The Great London Literary Bench Hunt Part 2

The second stage of my little hunt for Book Benches commenced on the morning of 3rd August 2014.  I decided to explore the Greenwich Trail.  My hunt ended up taking a couple of hours and I couldn't find three of the benches in Greenwich Park.  I vowed to find them at a later date as there is only so much fun to be gained in walking round in circles.  As I discovered from my previous hunt for benches, some of the benches were located in quite odd locations that did involve walking down random side streets.  Fortunately, the uniformity of the basic bench design made them slightly easier to locate, providing there weren't groups of people congregating around them as though they were sacred relics.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Planet 42) (Bench 15 - 3-8-2014)

This bench was located near to Greenwich Station and incorporated many elements from the best selling science fiction series written by Douglas Adams.  Please note Marvin the Paranoid Android contemplating life.  The bowl of flowers, fish and other elements also play important roles in the series.  This is the front of the bench and is the close relation of the back of the bench.

The back of the bench and of course, relevance is placed upon the number '42', which is the meaning of life, in case you had forgotten.

Dr. Johnson's Wild World (Bench 16 - 3-8-2014)

This was one of my favourite benches.  Samuel Johnson created one of the most influential dictionaries of the English language and this bench incorporated a large selection of words with their definitions explained both in words and in images.  For example, 'imagination' is illustrated by an image of a brain on fire and 'adultery' by a bed.  This bench was about a five minute walk from the Fan Museum.

The back of the bench illustrates Dr. Johnson at work on his dictionary.

On the Origin of Species (Bench 17 - 3-8-2014)

The front of the bench depicts the wonders of nature with the dodgy assumption that everything starts and ends with mankind.  Charles Darwin's evolutionary theories represented by a myriad of linked species.  This bench was in Greenwich Park.

The back of the bench reveals a spiral.  Quite a complex shape.  The spiral shape is a factor within the double helix of DNA.

Frozen in History - Journals: Captain Scott's Last Expedition (Bench 18 - 3-8-2014)

A bench with a very sad story attached to it.  Captain Scott's ill fated expedition to the Antarctic regions.  This bench was located near to the back of the National Maritime Museum.  The front of the bench is decidedly more upbeat than the back as it represents the earlier stages of the trip.

The back of the bench represents the end of the expedition.  The starvation and deaths caused by terrible weather conditions, preventing Captain Scott and his group from walking back to their depot, which was eleven miles away.  The six panels on the back of the bench reveal what happened.

The Jungle Book (Bench 19 - 3-8-2014)

A very colourful bench featuring many of the characters from Kipling's 'The Jungle Book'.  This was also in Greenwich Park.

The back of the bench representing the vast array of species that hang out in the jungle.

The Canterbury Tales (Bench 20 - 3-8-2014)

This bench was located near(ish) to the Royal Naval College.  Note the old English spellings of the place names.  Not the most exciting of the benches, although I enjoyed the typography.

Yes, the back of the bench.  If in doubt or if you can't think what to put on the back of  a Chaucer inspired bench, just paint it red.  Having said that, it does give the bench a sense of completeness.

The Railway Children (Bench 21 - 3-8-2014)

The front of the bench inspired by 'The Railway Children' by Edith Nesbit.  The iconic image of the daughter running to meet her father as he returns to the family after his mysterious disappearance.  This bench was located near to the River Thames and the Royal Naval College.

The back of the bench showing the train bringing the girl's father home.

Samuel Pepys' Diary (Bench 22 - 3-8-2014)

The front of the bench representing Pepys' diary and the Great Fire of London.  It's still amazing to think that at one point, a number of Londoners lived on a bridge.  This was near to the River Thames and the Royal Naval College.

The back of the bench with an illustration of Pepys writing his diary.

Girl Engrossed (Bench 23 - 3-8-2014)

The front of the bench depicting a girl laying on a sofa with the detritus of her age.  The most potent image is the copy of 'Adrian Mole' which inspired the bench

The back of the bench representing a girl reading.  I guess the girl may have been the artist remembering the past.  I can't remember exactly where this was, although it wasn't near the River Thames or the Royal Naval College.

The second part of the hunt for the Book Benches was slightly unsatisfactory as I failed to locate three benches in Greenwich Park, so I vowed to search for them at a later date.

Afterword.

The benches etc are copyright to their respective artists and owners.  Likewise, the books they represent are copyright to the authors and publishers etc.  For more information on the Book Benches, please see:

http://www.booksabouttown.org.uk/

                                                                               Barry Watt - 16th November 2014.

The Great London Literary Bench Hunt Part 1

I am a sucker for a challenge.  I hasten to add that the challenge must be achievable and not require herculean feats of physical strength.  If we view our days retrospectively, we begin to learn that the systems and rituals we undertake or maintain allow little opportunity for novelty or improvement.  As such, breaking the patterns that dominate our lives, allow us to breathe a little more freely.

Enough of the prelude...  I was reading some publication or other and they made reference to fifty literary themed benches that were scattered around London and there was also a link to a website.  I mentally noted the website address and checked it out.  Thoughtfully, the website provides maps so that you can focus on certain areas to try find these benches (as I have discovered today, at least one or potentially two benches are not on these maps, so to get a complete list you need to look at the list of benches provided by the website).  The maps are the Greenwich Trail Map, the Bloomsbury Trail Map, the City Trail Map and the Riverside Trail Map.  I have no sense of direction, so the maps are quite useful although the 'BookBenches' as they are known on the site are not always easy to locate if you rely on the maps.  Certain benches are not on named roads or locations, so you have to rely on intuition and just plain guess work to find them.  As you may have gathered, I have decided to find all of the benches and also to photograph them.

The 'BookBenches' are part of a collaborative project between the National Literacy Trust and Wild In Art to encourage reading and also to suggest London's many literary connections.  For example, the so-called Bloomsbury Group used to live, study and work around the Bloomsbury area.  The Books about Town project will culminate with an auction of the 'BookBenches' on 7th October 2014 at the Southbank Centre and the money will be donated to the National Literacy Trust to encourage reading amongst disadvantaged children and young people around the UK.  The 'BookBenches' (hereafter known simply as benches in the blog entries on my bench hunt) have been in their respective locations since the 2nd July 2014 and will be there until 15th September 2014.  They have a uniform look, so if you are looking for them, their shape remains the same even though the art work that adorns them varies greatly, which makes the process of finding them more enjoyable.  Also the art work continues on the backs of the benches and on the sides.  As a quick aside, one of the pleasant aspects of finding the benches is to discover areas of London, you may not have seen or spent any time in.

I started my bench hunt on the 6th July 2014 as I had some time spare between visiting an art exhibition and going to see a film in the evening.  I armed myself with the City Trail Map and the Riverside Trail Map.  I was aware and continue to remain so that the geographical spread of the benches make it highly unlikely that you could find them all in one day unless your sense of direction is miraculous or you have someone with you who can smell the trails of the benches as a hunter may sniff the ground for traces of an animal's scent.  I lack both of these skills unfortunately.  Also it is more fun to focus on the areas.  I will let you know up front that I still haven't found them all as I haven't touched the Bloomsbury Trail Map and some of them I simply can't find (yet).  But I have found and photographed thirty one of them, so here are the ones I found on the 6th July 2014...  There is no particular order and the numbers I have allocated the benches is based simply on the order I photographed them.

Shakespeare's London (Bench Number 1) (Located near to the Globe Theatre, London)

Front of bench.  A pictorial depiction of the buildings that had some significance to the Bard.

Back of bench.  A representation of a London very different to the one we take for granted.  Bear in mind that properties used to exist on London Bridge.

That's Not My Meerkat (Actually titled Usborne's That's Not My... Bench (Bench Number Two) (Located very near to the Millennium Bridge and just before you get to St Paul's Cathedral)

Front of bench.  Wee Meerkats doing what they do.  Looking cute.

                                                        

                                                  Back of bench.  Panda eating whilst a little mouse looks on.  If you look 

                                                  closely you can spot the logo of the publishing house, Usborne (Hot air 

                                                  balloon in the corner).

Mary Poppins (Actually titled The Extraordinary East Wind) (Bench Number Three) (located near to St Paul's Cathedral)

Front of bench depicted the arrival of the eponymous Mary Poppins on the East Wind.

The back of the bench revealing some of the exciting things that happen in the novel.

Fever Pitch (Bench Number Four) (Located near to the previous bench and as such quite close to St Paul's Cathedral)

Front of bench and a representation of the opinion of the protagonist in Nick Hornby's novel.

Back of bench.  The importance of football to the main protagonist in the novel.

The Capital of the Imagination (Bench Number 5) (Located close to the previous two benches and once again, near to St Paul's Cathedral)

Front of bench.  Peter Pan and Tinkerbell flying over London.  I particularly like Peter's shadow.

Back of bench.  Peter Pan in Never Land.

The Jacqueline Wilson and Nick Sharratt BookBench (Bench Number Six) (Located very near to St Paul's Cathedral, not far from the previous three benches)

Back of bench with a child's leg inadvertently captured.  This bench is unsurprisingly

popular with children.  I can't help you with any of the characters' names.

Front of bench and photo taken very quickly prior to the arrival of yet more children.

I believe that the image on the right of the bench is a caricature of the author, Jacqueline Wilson.

Bridget Jones's Diary (Bench Number Seven) (Located somewhere in the region of Paternoster Square)

The front of the bench representing Bridget Jones doing what she does best, living for the moment and 

writing about her experiences and frustrations.

I guess the back of the bench is supposed to play up the romantic qualities of the novel.

Also reminds me of a playing card.

Regeneration - Dickens In Liverpool (Bench Number Eight) (Located near to St. Paul's Churchyard)

Dickens spent some time in Liverpool.  Very colourful bench designed by Hillside High School in Bootle.

Back of the bench focusing on aspects of Liverpool's cultural history in recent times.  Note the Superlambanana on the left hand side of the bench.

Brick Lane (Bench Number Nine) (Located in the Postman's Park or near there)

Front of the 'Brick Lane' bench.  Again includes elements of the novel.  Letters play an important part in the novel.

Back of bench.  Beautifully abstract portrayal of London and the novel and its characters.

The Laura Marlin Mysteries (Bench Number Ten) (Located in the very secluded and oddly beautiful Love Lane)

I know absolutely nothing about 'The Laura Marlin Mysteries'.  There is a very neat Joker card hidden in the foliage and rocks.

Back of the bench clearly journeying to the island depicted on the front of the bench.

Wisden - Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (Bench Number Eleven) (Guildhall)

Front of bench.  Lengthy quote on the bench, pertaining to the noble art of cricket (if you like that kind of thing).

Back of bench (taken from an odd angle as it is very close to a wall)

The Wind In The Willows (Bench Number Twelve) (Located near Bank)

Front of bench.  Again, beautifully done representing elements of the novel and pastoral scenes.

Back of bench with all of the lovely characters from the novel.

Alex Rider - Stormbreaker: The Graphic Novels (Bench Number Thirteen) (Located near Bank and close to the above bench)

Back of bench.  Not familiar with the source material.  Kid secret agent or something like that,

Quite snazzy front of bench.  Secret agents for kids.

Sit Here At Your Own Risk - A Brief History Of Time (Bench Number Fourteen) (Located near the Bank of England Museum (ish))

Very wild and amazingly eye catching representation of a black hole.

Back of bench.  Cosmic anomalies rock, don't they?

So this ends my first entry documenting my at times slightly frustrating hunt for the literary benches.  One area will become a new focal point if I require quiet time to reflect.  The area around the Guildhall, Barbican and the Museum of London is both an area out of time and also as potent as a good book.  I will find all of the benches even if I can't get all of the photos.  I am a man of my word.

Barry Watt - Saturday 16th August 2014.  

Afterword

Please check out www.booksabouttown.org for more information about the 'Book Benches' and the artists who have contributed their work.  Copyrights for all of the books etc belong to the authors, artists and publishers etc.

Please see the Wiki link for more information of the Superlambanana:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superlambanana

                                                                                                                                                                    B.W.

The Interval or Intermission - Reclaiming the blank aesthetic space.

You know how it is...  You have been sitting watching a really good play then all of a sudden the lights go out and go on promptly and you are left with ten minutes to thirty minutes of your life to occupy in a manner that has some meaning (or not as the mood takes you).

Now, the theatres and cultural establishments have a myriad of reasons for encouraging these breaks.  Sometimes, they are necessary to change sets but mostly, the breaks are arbitrary; good excuses to encourage the audience to go out and buy drinks and over-priced ice creams. 

As you may have gathered, I am not a fan of intervals.  I have seen many a production lose its momentum as a result of this break.  Having said that, I do not seem to be alone.  If you gaze around the auditorium during the interval, lots of the audience members are sitting around, reading their programmes, dissecting the remnants of their lives in the electronic devices they choose to connect with at the expense of their souls.  I seem to be at the point of my life where celebrating the immediacy of the moment is very important.  Now just think what could be done with the time spent during the intervals.  People could actually talk about their experiences with each other.  You are all collectively watching a performance.  This is a shared experience.  Alternatively, a more subversive use of the interval could be devised.  For fun, you could jump up on stage or if you are slightly more conservative, stand in front of the stage, then recite either your own creative works or those of others.  Alternatively, just think of the stage as the equivalent of Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, espouse rhetoric and radical theories at the captive audience, salivating at the prospect of the second half of the performance.  Personally, I like the idea of jumping on stage and moving the props.  Just think how excited the performers would be to return to the stage to discover that the book that eventually leads to the denouement of the narrative has disappeared. 

But on a serious note, I feel that it may be worth exploring the value of intervals.  They are the equivalent of Limbo or that little area next to the River Styx, where you wait for the Ferryman to take you off to the Underworld.  It is a space of dead time.  It can and has been used creatively, the most recent production of 'Mother Courage' at the National Theatre continued filling the interval with the sounds and actions of war as the stage was radically altered.  This production resonated even more owing to this attention to detail.  The never ending war continues even when the actors stop for a pee and a drink.

Reclaim the intervals, start using them as a springboard for creativity or social change.  The minutes add up and there is only so much time you can waste queueing at the bar (or for the toilets)!

Barry Watt - 3rd August 2014.

Afterword.

'Mother Courage (and Her Children)' was written by Bertolt Brecht and was last performed at the National Theatre in London in 2009 with Fiona Shaw and Duke Special.  A truly memorable performance.

                                                                                                                                   BW

Shakespeare for Haters or Learning to Bear the Bard.

I first encountered Shakespeare as the result of a teacher at my primary school.  It was a typical assembly in a hall, like many school halls a wonderful symphony of odours, ranging from mashed potato to sweat.  The teacher gave us the rundown of 'The Merchant of Venice' and positively salivated as he relished the sound of the phrase, 'pound of flesh'.  He also explained to the innocents surrounding him, the only area where a pound of flesh could be removed (for your information around the heart).  Poor Antonio but you really shouldn't make deals with dodgy money lenders called Shylock...

The assembly remains etched upon my memories of childhood and to this day, I still haven't seen 'The Merchant of Venice' although I will.  The word 'flesh' makes me creep though, in this case owing to childhood fears and the associations made between 'flesh' and food consumption and cannibalism.  As I have subsequently learnt, Shakespeare touched on themes of cannibalism more than once in his plays.

It may not surprise you that Shakespeare and I as a child had little in common.  Indeed, even when I hit secondary school and studied 'Macbeth' at GCSE then 'Antony and Cleopatra' for A-Level.  It took a little while for me to get to grips with the subject matter and the language.  As an adult, I look back and I can resolutely empathise with students who cannot get on with Shakespeare.  His works mean so much more in performance than they do on the page.  The language is archaic, so it takes awhile to get to grips with the poetry of the works.  Slipping beneath layers of innuendo that wouldn't seem out of place in the 'Carry On' series years later to get to the real content of the works can be a tedious task for students.  Fortunately, my English teacher at secondary school had the sense to show the Polanski film of 'Macbeth', which also featured Keith Chegwin (children around the country will remember him as a TV presenter) and he sang.  'Antony and Cleopatra' worked for me once the power relations between the characters was established and let's face it, who can fail to love a play in which the lead bungles his own noble suicide.  I also studied 'Twelfth Night' for A-Level.  In retrospect, I prefer the tragedies to the comedies, they mean more to me, the characters are more real.  Although, 'Twelfth Night' does contain some amazingly funny characters and contains one of my favourite lines from Shakespeare, 'many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage' ('Twelfth Night Act 1, Scene 5).

When I resat A-Level English at college, I studied 'A Winter's Tale', which like many of Shakespeare's comedies involves mistaken identities, people hiding themselves under different disguises and some quite mundane comedy.  As I say, the tragedies are where Shakespeare excelled.  It's interesting to think that post college, Shakespeare and I did not really mix much.  I saw the odd production whilst I was at university but I was more interested in other playwrights.

It has only been recently that something about the Bard has struck home with me.  A friend suggested a lecture/performance piece at the British Library, which explored the notion that the clipped over the top BBC pronunciation of Shakespeare's works had removed it from its original context.  It was after all performed to everyone, not just to a group of upper middle class with more money than sense.  Also the actors came from a variety of backgrounds, so the dialect would of could alter how lines were delivered.  When you hear the work delivered in something that probably equated with the original pronunciation of the works, you can see the intricacies of the rhythmic structure and also as one of the actors stated, it changes how you deliver the lines.  The problem with trying to deliver the lines with too much austerity and too little emotion is to render them as passionate and appealing as a shopping list.  I have seen some truly average performances where somewhere beneath the dry expression of the poetry, there was once a brilliant play.

I can say now as an adult that I have a liking for Shakespeare and his works.  However, I will not deify his works.  I am not in the camp that feel that he should be studied at the exclusion of every other playwright or poet.  He should be seen in context.  At one point, I would have stated that you need to study his plays to get the most out of them.  Well, guess what?  I was only partially right.  It sometimes helps, but actually when you let yourself go and simply go to see lots of Shakespeare's plays, something changes.  You learn that they cover universal themes, that the characters are as familiar as your friends, family and enemies.  Also the language is as eclectic as the conversations you engage in with the people you encounter.  Sometimes, quite flowery, occasionally colloquial and always to the point.  I don't care whether Shakespeare wrote all of his own plays (logically, he may not have done, after all he worked in different theatre groups) but something about the works has started to resonate profoundly with me.  So much so, that I have vowed to see all of the plays I haven't seen performed professionally by the time I hit the age of fifty.

Shakespeare, I was wrong about you or maybe, I was led astray for a while and now I am back on track.

Barry Watt - 26th July 2014.

Afterword.

Roman Polanski's film, 'Macbeth' is available on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Shakespeare's plays are available in a million different versions.  Just grab the ones you feel most comfortable with.  The family inherited a beautiful volume of Shakespeare's works with notes marking when the owner saw various productions and her opinions of the performances. She also drew a lovely image of the Bard.  The edition is 'Shakespeare's Works' (Oxford University Press 1928).  The line from 'Twelfth Night' was extracted from page 346 of this edition.

                                                                                                                                    BW

Pulp - Growing up with dirt in your fingernails and the stars in your eyes.

I didn't think much of music until the early 90s when I stumbled on the works of Bob Dylan.  It was there in the background (my sister loved music) but I guess as a prolific reader, shy and introverted, it passed me by.  I was 18 before music really gripped me, although significantly, it was the lyrics that grabbed me first.  I then stumbled on Elvis Costello by accident then quite by chance, Pulp.

Boring introduction leading to the eventual point of this blog entry.  Yes, today, children, we are exploring the band Pulp and their significance to me (not unlike the importance their music and myriad personalities have had on so many people).

I saw Pulp on the then seminal music show, 'Later with...  Jools Holland'.  This was back in the mid 90s when the show was more about the music and Jools Holland was contented to simply introduce the acts (in recent years, the show feels as though it is more about him but that's my personal opinion).  Pulp performed as is customary on the show, a couple of songs.  The song that grabbed me was 'I Spy'.  'I Spy' is a wonderfully angry little song from the album 'Different Class' expressing an individual's rage at his place in the world, fantasising about a woman from a 'higher' social class.  I loved 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning', the novel and film, so I appreciated the anger that permeated the song.  It also had a line that still makes me cheer and ironically now means little to anyone not versed in the popular culture of the moment, 'Take your Year In Provence and shove it up your arse'.  'A Year in Provence' was a novel by Peter Mayle before it was adapted for the BBC as a miniseries that was widely dismissed.  Fortunately, I missed that although I have always liked Lindsay Duncan.  Anyhow, the sentiment was there in that Pulp line, a succinct up yours to a cloying upper middle class. 

From then on, I gradually encountered Pulp more often as 'Different Class' was released.  I confess to being one of those guys who milked the album in the Student Union Bar,  whilst I was at university.  It amuses me to reflect that the bartenders were the arbiters of cultural taste as they had the ability to turn the volume down on the juke box and the connected sound system.  After a couple of months of 'Common People' played at ten minute intervals by students who didn't get Oasis and Blur (I remember being asked by friends at university, 'do you prefer Blur or Oasis?'  I answered, 'Pulp and Suede'.  Pulp had an authenticity about them which I didn't get from the PR hungry activities of Blur and Oasis.  I still find it hard to listen to Oasis for more than a song or two, although I tip my hat to Blur now.

I saw Pulp for the first time at the Wembley Arena in 1996.  A friend bought me a ticket as a Christmas present, she had tried to get Brixton Academy tickets, but those gigs had sold out.  The Wembley gig was post Jarvis' 'Brits' arse wriggling incident, which was his instinctive reaction to Michael Jackson's 'Earth Song' performance, which is still nauseating to recall.  Jarvis Cocker jumped on stage and wriggled his bum in the direction of the cameras as Jackson posed like Jesus Christ saving the world from its troubles.  Jarvis Cocker's reaction was very honest and the over-reaction spoke more of a music industry pining to the needs of faux deities.  Jarvis ended up down the police station accused of man handling kids (who were featured prominently in Jackson's performance).  Anyhow, needless to say, he was cleared.  My enduring memory of the Wembley gig was the moment when Jarvis did an edgy 'Moonwalk' across the stage, which generated huge applause from the audience.  I also have memories of missing the support acts, one of whom was Edwin Collins, owing to a drinking session prior to going to the gig.  I also bought a slim fit girls t-shirt and it was only when I got home that I realised this! 

I next saw Pulp in 1998 at Finsbury Park where they were supported by a truly eclectic range of artists ranging from a weird covers band called the Bikini Beaches who performed instrumental versions of songs wearing shorts and Fezzes, a really irritating dance band called 'Add N to X', 'Bentley Rhythm Ace' (who were good), Bernard Butler (he came out onto the stage playing 'Not Alone' on a guitar and was in a really bad mood as someone had stolen his guitar (I believe at Glastonbury) and also Catatonia.  Catatonia were the band on before Pulp and by this point were actually becoming a pretty big band in their own right.  Cerys Matthews always seemed to perform with some variety of bottle to hand.  It was part of her image at the time but definitely not now and sadly, Catatonia no longer exists.  Pulp were promoting the 'This Is Hardcore' album, which was the band's deliberate contrary reaction to the horrors of fame.  It is worlds away from the upbeat pop of the albums 'His and Hers' and 'Different Class'.  It opens with a song called 'The Fear', which is effectively a song about losing your sense of self and panic attacks.  The gig was filmed and the whole show minus one song was available on video as 'The Park is Mine'.  It was a well performed gig, although the humour was less apparent.  I still marvelled at Jarvis' subtle hand movements and body gesticulations.  Twisting and undulating around monitors.  The song 'This Is Hardcore' live also became more sordid in performance.  Jarvis simulating the sexual act with the use of a pointed and thrusting finger.

The remaining two Pulp gigs I attended were at the Brixton Academy in 2001, where they were effectively promoting 'We Love Life' (an environmentally friendly album, well in terms of lyrics anyway) and one of their comeback shows in Hyde Park in 2011.  The 2001 gig springs back to memory on account of the support act, The Fat Truckers, who were quick to introduce themselves in the following way, 'We are not fat and we are not truckers' and also by Pulp's use of a bizarre artificial parrot in a cage, which flapped its wings in response to the music.  I also found out that one of the friends I attended the gig with was pregnant, so it has a certain piquancy for that reason.  The Hyde Park gig demonstrated to me how necessary the band had been to me and to so many others.  In 2011, their music was even more relevant as a response to a government and society drowning in apathy.  'Common People' was like a beacon and a call to arms.

Last week, I attended the film 'Pulp: A Film About Life, Deaths and Supermarkets' at the BFI.  This documentary film explores the band's final gig in Sheffield in 2012 (I hadn't even realised that they had put the band to one side again, although when I attended the Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2011, Jarvis Cocker did announce in a talk that the gigs would not continue forever) and also explores Sheffield.  This screening of the film was accompanied by a couple of Q and As from a Sheffield Documentary film festival where the director and band were involved.  The most powerful aspect of the film is its focus on the fans and the people of Sheffield.  Bands are important but no more so than in relation to their birthplace.  They are the product of a shared history.

As this has been a personal insight into the band and how they have been an important factor in my life, they have also helped me to develop friendships.  Pulp were and are a band for outsiders and individuals who dare to question, explore and play.  They are a celebration of all that matters in life.

Barry Watt - 14th June 2014.

Afterword 

'Later with... Jools Holland' is copyright to the BBC.

'I Spy' is on the album 'Different Class' and is available from Universal Island.

'Different Class', 'His and Hers', 'This Is Hardcore' and 'We Love Life' are all available on Universal Island.

'The Park Is Mine' is currently available of DVD as 'Pulp: Ultimate Live', which includes two concerts, one from the Brixton Academy in 1995 and also the Finsbury Park gig from 1998, which I attended.

'A Year in Provence' was written by Peter Mayle and is published by Penguin and is available on DVD from Second Sight Media.

'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' was written by Alan Sillitoe (currently published by Harper Perennial) and the film is available from BFI video.

'Pulp: A Film About Life, Deaths and Supermarkets' is in all good cinemas now and is well worth a watch.

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'The Testament of Mary', Solo Performances and Method Acting Birds.

Last night, I attended a performance of 'The Testament of Mary' at the Barbican Theatre.  It was one of a number of solo performances I have had the pleasure of attending over the years.  Well crafted, punchy explorations of human nature in differing contexts and performers who put themselves on the line.  There can be nothing more terrifying as an actor and performer than realising that you have to hold the attention of an audience for a period of time (regularly more than an hour) alone.  Distractions in the form of back projection, props and other aspects of mise-en-scene can help but if the performer is not fully engaged, the possibility that the audience will rapidly lost interest goes up exponentially.

Curiously but perhaps, appropriately, the audience were invited to walk around the stage prior to the performance starting last night.  All of the props were on the stage, tables, chairs, candles and a live vulture.  Yes, even prior to the audience's promenade around the stage, the vulture was perched minding its own business and simply experiencing the moment of being.  The audience clambered around it and I am sure that after years of practising the Stanislavski technique of 'becoming the character', it viewed the intrusion as simply a mild distraction from its major role as 'The Vulture'.  Even more significantly, Fiona Shaw came on stage in character as Mary and sat on a chair surrounded by candles and other religious iconography, whilst a glass box descended around her and enclosed her as though trapped in a frame, captured by the gaze of the audience who are free to interpret her deified presence as they choose.  Mary, the perpetual victim of interpretation and misappropriation.  Beneath the myth, a real woman existed, who remains ill defined and somewhat relegated to the sidelines, within patriarchal religious groups.  Regardless of your theological beliefs, Mary has been somewhat short-changed.  Whilst, the chaos on stage continued, audience members taking selfies and imagining themselves as actors on the stage (one guy decided to take a bow as he left the stage).  Ironically, they did serve this role.  Their engagement with the vulture and their relationship with Mary in the glass box served an aesthetic purpose.  Despite the apparent closeness, there was still distance, uncomfortable admiration for Fiona Shaw as Mary and possible fear of the vulture.

The moment of the audience's stage invasion was ended at the time the show properly began when the background music increased in volume and the glass box was lifted.  Mary handed out candles or lights to some of the audience members and they left the stage, whilst she walked off with the vulture.  The vulture being a dominant symbol within Colm Toibin's 'The Testament of Mary', a novel which started out as a monologue created for the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2011.  Then perversely, the lights dropped and some curtains came down, a stark reminder that the warm, illusion of intimacy was now over and reality was rearing its ugly head.  A reality which as we all know culminated in the death of a man on a cross, which ultimately changed the world for better and for worse.

Fiona Shaw's performance was revelatory, nuanced and most importantly engaging to the audience.  Her engagement with the props on stage helping to create a conflicted character who loves her son but not the orator, the magician with his healing hands and followers who get in the way.  Her increasing realisation that he is doomed and that he cares little about his fate.  When faced with the approaching threat of capture and his mother's impassioned plea that he should escape with her, he responds with the following line:

'Woman, what have I to do with thee?'

                                  (Toibin Page 47)

I believe the same line or one that is very similar is used by Mary in the play.  As is the case with many solo performances, just because it is performed by one person does not mean that the one actor isn't assuming multiple characters, as they recount their stories.  Her response that 'I am your mother' (Toibin Page 47) is utterly heart-wrenching.  The pain in Fiona Shaw's facial expression as she delivers this line resonates with the audience.

'The Testament of Mary' is an exceptional production and highlights the power of solo performances.  I have seen more and more performances either written by the person who acts in them or else working with another's words in recent years.  The format of the monologue is strikingly powerful when well written.  The performer can either work with their own experiences or with imaginary characters.  Although, interestingly, the act of construction lends each autobiographical piece the appeal of fiction.  It allows the performer to slightly disassociate from the emotional content of their lives.  Catharsis as entertainment and a means to create understanding.  One of the most potent examples of this style of solo performance was the show 'Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister', which was written by Rebecca Peyton and Martin M. Bartelt.  The play recounts Rebecca's relationship with her sister, Kate Peyton who was a BBC journalist who was murdered in Somalia, whilst working.  Interestingly, although I imagine that Rebecca Peyton is the only person who has performed this play in public, it could potentially be performed by anyone as the play text exists.  It has an experience to share, lives to offer up for scrutiny and empathy.  I saw this performance on Sunday 8th January 2012 and Rebecca Peyton chatted to the audience after the show in the bar. 

To close this blog entry, it is worth considering the following statement that appears in the programme for 'The Testament of Mary', a 'Director's Note' by Deborah Warner, as it sums up the complexity of the 'solo show', both from the side of the creative participants and also the audience:

'The 'solo show' demands participation, attention, and I would argue, our preparedness to enter the event.  We all know that 'live theatre' depends on the heart-beat, energy and concentration of the audience in order to make no two nights the same; but solo work makes this obvious.  In these tough economic times, it may not be the worst place to come to remind ourselves of the importance and involvement that we must play as audience members in the theatre.'

(Page 11 - Deborah Warner 'Director's Note' -'The Testament of Mary' -  Barbican programme)        

Every solo performance is an engagement with the audience.  The performers need the audience as much as we need the escapism, the opportunity to escape into someone else's life.  A good solo performance leaves you with memories of time passed in the company of someone different, who has changed or challenged you in someway.  A bad solo performance can sometimes seem as meaningful as the egocentric rantings of a stand-up comedian or desperate orator standing at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park.  Either way, the act of exhibitionism and revelation should be saluted, particularly when the material is personal either because the performer has written the material her or himself or else by coming into the character, they have explored aspects of their own character.  Fiona Shaw achieved this and more last night and 'The Testament of Mary' deserves to be the show that everyone wants to see.  Mary is renewed and the Barbican continues to be one of the most innovative producers of contemporary culture.

Barry Watt - Saturday 3rd May 2014.

Afterword

'The Testament of Mary' is currently on at the Barbican until 25th May 2014.  It goes without saying that I think that you should go to see it.

The quotes in this blog entry from 'The Testament of Mary' by Colm Toibin are extracted from the Viking (Penguin) edition of the book, which was published in 2012.

The quotation from the 'Director's Note' by Deborah Warner appears in the Barbican programme for 'The Testament of Mary' which is copyright to the Barbican (and to Deborah Warner)

'Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister' by Rebecca Peyton and Martin M. Bartelt is available as a play text published by Oberon Books.

Constantin Stanislavski was a major theatre practitioner, frequently quoted as helping to create 'method acting'.

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'Nymphomaniac' - Philosophical fumblings and an antidote to the myth of Love.

I saw Lars Von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac' as two volumes on the 1st and 2nd March 2014 at the Curzon Soho.  It works more effectively seen in two parts on consecutive days in a comfortable cinema.  Rather amusingly the cinema chose to play music prior to the onset of the two parts of the film.  Songs associated with the more extreme aspects of sex and sexual attraction.  The only exception to this was the song 'Je T'aime' sung by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, which is striking precisely because its erotic and gentle tone is at odds with the contents of this film.  As the promotional posters assert, 'Forget about love'.

'Nymphomaniac' is the story of Joe's sexual development from childhood to the point at which she is saved in an alley by a gentleman called Seligman to whom she recounts her life story back at his apartment.  She is a self-confessed nymphomaniac and attends a therapy group for the condition at a certain point in the film.  Joe is played by three different actresses to represent the different stages of her life.  This is not as disruptive as it could have been, owing to two factors, Stacy Martin and Charlotte Gainsbourg look similar to each other and also the film's episodic structure render the characters as archetypes, they develop but their existences are about progressing the story to its inevitable end.  The philosophies and ideas that underlie the film are arguably of far more importance than any particular character.  Having said that as the central protagonist, the viewer does begin to empathise with Joe.

The plot device of the dialogue between Joe and Seligman in his apartment, provides a coherent structure to the narrative proceedings.  Elements in Seligman's room enable Joe to contextualise her experiences, sometimes these are visual objects such as the fly (fishing hook in this context) on the wall that enables Joe to discuss her childhood in relation to fishing.  Seligman helps her to analyse her experiences from different angles.  The chapter headings creating the restrictions of a book.  In life, we are quite often too caught up in our experiences to allow us to punctuate our experiences in this way but when we do, it does allow us to analyse them differently.  We witness our own progression and/or decline with a degree of detachment.  Joe's desire for sexual experience is actually no more or less pronounced than many of her contemporaries.  The 'game' she plays with her friend who promises to provide a bag of chocolate sweets to whomever has sex with the greatest number of men on a train is indicative of the need to experience as much as possible by the onset of adulthood. 

The men in the film are universally as interested in sex and its various forms as the women with the exception of Seligman, who almost serves the role of a Eunuch until the end.  His final act and fate in the film is horribly inevitable but highlights the importance of viewing the film as a treatise on sexuality, power and gender roles rather than simply a pornographic film designed to arouse the viewer.  'Nymphomaniac' is not a film about sexual gratification.  Despite the assertion that the film contains some real sexual acts (these do not take place between any of the main cast as the end credits reveal), it is far more intelligent and thought provoking than many of the Hollywood films that have touched upon the subject of sexual relationships.

However, where the film slightly fails and 'Shame', Steve McQueen's film about male sexual addiction collapses, is in their inability to face up to the possibility of sexual infections inherent within the promiscuous sexual lifestyle.  Having said that, Joe does describe how she has lost the majority of her sensitivity in her genital areas and she is subject to bleeding.  One of the saddest scenes in the film involves Joe being reunited with her first love, Jerome and making love with him, only to declare she couldn't feel anything.  Sex outside of love becomes as meaningful as masturbation.

In its exploration of culture, patterns and power relations, 'Nymphomaniac' is a film that should be seen by anyone who has ever questioned the point of recreational sex outside of relationships and indeed, whether relationships are more enduring when they are platonic.  Whether or not, you choose to see the whole film, try to see the scene when Mrs H played by Uma Thurman brings the children to see their Daddy's new lover.  In a comparatively short episode, more is said about the repercussions of infidelity than in many psychological journals.  It is devastating.

Barry Watt - 11th March 2014.

Afterword.

'Je T'aime... moi non plus' was written by Serge Gainsbourg and remains most well remembered for the version sung by himself and his young lover, Jane Birkin.  Originally released on Fontana Records.

'Shame' was directed by Steve McQueen and stars Michael Fassbender as Brandon, a man who suffers from sexual addiction.  It was released in 2011.  It is worth watching in conjunction with 'Nymphomaniac'.

'Nymphomaniac' was directed by Lars Von Trier and is in all good cinemas now.  It is most regularly screened as two separate volumes.  Each volume is around two hours.  Occasionally, the two volumes are shown consecutively.

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