#103 Leisurewear
Pyjamas. King Arthur. Daydreams. Flow. Opportunity.
Issue #103 Leisurewear
28th February 2024
I'm safely home from IMPRO Amsterdam!
Last week, I had to complete the newsletter on a phone whilst making a ferry crossing. Oh the glamour of my life!
The festival was as inspiring as always. Here's a couple of pictures of me in various shows throughout the week.
All of them were wonderful but a specific shout out to the late night show I created in partnership with Lucy Trodd, Lindsey McGowen and Markus Edvardsen. We all dressed in leisurewear and created theatre-in-the-round so cosy that we hoped the audience would lay down and fall asleep. At the end, Lucy sung a lullaby of such crystalline beauty that the audience sung the refrain for a full 10 minutes before realising that we'd left the theatre and weren't coming back.
Such joy!
Rule of three
[Book] Spear by Nicola Griffith
This retelling of the story of Sir Percival the Grail Knight is truly the most beautifully-written book I've read in many years. The prose is astonishing. It's full of Welsh folklore, magic, sword fights and well-researched period detail. It also recasts Percival as a queer woman of devastating power and purpose. I can't help it, I have to share some of the text with you.
As far as the girl can tell, none on two legs but herself and her mother has ever trod here. Her mother will creep from the cave only as far as the gardens at the edge of the thicket, and then only in summer when the leaves are cloak enough to hide the sun-burnished bronze of her heavy-waved hair, when the hard enamel blue of her eyes might be forget-me-nots; but the girl is at home in all the wild. She roams the whole of Ystrad Tywi, the valley of the Tywi who fled Dyfed in the Long Ago. In this valley, where there is a tree she will climb it; it will shelter her, and the birds that nest there in spring will sing to her, warning of any two-legged approach. In May, as the tree blossoms fall and herbs in the understorey flower, she will know by the scent of each how it might taste with what meat, whether it might heal, who it could kill. From its nectar she will know which moths will come to drink, know too of the bats that catch the moths, and what nooks they return to where they hang wrapped in their leather shrouds as the summer sun climbs high, high enough to shine even into the centre of the thicket. Before harvest, when the bee hum spreads drowsy and heavy as honey, she tastes in their busy drone a tale of the stream over which they skim, the falls down which the stream pours, the banks it winds past where reeds grow thick and the autumn bittern booms. And when the snow begins to fall once again, she catches a flake on her tongue and feels, lapping against her belly, the lake it was drawn from by summer sun, far away—a lake like a promise she will one day know. Then as the world folds down for winter, so too do the girl and her mother, listening to the crackle of flame and, beyond the leather door curtain, the soft hiss of snow settling over the hills and hollows like white felt.
OH BUT IT'S SO GOOD!
[Music] Four Tet
Sometimes a piece of music has the ability to completely transport you. I heard Daydream Repeat by Four Tet on Radio 6 Music this week and immediately wanted to hear it again. It makes me glow with happiness.
[Culture] Visual Vernacular
I don't claim to know much about Visual Vernacular - a physical theatre technique that combines elements of mime, poetry and storytelling and which is primarily performed by Deaf artists. However this video, in which VV practitioner Zoe McWhinney takes us through the process of translating a poem into visual performance, is absolutely fascinating. The thought behind each gesture and movement, and how one flows into the next, is genuinely breath-taking. Thanks to Vic Hogg for the recommendation.
Spotlight
Exciting volunteer opportunity ahoy! The London 50 Hour Improvathon opens its doors next week from 8th-10th March at the atmospheric Wilton's Music Hall (side note: we recently found out that some of Laura's ancestors lived in the Wilton's building - weird coincidence). Anyway, the team behind it are asking for volunteers to help put on this behemoth of a show. If you have any time during that weekend, I'd really recommend it - it's a fascinating bit of theatre-making and there's a huge amount to learn from such a talented array of artists. Here's the invitation:
The London 50-hour improvathon is an annual event in which improvisers from all over the world gather together in a theatre and create a 50-hour epic comedy drama. It takes the form of 25 2-hour episodes back to back from Friday night through to Sunday night. It was started in the UK by the legendary Ken Campbell in 2008 and has run almost every year since. It's a massive undertaking with a total cast of 50 (25 at any one time), a house band and of course lighting and sound operators trying not to fall asleep on the job... It's also not for profit - everyone does it for free because we love impro - and we are very happy that Chris Mead has agreed to join the cast his year!
The question is: would you like to volunteer to help out back stage? We need stage managers, assistants to the poor sleep-deprived directors and volunteers helping to do the catering for everyone. You don't need to be theatre professionals and don't worry - you don't need to do the entire weekend, just volunteer as much as you want to. It starts on the evening of March 8th and finishes on the evening of March 10th.
If you want to see one of improv's most ridiculous shows from the inside, please get in touch with Kaeline at SFTW (who are helping manage the whole show) on kaeline@sftw.info
Hope to see you there!
If you do come, look out for my shift between 1am-9am on the Friday night/ Saturday morning. I'd love to say Hi!
Breaking News! There are a couple of tickets rereleased for the previously SOLD OUT Liz Allen workshops 14th & 15th March. Grab them before they disappear again.
And don't forget Vinny François, as part of his UK tour, is offering a whole raft of amazing short workshops (that build into a cohesive weekend intensive 23rd/34th March) at Improv College.
Longform thoughts
I want that meringue-fragile confection of profundity and profanity - joyful people who sometimes struggle, a couple on the verge of breaking up who still make each other laugh - I want a pinch of salt in my scene work to bring out the sweetness.
A tale from the afterparty, and an improv revelation, in Salt & rum.
Radio contact
Snuggle pup.