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Kaite O’Reilly, Dr Dave James and Andrew Loretto.

It’s a week now until the public dress rehearsal of LeanerFasterStronger at Sheffield Theatre’s Crucible Studio, and so preparations and publicity are stepping up. The Sheffield press have been delighted to discover I’m a graduate of the University, and there is some satisfaction in returning to the city and the theatre I attended frequently as a student, with my own production.

imove have produced some trailers for the project, short vox pops with director Andrew, co-producers Susan Burns and Dr Dave James, and myself. Please click on the following links for short videos on the production, from very different perspectives:

Kaite O’Reilly: http://vimeo.com/34130135
Andrew Loretto:  http://vimeo.com/34131024
Susan & Dave: http://vimeo.com/34127106

In certain contexts, I believe it’s important for the playwright to be around early in the rehearsal process to address any issues or queries with the script, but then to withdraw, and allow the company to make the work their own. In previous productions I’ve felt my presence in the room has thrown too long a shadow – the cast have wanted to please me and my notions of who the characters might be rather than freely discover their own interpretations. It’s time, then, to go. Unless we’re following a different process of continual co-creating, I will usually leave rehearsals during the second week of rehearsals, returning in production week with fresh eyes to respond to the work.

With the fantastic LeanerFasterStronger ensemble we have had a different dynamic, as from day one the cast’s ideas have impacted on the final revisions of the script. I saw a ‘stagger through’ on day nine of rehearsals before departing. I’m returning later this week to see a run, and am incredibly excited about seeing the work after a week. All the feedback from the rehearsal floor has been overwhelmingly positive, and I can’t wait to experience the work with the added layers of  Shanaz’s video projections and design, and Shane’s soundtrack.

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A guest blog by director and Sheffield Theatres Creative producer Andrew Loretto, written on Saturday 5 May 2012: 

And here we are at the end of week 2 of rehearsals for the Sheffield Theatres/Chol Theatre co-production of the world premiere of LeanerFasterStronger by Kaite O’Reilly. Time has flown by in the rehearsal room, but so much has been achieved – including a rough stagger run on day 9.

The project has been an extraordinary two-year journey of collaborative research and discovery – and my aim now as director is to condense and continue this journey in rehearsals whilst also doing everything we can to realise a bold and vibrant staging of this remarkable new piece of writing, owned by all the artists involved. I want our Sheffield audiences to be thrilled, provoked and caught up in the rapid-fire sweep of the play’s arguments.

Having Kaite in rehearsals for the first two weeks has proved invaluable in terms of tackling nitty-gritty textual and contextual questions to help me, the cast and our designers achieve a shared understanding of the many worlds of the play. It has also been helpful for me to share physical and vocal thoughts on the floor with Kaite so that she can see the choices we are making and – crucially for a first staging – be part of those choices. One of the reasons I love directing new work is the joy of having the writer in the rehearsal room – that sense of taking collective creative steps into the unknown for the first time. It is both thrilling and daunting, but as director I place my trust in a wonderfully talented team who I know will get us to our destination.

Alongside interrogation of text, character, setting, emotion and logic, we are also constantly playing with the physical language of the play in response to Shanaz Gulzar’s intimate in-the-round design of video projections that interact with building blocks that can be constructed in various permutations – rather like an oversized child’s play set. I’m keen that we don’t try to literally show sporting sequences on stage. We are not trained, expert sportspeople, but rather a bunch of artists interpreting the essence of the athletes for our audiences. I also feel that a naturalistic physical language would not serve the post-dramatic nature of Kaite’s writing. So we have been playing with various conventions based on broken down scores, shared by all of the performers and interacting with the geometric shapes created by the dispersed set blocks. I have also been playing with the notion that an athlete is still when speaking to us whilst the movement happens elsewhere. This produces the sensation of the athlete being the external observer of him or herself. This serves the text well and helps the audience’s understanding of the thought processes of the athletes we encounter in the play.

We have a wonderful, intelligent and creative team of four actors – each brings generosity, enquiry and complementary skills to the process. My job is to get the cast to a place of embodying the same physical language whilst also celebrating their individuality. With this in mind, and based on the discoveries from rehearsals, our Movement Adviser Lucy Cullingford is charged with empowering the company with a choreographic language that we all understand and can use at various points on the play.

One of my driving forces for making theatre is how we can open up and make opportunities of excellence for others – it flows through all of my work, whether making a large-scale production with an eighty-strong cast of 12-85 year olds for Sheffield People’s Theatre, enabling a student company to tour work to international festivals, or opening up Sheffield Theatres’ spaces to local musicians, comedians, dancers and cabaret artists through the Sheffield Sizzler. It doesn’t matter to me what the scale, level or form of project is, we must find ways of opening up our processes and providing opportunities for others to learn, develop and show their own creative skills.

With this in mind, from the outset LeanerFasterStronger has been designed to carry a range of pedagogical opportunities, including multi-media workshops for local schools led by Chol Theatre, writing workshops and a facilitated play-reading with Kaite and post-show discussion with the company. We are also providing opportunities for members of Sheffield People’s Theatre to work with our cast and become involved in elements of performance as ‘supernumeraries’ (a new term for me). In my role as Sheffield Theatres’ Creative Producer I have been curating a season of workshop opportunities for students reading Theatre Studies at the University of Sheffield School of English. And so I arranged that their final workshop would interface with our rehearsal process.

This is, to my knowledge, unusual in mainstream British theatre practice. The rehearsal room is generally held up as the holiest of holies, not to be disturbed on any account and only accessible to those people most closely involved with the process. And yet we strive (or ought to strive in the publicly funded sector) to provide access to most aspects of theatre-making these days. So why not also the core of making theatre – the working rehearsal room? In the case of LeanerFasterStronger, I not only wanted to provide a workshop based on our process for the students, I wanted to lead a workshop that interfaced with an active actual rehearsal whereby the students would be making discoveries with the cast for the first time.

So it was today that our fabulous company of Morven Macbeth, Christopher Simpson, Ben Addis and Kathryn Dimery were joined temporarily by an extended ‘cast’ comprised of first, second and third year students Amy, Matt, Sarah, Esie, Jade, Naomi and Natasha. Together we were taken through a journey of ‘Viewpointing’ by Lucy, whereby we developed an improvised but highly detailed approach to interacting with the space, set and gestures related to the play. Combined with narrative, character and scenario parameters I set, we jointly developed a rich palette of physical choices that were full of pathos, optimism, moments lived, savoured and lost. The students approached Lucy and my collaborative approach to making work with open minds, focus and great humanity. Until this point our cast had worked as a team of four. Now they were fully able to be observer/participants and step back to observe the bigger physical picture. This was highly empowering and encouraging for the actors – who could see properly for the first time how the physicality of the play would work. Not only that, but the students were excited by the prospect that their ideas would feed into our process – and all of them were keen to come and see the show by close of play.

This got me thinking: why shouldn’t we open up all our rehearsal processes to local students? There cannot be a single creative process from which an aspect cannot be extracted to draw a line of genuine enquiry that can then be explored with students and cast together. Do it – as we did – in week 2. Enough time for the cast to have bonded and know the world of the play, but not too late for things to be set, and there still to be big questions to explore. And not at the delicate, later, highly focused and sometimes high-stakes stages of rehearsal.

Go on theatre directors – particularly those of you in the subsidised sector – plan for it in your schedules. And if facilitating workshops isn’t your forte, talk to your assistant director (if you have one) or a member of the venue’s creative development team. Do it now. What’s your excuse? If in doubt, here’s an extract from an email I received whilst writing this blog from a first year student who took part in our rehearsal:

 “I want to say a big thank you to you and your team for letting us step into rehearsals for the day. How refreshing it was to try something different in such a friendly and warm environment! Getting to do work with professionals was also a tad mind blowing! I found the work you were doing really different to all the training I’ve done in the past.”

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LeanerFasterStronger runs at Sheffield Theatres:  Wed 23 May – Sat 2 June  http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/event/leanerfasterstronger-12/

Dramatic Structure – Raising the Stakes. Sat 26 May

Make high tension stories that really matter! Learn how to shape plays that will have an impact on your audience and make them care about your characters. Led by Kaite O’Reilly, award-winning writer of LeanerFasterStronger.

http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/event/dramatic-structure-raising-the-stakes/

Taking the dramatic temperature of your script. Tuesday 29 May.     A practical checklist for effective and dynamic drama: tension, pace, plot, and emotional engagement. Led by multiple award-winning writer of this season’s LeanerFasterStronger, Kaite O’Reilly. http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/event/taking-the-dramatic-temperature-of-your-script/

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Kaite O’Reilly with Paralympian hopefuls Steve Judge and  Suzannah Rockett-Coughlan at Sheffield Hallam University.

I started this blog last year as I wanted to write about the varied processes I might experience as a writer/dramaturg/co-creator working on three vastly differing productions over 2012. It was my plan to reflect on my experiences in ‘real time’ in research, rewrites, and in rehearsals, as the work grew and developed.

Part of this project was in response to the questions I’m often been asked by those I teach and mentor about the process of ‘being a playwright’.  My answer has always been ‘it depends’ – for I believe there is no one process, and my hope with writing the blog is to reveal some of the many processes writers and makers of live performance may encounter.

I’m currently at the end of the second week of rehearsals with Chol/Sheffield Theatres co-production of LeanerFasterStronger, a Cultural Olympiad project, reflecting on elite sport and the ethics and issues around human enhancement and sports science. It has been a research-heavy project, reading books and academic essays, being in residence at Sheffield Hallam University’s Centre for Sports Engineering Research, and interviewing former athletes who have competed at international level.

I’ve often wondered when the research will stop, for the issues are so current, especially with the Olympics and Paralympics fast approaching. Almost every day in rehearsals one of the company will pull out a story relevant to the play that was in that morning’s newspaper, or reported on television:  Themes of corruption, of sacrifice, of cheating or playing fair; advances in technology and bio-engineering; sportspeople breaking records, or collapsing and dying owing to the extreme rigour and demands of the sport.

Never before have I been involved in a project which is so current and ‘now’, which brings with it a responsibility. Although what we are embarking on is fictional and looking to the future, posing the central question of ‘How far would you go to be the best?’, the work needs to be credible, rooted in ‘truth’. Several events this past week have enabled me to check out my ideas with athletes competing at the highest level, and these conversations have impacted on the final revisions of the script. I feel astonishingly fortunate that these opportunities have come to me, and especially so mid-rehearsal. I never expected part of my job as a playwright would involve spending time with Paralympians and Olympians – nor that the final changes to a script would occur so close to production.

After a Paralympics panel event organised by Sheffield Hallam University and Radio Sheffield, I spoke at length with fencers Suzanna Rockett-Coughlan and Craig McCann, who were nervously waiting to discover whether they had been selected for 2012; and  2016  Paratriathlete hopeful Steve Judge. All talked about the necessity – and challenges – of keeping a good family/training balance, and the pleasures and trevails of competing at such a level.

Finding the human aspect, the emotional drama at the heart of sport has been central to my writing of the script. So much coverage of elite athletes focus on their super-ability and dedication; even the panel event that evening, introduced by the Chair of the British Paralympics Association, Tim Reddish, focused on the Paralympians as being inspirational, over-coming so many obstacles. That may be so and, sincerely, more power to them, but as a disabled woman I’m tired of the usual representations of people with impairments as either inspirational ‘heroes’, or the tragic but brave. To cut through this and connect, person to person, and share ideas and anecdotes, to talk about life and passion and winning or losing was phenomenal, and I am so grateful to the athletes for the insight they gave me into the beating human heart behind the high-pressured business of sport.

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Cutting Edge 2012: Behind Athletics, the English Institute of Sport.

Later that week, it was the turn of Olympian Roger Black, top sports scientist Professor Steve Haake,  Professor Chris Cooper, an expert in the physiology of top athletes, and Dr Rob Harle, a lead researcher in the development of innovative video and body sensor technologies to aid the training of both novice and elite athletes.

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Steve Haake, volunteer athlete, and Roger Black

Cutting Edge 2012, at the English Institute of Sport, featured live athletics demonstrations and my own advisor, Dr David James, leading an interactive  survey on how far research and new technologies should be used in the quest to win gold. Given the subject of my play – How far would you go to be the best? – it felt as though the event was especially organised for me and the whole LFS company who attended.

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Olympic Silver medalist Roger Black answering LFS actor Morven Macbeth’s research question. The English Institute of Sport.

One of the actors, Morven Macbeth, asked a question pertinent to our research and garnered a great response from Roger Black:

“Sport is definitely an industry, there’s no doubt about that, and the Olympics is a massive business, we know that, but for the athlete – you’re still the young kid who had the dream; you’re still one of the lucky ones who happened to have a gift for sport… I may be naive, but I still believe, when I watch the Olympics, the vast majority of the athletes we’re watching are clean, and are doing it for the right reasons, pushing themselves, having a dream, and trying to fill that potential. I can say that, because I did it….But there are many people who absolutely believe you can’t win a medal without taking drugs. And I know that’s not true.”

Further responses touched on the notion of ‘the spirit’ and ‘the virtue’ of sport – and how one of the ‘rules’ of sport is to ‘uphold the spirit of sport’ – a circular argument – and these rules or tasks we set ourselves are often arbitrary.

Given that one of the themes of the script has been ‘Sport tests the limits of what humans can do’, this comment, combined with the developments in bio and genetic engineering, gave me much food for thought. Fuelled by these interventions and provocations during the week, I locked myself into my hotel room over the weekend and finished the script.

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Archive poster of 1948 London Olympics on wall of Centre for Sports Engineering Research, Sheffield Hallam University.

Companies working with new plays have to be flexible, patient, and with steely nerves. Unlike second productions, or reinterpretations of Classics, a new script is not tried or tested, but neither is it necessarily set in stone. Having the playwright in rehearsals means the script can be malleable, responding to the other creatives in the room.

This, however, does not mean that the script is devised or co-created. In the case of LeanerFasterStronger, the script I’ve written over the past eighteen months is solid and highly developed, in its fourth draft. It is a complex script, with multiple characters to be played by a small ensemble cast of four.

One of the joys of being in the rehearsal room when completing such an ambitious script is the potential for engagement. If an actor has a question about the script, the writer is on hand to answer directly – and the playwright has the pooled imaginations, skills, and intellects of the company at work on the script. Here is where true collaboration happens, with all involved responding and reacting to each other, the production growing organically. It is demanding, exciting, and joyful.

Previously, the central characters in the play have been disembodied voices in my head. Now they find substance, psychology, a past. Andrew leads the actors in a series of exercises which create a chronological history of their characters from birth until we meet them in the play. As the play is not naturalistic, during my own process I haven’t created ‘back stories’ for the characters. Individually, the performers make life stories for their central characters: siblings, parents, experiences at school, at college, in work; they build a psychological and emotional profile for these figures, mapping their dreams, fears, hopes, ambitions…

I observe all this, fascinated, as the background material dovetails with the details in the script. There are no contradictions, only discoveries: the identity of these central characters, their accents, their emotional baggage. This is all grist to my mill, as I polish and make the final tweaks to the script.

LeanerFasterStronger

A Sheffield Theatres and Chol Theatre Co-Production

Wed 23 May – Sat 2 June http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/event/leanerfasterstronger-12/

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Dr Dave James welcoming the company to the Centre.

It’s the first week of rehearsals for LeanerFasterStronger at Sheffield Theatres, and director Andrew has organised a company outing to The Centre for Sports Engineering Research at Sheffield Hallam University.

The project is a fascinating collaboration between scientists and theatre practitioners, part of imove, the Cultural Olympiad for Yorkshire.

In posts last year I wrote about the research residency Chol and Sheffield theatres had at the Centre for Sports Engineering Research, getting access to the motion capture lab’ and other sports science technologies, exploring movement and our attitudes to our disabled and non-disabled bodies.  http://kaiteoreilly.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1034&action=edit

Now, we’re back – the actors who will be portraying the characters I created informed by my research here and elsewhere, supported by the ever-enthusiastic Dr Dave James.

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Entering the lab’

The meeting is a crash course in Sports Science and human enhancement for the actors. It’s a context I’ve become familiar with over the past twelve months and Dr Dave James fields questions on blood doping, enhancement, and other issues the script touches on.

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Morven 

It’s fascinating seeing lines which I wrote informed by bioethics becoming dialogue between diverse but credible characters. When Chol first approached me with the commission, I never thought saying yes would lead me to a biomechanics and sport engineering laboratory.

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It has been a rich experience, collaborating with so many partners, and I’ve particularly enjoyed the challenge of taking academic material regarding human enhancement, placing it within a sports context, and endeavouring to make theatre from it.

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Kathryn in the gym

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First published on A Younger Theatre

I have fond memories of a summer spent delving in and out of Arthur Ransome’s classic children’s novel, Swallows and Amazons, so it was with fairly high, nostalgia-charged expectations that I arrived at the Sheffield Lyceum for Bristol Old Vic’s production, currently touring after sell-out success in Bristol and the West End.

It certainly didn’t disappoint. Helen Edmundson’s script brings the novel to life in a wonderfully effusive fashion, capturing all the salient elements of the story and establishing strong characters from the largest role to the smallest. Set in 1929, the stage show elegantly brings to life the playfulness of the novel. It also manages to cleverly and delicately balance this with the extreme seriousness of the game of goodies versus baddies that the main characters, all of whom are children, play, first at war with Amazons Peggy and Nancy before joining forces to launch a united attack on the deadly Captain Flint.

At the centre of the story are the Walker children, ranging from Roger, aged nearly eight, to Captain John, the eldest at 12.  There is a real sense of family unity and the intricate relationships between the siblings here, with a particularly notable performance from Katie Moore as Susan, struggling against her motherly tendencies and desire to make everyone tea and buttered eggs. Richard Holt adeptly captures the conflicting emotions of a young boy on the cusp of adolescence, and Akiya Henry is mesmerising as middle child Titty, quietly philosophising on having to shout to be heard when you are neither youngest nor oldest in a beautiful solo. Because this is a musical as well as an adaptation, and Neil Hannon’s lyrics and melodies are beautifully evocative of the sense of space and freedom that the children feel as their imaginations run wild.

Much about the production is true to its early twentieth-century roots with lovely contemporary costumes (think cricket jumpers and shorts), but there are ingenious modern twists round every corner. Songs have tinges of various musical traditions and the most notable of this is the unforgettable ‘Amazon Pirate’ song. The wonderfully villainous (but ultimately good-hearted) Amazons, Celia Adams and Sophie Waller, go with the flow here, turning their anthem into a raucous rap. Things – props, animals, settings – are brought to life in a vibrant fashion, too, with an ethos of “make do and mend”. Everyday objects become anything from a mythical harpy made of secateurs and bin bags to picture frames that reveal what’s going on in windows and at the end of telescopes. There is a level of detail and intelligence in the design here that is just wonderful to watch and is deliciously voyeuristic.

We are taken on an engrossing journey with the Walkers as they travel about the stage in skeleton rowing boats and throw themselves around with a wonderfully childish energy and enthusiasm. Stewart Wright as baby of the family Roger provides a masterclass in acting a very young role without relying on stereotype or caricature, and rightly gets many of the laughs. One of the cleverest elements of this production is the use of an ensemble who basically dash about the stage with boundless energy doing this, that and everything. Music is played live on stage by the talented group, who also sing, multi-role, control puppets and become furniture, trees and even the sea when needed. It’s hard to single out anyone from this talented group, but Greg Barnett as principal “Barbarian” (adult, to you and me) is lots of fun and a jolly good sport as misunderstood pirate Captain Flint.

Full of unforgettable magic moments that will really make your spine tingle, this is definitely not just one for kids. Whilst they will love the action-packed antics and audience participation, director Tom Morris has captured the near impossible; he has created a production that is for anyone who can remember days when a penknife could be a sword to rival Excalibur, a feather duster might take on a life of its own and pirates really could be around any corner. If Swallows and Amazons are forever, long may their reign continue.

Swallows and Amazons is at the Sheffield Lyceum until Saturday 14 April. Tickets and more information from www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk.

It then continues its tour of the UK until Saturday 19 May. For more details, visit www.swallowsamazons.co.uk.

Image credit: Simon Annand

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World Premiére of New Olympics-Inspired Play

Sheffield Theatres press release:  10 April 2012

Warm up to the London 2012 Olympic Games celebrations with Sheffield Theatres and Chol Theatre’s co-production of LeanerFasterStronger, premièring in the Crucible Studio Theatre from Wednesday 23 May – Saturday 2 June.

Written by Kaite O’Reilly, winner of the Ted Hughes Award for Poetry in 2010, and directed by Sheffield Theatres’ Creative Producer Andrew Loretto, LeanerFasterStronger is a darkly-humorous and provocative theatre experience that explores the limits of what being human means. Set in-the-round in the Crucible Studio Theatre, different characters examine the themes of enhancement, new science and bioengineering and ask the question, how far would you go to be the best?

A new collaboration with neighbouring Chol Theatre in association with iMove, this new production will be brought to life by four young performance artists doubling as multiple characters. Acclaimed interactive media artist, Shanaz Gulzar (Transform season at West Yorkshire Playhouse), will design the show which will feature real-time film projections, with lighting design from Gary Longfield (Lives in Art and Peter Pan) and sound design from Shane Durrant (Thirsty).

LeanerFasterStronger writer Kaite O’Reilly said: ‘When I was a student in Sheffield during the early mid 80s, Sheffield Theatres was a major landmark on my cultural horizon. As an aspiring theatre practitioner, it was somewhere I went to learn, to be provoked, entertained and to be inspired. Returning after twenty years and having my own work on in the Crucible Studio Theatre, that I attended so frequently, is quite wonderful. I hope that LeanerFasterStronger will continue the tradition for emerging practitioners and audiences alike.’

As part of the season, on Tuesday 29 May at 6.00pm Kaite O’Reilly is running a workshop for aspiring playwrights aged 18 years and over. Tickets cost £10.00, for more information call the Box Office on 0114 249 6000.

LeanerFasterStronger forms part of Extraordinary Moves, an exciting arts and science partnership between Chol Theatre, Sheffield Hallam University and iMove, Yorkshire’s Cultural Olympiad programme. For iMove, Sheffield Hallam University are also hosting a series of Olympic inspired events including a panel discussion with Paralympic athletes (25 April), an Olympic Games guest event in association with BBC Radio Sheffield and a unique opportunity to ‘Meet the Olympic Commentators’ (9 May). For more information visit www.shu.ac.uk/events. Site Gallery are also premièring a new thought-provoking exhibition by artist Jason Minsky.

Tickets for LeanerFasterStronger are on sale now from Sheffield Theatres’ Box Office, priced £10.00 – £15.00.

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Andrew Motion’s ‘What If’. 

Guest blog: Susan Burns, Artistic Director of Chol Theatre: 

It’s Thursday 15^th March, the last day of casting for LeanerFasterStronger and what’s more it’s a beautiful day. Heading to the Lyceum, I walk the route from Sheffield railway station to Tudor Square that cuts through the City campus of Sheffield Hallam University. I was a student here on the Writing MA in 2007 when the then poet laureate Andrew Motion’s poem for travellers to this city ‘What If?” was installed on the side of SHU’s Owen Building on Howard Street. There’ll be two more laureates in this story but for now I’m a little early so I stop to read its familiar tall stanzas. The poem reflects on how a traveller might feel on arrival in a new city and I feel inspired to be working in the city.

Andrew Loretto, Kaite O’Reilly and I are working on a new play by Kaite called ‘LeanerFasterStronger’ and it’s the culmination of a series of creative projects ‘Extraordinary Moves’ that Chol Theatre and Sheffield Hallam University are delivering as part of imove, for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. That’s always a deep breath and a mouthful of partnership layers to explain. For us, ‘Extraordinary Moves’ began back in 2009 at a speed networking event in Bradford and it’s a partnership journey which has propelled all of us on a roller-coaster ride working with venues, communities and artists from around these islands and around the world: via our home towns of Huddersfield and Sheffield via Vancouver, Birmingham, Ireland, Madrid, Manchester, Sydney, Leeds, Wales, Barnsley and Harrogate, to name but a few places of connection. Now we’re back in Yorkshire again. It’s the last lap and thrilling for Chol to be working on this last leg of our Extraordinary journey with the brilliant team at Sheffield Theatres as it’s been a massive year of ‘what ifs’ for our company.

It’s fabulous to have Kaite O’Reilly with us for these audition days and I’m beginning to learn that it’s typical of her generosity to give up her time in this way and to offer up extracts of her draft script for our auditionees to perform..  I have sat on many a casting panel but this is the first time we’ve been able to include the writer in the process. I am here to contextualize the project as part of the Cultural Olympiad and within the region’s imove programme; director Andrew Loretto introduces the rehearsal process and it is great to have Kaite to talk about the emerging script, to bring it alive in a way only a writer can.  It’s one of the many ‘firsts’ that this project has witnessed. For Chol, it’s our first co-production with Sheffield Theatres. For Andrew, it’s the first time he and Kaite have worked together. Kaite and Andrew plan to spend a lot of time in the rehearsal room together. She explains how her background in directing and dramaturgy means that this is a process which helps her in the final stages in the creation of new work. I love new things and so I’m looking forward.

Each short audition brings a unique interpretation to the material and acts as a window into an artist’s larger creative life.  Kaite was the 2010 winner of the Ted Hughes Award for poetry, an award created by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, for her new translation of ‘The Persians’ and it’s the lyrical quality of the work that resonates with me today. How I wish today everyone we see could be given a part. There’s something about the Lyceum rehearsal room that’s lofty and hopeful: it must be the panoramic view of the city rooftops from the windows. In between calls, we speak of women artists, writers and poets; the lack of plays by women on our stages and the brilliant people we know and have in common.  Decisions taken, Andrew has to head back to his desk.  For Kaite and I, our narrative of criss-crossings and connections continues into the evening. Work done, we can gossip over some dry white, in other words.

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The Sheffield Crucible and Lyceum theatres at dusk,  16/3/12. Photo: Kaite O’Reilly

I have always admired actors, but after this past week sitting the other side of a desk to them as they audition for LeanerFasterStronger, my admiration has massively increased.

The talent out there is humbling, and we could cast the production many times over, each new combination bringing different strengths and interpretations  to the fore.  I don’t envy Andrew Loretto, who will direct the production in May and so the person who has to make these final, impossible decisions.

LeanerFasterStronger is more a performance text than a ‘play’ – it will require doubling of parts, physical scores, and therefore great flexibility and speed from the performers in making these transitions. Owing to this, Andrew is bringing together an ensemble company, so the casting decisions relies ultimately on that mix. I think in many ways this is harder than more conventional casting, where the actor may be ‘up’ for one role – the part of Ophelia, say.  It has been my delight and honour to meet so many talented performers – not every playwright gets access to this process of auditioning – but from the start Andrew and co-producer Susan Burns of Chol wanted my involvement throughout.

Some weeks ago  I selected some excerpts from the script to be given in advance to the actors invited to audition, so the readings weren’t ‘cold’. What has been most impressive is the array of interpretations of the characters these actors prepared – each relevant, credible, and illuminating aspects of the characters I had never anticipated. This is why theatre is a collaborative art: performance writers may write the script, but the flesh is provided by the creative engagement of the rest of the company – primarily the actors and director, but also the scenographer, the sound and lighting designers…

It was extraordinary to sit and hear so many different approaches to words I had written – some words which, prior to this,  had only been ‘voiced’ inside my head. Speeches I had written and which we had deliberately taken out of context to the whole (not identifying gender, or background, or situation) suddenly belonged to bodies and were given emotions and psychologies and ‘back-stories’. I saw how performers can create a whole world out of a short monologue in order to give it a logic and meaning – I saw how inventive and thorough and extraordinary they are. My appreciation of performers’ skills and imaginations grew and grew.

Now the auditions are over and Andrew is making his final decisions and negotiations. After many days and several cities, I sat this week in a bar opposite Sheffield Theatres with Susan and reflected on an extraordinary process. I took the photograph gracing the top of this post and invited Susan to guest-blog here, giving her perspective of the process. That post will appear shortly, as will the announcement of our cast. The preparation is almost over. Soon we will be deep into rehearsals and another very different process…

(c) Kaite O’Reilly 17/3/12   Happy St Patrick’s Day, all.

Democracy, a quick-paced tale of espionage comes to Sheffield's Crucible.

When first performed in 2003, Michael Frayn’s cold war drama Democracy was seen as a mirror of New Labour’s hankering for the right.

These days Paul Miller’s revival of the political paradoy can be seen as the perfect parable of the complications of coalition.

Whatever parallels you pull from it, nine years on the political opera is still as deliciously fast-paced and acutely written. Set in Cold War Germany, audiences are treated to a factional look at nobel peace prize winner Willy Brandt’s five years as the Chancellor of West Germany.

Perfectly fitted to the Crucible’s amphitheatre stage, the set of the party offices is penetrable from all angles. Sucked into the theatricals of politics we watch as Brandt welcomes the enemy closer and closer.

The quality of actors is unsurpassable, Richard Hope providing a fantastically enthusiastic Horst Ehmke aiding Brandt. Patrick Drudy plays a well-paced and soft leader, but is held back by the restraints of impersonation.

It is in the delightful characterisation of Gunter Guillame in which the production shines. Played by Aidan McArdle, Gunter is immediately engaging, like-able and funny. The gleeful spy, innocent and excited. We watch as Brandt and Gunter both draw their enemy the closest. Each man finding solace in their private and effortless companionship.

Slowly party cracks emerge, self-gain is on the menu and Gunter is exposed as the spy who loved the Chancellor and Brandt as the Chancellor who loved too many women.

Democracy is beautifully witty and thoroughly enjoyable. A fascinating look at a moment in history.

4/5

Democracy is part of the ongoing Michael Frayn Season at Sheffield Theatres and concludes on the 31st March. For tickets click here.

First off I must admit that my reason for going to see Copenhagen was unashamedly geeky: I have a massive crush on Geoffrey Streatfeild. I didn’t know the play at all and, although I did a little bit of reading before booking the tickets, I basically showed up with a totally open mind.

It opened on Wednesday and still felt a little buggy in places (it was today’s matinee I saw) but there was nothing to suggest the small cast were holding back for tonight’s performance-it’s a claustrophobic play, set largely in one room, with a cast of three and enough complex Physics for a few terms to be explained in the program but it felt suitably grand in scale and, cleverly, the audience (or I, at least) came out feeling that they understood the science that pins the plot together. (Basically, the making of the nuclear bomb. Yeah, I don’t actually know anything about it. My GCSE Physics teacher would be shocked I let my A grade go to waste.)

The cast is exceptionally strong. Geoffrey Streatfeild (in the first role I’ve seen him in for a while where he’s not been playing some kind of emotionally stunted nutcase-or at least, not a nutcase) was superb as Werner Heisenberg, a German Physicist struggling to come to terms with the power he seemingly has to provide Hitler with the atomic bomb and the consequences of his decisions. As the play unfolds it becomes clear that even his own memories of the war years, particularly the day in September 1941 in question, are fluid and difficult to pin down or make sense of. The truth alters depending on whose truth it is. Henry Goodman (always rather amazing) is Niels Bohr, a part Jewish Physicist in Copenhagen, and Heisenberg’s one time boss, mentor and friend, who has his own painful truths to confront about his involvement in Hiroshima. His wife, Margrethe is played by Barbara Flynn as a woman who has typed so many drafts of scientific papers for her husband that she has her own unique understanding of both men’s guilt and responsibility. The play is about the decisions made by the men but this is a fiercely independent woman who isn’t afraid to say what she thinks. (So many parts for women seem conceived purely to add another dimension to a male character and I was really pleased that this isn’t the case with Margrethe who more than holds her own.)

At the interval, by which point there has been a lot of soul searching and pacing, I was wondering where the second half could go in terms of tempo or plot, but the tension continues to rise and wane as the men circle around their friendships and shared past to some kind of uneasy understanding of how they’ve both acted under the pressure of World War Two, although the ‘why’ that is constantly asked is never really answered. Indeed, why we do what we do is the central theme of the play, and the impossibility of an answer is satisfying in itself.

If you can get to Sheffield then I’d definitely recommend Copenhagen. Go see!

(Oh and as for Mr Streatfeild, I was geeky enough to wait outside the stage door to try and get his autograph and then even geekier when he came out to meet some people I assume were his friends/family. He looked straight at me, I mangled a grotesque kind of smile and then DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING. Asking someone for an autograph is one thing. Losing your nerve and standing there like an idiot without speaking is quite another. Aaaargh. Luckily DH thinks my school girl crush is hilarious so at least someone will see the funny side…)

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Andrew’s rough sketch of the proposed design for LeanerFasterStronger at Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, May 2012.

It is nine weeks before rehearsals begin for LeanerFasterStronger, my commission from Chol Theatre to be produced in Sheffield in the Spring. The feedback document I had squirrelled away until The Echo Chamber opened has now been scrutinised, digested, and discussed at length with Susan Burns of Chol and Andrew Loretto of Sheffield Theatres. Deadline firmly in mind, I’m now setting off to redraft the script.

I’m often asked how I rewrite a script. Strangely, this is something I have never come across in the public domain, nor heard discussed in detail at literary festivals and similar events. What follows is my own personal process. It may be useful for others to know, but it certainly isn’t prescriptive, nor can I assume something I have developed over the years might work for other writers. I think the trick is in finding what works for you. What follows is what works for me.

Few, I think, would believe my apparent aimless meandering and vacant staring into space in the days following feedback could be classified as work. But it isn’t all fun. I feel immensely fortunate to write full time, and this, combined with my hardcore work ethic (thank you, immigrant parents), makes the more reflective, apparently passive part of the process pretty challenging.

What I have learned over the years (but I keep forgetting, so have to keep reminding myself) is: it is important to give time to dream, to absorb, to be apparently passive and let the script and related ideas float comfortably somewhere in my un/subconscious. I find if I’m relaxed enough, I start dreaming the script, especially in that liminal place, when not fully asleep, but not yet awake. This dream state allows me to run the scenes on the movie screen of my mind, and I often wake and go straight to my desk without washing or dressing, knowing immediately what needs to be addressed.

Thinking about this, I assume it’s a form of lucid dreaming I have taught myself over the years. I find it works with short stories and plays, as I can hold these in their entirety in my mind and run through from beginning to end, moment by moment. Anything longer, like a novel, is too big to hold in my mind’s eye.

Before I start re-writing and whilst I’m in that mulling everything over phase, I read extensively. Once I’m actually writing, I read non-fiction or journals so that there isn’t an unintentional influence, but before I begin work I like to immerse myself in the medium and remind myself of the the possibilities of the form. This is also important as I work across several forms. Reading as much as I can for several days firmly roots me in the necessary medium and style, be that radio drama, fiction, academic writing, or live performance.

To that end, I have recently acquired a stable of plays, which I will devour over the weekend. The breadth is broad. The intention is not to read work close to my own subject matter and aesthetic, but to remind myself of a wide range of dramaturgies and theatre styles. Here is my weekend reading:

A Map of the World.          David Hare.

The Water Station.            Ota Shogo.

Butterfly Kiss.                      Phyllis Nagy.

13.                                              Mike Bartlett.

Far Away.                            Caryl Churchill.

Red Sky.                                  Bryony Lavery.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma.  David Edgar.

A Year and a Day.             Christina Reid.

Disco Pigs.                           Enda Walsh.

Burn and Rosalind.           Deborah Gearing.

Realism.                               Anthony Neilson.

More on this process follows after the weekend, when I will start identifying sections of the play requiring modification and strengthening – and deciding what actions will best get the required results.

(c) Kaite O’Reilly 17/2/12

 Have a look at http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/ for booking information etc.

I know it’s a personal predilection, but I dislike publicity material which tells me too much. I’m not interested in knowing what successful production this new one could be compared to (‘if you liked Mamma Mia, you’ll love this…’). I don’t want to be directed too much in how to perceive the show, nor do I want to know the age, inner thoughts, or inside leg measurements of the characters in the pre-show blurb. I intend to see the performance to experience all that. I want the briefest sense of what the production is about – the theme or subject matter, the company and collaborators – director and creators or playwright – and that’s good enough for me.

I’m currently travelling in North America and Canada and have been surprised by some live performance publicity which have been the equivalent of a film spoiler (I think that’s a more appropriate term than ‘film trailer’). It’s not that I need to be in a heightened ‘what’s going to happen?’ thriller-like state to go and enjoy a performance – I’m a serial-Beckett fan and so have seen multiple versions of the same plays, and will continue to do so in the future – it’s all to do with tone and being spoon-fed.

So pity Sheffield Theatres creative producer Andrew Loretto and Chol Theatre’s artistic director Susan Burns, who approached me recently about the blurb for our 2012 production LeanerFaster Stronger…

I’m fortunate in that I’ve always written or been centrally involved in the publicity material for any play I’ve written. I’ve found that this becomes a necessity when the work is disability-led, or features actors who have physical or sensory impairments – which much of my work does. I have lost count of the number of altercations I have had with journalists, newspapers and marketing departments about inappropriate or even downright offensive language used in regards to my work, or my talented collaborators.

 Several years ago I reduced the marketing department of a theatre to embarrassment and tears after I deconstructed their publicity material, revealing how it not only adhered to the Medical Model of Disability, but also reduced my feisty, outrageous, foul-mouthed crip protagonists into pathetic victims defined merely by their condition. The fact this treatment was then extended to defining some of the company members was unacceptable and much debate and consultation followed. I admired the company’s willingness to learn and make amends, but know many similar well-meaning but problematic errors are still being made, despite the many Disability Equality Training initiatives companies participate in. A disability awareness takes time to be absorbed fully into the body of a company, and until my crip  normality is if not the norm, at least relevant and valid, I’ll continue to write the blurb for my plays.

In the case for LeanerFasterStronger, I’m working with companies which are not only disability-aware, but positively disability-welcoming, and the director is a fellow viz imp. I had few qualms, then, when looking at the material they suggested for publicity. After a few tweaks we got our collectively-created blurb, which follows, below – but not yet the defining image for the production. The exploration continues. Watch this space.

Chol Theatre & Sheffield Theatres present
LeanerFasterStronger

24 May – 2 June 2012, 7.45 pm

Matinees: 2.15pm, 31 May & 2.15pm, 2 June
at Crucible Studio Theatre
55 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, S1 1DA
0114 249 6000 

image by Shanaz Gulzar

How far would you go to be the best?
What if bio-engineered body parts and medical science were on tap to make you leaner, faster and stronger?
Would you fight it; or embrace the brave new world?
A darkly humorous and provocative theatre experience which explores the limits of what human means.

Written by Kaite O’Reilly (winner of the Ted Hughes Award for Poetry 2010), directed by Andrew Loretto, designed by Shanaz Gulzar.
LeanerFasterStronger is a Chol Theatre and Sheffield Theatres coproduction.

For more information click

http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.view&NewsCategoryID=1&NewsID=846&Archived=0

http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/33939/john-simm-and-michael-frayn-to-feature-in

]]> http://kaiteoreilly.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/leanerfasterstronger-bodies-in-motion-extraordinary-moves/ Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:50:36 +0000 Kaite O'Reilly http://kaiteoreilly.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/leanerfasterstronger-bodies-in-motion-extraordinary-moves/ .

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Alan Martin and Kevin Edward Turner in the motion capture lab, Sheffield Hallam Sports Science Centre. Extraordinary Moves: research week.

all photographs by Kaite O’Reilly.

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‘Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.”  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi. Hungarian biochemist and 1937 winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

I’m in Canada, revising the next draft of LeanerFasterStronger, the Cultural Olympiad commission from Chol Theatre in a co-production with Sheffield Theatres. The project is part of Extraordinary Moves, a major strand of the imove programme, which celebrates and challenges the relationship between people and their moving bodies through a series of innovative arts projects across Yorkshire.

One of the processes I use when redrafting is to go back and revisit all the source material. I’ve found that when there is a ‘hole’ in a developed draft, or a problem to be solved, invariably the missing link is offered up somewhere in the research material and earlier drafts. So it is with delight I’m in the process of reviewing my documentation of our research week at Sheffield Hallam Sports Science Lab, organised by Susan Burns of Chol Theatre in partnership with XMoves co-producer Dr David James. I’m further aided in my revision by a documentary directed by Andy Duggan to be shown later this year at Leeds International Film Festival.

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‘Extraordinary moves celebrates human movement’, Laura Haughey said, introducing me to the motion capture lab, where performers, choreographers, dancers, directors, scientists and this writer spent a week exploring movement potential and our relationship to moving bodies.

My first introduction to sports science technology was through infra red cameras. ‘Dots’ applied to the joints and other parts of the body ‘captured’ the subject in space and reproduced the physical sequence on a computer screen as lines of movement. This in effect erased the human form, creating instead an arresting constellation of dots. When these were joined up, ‘stick’ men and women moved on the computer screen, clearly revealing how very different bodies move in space.

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Kiruna Stamell being ‘dotted up’ by Laura Haughey

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Some participants didn’t distinguish the avatar body as their own until they saw a recognisable movement trait, or an interaction with a cane, or what we coined the ‘magic carpet’ levitation provided by a unmarked moving wheelchair.

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Nadia caught between the many infra-red cameras.

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There has been a long cultural and linguistic practice of assigning meaning to the impaired body and I was particularly interested in discovering how this changed when the body was represented in such a different form. Part of my role was to facilitate discussion and reflection after the sessions, so I asked the politicised disabled performer/  dancers how they responded to this ‘new’ mode of representation of themselves.

‘I liked the experience of seeing a non-disabled version of myself’ Kiruna Stamell said. ‘It meant the movement could be analysed without social judgement of the body, without judgement of the politics… Just to see the pure movement! The judgement around my physicality is more about my physical relationship as a disabled woman to an environment I’m in, not a judgement on my body as a judgement on my body.’

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Participants included Sam Jacobs, Kiruna Stamell, Nadia Adame, Dan Edge, Nadia Clarke, Alan Ward, and Company Chameleon’s Anthony Nissen and Kevin Edward Turner.

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Other activity that week included a physical workshop led by Andrew Loretto, working with two disabled and two non-disabled dancers, working with high speed cameras to capture the subtle movements and interactions not seen by the naked eye.

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Nadia and Anthony exploring speed, status, and levels of engagement

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.’We’re interested in how people move, and what moves them’ Laura said t‘We’re interested in how people move, and what moves them’ Laura said to camera at the start of the day. What struck me was the speed and intensity of engagement –  the immediate and complex negotiations of equal bodies and space – the marked moments of tenderness, or of pure joy.

For further footage of this extraordinary research week, please view Andy Duggan’s award-nominated film at:

 http://www.yorkshiretelly.com/extraordinary-moves/

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(c) Kaite O’Reilly 11/10/11

However, Grieve’s pedigree as founder and Artistic Director, and Perrin’s as Co-Artistic Director, of Nabokov Theatre held  them in good stead and the tangible result of that is that Paines Plough is one of the few companies that saw its Arts Council funding actually increase after the generally crippling review of earlier this year.

Grieve is ebullient about the changes that he and Perrin have brought to Paines Plough.  “When we took over the job we did so with an ambition to continue Paines Plough’s core remit, which is to produce new plays and to tour them, but we wanted to produce even more plays than the company had ever done before,  tour them to more places and return to those places more often.

“Our first season was nine productions in 30 towns and cities around the UK. This year we’re aiming for 10 plays in around 40 towns and cities. Next year we’re aiming to do 10 productions again but this time going to 100 places. So it’s more work, so producing more great plays and touring them as widely as we possibly can.”

True to form, Paines Plough took an unusual offering to Latitude, Wasted, a gritty three-hander by performance poet-cum-rap artist Kate Tempest. Indeed, Tempest’s rhythmic metre is obvious throughout the tale of a group of post-Skins 20-somethings who find themselves caught in a cycle of work and hedonism with little respite between. It’s all the more poignant for the constant reference by the three protagonists to their deceased friend, Tony, who has perhaps died at the same time as their childhood.

Grieve is clearly not enamoured with the comparison to the Channel 4 series.  “Skins was very much set among a group of middle-class teenagers whose opportunities were there even if they chose not to take them,” he asserts sharply. “Wasted looks at working class people who have to strive even harder to find those opportunities. There’s a lot of great work produced at the moment about a generation of young people who are not sure of their place in the world, whereas their parents’ generation had a clearer path – leave school, go to university, get a job – it seems more complicated now for young people.”

Despite the obvious challenges of sound and weather, James Grieve is a strong advocate of events like Latitude. “They’re massively important,” he says. “The audiences here are incredible; it’s one of the most exciting places anywhere to make work. We had a huge crowd on Friday night of 600 or 700 people, who were all at a music festival and choosing to come and watch theatre when they could have been watching one of the bands. They’re really lively, exciting and vibrant crowds but they’re also audiences with taste and integrity. It’s 12 o’clock on a Friday night at a music festival and they’re all sitting and engaging with theatre.”

So with muddy and wet challenges of Latitude 2011 now firmly behind them, James Grieve is looking to the future. “For the first time, Paines Plough is going to have its own theatre,” he enthuses. This is evidently a subject that inspires. “It’s going to be portable, a 150-seat auditorium – in the round – that will flat pack into the back of a lorry. In the autumn it will pop up at Sheffield Theatres in the Crucible Studio and we’re doing a repertory of three plays with an ensemble of actors running from September to December.

“Then, as of next year, the auditorium will tour all over the country, initially to theatres but then to school halls and village halls, and sports centres.”

Who knows?  With James Grieve’s obvious enthusiasm for the festival, it a fair bet that Latitude will also be on the cards.

Showing at Sheffield's Crucible theatre

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee is, in short, a cracking play. It was written by the US American playwright in the early 60s, premiering on Broadway in 1962 and in London a year later.

The play is a raw portrait of marriage and relationships, and with just four characters and one setting – a living room – there is nowhere to hide. The intensity builds and builds as the story develops, and the audience gets more and more drawn in to the action – a bit like a fly on the wall documentary.

The story more or less plays out in real time, over the early hours of a Sunday morning after a party. George and Martha invite newcomers Nick and Honey back to their house to join them for late-night drinks. George is a History lecturer at the college and Nick has just joined the Biology department.

Martha and George have a very turbulent relationship: they fight, they laugh, they humiliate and bully each other, and having guests in their house certainly doesn’t hold them back. It’s like a game, a competition, as they try to outdo each other, like a game. At first their guests are shocked and embarrassed, but rather than leaving they soon find themselves being dragged in to Martha and George’s games themselves.

Fuelled by alcohol, as well as a lot of anger, bitterness and resentment, it’s like a disaster waiting to happen. The audience is gripped, wondering what will happened next, and constantly surprised by all the twists and turns.

Although the play is rather dark with a lot of shouting and swearing, it is very funny and the characters are even quite likeable.

The acting is outstanding, especially from Sian Thomas and Jasper Britton who play Martha and George.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a collaboration between Sheffield Theatres and the Northern Stage in Newcastle, and I have to say is definitely one of the, if not the best production I’ve seen since the Crucible’s reopening. Absolutely not to be missed.

Who’s Afraid is playing at the Sheffield Crucible 16th March-7th April and Northern Stage in Newcastle 12th-30th April.

http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

http://www.northernstage.co.uk

John Higgins is the current favourite having just scooped the Welsh Open with a 9-6 victory over Stephen Maguire. Sheffield Theatres Official Website

Browse Sheffield city centre hotels within easy walking distance of World Snooker Championship 2011 venue The Crucible Sheffield. Details on the World Snooker Championship 2011 at legendary UK snooker venue The Crucible Theatre Sheffielf, plus draw and ticket prices here

A couple of years ago I took a set of photos that compared 1970s Sheffield with how it looked in 2008. The original photos were taken from a 1970s council publication, which was produced to promote the city.

I didn’t bother including the Crucible as it was a building site surrounded by fences. However, with the renovation project complete, I decided to go back to take a photo for comparison with the 1970s Crucible.

The two Crucible photos are at the bottom of this post, although it is perhaps better to view a complete slideshow of the updated 1970s/2000s gallery:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Crucible theatre, 1970

Crucible theatre, 2010

As Sheffield welcomes the snooker world championship, we get used to seeing the Crucible with it’s new face lift!

I like it.  Yep, as much as I fail to see through the same eyes as so many city architects who make a living making a mess of our city, I actually really like the facelift. Hope you like the photo.

A free event is taking place this month at the City hall which will see a panel discuss what makes a city a great cultural destination and why is culture important:

As Sheffield bids to become the first UK city of culture 2013, we bring together a diverse panel of national and international cultural figures to discuss the role of culture in defining a city – both in Sheffield and on an international scale.

The line-up currently includes Jon McClure from Reverend and the makers, Emmy award-winning Jamaican writer and poet Kwame Dawes, the BBC’s Paulette Edwards, Museums Sheffield chair Sandra Newton and Mark Jones, founder of Wall of sound record label. There will be a Q&A afterwards, as well as an acoustic set from the Reverend.

I’m guessing that the outcomes of this debate may go on to inform the detail of our city of culture bid, should we make the shortlist. Last week, a Sheffield Telegraph article gave an indication of some of the creative and cultural assets on which our bid would be based:

• the foundations laid by Sheffield theatres, the Museums and galleries trust and Sheffield international venues
• the city’s festivals – including a possible new festival centre in a landmark location
• our creative population (7.2% of the workforce), including the digital economy and independent film
• mass participation events based on ideas from the people of the city
• established and emerging music artists performing gigs in unusual locations
• a possible resident orchestra for of Sheffield
• a base for visual arts

If shortlisted, does Sheffield have a good chance of becoming the UK’s first city of culture? I’d say we have more chance than Barnsley but I wonder whether some of the culture that Sheffield does best is perhaps not mainstream enough to appeal to the panel that will decide.

For example, I know many people who enjoy the Kid acne artwork around town and the word-of-mouth gig and club nights, but is this the sort of thing they will be looking for? Or will the lottery-funded cultural facilities remain the cornerstone of our bid? The likes of the Millennium galleries undoubtedly make Sheffield a better city but I can’t help thinking the heart and soul of the city’s cultural scene is to be found elsewhere.

Hopefully the ‘ideas from the people of the city’ project would help ensure that our bid does indeed capture the full breadth of Sheffield’s cultural offering, both traditional and non-traditional.

The 14 bids on the table are due to be whittled down to a shortlist of five by Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, free tickets for the Culture debate event are available from the City hall box office.

The culture debate - Sheffield

Stuck for a Christmas gift ideas? This list collects together some of the most popular Sheffield-themed merchandise from the last few months.

• Pub maps
  

Explore the drinking dens of the city with this pub stops of Sheffield map by John Coates. It is designed in the style of the famous Henry Beck London underground tube map, which like a circuit diagram, focuses on the order of the locations instead of their exact geographic proximity. Available in mouse mat and poster versions, the designated coloured routes make for all sorts of interesting pub crawl variations. Or if you fancy an alternative pub crawl compass, then you could also try the heritage pub crawl map that you may have seen displayed in various local pubs.

Buy: Sheffield scene shop on Surrey street | zazzle.co.uk (for just the tube map)

Pub stops of Sheffield mouse mat and poster

Sheffield heritage pub crawl

• Something Hendo’s-inspired

Is there a better way to impress people when they come over for tea this Christmas than with some Hendo’s-themed memorabilia? There are plenty of options available to help celebrate the city’s favourite condiment: one litre bottles of relish, aprons, illustration prints from Jim Connolly and Kid Acne and if you really want to splash out, a limited-edition set of silver accessories. The final option is a very long-lasting Hendo’s-themed gift that a bride bought her groom as a wedding present…

Buy: Various locations | madeinsheffield.com | archipelago-art.co.uk | kateyfelton.com

Katey Felton's limited edition Henderson's relish silver accessories

• Sheffield illustrations

As well as the Hendo’s prints mentioned above, there are plenty of other local-themed illustrations available. Obviously Pete McKee is one of the most well known (don’t forget his Children’s hospital 2009 Christmas card) and Jim Connolly’s Sheffield superheros screen prints are also popular. The treasured Rare & racy shop on Devonshire street has various other prints, including Jonathan Wilkinson’s excellent We live here series of defining but less-celebrated Sheffield landmarks including the wedding cake, Park hill, the Roxy and the egg box.

Buy: Rare & racy | therealmckee.co.uk | archipelago-art.co.uk | welivehere.co.uk

• Charity voucher book

I’ve already written a post about this charity voucher book, but the premise is simple: spend £50 on a book of local vouchers that includes £1,000-worth of savings. And £15 from every one sold goes to charity. You won’t get round to using them all but after using three within the first month I had made my money back and of course have got a whole load more bargains to look forward to. Be quick though, as most of the vouchers expire in August 2010 so the longer you leave it the harder it will be to cram them in.

Buy: Shop on corner of Pinstone street and Cambridge street | charityunleashed.co.uk

Charity unleashed Sheffield voucher book shop

• Victorian map of Sheffield

People from Sheffield love old Sheffield stuff and this map shows the city in 1849 as ‘a pleasant and organised town…relatively spared the ravages of the early unplanned industrialisation’. One for the toilet door?

Buy: Cheapest from Sheffield scene shop on Surrey street | victoriantownmaps.co.uk

• Cooling towers memorabilia

The Cooling towers shop may have been and gone but the Tinsley towers still hold a dear place in the heart for many people and befittingly there are still plenty of souvenirs available by which to remember them. Why not start with this matt photo print from RPG Photo and also these mugs from artist/designer Alice Skelton?

Buy: rpgphoto.co.uk | Mugs available from aliceskelton.com and the Bessimer gallery in the Winter garden

Cooling towers print from RPG Photography

• Pop books and shop books

There are a couple of Sheffield-related books with a nostalgic tinge that have been published in time for Christmas. Neil Anderson’s Take it to the Limit explores the late 70s and early 80s music scene through the eyes of the Limit nightclub, or Sheffield’s Hacienda as it was know by some. More pop music nostalgia can be found in artist Martin Bedford’s Up against the wall, a book collecting together some of his famous Leadmill posters that he produced to promote visiting bands in the 1980s and 1990s. And starkly contrasting with the city centre that we know today, the Shopaholics guide to 1970s Sheffield looks back to a time when town was the major shopping destination of the north.

Buy: Local bookshops | amazon.co.uk

Sheffield pop and shopping books

• I love Sheffield eco bag

Julia Gash bought this local variation of the I love New York design to Sheffield a couple of years ago. She was previously involved with the (now closed) Gash shop on Devonshire street but has since set up a business selling eco bags and the I love Sheffield one has been a huge hit, as you can guess from the frequency that you see them around town. They continue to be particularly popular with students and it looks like some variations on the original design are now available, too.

Buy: Various locations including the Sheffield university students’ union studio shop

• A piece of history
  

The crucible is due to reopen imminently and the theatre’s new carpet is apparently inspired by the distinctive 1970s design of the original. The theatre has been selling off pieces of the old carpet to raise money and at the last count a few of them were still available.

Buy: Sheffield theatres

The Crucible carpet: old (left) and new (right)

• Food discount card
  

The city may still be up-and-coming in the culinary stakes but progress is slowly being made and there are now some good places to eat out. Chef Richard Smith is the man behind many of the area’s more impressive restaurants and his relax, eat and drink privilage card could be just the gift for a foodie friend or loved one. You get £50-worth of restaurant vouchers, a £25 bottle of champagne, a free meal on your birthday, money off every other meal, free tea and coffees and more. At £100 it isn’t cheap, but when you remember that his restaurants include Artisan, the Cricket inn, the excellent-value Canteen and the imminent Spice market cafe on Ecclesall road, it won’t even take a meal out at each before you earn your money back.

Buy: relaxeatanddrink.com

Has anyone got any more present recommendations?

Here are this month’s additions to the list of Sheffield people and organisations of interest on  Twitter. The full directory can be found on the Sheffield Twitter users page.

Music in the round – the UK’s leading promoter of chamber music outside of London
@MusicintheRound

Sheffield Scimitars – ice hockey club
@scims

The black dog – ‘Keeping northern electonic soul burning since Warp went south to drink shandy’
@TheBlackDog

Last Friday folk – Stocksbridge folk club
@lastfridayfolk

Simple websites
@WebsiteHQ

Kelham island museum
@KelhamIsland

TechnoPhobia – specialists in web application development
@WeTechnoPhobia

All cows eat grass music
@acegmusic

Opus independents – a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting art, music and trade
@OpusIndependent

Crown brewery
@Crownbrewery

St Thomas Crookes church
@StThomasCrookes

Yoomee – web agency
@yoomeehq

The Crookes – band
@TheCrookes

Unfortunate incident – band
@unfortunate_inc

BiscuitCase – biscuitmakers
@BiscuitCaseUK

Sheffield Wednesday – unofficial tweets about the club
@THE_OWLS

Hair kandi – Ecclesall road hairdresser
@HairKandi

Dominic Shellard – Chairman of Sheffield theatres and pro-vice chancellor for external affairs at the university of Sheffield
@dominicshellard

Mukless – mobile valeters
@Mukless

Peel and Shaw – management consultant
@PeelandShaw

Life dynamics – clinical hypnotherapist and weight loss specialist
@LifeDynamics

Thornsett – student accommodation
@Thornsett

Capland property – student accommodation
@CaplandProperty

Holmes lettings – accommodation
@HolmesLettings

Smartassess – creators of ‘realsmart’ which builds online learning portfolios
@smartassess

Third angel – makers of theatre, live art, video and photography
@AlexanderKelly

If you want to be listed on it then follow @sheffieldblog, get in touch or comment below.

By: William Shakespeare

Directed by: Sam West

Company: Sheffield Theatres

Venue: Swan Theatre

Date: Thursday 8th March 2007

This was an interesting and often enjoyable version of As You Like It, or, given the sheer amount of dressing up opportunities, Hat You Like It. There was a great deal to like about the staging, and the performances, and above all, it was fantastic to see and hear Will’s actual words, and see women playing the women’s parts (even if one did pretend to be a man occasionally) – it’s been so long!

This production opens with Jacques coming into the auditorium, as if at the last minute, and looking for his seat. After worrying some of the front row across from us, he suddenly strides across the stage, declaiming “All the world’s a stage…” and the action begins. Several actors carry on a long oblong form, covered in a black cloth, obviously representing a coffin, while Rosalind and her father, also dressed in black, stand together at the front of the stage. Orlando stands by the coffin, flanked by two umbrella bearers, clearly mourning his recently departed father, while Rosalind’s father takes his leave of her. Both characters are left, alone, mourning their lost fathers. I liked the juxtaposition of these two scenes, and it occurred to me that perhaps they’re linked causally as well as emotionally – perhaps the death of Sir Roland de Boys, a supporter of Duke senior, led to his banishment, as he no longer held the balance of power at the court.

Next comes the opening scene proper, as the coffin is transformed into a bench, by simply removing the cloth covering it. Orlando does this, after removing his own coat, and with Adam, begins to pick up the apples scattered in front of the bench by another actor. Orlando’s complaints came across very well; it’s easy to understand why he’s frustrated and angry, and the following dialogue between Orlando and his brother Oliver makes it clear that they just don’t get on. If only Jerry Springer had been around in those days to help heal their relationship! The scuffle whereby Orlando demonstrates his wrestling credentials was well done, although I did get a bit worried when the carpet they were fighting on got rucked up, in case someone tripped over and hurt themselves. But all was well. Now, where can I find a bookie and get a quick bet on Orlando for the wrestling match?

Charles the wrestler was one of the best I’ve seen, all charming Italian, and apparently willing to help Oliver out by killing his brother. Oliver’s non-explanation of his hatred for Orlando was good. It made me think this was just one of those karmic things – a necessary negative flaw which would help to resolve the situation over time. In any case, he made a good villain, more realistic than some I’ve seen.

There was one line that caused a laugh for reasons other than the text or business. Charles refers to the banished Duke living in the forest of Ardennes (as this is France, theoretically), and compares him to Robin Hood. Given that Orlando is played by Sam Troughton, recently seen in the latest incarnation of Robin Hood on TV, most of the audience spotted the humour.

The next scene takes us to the court, and this is represented by several mounted antlers being lowered in front of the back curtain. I did enjoy this. We could see the Duke in his wheelchair behind the curtain, with his men, but first we get to see Rosalind and Celia, as they slip through the curtain and spend some time away from the company.

These were two very good performances, and once again, we have a Celia who is a good match for Rosalind. I notice when I see such a balanced pairing, how many lines Celia actually has. Often, she hardly seems to speak a line, but in this production, as with Amanda Harris’s portrayal, she came across as a strong character in her own right, at times stronger than Rosalind.

The girls are obviously very good friends, and their teasing of Le Beau is merciless. I often feel sorry for Le Beau, and I was wondering if they would send this one into the forest to find Duke senior. Touchstone is also introduced at this point, and although I enjoyed some of this role tonight, I didn’t feel I really “got” what he was about, and some of his lines were pretty dull. But it is a difficult part, so no criticism of the actor is intended.

The wrestling was reasonably well done, although I wasn’t keen on the “spare” actors stamping on the ground as it was going on. The growing attraction between Rosalind and Orlando was nicely done, even though I couldn’t see all of the expressions from our position. The Duke’s change of attitude when he hears of Orlando’s parentage was very clear, and added even more to the feeling of menace created by his body guards, one of whom had drawn a gun on Orlando when he announced who his father was. We knew something bad was going to happen. Le Beau’s assistance to Orlando seemed pretty full this time, and he’s obviously going to have to leave the court, as he’s overheard by the gun-toting minder. In fact, just about everyone’s leaving the court – Rosalind and Celia disappear with Touchstone, Oliver’s sent a-wandering to find his brother, and we don’t go back to the court after that, so who’s banished whom?

Rosalind and Celia’s leaving plans seemed more mature this time around, more of a plan than just desperation. Adam’s warning to Orlando was OK, but this bit often seems to drag, and this was no different, especially as there were some long pauses between lines. Fortunately, we’re soon off to the forest, and down come the antlers.

This is where it all starts going a bit pear-shaped for me. I did enjoy the staging up to now. The use of the coffin/bench, the apples (the scene is in an orchard), the antlers, etc. Once in the forest, things became a little crazy. In some ways, this is fine, as there’s that magical, fantastical element to the second half of the play. However, I didn’t find the staging giving me the sense of letting go so much as annoying and distracting me. Some elements were just plonked down on the stage without being related to the performance in any way I could fathom (what was that massive bird all about?), while some aspects worked really well for me, for example, the silver cut-out tree, raised up by Corin and Silvius. I didn’t entirely go for ribbons being draped on it instead of sheets of paper, but at least it looked pretty. At the end of the first half, either Audrey or Phoebe came on while the Duke is threatening Oliver, and placed a tiny sculpture on the far side of the stage, towards the front. She then sprinkled some sand(?) over it. Why? During the interval, this was replaced by short sticks, with hats sitting on top of them. I guessed this was a bigger version of the sculpture, though it was just a guess, but I still didn’t have a clue why this was on the stage. Some characters used some of the hats during the second half, admittedly, but not enough to justify it, given how it got in the way of some of the action. There was also a huge balloon, which lit up. Hooray. God bless modern art, and preferably bless it as far away from me as possible.

Enough of the ranting and raving, on with the production. The character who tells Duke senior about Jacques and the stag by the river is…. Jacques. His disguise is pitiful, though the way it was played, he apparently fooled the Duke, but not his followers. Puzzling, yet sadly not inspiring. By the time Orlando waves his large sword (now how did he come by that in the middle of a forest when he didn’t bring one with him?) at the Duke and his men to get some food, I was getting a little tired of Sam Troughton’s tendency to bellow his lines most of the time. I know I’m usually complaining about lack of volume, so this should make a pleasant change, but I did find myself longing for a remote so I could turn the sound down a bit.

As a boost to the cross-dressing theme, Orlando is wandering round the forest wearing a double string of pearls. Instead of the usual pendant which Rosalind gives him, she’s handed over her pearl necklace, and this, together with a stronger than usual hint of eye makeup, gives Orlando a distinctly feminine appearance. [P.S. Also, Steve spotted his painted toenails.] What with Celia and Rosalind’s own wrestling match and kiss, there’s a strong sense of sexual non-conformity here. Jacques is wearing high heels and a feathered toque, and eventually I realised his shirt was actually a silky slip or dress top. For the final scene, hats and aprons are exchanged between the couples, and a feeling of Saturnalia rules – Hymen has to come in and break it up! Again, all understandable given the nature of the play, but I felt it was overdoing it – underlining, bold type, and an exclamation mark! Trust the text, it’s worked well for many a year.

This is making it sound like I didn’t enjoy the play at all, so I’d better redress the balance. Rosalind and Celia were excellent in this half of the play. Rosalind’s expressions as she deals with the incredibly complex situation she’s in, were worth the price of admission alone. Celia’s reactions to her cousin’s outrageous behaviour were entertaining in themselves, and served to remind us how far Rosalind/Ganymede is going in her pursuit of love. I was aware that Rosalind finds herself trapped by her own disguise. She’s safely in the forest, both her father and the man she loves are here with her, yet she doesn’t know how to reveal herself to them, so she plays the game of wooing. It’s not absolutely clear here whether Oliver, having discovered Rosalind’s secret when he helps her recover from her faint, tells Orlando; at times I thought he might have, then I thought probably not. I do like it when Orlando knows, as otherwise he, and the Duke, seem such dimwits for not recognising her.

The Silvius/Phoebe scenes worked very well. Again, I didn’t see all the expressions, but I saw enough to enjoy it. William proves more than a match for Touchstone, though not for Audrey, who puts her knee to good use. The cow or goat being wheeled around after her was another enigma; best not go there.

All in all, it’s the performances I enjoyed most, and I felt they worked remarkably well in a staging that didn’t always help them. I was relieved when the end came, partly because the boring bits were over, but more because of the epilogue, my favourite of all Shakespeare’s. They teased us though, disappearing off together as if they were done. Eve Best delivered the epilogue beautifully, and so I left the theatre happy, though not elated. Better luck next time.

P.S. A couple of points I missed – the hailstones(?) pummelling Jacques’ umbrella, and the orange dropping from the sky. We liked the long pause Christopher Ravenscroft held before “More villain thou.” It suggested to Steve that this usurping Duke had actually loved his own brother, but that the relationship had soured, and at some level, the Duke has his regrets over it. He played the contrast between the brothers very well.

On the strange manifestations mentioned above, Steve also came up with the idea that this production was paying homage to other, well respected director’s stagings {sorry, didn’t mean to sound so bitchy}. The white, box-like nature of the set echoed the Richard II in the Other Place, which had been transformed into a white box, while the wheelchair for Duke Frederick picked up on John of Gaunt’s wheelchair. The big bird may have been a nod to Ninagawa’s big white wolf, while the falling items, such as the orange, and the sand, may have referred back to Ninagawa’s King Lear. Still don’t know what the big balloon was about, but if the other ideas are valid, I’m not impressed. I did get the feeling this production might be trying to be too clever, and this would confirm that opinion.

When Rosalind sits down with Celia and Corin to watch Phoebe and Silvius, Eve Best borrows a program from someone in the audience. A nice touch, done before, but still good fun. (She does give it back.)