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14 ARTS Tuesday 13 February 2007 thefounder Arts thefounder beth@thefounder.co.uk What’s on... RAG week is here! RAG week is here – so make sure you come along and support us at all the fabulous events we have arranged for you! Also look out for us around campus and particularly in the SU during the day – we have a stall and will be selling a multitude of fun things including Valentine’s flowers and accessories for the evening events! You can even get your picture taken with a load of your mates or that special someone! If you can’t quite spare the cash, we would love it if you could donate some of your time – we are always looking for volunteers to help out at one of our many crazy fundraising events! All money will be donated to The Willow Foundation – special days for seriously ill young adults. Date: Event: Time: Place: 11th Feb ‘07 RAG Stumble Pub Quiz 8pm Stumble Inn 12th Feb ‘07 Hypnotist 10pm (TBC) SU 13th Feb ‘07 Arabian Night Theme 9pm Medicine 14th Feb ‘07 Going Commando ft. Full Monty 10pm SU 15th Feb ‘07 X-Factor Final and RAG Triathlon 10pm SU 16th Feb ‘07 Coyote Ugly and RAG Triathlon 10pm SU 17th Feb ‘07 RAG Battle of the Bands 10pm Medicine 18th Feb ‘07 RAG Cabaret (TBC) SU Theatre The Importance of Theatre… By Beth Turrell Arts Editor There’s a lot going on in the West End at the moment. A diverse range of shows from dance and drama to comedy and musicals. High quality theatre, as you would expect from the theatre capital of the world. As ever though there is also a lot of unnecessary rubbish. I’m pretty sure I could be proven wrong for all of this and I’m expecting to be accused of theatre-naivety (which is a term that will be made up simply due to my comments and opinions that are to follow) and ignorance and not ‘looking deep enough’ or knowing what ‘true art is’. But frankly…why is The Lord of the Rings on stage? I know, I know, it was a masterpiece on the screen so why would it not make the transfer to the stage? Well why would it? Great landscapes and epic journeys…pretty much the best part of the films and the books (probably). Then again, of course…it is being staged at Drury Lane and if any theatre is going to cope with this sort of ‘epic’ theatre (in the non-theoretical sense) it is the stage to have dealt with Miss Saigon and that infamous helicopter scene. My complaints don’t stop here; it’s going to be a musical. Decided against singing Hobbits on stage? Take the walk from Covent Garden down towards Charing Cross Road and you’ll be faced with puppets on stage. Yes, Avenue Q has had great reviews; ‘Simply the funniest show in town’, ‘A monster hit’, ‘An outrageously funny musical hit ’. It’s quirky and a new idea, that seems to work. But really puppets on a stage. Puppets on a stage for two hours. I’ve seen Team America. I’m done. I know what your thinking having spent a couple of minutes reading what you thought may be intellectual insight into the actual ‘importance of theatre’ yet you have so far had someone rant cynically about the nonsense on the stage. And shows I have not even seen may I add. But I plan to. Not Lord of the Rings of course, you couldn’t get my bum on a seat at Drury Lane within the next “...It wouldn’t surprise me if it won an Oscar, the most sought after filmaward just because it won everything else so they thought, ‘why not!’...” few months if they gave out free Elijah Woods cardboard cut-outs or if Frodo was being played by Julie Walters (my favourite) actually for Julie Walters I would go. Just for in- trigues sake. Don’t get me wrong, The Lord of the rings is bound to scoop every award known to man. it is going to be the most expensive show ever put on in the west end with a cast of 50. It wouldn’t surprise me if it won an Oscar, the most sought after film-award just because it won everything else so they thought, ‘why not!’ Avenue Q has already done well so I will give it a try. But puppets…really?! I’d like to breeze over Daddy Cool but the idea Javine (Popstars reject) and Harvey (ex so solid crew) taking the starring roles leads me to leave any sort of sarcastic cynicism to your imaginations. But just so you know, £10 day seat are available. I will however, endeavour to, by next week, have seen at least one of these and give it a true review. If all else fails I will go and see what the critics recommend and stop moaning.
thefounder Tuesday 13 February 2007 ARTS Blasted explodes cut-throat theatre By Neil Thornton “Wogs” and “Pakis” are doing to something from the wreckage leaving a glimmer of hope. audience is supposed to do? Direc- cruelty lie in us all, or at least in all thrust upon them, what is that an ply that the seeds of unimaginable the country he loves, and it is hinted that he himself may well be engaged in murderous action against By now, you probably think that something like this should never be tor Jenny Sealey makes it clear, in the horrific scene of male rape: we men? 21st century media and technological capabilities have brought them. Certainly he has a gun, put on public view and should have are supposed to recognize the fact us significantly closer to the realities of war, more so than we were Theatre today runs through which he constantly displays and been kept in the mind of the tormented author, well, now add this with it. even in 1995, predominantly mind- of the disability, to accept, and deal pretty much every emotion, idea, theory, or opin- he also has cancer and an astrin- to the mix: It questions our own moral views; less, inhuman civil war conflicts seems scared. However, because ion any of us I can think of. But is it time we ask, “What is acceptable theatre?” As a drama student I can be bias to loving any new gent humour, it is hard to despise him exclusively, as he throws back the gin and puffs away heroically on the cigs. But events become increasingly With killings, suicides, numerous rapes and cannibalism in this intense piece, the general hysteria of audiences in 1995 is understand- I must admit when I was watching the character of Ian, played fantastically by McDermott, standing naked in front of the tiny, frail look- that characterise parts of the developing world. Therefore society on the whole is more aware of the capabilities of many humans, showperformance nasty. able. Yet seeing Blasted anew in the ing, thumb sucking body of Cate that is controversial and boundary pushing, but I can During the night in a scene, production at the Soho Theatre, it (Ellison), I found myself swamped “...Blasted is a play understand where people come is clear that this is in no way a piece with fear, not for the character, but from when they riot against certain “...This new production that distresses its audience for the the actress herself. I felt it was of- that breaks its own performances. sake of shocking. This new producfensive for her to be there. It wasn’t goes beyond; it structure apart, and A recent example would be the tion goes beyond; it takes apart the until later when Ellison’s acting latest revival of Blasted, the debut takes apart the script script and uncovers new, shocking aspects. This is thanks to the survival that I began to think, why took centre stage as Cate battles for leaves its audience play by Sarah Kane. Sarah Kane was one of the most talented and and uncovers new, Graeae Theatre Company, which can’t she be there? This is a grown shattered...” controversial young writers to aims to bring together disabled and woman, fully aware and consenting shocking aspects...” emerge during the nineties, her non-disabled actors, writers, and of what she is doing - something ing us that these things are part of small but awesome collection of five plays and a screenplay are a which, uncharacteristically, we audiences. It is for this reason that two of the main three actors in this she loves. David Toole as the Soldier also does an amazing job of reality and are part of the human capacity. powerful body of work. Her first don’t witness - Ian brutally rapes production of Blasted are visibly, conveying both the danger and the So now, more than ten years later, play Blasted was written in 1995 - Cate, odd, as he had seemed genuinely fond of her. Then all hell “...I found myself mind, without any legs, he relied therefore more powerful than when nature of his characters tortured Kane’s play is more significant and it was the biggest theatrical scandal since Howard Brenton’s The Romans in Britain in 1980. The public room; an explosion decimates the ver around the stage, something saw her prophesize the waning dis- breaks out. A soldier erupts into the swamped with fear, completely on his arms to maneu- it was first publicised. Kane’s genius perception of Kane has been coloured hotel and we learn that atrocious not for the character, he did with amazing strength and position of people the world over; by the negative responses to fighting and sickening carnage are even to the extent of relaying all his so it is the thought that if the world Blasted, as reviewers branded it “a taking place on the streets of Leeds. but the actress herself...” actions and fluidity. change soon, then this harrowing characters emotions through his and the humans within it do not feast of filth”, and by her death by Ian is in turn raped by the soldier, suicide age 28. Blasted opened to who then continues to suck out and Blasted is a play that breaks its tale by Kane will remain, as very the public in January 1995 in the small theatre upstairs at the royal court London. The play is set in a Leeds hotel, Ian, a middle-aged journalist, and Cate, a tender, naive 21-year-old with a propensity to fits and stammering, have come here for a tryst. eat Ian’s eyes and then turns a gun on himself. The end reduces Ian to eating a dead baby until Cate returns with food and drink. The final picture is one of charity and desperate, daring endurance. Having contemplated the worst of which humanity significantly, disabled. And that presents the polite, carefully cultivated sensibilities of the average audience member, and reviewer, with a dilemma - we’ve got used to colour-blind casting, barely turning a hair at a black Roman Emperor or Tudor Monarch, but when having own structure apart, and leaves its audience shattered. The movement from a world that we identify as our own to one we have only seen in film (and the darkest reaches of our imagination) raises all kinds of questions. Is Kane suggesting that racism on UK soil could turn little theatre truly lasts. If there’s any play of the twenty r so years that may still be drawing audiences in the future, engulfing them and dragging them through a world of darkness, fear and looking at and understanding of terrible truths, then this piece of revolutionary Kane’s dark and morbid world into total ethnic cleansing? Or sim- theatre may very well be it. Ian is a racist, who hates what the is capable, Kane somehow salvages The Man of Mode 15 By Henry Martin He is charming. He is rich. He is very, very sexy. When he talks to you he makes you feel like the only person in the room. When he moves away from you, you feel empty and alone. You hate to love him and you love to hate him. Most of all, he knows all this. He’s the man of the minute and the man of mode. To him you are an accessory, a fashionable dalliance. He’ll drop you like the winter line when he sees the spring line in Paris. If curves are in he’ll buy you chocolate. If Kate Moss is in you don’t stand a chance. He’s on stage at the National until March. He’d love you to love him and stop on by. George Etheridge premiered The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter 331 years ago to huge acclaim. Nicholas Hytner with The Man of Mode aims for the same success in his modern re-work- “...Charming, slick and very, very sexy...” ing of this Restoration Comedy of Manners with a cast of twenty-five. Essentially the story is about Dorimant, a playboy who, as soon as he can’t have a woman, wants her, and as soon as he gets her, doesn’t need her anymore. Your ordinary bloke then? Throw into the mix mistaken identities, slapstick humour, feisty scorned lovers, elopement, drinking games, lots of techno music, art, rhymed verse, drink and gallic jokes and you get a pretty good picture of what awaits you at the Olivier Theatre. Though it is a lively energetic production, with some wonderful performances (Tom Hardy as Dorimant and Rory Kinnear as Sir Fopling Flutter) there remains something superficial about the production, which is even more lamentable owing to the fact that the whole play questions superficiality. The choreographed dance routines that link the scenes, though enjoyable in their own right, do little to add meaning to the piece. Due to the number of characters and the importance of choreography and dance in the piece, pace is everything and seemed uneven in the second act. Some key stage business and even a very important revelation were completely missed by the audience, but perhaps this has been corrected since previews. Though the set sought to represent the current penchant for architectural minimalism and retrospection, it remained bland, when it should only have evoked it. It was the actors who brought colour to the stage. But overall they were primary colours, with a great deal of tonality and self-reflection diffused with the designer perfume. Sure, we live in an age defined by the image and the superficial, my guess was this production sought to comment upon that, not fall victim to it. Charming, slick and very, very sexy, The Man of Mode awaits you. Directed by Nicholas Hytner. National Theatre, until March 10th Tom Hardy
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