sunandbrightness

A weekend in S France – Marseille is an astonishing place culturally and weather wise I have never been there when it’s not sunny, whatever the time of year. If you get the chance to go, after wandering around the fantastic Mucem building eat at Au Bout du Quai, everything there is most excellent – the soupe de poisson is a must. Got out to Crest despite the train strike – walking and the market and the design classics show at http://www.centredartdecrest.fr/home/ - one of those where you say – we had one of those and I remember that!!! gestetner printing machine anyone? Recently I’ve been to see some live theater – first the immersive – I was a Guidestar Volunteer at Saint Jude with Swap Motel theatre group where my job was to ‘speak’ to a coma patient (an AI) to wake them – not bad, although it did turn into an experience similar to an escape room. Meanwhile Gecko Theatre’s Kin was brutally beautiful (bruitifull). Gecko are an amazing company that always creates stunning work that makes you think both about the subject they are dealing with and the very concept of theatre itself. https://www.geckotheatre.com/  Onto screens – the latest series of F1 on Netflix was, as ever, madness on the highest level on every conceivable front….and……let’s not talk climate issues! 

patternandmarvelouschaosinthetheatre

a fabulous 2 days and one night at Pulse Festival http://www.chinaplatetheatre.com/pulse-festival in Ipswich - the opening night and then Suitcase day and Testing Ground - my two favourite sessions where experimental work is experimented. It saw me watching 23 pieces of theatre. Highlights were Nikki's extraordinary strength in KNOT, the disco energy of Dan Watson in Venus, The storytelling in Sophie Woolley's Augmented and Not Now collective's http://notnowcollective.com/ Pepper and Honey. The deconstruction of Invisible Flash's http://www.invisibleflash.co.uk/ The blind traveller, Fig's in wigs https://www.figsinwigs.com/ production values is always excellent and Brick Wall's https://www.facebook.com/brickwalltheatre/ Henry 5th was just storming good. Meanwhile I'm watching the pattern and chaos conversation that is happening in my garden as the work for Chelmsford is rusting nicely and been taken over by random growth.

theatreisgoodforyou

two nights and two theatre experiences - the wonderful space that is the Seagull theatre in Lowestoft http://www.theseagull.co.uk/ had Finding joy https://www.vamostheatre.co.uk/shows/show/finding-joy which was deeply moving with a thoughtful script exploring the issue of dementia. There was a beautiful moment when the time-travelling aspect of dementia was presented through mine and masks. The Wolsey in Ipswich  https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/ had Bin laden one man show https://www.knaivetheatre.com/bin-laden-the-one-man-show - which was very clever as I watched a very calm man who had given me a cup of tea going onto become an angry man who we call a terrorist.  I recommend both.

stayinginandgoingouttoseethings

John Wick 2 was a little like John Wick 1; a blur of fast paced close combat choreographed  fighting with unflinching use of weaponry, all structured by ritualised codes of conduct underpinned by honour......it's a certain kind of excellent. And onto House of cards - what to say with its travel ban, the closing of borders, cyber attacks and conspiracy theories around voting......A full night of theatre tonight at Pulse Festival; Lucy Grace with Lucy, Lucy & Lucy Barfield, unlimited theatre with Am I dead yet? @ithinkiwilldie and Jack Rooke with Good Grief @jackrooke after an afternoon being trained on Wellbeing and Resilience in an attempt to gain some armour in the oncoming war of looking after myself!!!

watchingandlistening

well the Netflick's War Machine was a strange one - very little happened but when I realised that it was derived from a book by a journalist embedded within the American war machine it started to make sense, the exposé being the thing and the I Daniel Blake, maybe for some a revelation but if it is a truth known by many one has to ask why?...... a full weekend at Pulse Festival in Ipswich https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/pulse-festival/ . Suitcase day is a great concept, all stuff on stage has to come on public transport... but this year many groups opted for single voice storytelling rather than clever stage craft but it was a great day and highlights included James McDermott's rubber ring, http://velvettrumpet.co.uk/rubber-ring/ George Orange's First Lady https://georgeorange.com/work/first-lady/ and Robin Boon Dale's What Does Stuff Do http://befestival.org/events/what-does-stuff-do-robin-boon-dale-uk-30-min/.  Day 2 was scratch day where stuff is still being worked out. The whole day was excellent and difficult to pick out highlights but recommendations are  Fuel's The Dark https://fueltheatre.com/projects/the-dark , Nicola Werenowska's Invisible http://www.thereviewshub.com/pulse-points-nicola-werenowska-invisible/, Johny Cotsen's Louder is Not Always Clearer https://www.experimentica17.org/whats-on/2017/2/9/louder-is-not-always-clearer. 

anticipatingthenearandfarfuture

finally got round to watching T2 Trainspotting -  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2763304/ just so sad, something about the loss of hope with the passage of time - their youth, even if hopeless did appear to have optimism but later it's all about despair. But it's quite mesmerising and Danny did not let us down because it was important that it was good. Venice Biennale gets closer I can hardly contain myself but getting tickets for Pulse https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/pulse-festival/ will keep me going - suitcase day is always a winner having the opportunity to see half formed thoughts tested out - looking forward to seeing how last year's winner, Tell me Anything by www.ontheruntheatre.co.uk has been developed, although everybody is talking about Golem but just I'm looking forward to seeing a mass of theatre and the Wolsey Theatre is such a great place to see work. On the podcast front I have to recommend reply all https://gimletmedia.com/reply-all/ it's all about the wonders of the web - there will be stuff in there you have no idea about but it is happening now and it is about to take over your world.

lookinglisteningchanging

Helping out on schools day at Latitude made it one of my best ever days at the festival even after 10 years and set the tone for me for the whole weekend! It was fantastic greeting the kids from the different Suffolk schools and taking them onto the site for schools day. Their excitement was beautiful and having the schools wristband and information sash meant that I felt it was possible to just go up to people ask questions and provide support if needed. Spotting sheep, fending off the Trolls under the bridge and helping pond dipping - excellent. Then after all that onto Gob Squad - very funny, gently subversive, interactive deconstruction of film - Christine and the Queens - sweet and then the crowd going wild when old school tracks are interspersed - why not just listen to the original track but then she is charming (old person comment, apologies) - Christopher Brett Bailey's this machine won't kill's all out assault on the body was grindingly awe inspiring - my second time and it just gets better with each experience http://christopherbrettbailey.com/ I really urge you to go see and be dealt with whenever you can - Grimes - squeaky electro pop - not a crime but...saturday Will Hutton excitedly talked to a room of like minded people occasionally sort of providing possible ways forward -  'seems like a good bloke'! Christopher Brett Bailey reading from this is how we die - I last heard this in a room as part of Pulse - the text felt fixed but here his adlibbing shocked me dragging and kicking back to the contextual reality of sitting in a tent in a field. The conversation at the wellcome tent around artificial intelligence with Prof Arthur I Miller & Dr Robert E Smith was constantly halted by their desire to agree their frames of reference and define concepts - most excellent. Cassette Boy = FULL ON FUN with great head spinning twists https://www.youtube.com/user/cassetteboy . Sophie - knob twiddling without much soul but great noises in there. Gold Panda - his beautiful swirling soundscapes were as ever complimented with lyrical projections. I can't talk about the awful Airnadette we will dub you - lip-syncing  is a great idea for 10 minutes but for an hour.....but back to dancing. Suggs - just no - old man wedding disco playing terrible records badly but then magically Rodigan is on the decks all old school sound system teaching us music history dropping squelching, fades all ska and dub and I am transported back in time to dodgy smoke filled rooms of my youth and all of a sudden its 3 in the morning  sunday Mark Kermode - my go-to film person was charming, thoughtful and direct talking about the responsibility of the critic. Mark Thomas's Red Shed had me in tears for an hour - it is important that people like him exist and his performance was a fairly sobering affair. Sh!t Theatre were a wonderful shambles, a new play with an interesting idea at its core, not quite sorted tech wise but I love their 'just getting on with it' attitude. Adam Green - (part of Mouldy Peaches) was just beautiful, stoner punk at its best! New Order  live - not interesting then not interesting now so wandered off around the site taking in the whole vibe for a final time. Where else can you sing along to songs from a big gay song book, dance to some old-skool jungle under the stars at the disco shed and in the Cabaret tent catch Kenny Everett arguing with princess Di and Freddie Mercury about who gets into Heaven (not the club) first. monday back on-site collecting material, tents and stuff to work with - general camping was carnage, who would ever consider recycling again?

sexsexsexabdmoresexandsomedeath

Another weekend of the glorious Pulse Festival at the Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich - subjects include genocide, death, EU referendum, evil, personal testimony, war, stars, the universe, aliens, space flight, men, complex astrophysics and sex.

Highlights include the wonderful Ursula Martinez creating a wall, an actual real wall of breeze blocks between her and the audience whilst talking sex racism sex likes and dislikes sex and then sex before taking all her clothes off and walking out into the street followed by camera. She is a must see - one minute you are laughing uncontrollably - the next cringing at the silence created by the thing that she has actually said - yes she really did just say that. http://ursulamartinez.com/index.html You can't not be overtaken by Gecko - their fast paced, highly stage crafted dance washes over, then it slows, stills to a stop forming moments where tableau's that seem timeless are allowed to form and swirl around in one's head. http://geckotheatre.com/  already looking forward to next year's Pulse.

NNFcarparkposter

so far the Norfolk and Norwich Festival has thrown up some interesting events - The James Plays at the Theatre Royal by the fantastic National Theatre of Scotland was awesome - three 2 hour plays in one day! for The Tempest in Great Yarmouth it actually rains indoors and people drown in the Hippodrome Circus where they usually have water spectaculars. last night I  went to see the wonderful Hollie McNish - reading from her book and telling her story of pregnancy was quite mesmerising - if you missed it - check her out on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCO-YmLT8t4 

after meetings in London I got to see the conceptual art in Britain show at The Tate http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/conceptual-art-britain-1964-1979 a wonderful experience - it was like going back in time - a quiet gallery - 6 people in the space looking and reading and thinking about art - everything black and white, work heavy with thoughts and ideas

in teaching terms - the marks are in and we are now in the middle of hanging work on the Textiles course at NUA - we have created a great space to show work - it all looks good so far.

meanwhile another classic example of i couldn't give a F**K car parking and the poster for a show organised through the printmaking course at Camberwell.

 

brainwhiskeyisthebest

After leaving my brain aside for the wonderfully unnecessary and increasingly ridiculous Fast and furious 7 and the absurdly odd sponge bob square pants (although the tv show is better) I reattached my brain and watched some interesting, intelligent and sometimes challenging theatre. Watch out for Pulse winners this theatre’s police cops – very knowingly funny, taking the audience with them but how will it be developed?  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1677467423/police-cops Also some fabulous first 5 minutes – Eden by displace yourself theatre http://displaceyourselftheatre.co.uk/ and 1.9 by Jackagbritton http://jackagbritton.tumblr.com/ it will be great to see what happens next. The deaf and hearing ensemble’s People of the eye http://www.thedeafandhearingensemble.com/projects/ , shit theatre’s woman’s hour,  http://www.shittheatre.co.uk/sht-reviews.html the man from fukushima by kazuko hohki http://www.kazukohohki.com/kazuko/performance.html and annie siddon’s how (not) to live in suburbia were really enjoyable 20 minutes. But the brutalising 70 minutes that was Christopher Brett Bailey http://christopherbrettbailey.com/ was the highlight – how does he do that? – a dark truly alternative to the mundane life around us and yet in some way timeless – channelling so much of beat-poet-80s-anger – this is a good thing – I felt at home. He really is a must see – this is how we die is near the end of its tour but go see if you can your brain will be given a through workout.   

systemssystemssystems

an interesting night running a textile company at the Wolsey theatre with the very thoughtful Metis theatre company http://metisarts.co.uk/  world factory is a complex immersive  full on experience which is quite excellent – every textile fashion student should see it and explore their relationship to their clothes. http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/world-factory/

The Wolsey theatre is a magnificent institution full of vibrant experiences - I’ve already got tickets to the Pulse festival http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/pulse-festival/ to go to the follow up discussion but also to see 9 new performances within 5 hours as part of the suitcase day on the 29^th May – performances supported only by what they can bring in a suitcase on public transport. This will only be a couple of days after coming back from New York with the textile students from Norwich which is taking up a lot of planning time.

The lunchbox is a deeply sad but all encompassing tale of the system of cooking and transporting food to workers in Mumbai http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2350496/ the delivery system is extraordinary and the film is worth watching just to see it in action. 

allencompassingthinking

Four days immersed in the world of live art.... Spill Festival Ipswich. http://spillfestival.com/all-events/ Starting with the sounds of fleeing souls of Siren at the opening party – and ending with INCORRUPTIBLE FLESH: MESSIANIC REMAINS with Ron Athey - with 42 events in between. I could just list everything on the programme that I saw – it’s crept into my though process, providing images to stimulate and contemplate. Some people to look out for in future - standout moments - which in turn become recommendations have to be - the graphic simplicity of Jamie Lewis Hadley, Kris Canavan’s procession through Ipswich, the full on frontal assault by Swagga with Project O, Keijaun Thomas’s seductive complicity, the joyous deconstruction of Peter McMaste’s all male Withering Heights and Get in the back of the van’s The best little whorehouse in Texas, the intensity of Jon John and Adam Electric’s endurance. Then there was the experience of an almost continual dialogue throughout the 4 days, these were focused by the more formal Spill Salon conversations -the idea of the/a safe world with Ron Athey, John Bowers and Domenic Johnson was inspirational.