Sarah Kane is, of course, known for her particularly dark and radical writing and is one iconic theatre writer I really wish I'd met. She's a troubled young writer of the past who, almost 20yrs later, still manages to shake up our theatre audiences, or if nothing else, certainly makes us stop abruptly to think, to analyse, to be shocked.
10 mins into 'Cleansed' at the Dorfman Theatre and we'd already lost two members of the audience due to fainting. That tells you most of what you need to know about a Kane theatre experience. As director, Katie Mitchell says: 'We are not shirking any of the violence requested in the stage directions'. 'Kane's stage directions request literal violence. A tongue is cut off with a pair of scissors. Hands are cut off. So how do you do that in a way that is not symbolic?' Well she found the answer to that one pretty quickly it seems. Mitchell embraces the sexual violence, ripping it from the page and brandishing it to audiences that shift uncomfortably in their seats, discover an unusual interest in the lighting rig and distract themselves by digging the dirt from beneath their fingernails - perhaps this is what Kane pictured when she titled the piece 'cleansed' - never before have fingernails emerged so immaculate.
nationaltheatre.org.uk
SPOILERS
The production is set in what seems like a derelict school or prison facility in which it is not just the body that is trapped. The mind is too. Outside the walls of this prison there is nothing but hopelessness with the sound of bombs dropping, placing our abstract narrative amidst a world at war. The war exists inside as well, with a power hierarchy much representative of Nazi brutality during the holocaust. As Kane referenced herself, Roland Barthes said, 'when one is in love, one is in Dachau', so perhaps this informed the location that Kane needed for such a powerful and brutal, sexual message.
theartsdesk.com
The play begins with protagonist 'Grace' in a red dress, watching on as Graham begs for heroine from Tinker, the complex villain of our tale, who sadistically injects it into his eye - a bit of a metaphor for the piece really - injecting pain and brutality into the eyes of its beholders. That's where we lost audience member number one.
Grace, is looking for her brother (Graham). Her journey leads her to him, alive and well and the two duel like lovers, dancing together half-naked until Grace clambers on top of him to make love.
thestage.co.uk
Though Graham is not the only one with affection for Grace. Matthew Tennyson is marvellous as Robin, who not only looks amazing in a dress but who conveys the vulnerability of his character beautifully. He ventures out to buy Grace chocolates before Tinker catches him and feeds them to him one by one, with the same tool he'd cut Carl's tongue off with. We were watching torture, with Tinker instilling his dominance over such a likable and fragile victim. Robin struggles with his feelings for Grace, explaining that he's never been with anyone before. He exclaims 'I love you'. Grace replies 'I love you too'. He is delicate and it is a tragic moment as he shouts for help, for understanding, for someone to talk to, before ending it all with a noose made from tights. Matthew Tennyson is most definitely the highlight of this wholly unbearable experience.
metro.co.uk
We also meet two homosexual lovers, Rod and Carl. Carl declares 'I'll love you forever'. Rod can only say, 'I love you now'. He struggles with commitment. The savage nature of love places them in this facility together, as Carl is systematically tortured, his tongue cut off, his hands cut off, his feet cut off. He is forced to confront exactly what commitment to Rod meant for him, 'I love you, forever'. The very words that had placed him in this nightmare. His final torture, is also his final moment of pleasure, as Rod struggles to support him as they have sex with one another. Soon after, Rod is shot. Carl - his fate is much worse.
standard.co.uk
Our torturer Tinker is just as complex as our other characters. An exotic dancer arrives throughout the piece to perform for him, as he tries to pleasure himself, though it seems that he struggles with intimacy and instead asks, 'can we be friends?'. Grace mimics the girl's dancing, drawing attention to her quest for understanding her sexuality. Tinker is as emotionally trapped as his prisoners. He tells the woman 'I love you'. She replies 'I love you' too. They later have sex, with the girl dirty-talking as they do so, telling him she loves him, telling him to finish 'inside' - only he can't. Suddenly his villainy aligns - he is punishing those around him for their sexuality because he is unsure of his. He cannot be aroused by women or perhaps, cannot be aroused by the very nature of sexuality at all, that he so greatly despises.
nationaltheatre.org.uk
nationaltheatre.org
The final scene emerges. Tinker, out of frustration, shoots the woman dead. Grace is strapped to a bed and wheeled offstage, Carl wheeled offstage too. The two return to stun their audience as it all begins to make sense. Grace did not love her brother Graham. Not sexually anyway. Graham was the embodiment of who she wanted to be. She was trapped inside a woman's body and was screaming to find her true self, fantasising about his body. As she seeks help, she is subjected to systematic rape and violence. She tries to mimic the actions of those around her, flirting with the confusion of her gender and sexuality both at once. She explores both the female and male body and is finally confronted with her primary wish.
She reappears as Tinker reveals menacingly that the surgery is complete. He has removed Carl's sexual organs and attached them to Grace, with some very clever, if-not shocking, costume design here. She becomes Graham and despite the turmoil she's been through, says 'thank you'? This is, it seems, the harrowing and completely sickening journey of a desperate woman's journey to become who she was inside. A systematic torture centre, punishing the gender identity and sexuality of its prisoners, again as Barthes said, 'when one is in love, one is in Dachau'.
thestage.co.uk
The piece, although abstract, is extraordinarily clever. The events managing to represent ill mental health, torture, sexual desire, confusion, growth and love, all at once. It is a play about identity about pushing and pulling ourselves through our own sexual discoveries, about growing through our pain (symbolised by the sunflowers and daffodils that appear through the boards). It's about others taking pleasure in our torture and only some of us make it out the other side. Mitchell manages to give this piece new meaning with the growing conversation around transgender identity - the piece portraying the struggle, the betrayal, the hope, the torment, the torture - all parts of this tragic clambering through life in order to find our true selves.
It was a freezing cold evening but I couldn’t resist heading
over to Hackney Attic for Whirlygig Cinema’s Spotlights event - that this month,
was focusing on docs. The evening gives 3 emerging filmmakers the chance to
showcase their work for 30mins and discuss it with a live audience.
This month featured the work of LGBT activists Jackie Nunns & Angie West, Hybrid
documentarian Victoria Fiore and Nepalese visual artist Asmita Shrish.
Jackie Nunns began her first project with partner Angie because they were ‘curious to know about how films got into film festivals when
the sound’s bad, the quality isn’t that great and you don’t know who’s gay in
it’. She’s a comedic character with a commendable passion for collecting stories from within
the LGBT community she is a part of.
The couple’s first film, 'Child's Play' explored the response
of children, to the word 'gay'… although it didn’t go perhaps as well as they’d
have hoped, seeing as most children didn’t want to talk about it. So instead,
it became ‘Angie & Jackie Final Cut’, a film about how Jackie and Angie made their first film. I’m still not
sure whether the concept worked for me or not, it seemed a little like a lot of the first-time films any filmmaker makes at uni but worldwide film festivals
seemed to like it.
Here's what they DID manage to get from the kids:
Their next project on the showcase was ‘Mark
Bunyan: Very Nearly Almost Famous’ which tells the story of gay rights activist
and 70s/80s cabaret singer, Mark Bunyan. It seems that Mark’s past almost slipped under
the radar completely but Jackie and Angie got in just in time and showed that in
fact, we all have a story to tell and Mark’s is quite remarkable. The
quality of the filming wasn’t always the best, particularly with the gentleman
with the dark glasses being filmed outside. However, again, I can’t argue with ‘Frameline’,
the world renowned LGBT film festival in San Francisco, LA that accepted both
entries into their programme. The storyline was good and Mark certainly has led an interesting life. It's a shame there wasn't more about him as a person now as I think it could have given the audience a point in time to identify with, but all in all, it was an interesting watch and I'd like to know more about others with similar histories in LGBT activism. The production value had improved a lot since 'Child's Play' so continued improvements are looking likely.
The two ladies certainly have an idea of the stories that should be
told, my only advice would be for them to find those with sufficient technical
experience, to do their stories justice – some advice I must heed too as a
filmmaker myself. I have to say though ladies, I’m rather excited to see a
screening of the new film about women’s arm wrestling, might even give it a
go myself!
Asmita is a recent NFTS graduate from Kathmandu, Nepal who specializes
in documentary and wants to write scripts.
Her first film was made with a friend of hers from Kabul
where her role was as post-production producer. The film followed the children
of a village in northern Afghanistan and the state of their education. The children
walk 2 and a half hours to school each day, taking food with them to keep their
energy up. They are tired when they get to school and of course, face another 2
and half hour walk home again at the end of the day. I must say that the
education seems encouraging once they are in the classroom but the class sizes
are large and I doubt that after a walk like that each morning you’d have the energy
to take in much information. We only saw 3mins out of the 10min film, but I’d like
to see the rest. Here's the trailer: http://kalooschool.tumblr.com/post/34556042528/trailer
Then we watched a part of 'Little Nepal', filmed in Aldershot,
where it’s obvious there is a large ex-Gurkha community. A contributor explains
how British veterans get over £500 compensation/pension and Nepalese expats barely even get
£200. They explain how they had no education so they fought in the war and now
language is a problem. And so, many attend an English class to learn to
communicate where necessary. One man points out that when they go to hospital,
‘we cannot understand the doctors and the doctors cannot understand us’. It’s
not actually said directly, that they are Gurkhas, nor exactly what their role in the
war was, which perhaps would make the film’s message a little more powerful. It
is after all about language, but it carried with it an underlying social
inequality issue that perhaps should be discussed more directly too.
Her third film was a clip from a film she’d shot whilst
hiking in Nepal. She edited it in 1 night on the plane and is quick to
apologise for any lack of clarity or quality. However, for what it was, it was
a reasonable effort. The film follows a small boy who is selling peanuts and
popcorn to visitors to the Chitwun National Park. She says how she was hiking
and they got talking, becoming quite good friends. She also told us how he didn’t
like her filming him at first. She obviously got over that hurdle quickly and
we end with an observational piece on a boy we don’t quite get time to understand.
It is with this statement however that Asmita had me believe I may have found
my film-making soul-mate when she shares, ‘I’m not that good at camera actually,
but I love people’. And that’s something that shines throughout Asmita’s work.
Finally, we are treated to 'Aunty Ganga' a film about her 67yr old aunty,
who lives with her 78yr old uncle. I particularly liked with this how we saw
them as people, in their natural surroundings, saying natural things, rather
than just set up within an interview environment. That’s a technique I’ll be
looking to use in my next film. It helped the film that Asmita’s aunty really
is quite a character. She jokes that as they are old, ‘God is approving our
visa, like we needed visa to come here, we are awaiting approval from god’. She's
funny and what’s great is that she laughs at herself too, she makes herself
laugh, which is charming. The sound was well recorded in the scenes outside,
although the camera work was a little precarious. There is a serious undertone
to the film in addition, with the reveal of a marriage that exists without love as we
know it here in Britain, ‘we are married to the outside, but no-one knows’. She
is sad and spends much time with friends to keep her spirits up. Asmita admits,
‘I bothered her much, I followed her everywhere. I was there 2 months’, but
Asmita it was worth it. I think this was the best film of the bunch and it’s
obvious that it’s because aunty means a lot to you, and now she means a lot to
us too. Watch the film here:
Victoria Fiore is a resident documentary filmmaker at the
BFI specializing in hybrid documentaries exploring social issues, through
theatre, dance and music. We began by watching a trailer of her work, in Spanish,
with French subtitles, which Victoria was determined to apologise profusely
for.
Victoria is a self-proclaimed traveler by nature, who has
spent time with the circus and in making a film about sex workers using poetry and
then her dad fell ill. He was in a coma and the day he woke up, Victoria asked
him about his experiences, with the help of ‘this rubbish recorder recording
his voice’. With no visuals Victoria instead swung towards Indonesian puppetry
to help her create hybrid doc ‘Anesthesia’ that followed her dad’s voyage through
a chemically induced black and white world. It was brilliantly done, with the
sound of bells so overwhelmingly loud that it gave the impression of
disorientation before it was shown visually. Perhaps a funny little insight is
that her dad remains an atheist and even on visiting the land of the saint that
appeared to him in his coma, he left his money and went without dwelling for
even a second. Really interesting piece, watch the trailer here:
The third piece we watched was a piece about a friend of
hers; a dancer who suffers from epilepsy, commonly followed by amnesia. We were
asked how it made us feel. But to be honest I was actually more drawn to the fact
that they were filming in the middle of a road crossing, with cars waiting to
drive forwards and a flashing blue light approaching… how did you get away with
that one Victoria?! Although I have to say, the dancer in the light of the headlamps
was quite pleasing on the eye. Here’s the film:
Finally we were treated to a celebration of Roma gypsy
culture with ‘Gadjo’. The film is about a young boy who has grown up more for a
love of football than of being a gypsy, but it’s all about getting him to fall
in love with his culture, and getting us to fall in love with it too. The piece
was directed by the boy’s father Dudek and Victoria agreed to take a step back and
allow them to tell their own story. It wasn’t perhaps as rich as I hoped it
would be. I wanted to know more about the people, about their culture now as
well, but then, it wasn’t Victoria’s direction. It was dance, it was music, it
was theatre, with a basis in reality - but perhaps just not enough for my liking.
Check out the trailer here:
It’s a shame that this strand is coming to an end, I’d
like to see more of these kinds of events to support emerging filmmakers as there
clearly is a whole realm of the documentary genre still to explore. I have high
hopes for the genre and I hope to join these three in shaping the future of
documentary, who knows, I might see you all again sometime. Fingers crossed we
can all pull something together to come back next year, ok?
