, presented as her class mates in a ballet scene,
They rise up at midnight to dan ce togeth er. If a young man driven mad by their increasingly frantic efforts to conform.
should cross their path at this hour, he will be surrounded The new Giselle questions the 'fema le as victim' role, and
and compelled to join in their frenzied dancing until he falls tries to expose it. Just why does Giselle go mad at the
dead. Giselle had fallen in love with Albrecht, a prince dis- moment of awareness, just as her anger at Albrecht's decep-
guised as a peasant. Hilarion, a game keeper in love with tion breaks out? Jacky is anxious to show that Giselle's
Giselle himself, exposes Albrecht's deception to her. anger and its cause should be clearly seen - the anger a
Giselle goes mad, and dies of a broken heart . In the second positive and justified response which the original 'Giselle' is
act, the scene shifts to the dark forest around Giselle's not allowed to make.
grave. Here Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, dances alone, The new Giselle utilises a formidable range of dance and
using a magic evocation to make the Wilis appear. Hilarion theatre techniques and the integrated use of audio visual
arrives, searching for Giselle's grave. He is surrounded by material. The work has evolved through workshops and
the Wilis and forced to his death. Albrecht, also mourning exercises in which all five of the cast attempted to grapple
Giselle, appears, and is commanded by Myrtha to dance to with the questions the piece raised. Their varied personal
his death. But Giselle intervenes to save him, telling him to skills have all contributed to the final form. Giselle, for
go to the cross over her grave . The power of the cross is example, played by Susie Gilmore, has written the songs
greater than the power of the Queen of the Wilis, and which enable her to literally 'find a voice'. To set the scene,
Albrecht is saved. the new work retains an 'overture' where aspects of the
Jacky agreed that the ballet most obviously seemed to music are explored and combined, and slides of the original
provide a clear metaphor for the sexual oppression of and later productions of the pallet are used between scenes
women, employing a full range of 19th century double- to give the 'context of exploration'. Slides of the present
think to do so. Giselle is young, beautiful, sexually ready- piece are cut in to these to make the point quite clear. Jacky
her love of dancing is metaphor enough for this. But she is feels that the new production says strongly that such com-
assuredly pure - the dread of the Wilis takes care of that. bination of apparently disparate elements is indeed pos-
Her betrayal by Albrecht and her immediate retreat into sible, and may even be almost necessary if the complexities
madness are proof of her purity, while the mad scene of the issues raised are to be even approached.
showing her dancing frenziedly with flowing hair, pro- The classical ballet is often considered to be an alien,
vided confirmation of her sexual potential in an erotic spec- elite, form, of interest only to a certain audience already
tacle for the 19th century audience. The Wilis, safely dead, quite secure in their right of access to cultural con-
can symbolise the extent and depth of female sexual sumption (indeed clearly expressing notions of ownership
potential, but they cannot win. Allowed one victim, the through the tradition of gifts to the ballerina - todays
frustrated(and possibly virgin - after all he was really in bouquets were originally diamond tiaras). 'I, Giselle' makes
love, not like the dallying prince) - Hilarion, they meet clear that the 'living museum' qualities of a standard per-
10
formance still fulfil the same social function that ballet has inter relation with each other and with the female roles?
always done. Jacky is quick to point out the human Jacky felt that the notion of the men as supporting of the
suffering that such shows involve in terms of training and emergence of a strong female character should be present in
mental and physical discipline for the women involved. the piece. 'Giselle' did indeed represent a simple vehicle for
'Going to a ballet is very much like going to a museum - the representation off emale oppression, for ballet in no way
but real people have to act it out every night! You don't attempted to deal with complex social or psychological
have to have fifty women going through the pain and agony issues. But there was the danger of making any attempt to
of dancing 'Swan Lake' every night to get that kind of do this also too simple; that was the crux of the problem. It
dramatic effect.' Jacky also emphasised the link between was too easy simply to show the other side of oppressive
that sort of performance and money. Classical baliet soaked coin. It was necessary to look much more deeply at the
up funds which could be shared out to help new work in implications of the ballet, so that its exploration did not
dance. 'I, Giselle', a full length production, had been made merely trigger off one-dimensional images.
for 2,000. And, as Jacky suggested, 'perhaps it is a better What was the way forward? did Jacky see any possibility
"Giselle" I' for women themselves to become prime instigators or
The replacement of the old stereotypes raised many archetypes? She was hopeful that such could be a possibil-
questions. In one seme, this could be done simply enough, ity, and cited the work of women already working in this
by a process of reversal. Giselle could be shown as strong area in dance and performance. She also made the impor-
and aware, Albrecht as weak and deceiving. But did the tant point tht it was not only the images or archetypes them-
piece attempt any deeperexamination of the male/female selves which were important, but what happened between
relationships presented by the ballet? Jacky explained that them. For example, the digging up of an ancient image of
the company had done a lot of work with the idea of role oppression, the persecution of witches, could be represen-
reversal. This had an interesting hisorical precedent in that ted as a fresh image of a lone woman with dangerous
some of ballets famous fem ale roles were originally played knowledge.
by men. The mother in 'La Fille Mai Gardee' was one such, Our discussion was lengthy and at times quite difficult. It
while Franz, the hero of 'Coppelia' had originally been is not easy to keep a clear head when discussion opposition-
danced by a woman. In the present piece, however, initial al work. For the generalisation of oppression represented
experiments with role reversal had been abandoned. by some cultural artefacts such as 'Giselle' runs very deep,
Fergus had danced Giselle's mother at an early preview of and at present there are few positive role models to turn to
the piece. Both men had taken the role of Wilis in an for guidance. However, the function of a piece such as 'I,
exercise (as much a necessity to make up numbers). It had Giselle,' could only be exemplary. Jacky had hit on the par-
been necessary to keep them veiled, disguised in the scene. ticular power of performance, long valued by the bour-
Their undisguised eruption into a female domain had geoisie - its ability to influence by example through
seemed wrong. The seemingly simple experiment of role pleasure - when she made the following apposite and
reversal had in practice proved unworkable. The initial hopeful summary... 'I always feel that, particularly in
premise, that of making Giselle a .strong character, had performance, the new, exciting, vibrant thing is not neces-
seemed simple enough. But if men were shown in collabor- sarily the images you are showing, or the archetypes, but
ation with such an enterprise, presumably supporting it by what is happening in between. It is the behaviour. Its seeing
participation, what role did it suggest for them? In the .n..:misbehave, through performance behaving in ways in
original, one watched active male characters going about which in society I am not allowed to. The more women can
their business, chasing women, dallying, earning a living. make spaces for themselves to do that, the more they will be
'I, Giselle' showed up the weakness of these men - the able to create those new archetypes .... '.
prince's lily white hands and his duplicity, his clumsiness Lyn MacRitchie
even in deception. Hilarion, the peasant, is filled with class '[, Giselle'plays at Action Space, 16 CheniesSt, WCI, from
hatred as well as sexual jealousy of the prince. It was 17th October- 1st November, and will be touringBritain
certainly good to make these contradictions plain. But was betweenNovember and February. Details and bookingsfrom
there any possible way to deal with these male roles, their Jacky Lansley or FergusEarly, 01-515 4279.
11
The lights in the auditorium are dim. - " But Tom Saddington hasn't had a the edges giving very bright reflec-
Passers-by sense a hush of antici- grant. It's entirely self financed." tions - colours on the shimmering
pation, then a grinding, whirring, - "What a waste of his money - surfaces - like neon. I feel jealous
screaming noise that builds to acres - shouldn't be allowed." that I can't express this too. We are
cendo ... - " ..but think what is spent on holi- then made aware of the panel of
- " No no -don't run away-it's Tom days, alcohol, cigarettes, three people sitting behind a large
Saddington - he's a jeweller." Defence ..." desk , which is labelled so that we
- "A jeweller!" I invite the dissenters to come along shall know their significance -
- "Y es, he's trying to make people and judge the event for themselves. The Experts. Who are these Ex-
view jewe llery in a different way T.here is no way of knowing if they perts? Art critics? Crafts Council
and ..." by the reaction I realise he has did, but the auditorium was full and assessors ? Nuclear physicists...?
a long way to go. applause rang out as the shining ob- They confer, observe the
Tom Saddington's Cigarette ject of controversy was manhandled audience , peer over at the pack-
Package Performance took place on into position. age, make and receive notes and
Saturday 27 September 1980 at the At this point in time I cease to worry sip their beverages.
Brewhouse theatre , Taunton, where about putting my job in jeopardy, All around there is constant but
he was welded into a giant stainless the grant whic;:hpays my wages subdued activity, from helpers and
steel , 'flip top' , cigarette-type packet being swiftly withdrawn and my photographers , audience and
made from a seventeen foot blank - knuckles being severely rapped organisers , adding gently to th~ at-
cut and bent. He was then trans- with broken bricks. I am awed by mosphere and interest. Then the
ported by road to the Arnolfini the beautiful spotlit sculpture, package is turned on its side and
Gallery , Bristol. British Rail would made all the more stunning by the the cutting process is ready to
not, at the last moment, carry him. knowledge that a human being is start. A grinder is carefully applied
Radios 1, 4 and Bristol gave q inside and I look for a faint move- to te cutting line and a huge ejacu-
Friday morning plug but not having ment. (A steel membrane - the lation of sparks flies roofwards.
personally heard them I was some. umbilical cord of a microphone - It takes approximately forty
what bewildered to find Tom, Ian am I feeling maternal?) The light minutes to complete the cutting
Watson (director of South West Arts) reflects from the container onto the operation. Moments of growing im-
and myself involved in a phone-in black drapes in a delicate filigree patience are quashed by yet an-
Radio Bristol programme later in the of green and orange. other spectacular shower of
morning which invited the following . The microphone is plugged in sparks. The 'Voice' gives instruc-
- "The Arts Council waste their and Tom 's disembodied voice ex- tions to Bill Evans, the 'cutter' and
money on such silly things - piles plains the journey and the welding occasionally descriptions of con-
of bricks, cigarette packets ..." which shone shafts of light through ditions inside the container - the
12
heat and dust - the need to ::,up- lets. Tom directs the use of the tion marks the completion of the
port the walls while cutting takes mallets and although a few flinch performance.
place to steady them and himself. as the booming starts the noise is The packet's temporary resting
- "Yes I'm alright..." the voice now not unpleasant. The man swings place is the upper bar area of the
sounds faint and distant. positively and exudes expertise - Arnolfini, Bristol. Catalogues and
At last the packet is standing up- the women might too if gave them posters produced by Tom Sad-
right and the final weld is cut. A a chance . Tom intervenes. A dington are available from the
pair of hands wriggle through the curious tribal rhythm of mallet bookshop .
front slit looking like small sub- blows develops. The audience
terranean creatures against the seems more empathetic at this EPILOGUE
hard, shiny steel. Then with sur- stage - a considerable number I admit I'm a sucker for theatrical
prisingly little effort the top 'flips' had volunteered. atmospheres - darkened rooms and
back revealing head and shoulders. Buzzers and bells start ringing a feeling of suspense and am just an
The scene for me at that point and we realise it is the Experts. old sensualist when it comes to
changed completely. The heavy, The booming subsides. Tom an- coloured lights and flying sparks -
cold, forbidding object was suddenly nounces, but I don't think I'm alone. Perfor-
brought into a new perspective now it - "The Experts want our attention." mance Art can be entertaining and
was open and a person visible inside. stimulating on many levels and I
Anticipatory pause.
It became somehow smaller and found it refreshing that the source
- "Right they've had enough atten-
'friendly'. Tom escaped with merely a was not strictly 'fine' art or theatre.
tion." And the crushing proceeds.
grazed elbow amidst applause from There is much talent lurking around
Another buzzing interruption, and
all, commenting the field of jewellery at the moment.
an Expert takes a photograph.
- "It was like being inside a firework Its barriers are being broken as fast
When the crushing seems to be
display." as a young pugilists proboscis. So
sufficient, the hammering ceases
perhaps at this point I should des- look out for the punches.
and Tom throws a pot of blue paint
cribe Tom Saddington'swork. He has over the pack. This final desecra- Helen Craven
long been fascinated with used
packaging, making small silver cans,
bags, sweet papers and 'wrapper
various' , which he then partially
PerformanceBooks 1
crushes and makes into brooches,
immortalising 'rubbish'. Tom looks to
the day when people will pick up old
A LONG FOOTNOTE ON
bus tickets and sweet wrappers that
take their fancy and pin them to lapels
and tee-shirts . Edible jewellery is an-
ROBERT WILSON
other fetish. Apple crumble
ROBERT WILSON:
brooches, banana jelly adornments part series of which we will consider
THE THEATRE OF VISIONS
- mould commending transience and quote from Book 1 'The Theatre of
STEFAN BRECHT
and ingenuity . How about one stage Visions: Robert Wilson'. The first
Suhrkamp
further? - clothes designed with thing that has to be noticed is that this
food stains in mind. It is one of the teasing perversities of book is both inaccessible and strangely
Tom wanted to make his point and life that the son of a man who is un-noti ced in this country , as has to
performance seemed a natural pro- . idolised by State and dissident alike as some extent the work of Wilson. It is
gression. In 1978, again at Arnolfini, the father of social realistic theatre published in English by a German
he was welded into a five foot high should be totally devoted to studying publisher, Suhrkamp , unpriced and in
steel can. He transmitted commen- the work of one of the most famous ex- paperback . Yet this book, and many of
taries every fifteen minutes and after ponents of that subjective, some may the others contain a wealth of source
two hours was released with the aid say decadent discipline, Performance material concerning the making of Per-
of a giant tin opener. Art. formance, and although slightly turgid
Tom argues that getting inside the Stefan Brecht, son and reluctant cus- and esoteric, no more so than Jeff
can and packet is tantamount to todian of the estate of Bertolt Brecht Nuttall's Performance Art Memoirs
getting inside a piece of jewellery to resides in New York where, while and scripts would seem to be a native of
wear it. Perhaps complete immersion sending away with fleas in their ear the New York.
in jewellery will be our next status many who pursue him concerning the Indeed, where Nuttall 's books make
symbol - a show of affluence - a furtherance of his father's legend; he one feel that the only and most im-
therapy for the wealthy introvert. has been embroiled in the making of a portant developments in Performance
Bearing all this in mind we return to legend of a very different kind .. .. that worldwide were being born among a
the escapologist. He has asked the surrounding the instigator of The Life small network of friends stretching
experts to use their skill and judge- and Times of Sigmund Freud, A from obscure northern towns to Bette r
ment in choosing three volunteers Letter for Queen Victoria, Einstein on Books basement , The Theatre of
from the audience to help crush the the Beach, and I was sitting on my Visions generates a similar illusion
packet. patio when this guy appeared I thought about, say, the YMHA on E. 14th St.
They pull a top hat full of pieces I was hallucinating, Robert Wilson. or a loft in Spring St.
of paper from the depths of their Stefan Brecht has been engaged on a The book itself is a cluster of pro-
barricade and take out the top writing project that can only be des- duction notes, recollections, inter-
three. Three names are called out. cribed as sprawling, 'The Original views, and personal interpretations by
Two women, one man. They are Theatre of the City of New York - Brecht . They all combine to show a
issued with special wooden mal- From the mid-60s to the mid-70s' a ten passion for every single facet, every
13
sidetrack, obsession, stammer and don't have it," I w.as very strict (laughter.)'
stutter associated with the life a,~<l (laughter) so came (laughter) the last From this extract it can be seen how
work of Wilson, that which, in any class I had and she wasn't there. And I Wilson savours the semantics of the
case is known, for there is also much said "Where is Sandra?" (laughter) girl's excuse/story, and how his work is
uncertainty. She's her- she's here- I said "well, why built up from detailed observation of
The book begins: 'It seems that isn't she in the class?" "We don't those who differ from the mainstream
Robert Wilson was born in Waco, know- we don't know-" So about of behaviour.
Texas, on October 4th 1941, that his twenty minutes, late, she comes in and Stefan Brecht details many of these
family was white, middle-class, Pro- she-she was fantastic-she's real- sort of anecdotes in his profuse foot-
testant and Southern, and that from (laughter) When she came in it was like notes. He also carefully describes the
1959 to 1962, having graduated from really theatre, she just knew that various 'visions' that embody the
high school, and having been more or everyone would sort of look at her and work, and how they are achieved. He
less cured of a speech impediment by a all the guys were sort of going gives clues, buried keys to the doors
dancer, Mrs Byrd Hoffman, he AHHHHHH! (laughter) And all the Wilsons swings open and shut with
studied at the university of Texas, girls hated her because she was good such ease. - 'If they are not outright
where he did theatre work with looking - so she comes in and sits fantastic .... the activities are only in
children.' down in her seat - then there's a lot of the most superficial sense everyday ... .
By this point there are already four giggling, then it's very quiet and I said partying, dining, fishing, watching
footnotes, which does not seem too ex- "Okay, where is your painting?" She animals in a cage, running on a beach.
treme, until one realises that this is said "well ..... " She starts telling me In fact they are decidedly odd, when
more or less the rate per sentence for the story, and then she, for thirty not out of the ordinary .... they are odd
the rest of the book. In fact this is the minutes she tells the story, and the by some detail or accumulation of
only book I have encountered, though whole spacing of her wor- of her details, by a context of setting or of
there are probably others, where the language, like, ah ..... she'd say two other activities, or simply by prolong-
footnotes exceed the main text in words and then maybe she'd pause and ation or reptition, or else odd, i.e. in-
volume. The Theatre of Visions is not then, it wasn't like with the periods explicable, not making sense, in them-
so much littered with footnotes, it is and the commas and the semi-colons, selves (taking snapshots of a hole in the
buried up to the neck in them. no, it's it's and the whole phrasing of ground, listening to wires, using a
Most of them consist of long rele- the words as well, it almost took on magnifying glass as lorgnette, carrying
vant quotes, which have been included another sort of thing when she rocks or panes of glass, covering a
eniirely verbatim, so one is in the talked ... she'd, she says, "Well, Bird" ladder with hay) in the context of this
position of appreciating fully the cir- she says, "I'm gonna tell you a general quiet madness, some perfectly
cuitous juddering flow of Wilson's story ... " So she s-s-started - she's got reasonable natural things that are
speech, complete with the remains of the whole class just like this listening to done, - sipping tea, telling about
his impediment. her. And she tells this story, she says, I one's childhood, - seem odd too.'
The Mrs Byrd Hoffman became was in my room and 1-1 was thinking In short this is a book for Wilson
later immortalised in Wilson's work, - I've got to do a paint;ng for Bird's afficionados rather than those who
when his entire company of per- class." And- and everything she- was want a clear critical vision of the work.
formers, including autistic, deaf and very- structurally- so she says, "and I It is for those who want to be eased into
dumb personnel, was to be named the couldn't think of what to do so I took a world where the so-called abnormal
Byrd Hoffman School ofByrds. Stefan my clothes off." And everyone goes becomes super-normal 'verging on the
Brecht himself causes initial confusion AHHHHHH ! Sandra took her clothes supra-normal'.
to the reader by casually referring to off! -(laughter) So she says "and then Even so, to the outside world, where
the performers as byrds, so immersed I got some jars of paint" You know she it can be deciphered, it strings to-
is he in his intimate description of the tell this whole story, about how she got gether the fragments of what is, on the
work. paint, and, ah, she got paint all over face of it, a rather out-of-the ordinary
Wilson is followed through the fairly her and she'd, ah, she jumps in her history . A man, who cured of a speech
unremarkable experience of applying bed, and she pulled the sheets in her defect, goes on to work with others
liberal educational principles in bed off, and she was rolling all over the defective in some shape or form, and
obscure American High schools. It is floor, it was like it takes her thirty somehow redirects the concentrated
in his description of certain events, minutes to tell the story. Incredible faculties of those lacking in other areas
however that lead us, through the story, can't can't even- describe, how to create an art-form that has grabbed
modulations of his speech, and his em- fantastic it is, how she- how she the attention of both the art and theatre
pathy with the potential for absurd started .... and everyone just like this- world in almost equal proportions .
interpretations of adult expectations the whole time listening (short pause) That in New York, where artistic sec-
by children to a foretaste of the vision- and then, (laugh) she says " and I've tarianism is probably even fiercer than
ary power he is to tap. got the mattress on the floor, and I got in London.
He was having problems with one the sheets all over the floor, and I've A man, the son of one who has
girl who was in his class to whom he paint all over me, and all over the become elevated as Shakespeare to the
had given a final ultimatum to pro- mattress and all over the floor, and all inh.1bitants of East Germany an4
-duce a painting by the end of term . over the sheets," and she says "and my whose plays have been performed
was like, the next to the last day. I said mother walks in" (laughter) And she badly in numerous venues on the
"where is your painting?" "I don't says, "Sandra, what are you doing?" 'quiche belt' of this country, who was
have it" (Uhum) "Okay" I said, "we "Oh I'm doing a painting for Bird's exiled to New York with his father,
have just one more class and you better class." And then there's this long from whose shadow he seeks to escape,
have it" and the kids thought I was pause. The she says, "And then, Bird, finds himself swept into the maelstrom
very - sort of, yah, they - I was my mother confiscated the sheets," of activity surrounding the birth of
afraid to think, well I told her "well (laughter) So, anyway "You get an that artform that attracts the most criti-
you-you-you won't pass my class if you A-plus" I said. "That's fantastic!" cisms of obscurity and esoteric frivol-
14
ity, contemporary performance art. can hear the sound. - But, a lot, all the ice cubes here too.
This man becomes the diarist, the people didn't realise it. It's like, - Would Bertolt have recognized this
recording angel of all the various maybe, maybe you sensed it, - like as theatre of Alienation? ....
modes of thought that go to make up a something is a little strange (short Rob La Frenais
Robert Wilson Performance. He laugh) but I didn't want 'em to say Robert Wilson: The Theatre of Visions
clearly feels it important to get down "Oh, they've got that chair miked," it can be ordered by Frenches Theatre
every single detail, every clue, every wasn't that but - the reality was Bookshop, and may soonbe on saleat the
lead in a trail that leads to the source of slightly off, was like, - sort of barely, l.C.A. Bookshop, London. Price
the Theatre of visions. you know, and it was just that I didn't unknown.
Born out of a historical context, want it to - and also I had a mike on
Brecht is out to rewrite history for
recent performances have been given by
himself.
Stefan Brecht Let me ask you for a Venues Common Stock, The Women's Theatre
Group, Jail Warehouse, Gavin Briars and
favor - it may be sort of painful, but Major Chorlton-cum-Hardy 's Majestic
would you mind saying what was in the
play - go through the contents for me,
Hoxton Hall Music Hall and the resident perform
ance company .
tell me like the individual things that We are always on the lookout for new The members of the team differ in their
happened? performance venues or bring to light preferences, attitu~s and biases as to
Robert Wilson I can tell you and it will some of those that tend to be neglected what their work should consist of.
be like a very mechanical thing by the Press. Hoxton Hall, one of Another team member, David Urie said,
SB That's all I want London 's original old Music Halls is just 'Ours. is the theatre of values not the
RW But I can tell you what happens. such a venue . It began life in 1863, when theatre of causes '. When I asked him
Uh, what happens is - first of all I the theatre boom arrived in Mid-Victorian what he meant , he defined the 'theatre of
Shoreditch. Once surrounded by much values ' as being that where human ex-
know that I'm in an opera house, I'm
loved theatres and Halls such as the periences and feeling are predominant
not in a law firm or anything like that Britannia, the Standard, the Varieties in and that which 'enhances the imagin-
- and I know that. I'm using an opera Pitfield Street (now derelict but still ation' and the 'theatre of causes ' as being
house -And, - I know that I want to standing bearing the name 'Raymonds ' didactic theatre, political theatre, feminist
keep the audience attracted so- so- I and threatened with demolition) and the theatre etc. When I asked why he didn 't
wanted to be viewed at a distance. London Music Hall in Shoreditch High support political theatre he said 'That's all
SB That struck me as strange relative Street, Haxton Hall remains the sole rubbish. We 're here to entertain.'
to your wanting to expose people - survivor . Jim Dunk , a newer member of the team
The indiviciuals. Since it was built by John Mortimer and an ex-teacher , agrees that theatre
for 'the specific object of affording to the need not be didactic but is more
RW I felt - I felt that you could still committed to the values of socialism. He
humbler classes entertainment that shall
look at the people and also the larger combine instruction with amusement' , would like to see an end to complacency
stage picture was always very impor- Haxton Hall has had many incarnations. in the theatre . 'I do not believe in the myth
tant - everything happened together In 1866 , James McDonald bought it and it that the working class has no tradition of
- and if you got too close, if you got in became known as McDonald 's Music theatre ,' he said , 'It is important for local
one area then you missed the overall Hall till competition and 'police com- people to see a theatre company alive
and that-I-I went in the theatre and I plaining ' brought that incarnation to a and performing in their neighbourhoods
sat down and that 's what happened shadowy end . It then became reborn as and at the same time to see the same
and - I went to the performances the home of the Blue Ribbon Gospel people being active doing other things in
there to- to see what, I kept looking Temperance Mission in 1879 though its the community besides 'theatre work '.'
Iris McCann , herself a local mother,
and that bothered me about-about my reputation was none too acceptable to
these good people at first. It was referred would like to see more local people using
piece, and I felt that it was most im- to as 'a Music Hall in Haxton Street, a the Centre for their own creative activit ies
portant in seeing all of them - and all place of low repute having lost its licence. than there are at present. 'Not long ago, I
the stuff together-so-also I liked the At first even the thought of it was not to be was just a mum . Now I work here part"
idea of not, - of having little things countenanced '. However , a Quaker time and I would like more people to
and being far way from them - I bought it and it became the Blue Ribbon come in and do what they want here
thought just, structurally, that that Army 's Headquarters, where one could creatively . It's our Hall. We need to use it,'
would bring you closer into the little purchase Blue Ribbon Badges, Blue she said .
things. - I mean, really, I think that Ribbon Tea, Blue Ribbon Coffee and The 'You see,' David Urie clarified, we 're
worked . Blue Ribbon Gazette. Along with these here to look after the social welfare of the
Mission activities the Music Hall people in hoxton and we happen to be a
While describing a performance
continued for social occasions , meetings group of people interested in theatre and
further, we get the close depiction of and services and became a centre for drama so we have chosen to do this via
these det~ils, that in fact character- The Girl's Guild of Good Life and held the means theatre and drama. Before it
ises the whole book. classes for teenage girls in subjects such used to be done through the Temperance
Robert Wilson The King of Spain is as chair-caning and elocution. organisations . If and when this particular
already seated, but we don't see so In 1893 , the owner , MrPalmer left the group changes or ends , the work will still
much of him, he's just, - maybe a Hall to the Bedford Institute for recre- presumably be carried on but not neces-
piece of his hair or something. Uhum, ational activities - youth work , football sarily through the medium of theatre ,
there's a game table started here, - teams, 'art designing and dramatics '. other people may choose to do the same
and, that game is played throughout, The basic structure of the Hall has not work via a different medium. '
To these ends Haxton Hall is financed
it's like nucleus, of the piece, and that , changed and with the exception of the
stage area which was substantially by the Arts Council , The Greater London
- coming out in here - Uhum some- altered in 1910 it is pretty much as Arts Association and the Borough of
one comes to make a drink, and sits on McDonald left it. Hackney and may be booked by any per-
a chair here, - someone mixes a On Fridays and Saturdays and formance group who wish to perform in
drink, there's a chair here, - this chair occasional Wednesdays the Hall func- Hoxton 's Old Music Hall.
is miked . There are all sorts of little tions as a venue for visiting companies ; Bruce Bayley
things like, - that we like see it -you
15
Intervie w with Pip Simmons
FROM REACTORS
TO ROULETTE
Gillian Clark: The two pieces you have done recently,
'Towards a Nuclear Future', and the piece that you have
just opened here, 'Rien ne va Plus', (a show about a French
casino in Nice) seem to me to be made very much for
touring. Is that correct?
Pip Simmons: 'N uclear Future' was a Mickery project. It
was based on talk s I had been having for years, very
academic ones in a sense, about the possibilities of using
different realistic facts and constructing a play from actual
material, newspaper interviews etc. Everything, every
word spoken in it is 'for real', in the sense, that its taken
from interviews with men from the industry, and anti-
nuclear organisations. Unfortunately when people looked
at it they did not, when they saw it on stage believe it. We
GC: I felt that it came over very strongly, that it was real
speeches.
PS: It was a notion of using a research process that was
available at the Mickery using a computer data bank which
provided information daily. Over the six weeks we were
there, the information which came off this, in the paper
form, was enough to cover the four walls of a rather large
foyer. This was just incidents relating to nuclear plants,
conversations, discussions in Europe, nothing to do with
America, Harrisburg anything like that, only what
appeared in the daily press.
GC: You have just said that there was enough information
to cover the walls of a foyer. Did you ever think of touring
this with photographs as an exhibition, or extending the
theatre piece out in some way?
PS: We did this at the Mickery where facilities allowed but CD 1
0
wherever we went we contacted Anti-nuclear groups, and 0-
also the industry itself. The only thing I can say was that <
"'
:,
two or three hundred people a night would come because 0
they were interested in the title of the show. A lot of the "'
...
:,
N
groups involved were slightly offended that one was te'
making theatre about this, because it was too apparently
Rein ne va plus
serious to turn into theatre. We got an awful lot of snotty
replies, especially from the Anti-nuclear groups. The
industry itself took great care of us in many ways, and pro-
vided us with piles of information. They were very con-
cerned that we would see their side of it. They made it their
business to know what kind of group we were and who we
were likely to speak to. I had letters from Vienna, from the
Atomic Energy Authority there, and the Chief there
phoned me and said that we would like to make sure you
know our side of the story, and they sent people from public
relations down to talk to us. Through another connection I
met a gentleman who has now died, called Otto Frisch, who
was one of the original creators of nuclear fission, and was at
Los Alamos during the war, during the construction of the
nuclear bomb. He was a very nice, gentle old Austrian man
and he confirmed more or less what we were thinking; that
the debat e was pathetic because the facts were clear, that
there were too many commercial pressures on the industry
itself forcing it to cut corners, and that the anti-nuclear
groups had seized all the wrong points, that they didn't
have th eir right evidence in the right public focus.
GC : When I saw the show I felt it came out as a very clear
statement that whichever side you were on you were caught
in a trap: that if you supported the industry that was no Rein ne va plus
16
Rein ne va plus Dracula
~- .... l:
Y ~ . ,. ;o- s ~
Rein ne va plus The Tempest 1978
Towards a Nuclear Future Woyzeck

17
solution, and if you were in one of the anti-nuclear groups the events in the story then perhaps it would have become
then that was going down by-roads that were just not clearer, but in order to do that one would have to explain as
feasible any longer. This is something I have felt about far up to date as now - its still hitting the headlines in
several of your shows: that they don't take up a political France. The Mafia - the guy who used to run the other
stance that is didactic but are very much about the ambigui- casino in Nice making a run for the Antilles in the West
ties and contradictions of human experience. Indies, and the lawyer who is at the boyfriend of the .
PS: More than that with 'Nuclear Future' I hope. It was daughter who was killed, now becoming his lawyer in the
about a debate and at what point is there contact between West Indies etc. To try to connect everything together is
the two languages. In this case there was none at all. There virtually impossible, it has too many threads. The Mayor of
are two processes of manipulation, one for one set of Nice, for example, attained his job in the Ministry of
reasons - economic, political - for a way of life that Tourism by providing ex OAS bodyguards for Giscard, and
obviously the anti-nudearists would not support, which is the manifestations go from top to bottom. It's a good story
for the support of an industrialised West. And the other, which makes a good piece of theatre and has repercussions;
which talked about the fears that people have in a language it has repercussions if you want to identify them. Essen-
that most people don't understand, and relate to the tially one is obliged to communicate what one does through
environmentalists of the sixties. theatre and theatricality, and it's this which creates the em-
In that sense there are two processes of manipulation which biguity ofa live performance. There are other groups who
are diametrically opposed and which reach nobody, the are more inclined to demonstrate where they stand politi-
industry because its public relations is pathetic, and the cally. I've tried to have views about politics rather than to
anti-nuclear lobby because it is so split within its own support one tendency or another. What is vital is that
minority terms that it can have no effect. Both public people are able to present what is happening and allow the
relations systems treat their public like idiots, avoiding audience a choice, to view a vision, an imaginative picture
communication of facts, preferring to manipulate them for of the facts, and then allow the dialectic to develop from
their own didactic convenience. their experience of that. Perhaps the croupiers in the casino
GC: Manipulation is something that appears to be a theme don't matter politically, but in fact what they have done is
in 'Rien ne va plus'. Manipulation of people by different t ,1precedented m their own world. It's not a facile strike,
circumstances, politics etc. Can you say something about it's a very difficult one, it has caused them human, political,
the way in which 'Rien ne va plus was developed and has economic problems. To try to relate that to people in
been researched, because research appea rs to be very im- England one has to say that any kind of strike is meaning-
p9rtant in the growth of your shows? ful, because it's against the powers of manipulation and
PS: Research. If the Mayor of Ni ce says something he corruption, it's against all the things that put a working
speaks in a language which is not an approximation of the person in a situation where they don't have control over
writer to the Mayor of Nice , but is the actual words of the their own existence. To me, that is as real in a casino as in a
Mayor of Nice. No, I don't think one can improve on the car factory. I was interested in it, in particular, because I
way in which he makes a fool of himself. The same goes for thought people would not have much sympathy for it. It is
anybody involved in this situati on, the English , the Mafia, stated in the show, OK perhaps you don't care for any of
or the croupi ers . There are th eatrical re-adjustm ents of that these things, but isn't there some aspect of your town for
language but its essentially the language of those people. which you care, is it threatened by forces beyond your
'Rien ne va plus ' has a subje ct that is very difficult to control, and not just beyond your control, but beyond your
explain in England in some ways, because I think apart blase necessity to even think about?
from the real incidents like the Poulson case in Newcastle, GC: Something that over the years that I have seen your
that people are disinclined to see corruption , local corrup- work has always struck me, and which has come out of this
tion whi ch has national , political, economic implications. conversation is that your work is very political, and I find it
F unn ily enough , th e involvements in the case of this Nice strange that you are never seen as being one of the political
casino have focused practicall y everything that's happen ing theatre companies. When I first saw, for instance,
in Fran ce in terms of what people consider to be Fr ench 'Dracula' in York, years ago, I found that a very clear state-
corruption . It touches on local corruption, on high finance, ment about areas of sexual politics and repression. I find it
it involves people like Khashoggi, the arms dealer, Giscard, strange that this was not identified. I thought that even
the OAS, the Mafia, and the French people's basic accep- your version of 'The Tempest' had certain political impli-
tance of the corrupt 'mechanics of their daily lives. The cations. Somebody said to me today, 'Oh well, you know,
intellectual's response to that, which always remains an the Pip magic wasn't there in the show, it was alright, but
intellectual response is a detached criticism, or even an I don't really know what politics has got to do with Pip's
anarchic criticism of life bu it refuses to go beyond that into work' and I saw that as a fundamental misunderstanding of
life itself. your work.
GC: Having seen the show I felt very detached from the PS: It's also a fundamental failing in a lot of what we've
issues that were being presented and unable to relate them done, that over the years we have ended up in spaces in the
to the wider issues you mention. Do you feel that it's a very British Isles inhabited by a very intellectual, avant-gardist
particular show about a particular issue and that one audience, so that one is inevitably judged by people who
shouldn't make those wider relationships, or is it just that it have very strong opinions as to what theatre should be.
is a very new show and you are still working on it and may- There have been people who have come here.this week who
be the performances aren't as pointed in certain directions are completely non-theatrical people, who have been
as they are going to become? amazed and very saddened by the story - that's because
PS: That's certainly true. Essentially, it is a very new they don't have any pre-conceptions about theatre, what it
show. These first two weeks on tour are trying the show ought to be, and what it ought to do. One can move in a
out, trying to adjust the theatrical mechanics of the show. It direction where one can not only ignore the converted and
is crucial to us how it all works. I'm sure in my own mind the opinionated, but one can surprise people who have not
that in France nobody will have any problems about under- got any theatrical expectations. Some groups have been
standing it - because the events have been daily news for doing that, John Fox and 1.0.U. have created this experi-
the la:st three or four years. If we could have contained all ence imaginative pictures, as Odin Theatre have been doing
18
in Wales. There are no surprises left in converted audiences number of performances. What we are interested in, what
any more. we have tried in each situation when we have had a project,
GC: I would agree with that completely. It's one of the is to involve ourselves in the place and the possibilities
problems of running a venue, as well, trying to get your offered by its technical awareness and by the breadth of the
audiences to be the unconverted rather than the converted. place's ambition.
This show is touring to York, then to France and possible GC: You've touched on battles you've had about the
Holland, and then you are back in London and this country amount of work you do in this country, battles, you've had
for a while. What are your plans after that? about doing residencies, and problems about your taking
PS: Well, at the moment, after having spent the last thret: time off. How do you view future funding of your work,
months putting it together, I have not had a lot of time to and the area as a whole, and the way in which the develop-
think about it. It is clear that the group will take a break : the ment of this area of work is restricted by lack of funding?
break is again to do with the fact that we have been on the PS: The area of work has almost certainly closed down into
road a long time . The problems, especially in these times, groups that have been working anywhere between twelve,
mean that some sort of re-examination of what one's trying and five or six years. The Arts Council seem to have deter-
to do in theatre is necessary, or even whether one's interes- mined what they consider excellence, artistic excellence.
ted in thea: re at all. I'm not a theatre freak. I don't have anv What is called the fringe is financed as irrelevantly as any
great inherent love for it: it's a job which enables the com"- other source of theatre, it doesn't depend on excellence or
pany to so1t out certain ideas, musically, theatrically, with a anything else, but on being able to survive at a minimal
lighting designer or a costume designer. There are prob- level and to continue to survive at a minimal level. Some
lems to be solves and one spends six months or so trying to groups have survived at a more minimal level than we have.
solve those problems trying to crack them after you have There are perhaps a dozen groups that have been going a
begun the show. This puts a terrific strain on people's long time that are the hard core, even the hard porn, of
ability to come up with anything different . I think we need fringe theatre. There are a lot of theatres in London which
the break to think, not just in altruistic terms about what have a certain popularity because they have an attraction to
the meaning of what we do is, but in real terms to consider people coming into London. Those people don't tend to be
what our place is, or what place we want to create for our- people from the provinces, they tend to be foreigners, or a
selves, within the context of a rather stagnant scene. hard section of London supporters for each venue . London
GC: You have done a number of projects over the past is a town of twelve to fourteen million people, which is the
couple of years haven't you? Did they arise just because of equivalent of the whole of Holland, or the whole of
the constraints of touring, or were they primarily some- Belgium, and bigger than Sweden, Norway or Denmark. It
thing that you wanted to develop as an artist. should be able to support twice as many theatres as it does.
PS: They arose out of, especially after I disbanded the first Paris, does certainly, and that is a much smaller town. A
group in 1973, and grew out of, a desire to do the work theatre company must be able to survive in its own terms up
better. We were performing shows in those days over 300 to a point. That's not the judgement of the Arts Council,
times - in the shows like 'Do it' 'Alice in Wonderland' , that's the judgement of the people that come to see you, not
and 'George Jackson' we performed over 300 times . So I the critics although critical acclaim is important. What is
disbanded, and I was offered a project in Rotterdam. The important in any town is word of mouth. 'I went to a theatre
idea of projects started in Rotterdam : this was funding for a show last night, it was interesting to me for various reasons'
concept, for an idea, which would be in some way manifes- - not opinionation 'I went to a theatre show last.night, it
ted by the group. Since then I have pursued the project idea wasn't as politically profound as the last one I saw, or Irving
as often as I can , mostly in relation to conversations I have Wardle or James Fenton said this or that' . You know the
had with Ritsaert ten Cate we have discussed what is the people go because its an event , not just for theatre afficion-
best way to manifest what one is doing rather than spend ados . The attempts of all the people working on the fringe
one's time complying with a rather abstract administrative for years, has been to say what we are doing is accessible to
impostions made by the Arts Council. I'm still arguing with normar people . But in the process it has cut itself off from
the Arts Council about this and have been arguing about it normal people, because it plays in venues that 'normal
for years. It is in the nature of the theatre that groups like people' would never go within a thousand miles of. It 's so
ours commit themselves to an attempt to produce a intense and ugly in the way it explains itself: one can explain
different kind of theatre - needs a longer period of pre- what one does in an ugly way but in the end one finds it
paration and performance and is generally seen by fewer slightly ridiculous . The challenge is not in proving what
people. But it has had its own influence; even if you we, or anybody else does, to you, or to somebody who
measur e it in the conventional terms of the writers or actors knows about theatre. The problem is that if you have got
who have moved on into more important political positions, something important to say, why doesn't anybody come to
for example, the David Edgars and Howard Brentons of the see it who might be influenced by what you are thinking,
world who came out of this jungle. who might be amazed by a little bit of magic, or music, or
GC: The whole concept of projects and residencies has theatricality , other than a bunch of self-opinionated peop!e
been difficult for venues to pursue as well, because of the who are only trying to impress each other. You can't blame
same sort of funding restri ctions. Do you feel that venues, the Arts Council for what is happening, you can only blame
and companies like yours, that have been trying to open out the vision of people who can't see beyond the end of where
this type of theatre work have had any sort of success or .... the audience come in, the space, and who can come into
PS: Very much so ... Sadly, the number of venues who will that space . Public relations is something that is handled
support that kind of idea are very few and far between and very badly in all areas of the fringe. Sucess depends on all
tend to be same ones, Birmingham Arts Lab and Chapter the things they hate, which is acceptance by critics, or by
Arts Centre in Cardiff. There are other people who are now word of mouth that will draw a wider audience. You can do
starting to think about it. More groups are intere sted in the the most perverse show you like, and you'll get people, you .
possibility of residencies simply because in that situation can do whatever you like, and you'll get people, but you
one has the benefit of the trained and expert staff at a venue have to work to get them in there. Once the show's there
who wish to expand their repetitive function in only admin- you need a space to work on your behalf, not to just satisfy
istering for incoming groups, groups which are bought for a it's own relation to funding.
19
are all important things to know about. learn from a production where the vital
Performance Books 2 (And in general Craig's contributions communicative link is missing. So why
DREAMS AND follow this pattern of information laced are there no performers discussed in
DECONSTRUCTIONS, with insight. ) But the repeated insis- this book, when they are so important.
Alternative theatre in Britain tence in many chapters on recounting Is it that the fringe has no good actors
Editor: Sandy Craig the funding history of children's - or is there some other reason for
Amber Lane Press /4.95 theatre, community theatre, lunch- their neglect? Perhaps they have bad
time theatre, educational theatre, breath .
Dreams and Deconstructions is a though interesting enough I suppose The chapter on performance art
book of collected essays by various (actually it's a bloody bore), or if not ('The Jazz of Dreams' by John Ash-
writers on fringe or alternative theatre. interesting is one of those hidden ford) has to concern us most in the con-
5 of the 10 contributors are or have factors which has more bearing than text of this magazine. Amongst afician-
been associated with TIME OUT as may be supposed on the nature of the ados and practioners of this art there is
editors or writers, and the sight of this work; in this case just one indication said to be a division in performance
information on the reverse of the con- among many of the book's bureau- between the theatrical wing and the
tents page gives us a premonition of the cracy-mindedness. Other indictions fine art WIng; the fact that such a
prevailing tone to come: competent are the preoccupation with the curri- division does in fact exist is proved by
but not brilliant, journalistic rather culum vitae of the various companies this article. Not simply because it pro-
than critical, political but not perverse, (first they did this and then they did vides a list of 5 influences each from
and stylistically matter of fact, i.e. no that), the identifying of organisers/ the theatre and from the fine arts, but
good jokes. The odd original (or at directors/theorists far more often than because all the examples chosen are
least sufficiently explored) argument writers or , astonishingly, performers, definitely on the theatrical side. Hesi-
stands in danger of being struck down and a whole chapter on venues. Not tate and Demonstrate , Welfare State ,
in its prime by received ideas, cliches, once did I come across an interesting the John Bull Puncture Repair Kit,
tacit understandings and assumptions, remark about a particular piece of and the People Show (who every single
and other pest-infested blooms. In too work (well maybe there were one or person in the world except me seems to
many chapters the enemies are named two in Steve Grant's chapter on the love to distraction). It was fine as far as
but not given full reckoning of their new writers , 'Voicing the Protest'). it went - the explanation for critics'
sins so that the layperson (such as But back to my point about the per- incomprehension of a performance art
myself) is in a condition of knowing the formers . Take the chapter called 'Pro- lying in performance's abandonment
inside story but not the relevant back- duct into Process - Actor-based of the traditionally supreme text and
ground information. In other words, Workshops' by Colin Chambers. the adoption of visual imagery for its
full priming is given for chit chat at Wouldn't you think that this , at least, own sake, rang particularly true. The
alternative literati gatherings and would be about actors? It starts off by history of what motivated performance
fringe first nights, but materials for saying 'an actor 's lot is not a happy one' is likewise informative, but there are
more subtl e discourse are not (too true , if this book is anything to go too many large gaps - though per-
provided. by), and then a few paragraphs on says haps appropriately left unfilled in the
How ever, facts there are in abun- that after the development of the fringe context of a book on theatre. There is a
dance, along with chronologies, his- actors were 'no longer disposable whole dance aspect to performance
tories, and descriptions of funding cheap commodities' and that 'it was which is not mentioned and which pro-
difficulties. Sandy Craig's opening the notion and practice of the collec- vided many abstract and conceptual
article ('Reflexes of the Future - the tive that allowed the individual to works, there is performance which is
Beginnings of Fringe') and his closing flower.. . radical egalitarian cooper- much wilder in its structure than any-
one (' The Bitten Hand - Patronage ation allowed the individual actor to be thing mentioned here, there is musical
and Alternative Theatre' ) give the expressive and creative'. That is the performance and so forth.
most enlightening and least boring last we hear of an individual actor - Just one more thing we need to
outline of how public funding works the rest of the essay is devoted to com- worry about - and that is the general-
and what problems it faces that I have panies and their structure, descrip- ity of the term 'naturalism' which is
ever read. He starts at the simplest tions of workshops, venues and pro- used all over the place in this book. I
level of describing the structure of the ductions. But when it comes to the am assuming that to those knowledge-
Arts Council and the Regional Arts crunch, when you are sitting in a chair able about the theatre this word has
Associations , how they relate, how (or on the floor) and watching some- some explainable meaning, or if not a
they don't relate (all information that thing happen (or participating in meaning exactly than an implication;
everyone ought to know but which is making it happen) what actually brings I'm further assuming that it is used in
easy to forget or get confused about ), it alive is not the director or the venue something like the same way the word
defines 'quango' and other elementary or the sodding Arts Council or even the 'representation' or 'figuration' is used
but essential notions, and then swings writer, but the actor. Communication in the visual arts - as a catch-all for
into more controversial issues which between person in audience and everything which isn't something else.
the reader is now in a position of person in performance is initiated and It's representational if it isn't abstract,
sufficiently sophisticated knowledge sustaind and made real by the per- expressionist, conceptual, systematic.
to enroy. The tightrope the Art s former. Good actors can redeem a Perhaps in the same way something is
Council walks between financial and multitude of faults in text and pro- naturalistic if it isn't one of the alterna-
artistic accountability, the reasons for duction, bad actors can make a mess of tives provided by the fringe. Though
its avoidance of controversy (and why the best thing ever written. Ignoring the order is the other way around of
they're not shared by the RAA's ), its this fact leads to performances which course - naturalism came first in time
assimilation or rejection of alternative are a good idea but an appalling reality. with the alternatives its responses. I've
work, its tendency to see the many And it's no good blaming the audience got no gripe against the problem of
activities of theatre 'in terms of a spec- either; however much they cooperate naturalism , I just wish somebody
tral continuum shading indivisibly it's not their baby and not their res- would explain what it is.
from the ultra-violet to the infra-red' ponsibility to enjoy, respond to, or Andrea Hill
20
you start to get offered places in festivals, work would be the development of a syn-
PerformedMusic teaching jobs and so on. thesis, where music and movement skills
So it seems this is happening (has were utilised to the full, but not in isol-
happened) in Improvised Music. Work ation, as alwayi. seems to be the case. There
ACTUAL MUSIC that ten or fifteen years ago would have seems ~o be a new interest in Improvised
been thought-provoking, stimulating,
FESTIVAL challenging - maybe even controversial;
music/Dance combinations, I recently saw
a workshop performance at X6 by Still
now seems to be polite and innocuous ; the Mauve, a four-dancer three-musician com-
music seems to have become more about pany who are producing good work at the
The Festival lasted five days, with two
music for music's sake - aesthetics - moment although along what I would des-
afternoon performances and two seminars,
rather than a medium through, which ideas cribe as traditional modem dance/music
and presented a dense survey of impro-
are expressed and developed. lines, but who show strong signs of
vised music. It was well publicised and
The current work seems to be read and breaking through to new forms, and there
well attended, with capacity audiences for
judged by the same criteria as a string are several others starting to apply them -
all events and derisory coverage from the
quartet say, or tlle way that hip intellec - selves to this set of probl ems.
weekly (weakly) Musical Press, with re-
tuals used to listen to Jazz improvisations. I was pleased for the opportunity to see
views being cut by half or illustrated by
(Am I talking about myself or oth er so much work, although all festivals can be
photos of people who weren't even in the
people? Since the Festival, I have talked to a little overwhelming, and everyone should
country.
several musicians and artists who attended be aware of the work going on within our
The festival opened with a short solo
the festival for whom a lot of the perfor- area of music, which has been greatly and
from RogerTurner who over the last few
mances were challenging and exciting, consistently ignored by the media and
years has developed into a highly skilled
which was reassuring to hear) . other artists. It is an especial shame that
subtle free percussionist, followed by short
Some musicians are, however, dis- there has been so much of value that has
solos from Mike Johns (sop. sax) and John been overlooked, and lessons to be learnt
cussing very seriously among themselves
Russell (Guitar), after which they played as that could be of real benefit to performance
the state of the art, their reactions to it and
a trio. This opening concert set my
artists and dancers that have started to
' ffi thoughts into a pattern that stayed with me delve into the area of improvised art .
~ for the rest of the Festival. First off, I was
The paradox is that within the music
familiar with the work of most of the per-
'i
C/)
formers from my own involvement in im-

Cl provised music, and had seen a lot of them
there are signs of restlessness and indic -
ations that the work will be moving on into
new areas at the very point at which the
playing several times in less formal presen - present work is starting to be understood,
tations to more casual audiences . To see appreciated and supported . I think that we
the same people performing on a lit pro- may be approaching an exciting time to be
cenium stage to a capacity festival audience a musician and a member of the audience.
made me see them differently . A stage has In future issues of the Performance
a focussing effect, every gesture or man- Magazine I hope to be reviewing and dis-
nerism gets amplified and invested with cussing the new work going on from this
'dramatic' meaning that, seen in different new music, and to provide an involved,
contexts, one doesn't ascribe to them to the informed critical context .
same extent . The point I want to make is Paul Burw ell
that everyone projects a personna in a more
or less contrived manner. Everyone has a
stage act. It might be the same as on the TODAY'S
TUOUGHl
street, but it is magnified by a stage, and Musical innovation is full
gets read by the audience as meaningful of . danger to the State, for
when m o d e s of music
utterance - as communication. change, . the laws of the
State alwaya change with
I thought that the quality of the music them . - PL"lO 1~28-327
throughout the Festival was high. Tech- 8.),
nical skills of the instrumental and impro- Yolande Snaith From old Daily Mirror
isational were displayed by I think , every-
one that I saw. The audience were apprec- how they see it. These discussi ons are dif-
iative and were able to follow the develop-
ment of the improvisations - they were
ficult because as one is talking about a
living, changing, improvised work of a
LEEDS
able to understand what the musicians
were doing ... they enjoyed the music. Free
heterogeneous nature generalisations (very
useful for helping to form one's ideas) are FUTURAMA
Improvised music is now an accepted, possibly even more nensensical than . they
accessable music form. The radical ideas usually are. Some of the discussion is Futurama 2 was described to me by the
of the last ten to twenty years have been happening through the work itself .. . some organiser John Keenan as 'the most im-
absorbed by player and listener and people are starting to do odd things ... portant underground event of the year', it
musicians have honed, refined and ex- I avoid writing about what I liked or dis- was a rock festival, an indoor rock festival.
tended the ground breaking ideas and liked in the Festival on the premise that a Keenan announced that 30 - 40 bands
working them into what could almost be family album, whilst of interest and a would be playing over two days, that there
called a style. As with all developments in source of enjoyment to the owner isn't would be stalls, sideshows, theatre com-
the arts ., once the rush of energy that necessarily of interest to a stranger. panies, happenings, video, films and
demands its own (new) form of expression Yolanda Snaith and Richard Coldman lasers. Last year the festival, called
is over and things become fixed the work by performing Dance/Guitar improvis- Futurama, was also subtitled a 'Science
becomes recognisable be repeated simil- ations looked to be located outside the Fiction Festival', and was reported a
arities and starts to build up an audience . mainstream of the Festival , and performed success due to appearances of Cabaret Vol-
Career wise, the contemporary artist is in a very well, creating a differen t atmosphere taire and Public Image Ltd. No doubt it
similar position to the ante electric media from the other performances , includi11g had some element of a Sci-Fi festival, in
theatre performer who with limite access to that of the awkward silence, which was that the images adopted by the bands, and
audiences could re-use the same material quite refreshing. In a way what they did their supporting fans could be seen as
over and over again and by doing so build was close to improvising a performance 'futuristic', add films, stalls, inflatables.
up a reputation. Not very creative, but with the curious balance of being both and lasers and there you have it. As for this
eventually your name gets around, critics aware and unaware of the audien ce. WhatJ years event, the only thing that's anywhere
and the public start to take notice of you, would dearly like to see in music/danc e near a Sci-Fi image that can be applied to
21
Futurama 2 is a black hole. false face which seemed to bother him. It lunatics, and recordedwhat must be a
My role as performer at this festival was then they began to remove cables, monument to the ephemeral civilization,
came about accidentally when a friend, a lights, props and pieces of the stage. We the one never was quite there when you
rock musician told me that John Keenan retired hurt. I apologise to the Durutti turned round to study it. In fact, if the cap-
wanted non-musical groups for the festi- Column if they should ever get to read this, sule was ever dug up, it would drive people
val. I'm a member of a music/performance in the heat and spite of the moment I let off mad, such would be its fiendish mystery.
company called the Event Group. If re- a rather loud theatre maroon, in the middle Anyway, the way to review such an LP
ports from last year were anything to go by of the fracas and their set. would be to write one word which summed
we were likely to fit in well so after some In total contrast, after the carnagewas up each track (premonitory, epistomol-
haggling and stalling contracts were signed cleared up and we'd been out to drink, eat ogical, wrecked, stirring etc.) but such
and we were ready for a challenging week- and laugh, we came back to the last few short-windedness would easily be out-
end. hours of this monstrous occasion. Usually I shone by the various endeavours under-
The music? Much ofit I remember as, at hate Gary Glitter, but on that Sunday he taken by minatures artists -(One minute
first an irritant then just a background was a pleasure to watch. He had those out- in the life of Ivan Denisovich) the entire
grey-blur, the ostensible reason for us all raged, outrageous kids totally under works of Henry Cow in one minute, and a
being there. To get anything out of the control, they lapped up his posturing, twenty second history of Rock and Roll.
occasion one had to apply a filter, the pun- camp behaviour and costumes, they There exist among the fifty one tracks not
ters were out of their heads on anything wanted to touch him, they called him only proclaimed and closet minaturists,
they could get their various orifices beautiful, they loved his fat and glitter, he but also reformed gargantuans - a con-
around, asleep during the groups not seen squeezed every last ounce of adoration out densation of Neil Oram and Ken Camp-
as relevant to the life style chosen, indeed of them, a good joke to go back on the road bell's The Warp, the longest play ever
asleep or out of it almost continuously for with at 4.00 in the morning. The music? written (Guiness Book of Records) into the
some. It was a place to be out of it, not seen Not even the most sober of the music press rigorously applied minute limit.
but tripped over. could keep their minds on that. This limit is personally applied by the
I was surprised by the presence of so Tom Castle previously mentioned pipe-smoking
many punks, as I live in London where the Morgan-Fisher, founder of Pipe records "I
breed is fast becoming extinct and being I SAY, JUST only had to look 3 inches for a title". He
cornered into sancturies whose boundaries recorded the various artists under pianos,
are shrinking due to predators of a more A MINUTE! on windowledges, and on lawns in the
short-haired variety. The Queen's Hall DrMgn pouring rain . When the record was finally
was full of them, it was a pilgrimage, it was I wd lk to cntrbt to yr prjct v. much. finished, he invited them all to a tea-party
Siouxsie And The Banshees. Generally it I hp to snd tp in nxt fw wks . in Maida Vale where, regaled by the music
was black and white clothing, mostly I am, yrs etc of the Nordic Reverie Trio, lectured by
adolescent males, with Siouxie look-a-like Frd Frth . Ken Ellis (Tube Theatre) as Pipe Records
girlfriends. There were no men with male Thank you, PR, and squirted at by Bert Smart's
lovers no women with female lovers, it was dear Mr Morgan, Theatre of Jellyfish, one could enjoy the
the left-overs of an exciting experiment for your letter. I have sent it to spectacle of various absolutely disassoc-
with aggression and outrage, the images my agent Mr Gollner; I will do whatever he iated people (R.D. Laing, Robert Fripp,
'en masse' were frightening and pathetic. says but I fear that you have become the the Phantom Captain, a classically dis-
It was the most repressed set of people I've victim of one of Mr Hornick's jokes. He shevelled reporter from the Earls Court
seen at a rock music gig EVER. knows perfectly well that I detest music. Times) all attempting to find some sort of
It finally transpired that there were only For this reason I have no means of playing common ground (without being drunk ).
two non-musical performance groups the tape you so kindly sent me .nor is there Morgan Fisher's previous record, Slow
booked, ourselves and a group of clowns, any possible way I can return it. I do hope Music, made with Loi Coxhill, is precisely
who, no sooner than they had gone on that you did not expect that I would. In that, and it's hypnotic and ethereal strains
stage, were forced to leave due to the spite of all this, I wish you and your wafted around the hotd room recently in-
canning from the audience. The audience venture every success. habited by the amourous couple in the
was not particularly tolerant, although the Quentin Crisp. Phantom Captain's Abracadabra Honey-
Event Group successfully performed on An ex-pop star named Morgan-Fisher a moon . After twenty years playing key-
Saturday and created our own crowd and little while ago sent out invitations to a boards Morgan became disaffected "with
interest. Our Sunday performance was a number of extremely diverse people to the idea of continually striving to become
different matter. We were asked to contri- contribute a minute each to a record he was an instrumental virtuoso" Slow Music was
bute to a film being made about the preparing . Most complied in one way or created "in the manner of a film editor",
festival. In order to do this large flood another (even Quentin Crisp eventually) and Morgan's track on Minatures is the
lights were turned on us. An announce- and the album-Miniatures was born. This apotheosis of this approach. It is an
ment was made across the P.A. We were to record is one of those artefacts of our time extremely impressive rendition of "Jeru-
perform at the same time as a group called that would qualify on anyone's shortlist for salem" composed entirely of single notes
the Durrutti Column; their softer more a buried time-capsule. You know - the spliced together, all from 'found' sound
experimental approach was thought to be cast-iron surrounded by reinforced conc- material.
more apt for our work. The hoards, rete caskets they bury hundreds of feet In the same way, withMinatures , Morgan
hungry for mind-blowing musical exper- below new buildings. They contain some Fisher has knvtted together strands of
iences, came to visit our stage .... we lasted micro-filmed Shakespeare, a daily paper, a creativity, made connections that none of
as long as we could bare it . It wasn't dis- picture of the Queen, a mars-bar, pair of us knew were there. From Herbert Distel
interest I gather. They called us perverts, socks, that sort of thing . The idea is that (the Swiss minaturist who created the
sick. They didn 't like the images they saw. when the denizens of a future civilization 'Mus.:um of Drawers') to Neil Innes' son,
Their outrage surprised me. We were dig up our remains they won't just find the from George Melly yelling an infamous
canned; missiles came from every direc- odd discarded chamberpot but will be Kurt Schwitters dada poem to Mary Long-
tion. The film camera man ducked to the more or less guided to what we want them ford discussing her anatomy, this jerky,
side of the stage for safety. In true spirit we to think of us . Well, I would put Mina- twittering, spluttering disc (not exactly for
continued. I had a rubber mask on my face tures by Morgan Fisher and fifty other dancing ) is the ultimate in succinct
and could withstand most direct hits. The artists, one a minute, down there with samplers of the subculture. (Phew, made
final straw was being dragged off the stase everything else. Morgan Fisher has pulled it. In a concession to the Minatures ethic,
not once but twice by a bemused skinhead together many of Britain's notable eccen- this review, if read at the speed Roger
who didn't seem to know what to do with trics along with its systems musicians, jazz McGough reads 'the wreck of the
me whe1, he had Jone so. After the second types, performance artists, cartoonists, Hesperus' lasts e~ctly one minute ).
time he eventually removed part of my sound poets, psychiatrists and plain Rob La Frenais
22
trotted like willing lambs, fumbling our bucket: he improvised leg over jokes. He
way up the stairs and into chairs. First port spewed beer over his crew and played
REVIEWS of call was the room in the hostelry where

Ishmael had been put, sharing a bunk with
reluctant room mate Queequeg, harpoon-
sadistic games on them, the latter authen-
tic Melville. When Pip the cabin boy,
played by Doreen Brown, (adding gender
ist extraordinaire, but alas a heathen . They confusion at the outset) jumps overboard
Moby Dick reappear later in the plot still together driven by his tormentors, we're not given
Oval House signing up for Ahab's final disastrous enough information to understand what is
VOY,age.Loi Coxhill's midnight appear- happening, when he reappears . Doreen
The performance started the moment I got ance to Queequeg, as a prefiguration of im- Brown's involvement in her part was clear,
off the bus; swaying outside the theatre pending doom, or as his votive idol, or as even if its significance was not. Conven-
doors a guitarist, far too strangely dressed whatever he was ambiguously repre- tionally, if a man went overboard whilst a
even for the most eccentric of buskers in senting was visually controlled, far more whaling boat was chasing its prey, it would
south London, collected coins from the powerful than the acting framing it. He not turn back. Exceptionally, Ahab did go
punters as they filed by, laid their money should have been given more attention too back for Pip, alive still but mad.
on the box office and were then escorted when he reappeared in the next section. Technical fuck-ups don't bother Hinch-
into the coffee bar. All right; not a coffee Amongst a tableau vivant of a bread cliffe. Nailing a bounty to the mast 'not a
bar but a dockside tavern, complete with baking, fish grilling, seaweeds strewn, doubloon but a nicker ' (produces a pair of
hostess and assistants, musicians and an smokey, smelly nineteenth century fishing black lace panties) to go to the first to sight
itinerant tale teller. Patti Bee and friends village he warns Ishmael 'You 'd better get the white monster, the nail goes flying and
kept up a good pace, distributing chowder ussed and get sussed quickly' . Hinchcliffe shakes his thumb . Apparently
and bread, insults, banter and fun to a The character of the stewardess on the Sunday, his trousers exploded
willing audience. The evening I was there depended on its incongruity for its success. shedding the burdensome paraphenalia he
- friday, their first night of three , audi- So too did the next experience the audience was carrying. Am I to believe that the in-
ence participation was lively. When was made to undergo - passport control. cisive psychological reading of Mvb;
13 Ronnie Wathen played the bagpipes, Dick, as a metaphor for the obsessive, all
-~ people from Camden, being heducated consuming, ultimately destructive nature
::, persons threw themselves into the nine- of sexual passion is to be reduced to a pun,
~ teenth century with a vengence and started and a bad one at that? Apparently so. I was
~ . dancing some very authentic looking jig. just thinking something along these lines
ro Moby Dick grew out of a conversation when 'There She Blew', together with a
B between Ian Hinchcliffe and two people final climax pulling out all theatrical stops.
involved with the Oval House The atre The captive audience went down with all
club, Martin Humphries and Alfie hands as a fiendish device sent wet fish and
Pritchard. The idea snowballed. They seaweed hurtling past its ears.
decided to involve other forces, a com- Charles Hustwick
bination of professional, experienced per-
formers and others, especially members of
the Oval House workshop groups. The Acme Acting
result was an Oval House spectacular, the Anywhere
like of which occurs but a couple of times a
year, noteably at Christmas. They wanted It was a day much like any other at the
to use all possible resources and all avail- Performance Magazine. The guys from the
able spaces within and outside the build- newsroom were idly drinking tea and
ing, engaging the participants in a creative watching 'Crown Court' as they waited for
pro~ess, which they considered as impor- a story to break. Elsewhere in the building
tant as the end product. By the opening the editor could be heard softly barking
night, after ten days work, the sets were 'Hallo, City Desk!' into imaginary phones.
ready, and very effective too, though Loi Coxhill Suddenly a sound rang out . It was the un-
looking highly inflammable, and organiza- mistakable chime of the front door bell
tion efficient, everyone present and not a 'Reason for travelling? Business or pleas- breaking the calm. 'It's a little early for the
speech rehearsed. ure? May I check your bag, sir?' But then, Avon lady,' smirked a cub reporter, his
Into the dockside tavern burst Ishmael the remainder of the performance became jocularity quenched by a glare from the
(Cameron Izors), the boy sailor, narrator of fragmented. Continuity gave way to un- Review Editor who eased himself from his
the book. He screws up the Ancient explained complexities; what should have comfy chair to open the door.
Mariner style a bit, counterbalanced by been a collage of vignettes, images piling The harsh glare oflate summer sunlight
comments from Patti Bee, still dishing out up to form a complete picture, became a tore through the doorway silhouetteing the
soup 'Its not every day yer hear yer hus- sequence of sometimes fine individual per- lissom form of Blanche du Bois as she
band's been swallowed by a whale. I think formances bridging uncertain gaps in a dis- swept in, cases in hand, the perspiration
I'll go out an celebrate tonight.' The jointed non -narrative. dripping from her brow. From the inner
whistle was blown, literally and earpier- Pastor Mather (JeffNuttall) fronted this recesses of one of her bags a jazz band vam-
cingly on the scene by Lorraine final section . He read from Melville's text, ped away, the opening lines of Tennessee
McDonald. She's young black and very paraphrasing the sermon on Jonah and the Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire'
good. 'Ere pin back your lug oles and listen Whale ' In all his tormented attitudes in the rising sluggishly in the foetid air.
you orrible lot Sergeant-Major style cut the God fugitive seen' Nuttall's feeling for 'Why didn't you write me that you have
air deftly. As our stewardess she wielded ,language is assured, his delivery expert, his to live in these conditions?' Blanche called
an invisible whip over her audience, trans- humour never far beneath the surface. The to her sister Stella and the scribes rushed to
ferring it from one scenario to the next sermon is the finest prose in the book and cluster around her, their fingers already
throughout the evening. As she played a for me Nuttall's piece, the high point of the scribbling at the scent of a scoop. In a
message from the flight captain (a mixture performance. moment we were all flies on the wall of that
of instructions and abuse in a calculatedly Finally, Captain Ahab (Ian Hinchcliffe) famous New Orleans tenement buzzing
incomprehensible thick accent) we had appears. From Nuttall to Hinchcliffe, after the action as it shifted from room to
time to study her attire. Whose idea, I stylistically, is to travel, in this context, room. Watermelon sellers hammered on
wondered, was that superb throw-away ' from the sublime to the absurd. Where he the windows, Stanley Kawalski that sur-
touch, that six inches of red plastic toy should have had one a half legs he had two, vivor of the stone age famously imper-
train embedded in her hair? Then off we one of which was firmly stuck in a tin sonated by a mumbling Marlon Brando in
23
the movie of the play, watched the TV, certainly carry the Performance Magazine just this criticism to fly their way. The
played cards with his cronies, sweated and, Office Party Seal of Approval. The point is that this production does precisely
when the time came, raped Blanche in a rambling seediness of this hive of journal- what every one of their best productions
upstairs room, evicting his audience before istic activity in the heart of Fleet Road (the have, namely, to bring us eyeball to eye-
he did so, in a moment of rare restraint. Camden end of Fleet St.) has not been the ball with ourselves. The techniques they
What can be going on I hear the be- same since Blanche du Bois, a creature at use to make this happen are a source of
mused reader asking. Why, t.'iis was Acme once alive with passion yet strangely facination, but more of that later.
Acting - "kitchen sink drama in the com- ethereal, disappeared as if in reverie to- What's 'Abracadabra Honeymoon'
fort of your own kitchen' - performing at wards Belsize Park. (seen at the Bush Theatre) all about?
the Performance Magazine office in down- Gradually life in the office returned to its Imagine yourself on a 'more than your
town, (very down-town) Hampstead. mundane normality. Yet the hacks were ordinary whims catered for' cruise around
Dreamed up by three ex-Central School curiously subdued. In a while a voice broke somewhere that sounds like the most
students, Louis Miller, Jim Herb and Tim the silence. 'Sir,' it said, 'shouldn't we do exotic place on earth, and even if you are
Potter, Acme Acting began life with a per- something about that?' It took the Editor subjected to a high dose of 'knows a bit too
formance of that prototype kitchen sink only a moment to frame his reply: 'Write much to be trusted' interference frm the
drama 'Look Back in Anger', ad a promise about it!' middle-European voiced reception-desk,
to enact any famous play, book or film in ay ACME ACTING can be contacted on there you are with the most extraordinary
place at any time. A rash promise indeed 985 6732 lover, and what do ~ou do? Well, every-
and the lads soon found themselves up all Luke Dixon thing you would never dare to do in an
night hastily devising ways to fulfill last overpriced rented apartment in middle
minute orders. After a few months their suburbia with nosey neighbours. And
basic repertoire has settled down to a hand- Abracadabra whilst you're wafting off on clouds nine,
ful of move-derived performances from
'The Fall of the House of Usher' and
Honeymoon ten, and eleven, just imagine the power
you have - you're making the impossible
'Psycho' to 'Last Tango in Paris' and a ten Bush Theatre happen time after time. It's magic. And
minute encapsulation of' Apocalypse Now' blow me if the next moment you couldn't
allin steady demand for every kind of say 'shazam' and vanish into thin air - and
gathering from trendy parties to family get it would really happen. That's roughly the
togethers. (The preoccupation with garden path the Phantom Captain lead you
Brando movies is, I am told, mere coinci- up. Why they should want to do this we
dence.) shall come onto in a moment, but first,
Forget Bill Bryden's work at the there is another ingredient that must be
National Theatre, this is the ultimate in looked into.
promenade performance, the amazed In the last issue of PerformanceAndrea
audience rushing from room to room as the Hill portrayed this company as one which
action proceeds, the cast of three im- is renowned for its absurdist intrusions
personating all the main characters and into the streets and into the lives of the un-
plenty of incidental ones. The all male expecting public. It is certainly true that
company add a certain Genetesque quality their reputation rests more on this work
to Williams' script that is not wholly out of than their productions for the theatre.
place, and, though the incongruity of the Even when they are to be found working in
setting made for a good deal of amusement, the theatre we can expect some strange and
one was constantly surprised to find thS! challenging encounters before we are
original robustly coming through. True, allowed to sit down and watch. We have
the rather seedy premises in which this taken this to be an integral part of their
magazine has as an office are well suited to work, equally important as the sit-down
this particular story - quite what they performance. But with 'Abracadabra
would have done with 'Apocalypse Now' I Honeymoon' we were just allowed in to
leave you to discover for yourselves - but take our seats. Gone too were the Phan-
the idea of staging movies set in houses in tom Captain's famous Irregulars, replaced
real homes seems only sensible and when We all knew it would happen sooner or by hired-in actors. This was going to be a
done with the tact and skill that the chaps later, and now here it is. The complete un- SHOW on a scale we had never seen them
at Acme Acting bring to bear on their task, expurgated guide to every imaginable do before. And whilst they are the kind of
and the results are never less than extra- sexual fantasy you might ever have, pre- group that you want to see succeed, the
ordinary. sented live on stage. A true magical tour of thought that they were going to get out of
The acting was stylish enough to accom- what you get up to, or rather would like to their depth preyed heavily on the mind. As
odate lines as marvellous and dated as: get up to, every night when you turn off the it transpired, they not only didn't sink,
'Don't you just love these long afternoons light. You name it - they do it. All you they also swam the Channel.
in New Orleans when an hour is not just an have to do is just sit back and wait for your But to return to the questions already
hour but a brief piece of eternity?' and the favourite hidden perversion to appear in raised: what were the Phantom Captain
use of drag added a bizarre enhancement to the flesh, and, hey presto, there it is, not really showing us? What did they hope to
the goings on. Always reconoitering their more than a few feet from your popping do to us, and why did they use the format
venue bforehand the group exploit every eyes. of a show to do it?
possibility of tlle space available to them Just before you assume that this is a des- As the company proclaim that they are
and have a seemingly effortless technique cription of a particularly wild evening at working at the meeting point of theatre and
for handling the movement of their Raymond's Revuebar, I should point out Encounter, the last two questions are in-
audiences. Great care is taken with the that the perpetrators of this steamy stuff extricably linked. We should not expect
assemblage of props, the condensation of are none other than the Phantom Captain. such a company to be bound by theatrical
the dialogue and the use of sounds . Where- But why is a neegroup like the Phan- traditions. Obviously, it is essential that
ever the action goes music accompanies it, tom Captain getting involved in things like they choose the format that will best assist
even disembodied .recorded voices some- this? their aims, be theatrical, or not. So that we
times intruding into the dialogue . Never to be found with their trousers must assume that if we are to be asked to sit
It is, as the song in ,the show has it, a down, you can imagine the joint artistic down and watch a spectacle, it is because
Barnum and Bailey world, and at around directors of the Phantom Captain (Neil this has been selected as the best medium
forty quid a throw for a performance Hornick and Joel Cutrara) sitting like a for their material. And that's a very differ-
unlike any other, this three man circus couple of Wise Owls on a tree, waiting for ent story from watching a play by a corn-
24
pany that produces plays. They are not and yet performances that are not off- hung at or above it. They were gathered in
principally using the time we spend with puttingly cold and lifeless. The cast of four a cluster in a group that stopped a few
them to develop an argument, or expound were uniformly good, as was the only inches short of the ground - mostly small
an idea, but to work on us as surely as if rarely quirky script. ones these, whilst others hung much more
they caught us unawares on the street. It is The Phantom Captain have a saying that individually elsewhere and at variable
important to note here that the Phantom they want their audience to slip up on the heights. My immediate reaction was to
Captain knows its target audience very well banana skin only to find themselves eating circle round the edge, especially as when I
- we are going to be treated as the sophis- the banana. This is precisely the process first entered the lighting was very dim. I
ticated people we are, for they are one of they achieve in this production - a soon found I had to negotiate the full space
the vecy few companies who are remarkable achievement, especially when if I wanted to explore further. I ex-
unashamed of a theatre-full of middle class one takes into account that the subject they perienced several things; a thrill - several
theatre goers. They know that's what we were dealing with is littered with pit-fa,lls times I nearly bumped into large boulders;
are, and they know exactly how to deal so deep that many who have tried to tackle when I pushed one, it moved surprisingly
with us. Although 'Abracadabra Honey- it before have disappeared, never to be seen easily in contradiction of its mass - I could
moon' was seen by many as a bold and again. spin it around with no trouble. I could
straightforward celebration of heterosex- Pete Shelton create my own experiences - lying on the
ual love, that relegates the production to ground looking up I could feel like the not
being merely a play. I believe there was so dumb blonde under the elephant's foot
another process going on during the per- Alex Mavro at the Circus. I could have climbed up on
formance, a process that was both true to The Garage some and swung around (I didn't, but
the Phantom Captain's avowed aims, and some ~ds did). Gradually I had been
yet also so subtle that you could wonder Battling your way through the land of blue enticed to move into thepiece, discovering
why you left the theatre with a beaming rinse, mohican punks and tourists staring that it was possible to negotiate the space
smile. helplessly at their maps of central London, and alter its conditions. In this I thought
Unless I am mistaken, the process went you'd be lucky to find the Royal Court that Mavro had successfully gone beyond
something like this: A series of sexual sculptural experience - the experience of
fantasies rise, bubble-like, on the horizon weight, mass, of physicality through visual
and float gently towards us, only to be language, to an oblique form of partici-
popped just in front of our eyes. These patory performance within a charged
fantasies are carefully and persuasively space.
drawn, in such a way as they feel they have 'Would you like a cup of tea?' came a dis-
been delicately pilfered from each .of our sociated voice from the rafters . I'd already
'Top Secret' hideaways, and then waved noticed the control platform above and
gently, but tantalizingly, before our eyes. evidence of human habitation - a walking
They may have us on a spot, but we are stick and a pair of old boots neatly laid at
treated with the utmost care and respect to the foot of a knotted rope leading up to the
avoid letting us become embarassed. They platform. Mavro used this ploy, and
know we use role-playing as an erotic others, changing the lighting as the viewer
stimulant, they know about our appropri - moves about, playing music softly to create
ations from romantic movies which find a meditative mood, to make introductory
their way to our bedrooms (and which they signals to those below or merely ghting
parody excellently), they know as much their way of seeing. He describes himself as
about our secrets as the prying 'Reception' a 'caretaker' of his creation, working re-
which interrupts the privacy of the actors ceptively to his audiences responses and
on stage through the intercom system. The guiding them to further modes of explora-
clues are signposted for anyone who wants tion rather than controlling their ex-
to follow them, right up to a genuine periences. Looking somewhat like a latter
Phantom Captain appearing at intervals to day Robinson Crusoe with access to a
place vital objects in the path of the actors . razor, he descended from his perch and we
This still leaves the question of why they talked. He feels the sculptural element of
should want to explode our sexual fan- Garage, a mere stone's throw distant from the piece was in this context quite well re-
tasies for us in the first place. I believe the Sloane Square tube station. Here, in the solved, but wants to introduce a more
reason is disarmingly simple: if we lock middle weeks of September, Alex Mavro structw:ed element into the performance
away these untellable secrets in the dark was exhibiting his installation 'Monologue aspect to increase audience involvement.
for too long they are going to start to fester. with Hanging Rocks', a piece hovering be- He's hoping to work with a dancer when he
The Phantom Captain, like a benevolent tween sculpture and performance . The takes the work to the Gallery; Brixton
doctor, gives us a very thorough examin- gallery is more of a barn than a garage, (Acme's new No. 2 gallery) in December.
ation, take a good long look at anything tht remote from that bustle outside, rustic like As I was leaving a gaggle of grey
could be worrying us, and dispatch us from some outhouse on a oountry estate, with uniformed schoolgirls came in. They
the surgery with a cheery smile, a pat on the wind blowing noisily through the demanded .verbal explanations before they
the back, and a genuine reassurance of: rafters. Its a simple rectangular space, 30 were prepared to experience for them-
'You're fine, couldn't be in better shape'. by 45 feet, whose walls Mavro had covered selves - its amazing how many people do.
And that's exactly how you feel. with black plastic. Between the beams sup- Gradually they put more intelligible
Whilst the end may sound simple, the porting the roof, he built in extra beams questions, about geology, about how the
means has been painstakingly though out from which he suspended around 60 rocks, piece was conceived. Mavro answered ob-
and meticulously engineered. The craft of on dark nylon ropes. They were collected liquely, supplying just enough intrigue to
creating material whichwill manipulate us from several locations - Devon, Dart- promote further investigation. 'Oh Mrs.
gently through the performance to the moor Forest, the Brecon Beacons, Mine- Stricken would love this, she's our drama
desired end is probably more important head, the Fane Estuary, and are all forms of teacher, she makes us be a candle inside a
than the art which makes the performance red sandstone. Some are rugged, dug out tree an things. I'll tell her about this and
worth watching. It requires a script (by of the ground, some from the sea or river- get her to come, eh?' I hope they did .
Hornick and Cutrara) that lays every idea bed, shaped and smoothed by the action of Charles Hustwick
with clarity, but also a script with real wit the water, and varying in size from chunky
to keep us alert and interested. It requires boulders 3 or 4 feet across to pebbles you
performances that are sufficiently symbol- can hold in your hand. The majority were
ic for mto see a little of ourselves in them, suspended below eye level whilst the rest
25
tic?' Sure enough, a volunteer comes attempting 'A Midsummer Night's
Side Show forward. The ensuing interpretation scene Dream' with a blind Ariel conversing with
International Student Centre defies my powers of description. a brittle-boned Caliban. Beckett's 'End
Sex rears its ugly head in a version of Game' suggests itself as a promising
Three of the six players are confined to 'Beauty and the Beast which has its blind subject. But perhaps there's someone out
wheelchairs. Will Kennen lost his legs Beauty taken aback when, having finally there who might fancy writing something
when he contracted gangrene after falling brought herself to kiss Nabil Shaban's especially for the company ...
off a bus ten years ago. In a coma for two beady-eyed Beast, he disappointingly fails In Nabil Shaban they have a leading
months, he suffered brain damage which to turn into a handsome prince . Nabil performer of chrismatic quality . Of part-
has left him subject to epileptic fits. Nabil speculates how much more advantageously Jordanian, part-Russian extraction, this
Shaban, unmistakeably the star of the disadvantaged he might have have been if extraordinary crafty-looking performer
show, doesn't have any legs either - his he also belonged to a few more minority gives off an authentic whiff of danger: an
twi;;ted feet start where his calves ought to groups: 'I'm blind, crippled and black', he almost mediaeval - or Buenuelian -
be. His affliction is osteogenesis imper- sings lustily, ' I've got everything I need.' figure, black-bearded, shaggy-haired,
fecta, or brittle bones. Two more players 'Side-shaw' comes at you from the hook-nosed, glittering-eyed, he restlessly
get about on crutches. One of them , Jag bottom line, no holds barred. But it is wheels his stunted body to and fro across
Plah, is a spastic whose speech is slurred merciful to its audience- it its eschewal of the stage, by turns importunate,
and sometimes indistinct. The sixth player anguish and in its (almost) total lack of wheedling, infectiously energetic, devas-
can actually walk without the aid of sentimentality . Better yet, it has a blister- tatingly funny. See him, and this uniquely
crutches. Only she is virtually blind. She ingly sardonic humour which hits your unsettling show, if you can.
can't see the edge of the stage but, so I was funny-bone where it hurts. 'Don't be so Neil Hornick
assured later, she has never yet fallen off it. spineless' Nabil accuses one reluctant
They are all members of 'The Graeae' a rebel. 'My toes never get cold in winter'
theatre company which derives its name quips Will Kennan . 'Ah, it's only the metal
The Undersea World
from the three old women of Greek myth-
ology who shared between th em one eye,
fatigue that gets you down' retorts Nabil. of Eric Satie
All the more heart-breaking when, later, ICA
one tooth and one leg. und er disdainful interrogation by his
Our first sight of them, ranged silently fellows, Will gives it to us straight about In a quintessentially French 'Cafe des
across the stage dressed in circus finery, is, the terribl e consequences of his road Artistes' a strange little man acts out the
shall we say, somewhat arresting . With one accident . lonely obsessive behaviour of the neurotic .
notable exception, they are not very pol- 'Sick' humour, performed by its usual The place is fin de siecleParis, the man Eric
ished actors - but they sure have victims , here turns into a bitter medicine Satie. Through one of the cafe's windows a
presence. And conviction . And a style and which is plainly doing everyone some waiter can be seen engrossed in watching
a show all their own. good , players and audience alike. Genu- the latest televised exploits of mariner
The first half of their play locates them inely cathartic agit-prop, I'd say, Jacques Cousteau. As we watch - for yes
in that traditional haven of the physically awkward, scathing, but also canny this is a performance - the windows be-
stigmatized, a circus Sideshow, presided enough to recognise that in leaving their come the glass sides of an aquarium and the
over by 'Uncle Sydne' , a personification of Side-show they have merely joined another waiter begins a silent, deadly battle with a
liberal patronage, and a sort of disabled's - ours. Tod Browning's film, 'Freaks' giant squid. Then the aquarium is reversed
equivalent of Mister Otarlie . When Nabil visited vengeful mutilation upon the nasty and the interior of the cafe becomes the ob-
starts inciting the others to break out of the 'norm als' who torment them . 'Side-show' served acquatic world. All manner of
side-show into the world outside, Uncle is more moral and more humane . It strange things begin the take place. Hands
Sydney is aggieved : 'We've always seen acknowledges the deformity in all of us and appear in firegrates a ballet dancer exer-
you get supplies of the Reader 's Digest', he .extend s a fraternal hand. It's only a pity cises in the street outside. Unable to take
reasons. One of the inmates, afraid to that at the end it does it so explicitly, any more pretentious twadddle a dis-
leave, cautions the others to 'Be grateful inviting us to clap and sing along with them gruntled audience member, his temper no
for being appreciated' . in a number extolling the Brotherhood of doubt already frayed by the outrageous
The Side-show members perform Man. T he soggy finale is not necessary. prices in the ICA restaurant , sighs with
several Daydreams for our delectation. They had al.ready made their human annoyance and stomps out only to return
'Miss Crippled Universe 1980', with its conn ectidn. with a saxaphone, occupying the centre
prize of two tickets for Lourdes, is, believe Afterwards I talked to the writer and stage and jamming away until the waiter,
me, a beauty contest sketch with a differ- director of the show, the completely able- with no little difficulty, his English unable
ence . 'The Bank Robbery' involves three bodi ed Richard Tomlinson. 'Side-show' to stretch to a suitable response to the
handicapped crooks holding up a handi- grew out of work he was doing at Coven- single blunt phrase 'Fuck Off!' , manages
capped bank manager (It's .not so far- try' s Hereward College for Physically to throw him out.
fetched - in the USA a cripple was recen- Han dicapped School-leavers (he is now at This, should you be wondering, is
tly caught attempting the same crime). the Open University). Nabil Shaban was 'The Undersea World of Eric Satie' and if
'The Great American Musical' is another one of his students . They advertised for you detected an echo or two of our old
daydream. Until you've seen 'Chattan ooga disabled performers to join them in this friends the People Show or the Crystal
Choo-Choo' sung and danced by the their first show, and, out of the fifty or so Theatre, you are not too much mistaken.
Graeae you ain't seen nothin'. And by the who came along, five have remained to But it is the Leeds-based collective of
time Marion Saunders launches into her tour the show with them, not only in artists, musicians and performers , Impact
funky wheel-chair-bound version of 'I England bu t for one month also in the USA Theatre, who are the perpetrators of this
Wannabe Evil', the joint is, so to speak, An amateur company, at present they bizarre, surrealistic himage to all that is
really jumping. operate und er the auspices of RADAR - French. The crazed genius of Eric Satie
In Part Two they break out into the not, as you might think , an eccentric re- and the sub-aquanautic Jacques Cousteau
'normal' world , dressed now in their own lation of the well-known Drama School but are merely touchstones around which the
clothes . We see them dealing with a visit the Royal Association of Disability and show is concocted, the one an excuse for an
home, a couple of parents who overdo the Rehabili tation . Audiences of the handi- evocative 1890s setting, the other an
protective sympathy; with work, merrily capped, Richard told me, laugh more opportunity for 1980s references.
singing as they weave baskets at the heartil y than the able-bodied whose The visual imagery - such as the trans-
'Happy Day Sheltered Workshop'. chuckles tend to be a bit more guarded. plant operation on a pair of pickled cucum-
There 's a trial scene in which Jag Plah has And now the real challenge is what to do bers accompanied by the dinner table chat
trouble making himself understood . next, for they intend to expand their reper- of the Satie household is completely off the
'We've got to get an interpretor', someone toire to include plays not specifically about wall. Celebrating all one's romantic
declares, 'Does anylxiy here speak spa:s- the plight of the disabled. He is thinking of notions of France and the French, con-
26
juring (no less a word will do) the age of the Albany it is indeed bloody hot . her home town. These bits were good, too
Impressionists with spoken references to The idea here is that the Devil is this but ... Although History of the Devil pro-
Renoir and Lautrec and visual allusions to rather unfortunate chap who is throughout mised to 'keep a low profile on the meta-
Degas and others, and with a dialogue history a magnet for all the repressive flot- physics' early on in the show we are given a
almost entirely in cod-French, the perfor- sam and jetsam we like to call evil. Satan fairly routine philosophical ending. Al-
mance is as novel and exhilirating as any- himself, an only slightly suave bearded though Satan seems, on balance, not to
thing seen in London for months. folksinger type is chucked rather uncere- have had a career entirely shared by your
But if it is hilarious and even silly, 'The moniously to earth having had his wings average sunday-school teacher those wily
Undersea World of Eric Satie' is not with- pulled off by God, ever the sadistic little humans eventually acquit him of his
out profundity in its depiction of the symp- schoolboy, and is sent on a general romp crimes, thus allowing him to enter the
toms of neurosis. Cousteau has made a through the history of the world, opening kingdom of Heaven. Of course God and all
lucrative career out of his bizarre obses- the gate to the barbarians entering Rome, his angels have buggered off, leaving our
sion, Satie was driven mad by his, and but slowly meQding his ways and man to muse upon his empty desolation,
Impact Theatre have used the obsessiorn becoming quite a goody-goody towards the that sort of rot, and to grow a new set of
of both these men, together with one or end. He is more or less taken for a sucker, horns which, by way of challenging out
two of their own, to create a performance for example by Jesus in the desert, (I was preconceptions, the Dog co. have left off.
of wild originality. tricked - he gets a cult all to himself!) and So, a rather convoluted but at times
Luke Dixon certainly outdone by little Abigail at highly entertaining script ends with a
Salem, who after making up all sorts of .11thersubdued woqfby Mr Barker. I will
fibs about brimstone, seas' mountains of not say that their show lacks bite, but I will
History of the Devi I excrement and red-hot pokers most dis- say that one or two of the performers are
York and Albany satisfied by the mild mannered type who really pussycats on the quiet and need
after whisking her into the air refuses to something a bit more subtle to play with.
I have seen the Dog company twice now oblige in the simple matter of obliterating Rob La Frenais
and still can't work out whether they are
wildly pretentious or actually on to a good
thing. Their last show, Nightlives, was
about the underworld, criminal, and their
current one is about the underworld,
devilish . Their obsession with black and
white, good and evil is reflected by a
highly stylised use of clothing and environ-
ment .. In Nightlives everything was in
sharp monochrome contrast. In a History
of the Devil, recently at the York and
Albany, London, and now touring, all the
performers were clothed in grey towelling
jumpsuits. No doubt this complemented
the grey metaphysical areas covered.
But why pretentious? Well the Dog
Company are given by their director Clive
Barker (a joke, or does life really meet art?)
a lot of words to digest and they cause a
great deal of heavy breathing and breast
beating among the performers who give
the impression that they would really
prefer to sit back and take things a little
easier. This also gives the audience rather
the impression that they are being lectured
by Mr Barker at length through the
medium of his 2-legged performers. They
all seem a bit out of breath, and pale, which
goes very nicely with the design, which
indeed, has a lot going for it.
Bringing us on to the good bits, in fact,
in a History of the Devil I am already half-
way on the side of the old boy owing to the
ingenuity of the infernal arbiters of
fashion. All those odd bits of leather
thonging so casually sported by the varied
denizens of the nether regions, a nice off-
the shoulder studded job here, a high bon-
dage collar there. (More cross reference to
their canine origins; is the designer a dog
too?) We all know about the quality of rock
music in Hell; Brian Jones, Jim Morrison
and Sid Vicious entertaining the inmates
every other eternal night; are there many
dead fashion designers? What can they all
wear down there. Or perhaps the rather
traditional accoutrements given the
appearing demons are merely foithe bene-
fit of the assorted mortals assembled to try
the devil of his various crimes. We the
audience are the jury, the place is some-
where in Africa, and in the York and
27
and nobody else, the merit of the act that Arlene has a tendency either to jump
Despatches being gauged by its very truth to the her cues or to be late on them, frequently
deepest psychological impulses of the interrupting some of my best lines. I must
Some Uses of the term ..... performer. also confess that my performance was
Performance Art 6 somewhat inhibited by the outsize shade
Performance Art I. of Humphrey Bogart, though it was
Any creative or imaginative form that The incorporation of eccentric or
imaginative behaviour into the certainly a thrill to be able to utter the
involves performance, that is to say any immortal line 'Here's looking at you, kid'
such form which reaches the public day-to-day routine of an individual. Here
the work may be judged according to the -twice!
through the behaviour and/or speech There seems to have been some
and/or song of a live human being who imaginative inventiveness of the
performer who will depict some thing or tampering with the plot of 'Casablanca',
appears in a public situation in order to but being less familiar with the oeuvre of
function as the medium of the creative person which he is not but which may
nonetheless metaphorically represent Grace Metalious, I can't tell what liberties
imagination. Thus musicians, actors, they've taken with their version of 'Peyton
playwrights, comedians, circus per- him.
Usually the performance scene works Place ', in which I went-on to Co*Star with
formers, gymnasts, preachers, even per-
destructively at cross-purposes because nobody less than a former Mrs. Charlie
formance artists, are all included. As Chaplin - Paulette Goddard. Ms. God-
performers from any of these separate
theatre, indeed most forms of entertain- dard plays Constance MacKenzie, 'one
ment, are obviously included here, the areas are attempting to work together,
believing themselves to be interested in of the town's most attractive residents,
work may be motivated by the wish to who spends her busy life running a dress
serve, please or instruct the audience the same idiom . The issue isn't helped by
artists like myself who are apt to flit like shop and bringing up her teenage
and may therefore only tenuously may daughter , Allison'. In 'Peyton Place' I got
claim to the description of 'art'. gad-flies from idiom to idiom without
announcing their shift in technique and to play an even broader range of parts:
Performance Art 2. Allison herself; Mike Rossi, 'the hand-
applied criteria . My recent 'Performance
An extension of non-figurative visual some very masculine new high-school
Art: Memoirs and Scripts' was intended to
art, i.e. painting and sculpture, particu- principal ' who daringly invites Constance
clear up a little of this confusion but I was
larly in those areas where such work is for a midnight swim; Evelyn Page, 'the
so close to th problem myself when I
influenced by John Cage. Here the live strait-laced widowed mother' of Allison's
wrote it that I'm afraid I didn 't achieve the
human body of the artist, or someone boyfriend , Norman; Selena Cross, 'a
necessary cool perspective . Neither is
appointed by the artist, has no more func- beautiful 19 year old shop assistant'
the issue helped by the fact that Calder
tion than to form part of an overall com- accused of killing her step-father ; and -
never sent me proofs of the book which
position of which other elements may be for me, perhaps, the most satisfying role
now carries an average of two misprints
sound , space, other objects, coloured or of all - upright Lieutenant John Adams
to a page, thus enabling emasculated
moulded shapes and surfaces . Whilst of the U.S. Navy.
media-lackeys like Paul Bailey to dub me
bodies, objects and sounds are recognis- Ms . Goddard is much more reliable on
illiterate.
ably themselves in this idiom their her cues than Arlene Dahl. She never
function is aesthetic, which is to say that Jeff Nuttall
interrupts - though, like Ms. Dahl, she
their effect in the composition arises out sometimes departs slightly, but dis-
of their interaction, one upon the other , as CO*STAR concertingly , from the printed script. But
colour, shape , texture, sound, space and
time without reference to psychological, A question for movie buffs: what is it that I she makes up for her superior timing by
have in common with Robert Taylor , Fred going well over the top with a fruitily over-
social, erotic, or moral connotations .
Astaire, James Mason, Ray Milland, inflected style of acting that often left me
Performance Art 3 Fernando Lamas, Sidney James , Jack feeling hopelessly up-staged. However,
Human performance which may Hawkins , Bob Hope, David Kossoff and despite difficulties with the American
include poetry, prose, theatre, dance , Sir Cedric Hardwicke? accent , I thought I acquitted myself well,
music, sculpture , painting, or behaviour , Answer : we have all played opposite my only major lapse occurring when, as
whose purpose is to realise exactly and Hollywood film star Arlene Dahl. How has Mike Rossi, I badly muffed the wolf-
nothing else but the uncensored and un- this come about? Because I have taken whistle I was supposed to deliver when
conditioned imaginative notion of the part in . 'Co*Star - the Record Acting Constance appears in her bathing-
artist who may or may not be the per- Game' in which 'You act scenes opposite costume . Never could whistle. Between
former. Called performance art to dis- your favourite star'. Ms. Dahl speaks her ourselves , that's why I never actually
tinguish it from theatre which has been lines on the record ; and you slip in to the made it with Lauren Bacall.
compromised by audience requirements. silent pauses with dialogue from a com- For those interested in playing this
Per,formance Art 4 plete script supplied with the album. game , other albums are available. As
A number if creating actions and Arlene Dahl and I played eight re- well as Fernando Lamas (Ms. Dahl's hus-
organisations existent in 1970 when vamped scenes from the classic 1943 band) and Sir Cedric Hardwicke (my con-
Roland Miller was asked by the Arts movie , 'Casablanca '. She plays the Ingrid tender for the most boring actor on
Council to define some criterion to be Bergman role of love-torn Ilse Lund, and I celluloid) , you can play opposite Cesar
applied to these activities after having played the Humphrey Bogart part of Rick, Romero , Virginnia Mayo, George Raft,
repeatedly protested that the usual disenchanted owner of the legendary Tallulah Bankhead , Vincent Price,
criteria of theatre, that is clarity of com- 'Rick 's Caf--e'. And not only Rick. I also Jimmie Rodgers, Don Ameche and
munication, avoidance of boredom, the got to play two characters strangely 'Slapsie ' Maxie Rosenbloom. I strongly
provision of recreation, pleasure and absent from the original screenplay , recommend the experience to all lovers
instruction, did not apply to these activi- Rick 's peevish mistress, Yvonne , plus - of dramatic kitsch and to intrepid ex-
ties. When asked what these activities and it's a big plus - 'Tante Bonheur, plorers of the farther reaches of audience
were if they were not theatre Miller, after seemingly a harmless old crone who participation theatre. But why~top there,
consultation with myself, came up with haunts the streets of Casablanca'. in the Hollywood forties and fifties? Some
the term performance art. The Per- Play ing fraught love scenes opposite enterprising British entrepreneur ought to
formance Art panel was then formed and Arlene Dahl is a heady, if sometimes market an even more adventurous series
bureaucrats began to argue about awkward, affair . Ms. Dahl is a real trouper in which , for example , 'You act scenes
whether or not applicants were true per- with the authentic fatalistic forties enunci- opposite some of your favourite fringe
formance artists . ation . And we are both assisted by a nar- theatre personalities .' Think of the pos-
Performance Art 5 rator, atmospheric music, and such sibilities : you , too , could be the ferret in
Self expression in spontaneous action plentifully recurring sound cues as Sylveste McCoy's trousers! Here's
of and by any. individual. Here the opening doors , shifting chairs and poured looking at you, kids.
individual represents himself and nothing drinks . Yet despite all this, I have to report Neil Hornick
28
a rare breed alas; you pay your money around to mess up the trip, and the lads
By AH Accounts Stunning and you piss yourself. who used to sit outside the beer-tent
Constant things of beauty throughout strumming 'Da Doo Ron Ron' now have a
Events like the 1980 Penzance 'Festival the whole event were the incomparable stage act, climaxing in explosions,
of Fools' are a focus for a certain kind of open-air and cabaret performances of strobe-lighting and the smashing of poly-
performance and an excuse for a certain Natural Theatre . Their sheer visual im- styrene guitars (Kiss it wasn't, but pro-
type of performer. pact made everything else on the site gress nonetheless). Ad astra, Reg.
But what about the punters? There are look pathetically tatty (give me a well- Events like the 1980 Penzance
a smattering of bewildered emmets to be heeled British eccentric any day, prefer- 'Festival of Fools' are a focus and an
sure but what about the beaming, ably in dowager drag). excuse.
bearded, baby-festooned majority? Footsbarn's 'Hamlet' was by all Paddy Fletcher
Where do they come from? Where do accounts stunning and is coming to the
they go for the rest of the year? What do Riverside soon, though I'd rather see it at
they do when they're not herding into Stratford East (or atlywhere rather than . LETTERS
leaky tents to watch alternative entertain_- Quiche Lorraine-on-Thames for that
ment, or queueing cheerfully to d~pos1t matter). They are setting off next year for Dear Performance,
their firm healthy vegetarian turds 1nthe an indefinite stay in South America, silly I have rece:::itlyacquired no. 7 of your
chemical loos? And most important of all, noses and all, so I'd like to take this magazine and I have only one gripe which I
because a lot of the time you really can't opportunity to say 'thank you' for the regret I lack the time to argue coherently
tell, are they having a good time? . mushrooms .
but it is respect of the ''Controlled Attack"
A local (and dimly recalled) acquain- There were over twenty companies review on page 26. I have recently taken
tance from last year introduced me to his and performers at the festival, all of them over as 'co-ordinator of Expressive Arts'
elderly mother in the beer-tent one night. presumably dedicated to providing enter- within a 12-18 comprehensive school and
Stoned immaculate, her features tainment, with varying levels of Art- although trained as a painter I am at_tem-
smeared with clown make-up, she radi- content , to a large popular audience. A pting to implement a number of new ideas
ated goodwill and vodka fumes. 'Do~t go percentage of the performan~e on based on a growing conviction that the
making a noise, son,' she advised, display probably would not work in any areas of performance, video, sound,
patting my hand. 'Promise me you won't other context, if indeed they worked here. gesture etc . have as much to offer art
go shouting .' I promised. Half an hour There was a lot of tat and wimpery, and I education as the world of art act1v1t1es
later she was on her feet, haranguing the for one would have been pleased to have while the traditional demarcations between
assembly . 'Kids without shoes!' she seen 'Lumiere and Son' or The People artistic activities are increasingly redun-
accused . 'Where I come from they'd be Show' in Penzance. But where were dant. I therefore regret Rob La Frenais'
shot!' A confused but refreshing obser- they? The groups committed to 'Popular' contention that "there is something ... off-
vation that punctured the Aquarian com- theatre badly need more guts, imagin- putting about the combination of the word
placency of at least one punter. These ation and committment, but at least
education with a description of any arts
people are enjoying themselves!' he they 've grasped the fact that theatres and activity." I also regret his stere~typed,
pointed out indignantly, but she wasn't Art-centres are where performance, as a convenient image of modern schooling and
convinced. his cliched view of teachers. I am con-
living part of society, has crashlanded.
The general consensus of conviction vinced that accurate observation is essen-
Thrusting my ruptured head out of the
regarding Cliffhanger's new show 1sth~t tent one morning I was greeted by the tial to significant art activity and it was not
it is an. improvement on their last. This close-up rear view of a rather plump evident in that review. I wonder how he
consensus is reinforced by the company person doing what I ferv~~tly hoped were feels about the activities at Black Mountain
themselves and it would be churlish of me Tai Chi exercises. Horrific experiences College since World War II? . .
to challenge such a convincing mandate, like this and recollections of the stench The arts get a bad enough hammenng m
so I will content myself by admitting that and mi~ery of last year's Andersonville schools from so many sources - have you
the Mills and Boone slush meet High Riviera, prompt one to observe that ever seen them mentioned in models for a
Gothic idiocy flavour of the sublime nothing has changed. But of course core curriculum? - that they can do
'Bumsrush House' was more instantly to everything does. Despite the usual inci- without that sort of attack. I recently
my taste , confess that 'Dig For Vi~tory'.i~ dental irritations (still no Draught Guin- attended an Exeter University Summer
going to repay and second and third v1~1t ness on the site, too many sadhis playing School on the Creative Arts in Education
and leave comparisons at that for this bongoes, not enough animal flesh for and believe me there are many people in-
paragraph . Always redeemed by the ~x- sale, and the inevitable 'our show was volved in Arts Education working very
cellence of their performances and the in- better than their's' syndrome), the bogs hard to establish new methods of working
spiration behind most of their bewildering were surprisingly habitable if you didn't in this field who deserve your support and
plot developments, Cliffhanger are a mind queueing, there was an increased encouragement. Yours sincerely,
genuinely 'commercial' company, one of choice of stimulants and fewer 'clowns' David Allen 138 Francis Avenue Southsea
54Kenni:,gton Ovcil Lond.onSE115SW Tul :01-SS2 76SO<booki:,gs>
29
NEWCASTLE
FOFUREPERFORM The Basement Group, Spectro Arts.
Info 0632 6145271/3733686
Selected National Perfonnance Listings
November 7th. (All day) Basement Group
Show. John Adams, Ken Gill, Dick Grayson,
BIRMINGHAM John Bewlay and Belinda Williams, all
Birmingham Arts Lab. Info 021 359 4192 members of the Basement Group, will each be
November 26, 27. Dance Performance by showing a piece of work, including tape,
Tara Rajkumal. slide and video installations, film and per-
December 1, 2, 3. Beryl and The Perils. formance .
(Special event at the Star Club, Essex St.) November 29. Films by Jeanene Ijon, John
December 10. Poetry by Roy Fisher and Gail Kippin and Alison Winckle (a performer
Turnbull, with Loi Coxhill. whose work 'Why did the Chicken Cross The
December 19, 20. Performance by Diz Willis. Road?' was reviewed in issue no 3 of
" His costumes , images, sculptures are those Performance Magazine).
of the demoloition site meths drinker ... He is
master of the barely audible aside built into GLASGOW
which will be the exactly accurate historic Third Eye Centre. Info 041 332 7521
reference or topical jab." - Jeff Nunall . November 8. 7-84 (Scotland) in 'Blood Red
Ikon Gallery. Info 021 643 0708 Roses.'
November 6. Performance by Keith Frake. November 14. Moving Picture Mime Show -
November 20. Performance by Catherine 'Seven Samurai' .
Elwes, followed by a lecture by Rosie Parker . November 15. Kevin Coyne - Music
December 4, 5, 6. Performance by Miranda Performance.
Tufnell and Dennis Greenwood. November 29. Dave Stephens.
BRISTOL LONDON Leeny S11ck

Arnolfini Gallery. Info 0272 299191 ICA. Info 01 930 0493
Arnolfini Gallery. Info 0272 299191 October 30-November 9. About Time . November 21-29. Leeny Sack -The
November 1. New show by Moving Being Womens Performance season including video, Survivor and the Translator. Renowned
'Body Politic ' (See Touring ). slide, film, installation and live work. See women performer. This show about the holo-
November 14. Dance Performance by Maedee cover feature for details of all events. caust and a second generation survivor.
Dupres . Includes new work 'Move that November 1-5. Epic Theatre - Guy Fawkes' December 2-31. Act of Union - By Seamus
Piano !' and 'Crowd Scenes'. Big Night Out. Finnegan. Goes beyond easy answers and
November 21. 'Dreamtiger ' Music per- November 7-15. Moving Being - Body explores the complexity of the situation in
forman ce. Politic (See Touring ). Northern Ireland, the inextricable mixture of
November 18-29. Parallax Productions - politics, religion, history, and cultural
BATH Musicians Crossing a Bridge without their identity.
Bath Arts Workshop. Info 0225 31054 instruments .
November 5-24. Natural Theatre Co. Spectac- December 2-20. Monstrous Regiment - Theatre Space. Info 01 836 2035
ular . (Walcot Village Hall). Shakespeare's Sister. November 28-December 1. Monstrous
November 27-29. Natural Theatre Co. Blood Plus . November 19 - Dan Graham intro- Regiment - Dialogue Between a Prostitute
Weekend . (Walcot Village Hall). ducing video work from US artists Judith and One of her Clients.
Barry , Vivienne Dick, Dara Birnbaum and November 3-5. Shadowfax- Hack.
CARDIFF Martha Rosier. November 17-22. Passion - a new
Chapter Arts Centre. Info 0222 396061 performance group from Germany with a
November 3-15 (exc. Nov. 9) Hesitate and Oval House. Info 01 735 2786 strong visual element . Performance-Gegen.
Demon strate - 'Do Not Disturb '. November 5-23. Bohemian Rhapsody - a December 1-7. The Phantom Captain-: Our
November 17-22. Jill Bruce and Bruce Lacy. feminist farce. Set in Bohemia where women, Boys Town . A new show performed by Neil
Special week-long performance. tired of war and famine, leave the men, and Hornick and Joel Cutrara .
December 1-5. Paupers Carnival-Narendan s, set up their own community in the hills. Plus (late) Public Spirit from Manchester -
A stud y of the fool in British legends and November 11-16. Pure Monkeys - Death by Frankenstein , a complete "fabrication.
myth. Kissing. An entertainmen t based on the
Decembe r 11, 12, 13. (Start of Chapter 's Solo images of film noir. Albany Empire. Info 01 692 0765
Work Season, to continue in the New Year) November 26-30. Polish Theatr Naja - A November 6- 16. The Combination -
Dave Stephen s - Run With The Fox, Ride Twittering of Dead Nestlings. Benefits, from the book by Zoe Fairbairns.
With The Hound s, Is Reality Enough Or Is It November 6. The Graae- Sideshow. November 18-19. Spare Tyre - How Do I
More Than Enough? November 10-23. Oval House Christmas Look? .
December 15-20. New show by Moving Being Show - Hell is Empty . All the Devils are November 20-30. The Cdnbination -
'Body Politic' (See Touring ). with us. Entirely set in black and white Benefits.
(including the lighting!O
NOTTINGHAM Cafe Theatre. Info 01 240 0794
Midland Group Gallery. Info 0602 582636 Action Space. Info 01 637 8270 Thursday, Friday, Saturday throughout
November 14. Performance by Lizzie Cox - November 4-8. The New York Labor Theatre November & December. The Artaud
'Somerset ' . The year of the life of a field in - Jack London , The Man From Eden' s Company - The Misunderstanding by
Somerset. The field is constructed from Grove. Chuck Portz recreates the images and Camus . The Room by Sartre.
fabrics which are contained in an eight foot ideas that drove Jack London to become
square box. Ameri ca's most read and thwarted popular London Film Co-op Pe1:formances.
November 21. Centre Ocean Stream - writer. (Showing on the day Carter loses to Info 01 348 8648
'Force s of the Small' . Reagan!) November 3. Martin L~s - Rubbish
_______________________ > ----'--------
Is it Art? Is it Theatre? performance art, video, and new music. If you are
interested or involved in any of those areas, the
Is it Political? Can Anyone do it? Performance Magazine is compulsory reading!
Yes , yes, yes and yes . But no, Performance cannot be Please send me an annual subscription to the Performance Magazine
fitted into any one of these categories. The Performance Name ......................... . ............................... .
Ma~azine is the first accessible guide to the new live art Address .................................. . ...... .. . .. ........ .
activities happening in galleries, small theatres , streets Starting with issue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a (please circle)
and fields all over Britain. Published bi-monthly, written Cheques, drafts and P.O.s to The Performance Magazine, 10 Fleet
by people active in the field, it challenges your attitudes to Road, London NW3 2QS (01 485 7476).
spectacle and entertainment, while providing a running Rat~s (6 issues, post paid) Individuals (UK) 4.00 Institutions (UK) 7
report on all recent developments in experimental theatre, Individuals (abroad) 7.00 sterling. Institutions (abroad) 10 sterling.
30
Slides. deranged inventors, cloning is just one of the November 17-19. Swindon Wyvern Theatre.
November 10. Mary Steele - Performance. everyday stories of half-life in the mixture of November 20-22. Cardiff Sherman Theatre.
This space is interested in meeting artists who farmyard, laboratory and aquarium that is December 1-6. Horsham Capitol Theatre.
want to put on their work here. Please contact their normal habitat. - Performance no. 7.
Roberta Graham at the above number. October 28. York Arts Centre. Gay Sweatshop. Info 01250 1762
November 2. Bath Place Venture, Blood Green - Set in an England that might
Riverside Studios. Info 01 741 2251 Leamington Spa. yet exist; where genetic engineering is no
November 26, 29, 30. Ian Spink Company - November 7, 8. Bath Arts Workshop . longer a spin-off from the medical research
dance performance. November 14. Bridgewater Arts Centre . world, but is itself a growth industry ; where
December 2-7. Meredith Monk - Voice and control over the sex of children has become
Movement Performance . Michael Nyman - Moving Being Info 0222 28741 the basis of the militarised state; where
Paul Richards. New performance by two of Body Politic - A new performance bringing sexuality which differs from the strict male/
the collaborators in 'The Masterwork' . Moving Being's established mixed media tech- female stereotypes is treated with the sur-
December 16-29. Le Cirque Imaginaire - niques (performers p\us music, video, slides, geon's knife .
Christmas Show. film, electronics) forward into the action November 3. Carnegie Arts Centre ,
itself, rather than employing them as an Workington.
Bush Theatre. Info 01 ti02 3703 animated background. Bodypolitic itself is November 5-8. Gulbenkian Arts Centre,
November 4-December 6. Hull Truck - about the 'state' we live in, both internally Newcastle .
New performance - Mean Streaks. and externally. November 10-11. McRobert Arts Centre,
October 31-November I. Amolfini, Bristol. Stirling.
City University . Info 01 253 4399 November 3-4. Barn Theatre, Aberwystwyth.
November 6. Mircea Ardeleanu - Solo per- November 7-15. ICA, London. Matchbox Purveyors. Info 01 422 9653
cussion performance. November 28-29. Theatr Ardudwy, Harlech . Ian Hinchcliffe in:
November 27. Maedee Dupres - Dance and December 2-3. Tbeatr Gwynedd, Bangor. Spud Havalone II - A science fiction piece
Live Music. (Choreographed by Sally Potter December 8-10. Phoenix Arts, Leicester. taking place in the colonies. A man and his
& Richard Alston, music by Lindsay Cooper) December 12- 13. Wyeside Arts Centre, Builth servant argue about cult. The action includes
Both events lunchtime . Wells. a cutlery dance and space suits which are self
December 15-20. Chapter Arts Centre , amplified . Comedy, music and absurdity .
Air Gallery. Info 01 378 7751 Cardiff. October 28. Barn Theatre, Ambleside,
End November/December (dates uncon- Cumbria.
firmed ). Halpern Dileva (from U.S.) - Per- Les Oeufs Malades. Info 01 636 6226 October 31. Harbour Arts Centre , Irvine.
formance - Put your $ I dm fS F $ = on Family Album - About Families. Les Oeufs November 1-7. Somewhere in Scotland.
your soul for a solution of TOTAL ART Malades - ' .. .who else gets droves of con- November 13. Riverstreet Hall, Portsmouth .
now . Week-long event. fused French tourists in their audience ex- November 14. Chesil Theatre, Winchester.
pecting a piece of performance art? Who else
gets not only their plays reviewed but their INFORMATION FOR NEXT ISSUES
TOURING name? ... the only whiff of rancid omelette LISTINGS Oanuary - February) to the
Forkbeard Fantasy. Info 01 250 1474 about them is their name! AARGHH!' Bryony Performance Magazine, 10 Fleet Road,
The Clone Show - Within their (Forkbeard Lavery, LOM director in Performance no. 2. London NW3 2QS by November 19.
Fantasy's) world of non human morality, November I. Taunton Brewhouse Theatre .
preditory ritual , exquisite life-forms, and November 6-7. Whitehaven Rosehill Theatre.
OFF
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with a clean licence call John on 01-935 9914.
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Performance Magazine 08 Oct Nov 1980

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Performance Magazine 08 Oct Nov 1980

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This issue of Performance Magazine has been reproduced as part of Performance Magazine Online (2017) with the permission

of the surviving Editors, Rob La Frenais and Gray Watson.

You meet the Most Interesting People ...

Dreams and Deconstructions .,

ICA THE MALL LONDON SW1

OCT 27, NOV 15 KEITH FRAKE

The collapse of the Seven

ians to make known work by women and begin to redress s

Rein ne va plus The Tempest 1978

Towards a Nuclear Future Woyzeck

formers from my own involvement in im-

REVIEWS of call was the room in the hostelry where

54Kenni:,gton Ovcil Lond.onSE115SW Tul :01-SS2 76SO<booki:,gs>

BRISTOL LONDON Leeny S11ck

Theatre lighting design, con trol,

Audio-Visual pre sentation,

Equipmen t maintenance and refurbishing 'Overdrive', the contract driving specialist. .

Installa tion, d istribution systems,

..ft1/ . \o\ t:,o~/ "~/' ..-/\

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