Denial

I deliberately went to see 'Denial' without reading up about the film, or the facts about David Irving or Deborah Lipstadt.

Moment Magazine

What greeted me was a whole host of emotions in a film about the 1996 libel suit in which David Irving accuses Penguin books and Deborah Lipstadt - who, in her book 'Denying the Holocaust' wrote that 'David is a liar, racist and extremist' - of slander and a conspiracy to debunk his reputation.

I'm a young ambassador for HET, a charity dedicated to educating young people and empowering teachers with knowledge of the holocaust and highlighting the roles of the ordinary people that lived to see it and experience it. We speak regularly on the subject alongside survivors and try to be visible both in our communities and online.

I have often, during my time as an ambassador been named on social media as 'part of the conspiracy'. In 2014 for example, myself and two young colleagues ran a 10km to raise money for the charity and were met with direct Twitter comments including this one (pictured). I, like Deborah, struggle to separate my emotions when comments like this are made. In fact, twitter is an engine that has given voice to many more deniers than before were heard. During the launch of a London exhibition early last year, I was asked via Twitter if holocaust survivors would be present - quite an innocent question it seems, until I did some digging and found that the user was in fact a holocaust denier who has previously directly targeted survivors.

Over Facebook I also received a direct message, as a result of a post I'd written about the rise of the far right in Greece with parties such as the Golden Dawn with a view to championing multi-cultural society. It might not be holocaust denial in this instance, but a direct attack on the very foundations of a society that values the lessons we have learned from it. I think this response speaks for itself...

I've received direct messages like this since my work began at 18 and it is sad that we must be so vigilant.

The film 'Denial' did highlight the question of what to say to these deniers. Do we stay silent and let the facts speak for themselves? Or do we give in to our emotions and respond? Can we be educated enough to do both? There are many of my peers I believe could be one day - but none of us can ever be armed with enough, can we?

There were more parallels than this though. Young lawyer Laura Tyler stays up late into the night incessantly working on the case, much to the annoyance and intense misunderstanding of her partner who managed to sum up what many peers have thought of me and my work as an ambassador and probably of Lipstadt too.

The Telegraph

They have asked me, 'isn't it time to let the past be the past', say 'you're obsessed', ask me 'why do you even care, you're not Jewish' and tell us there is 'more to life than the holocaust'. But in the same room the question has been uttered 'What is the holocaust?'. For me, it is impossible NOT to involve myself in the continuance of holocaust awareness and education. Because once you have looked truth in the eye, walked the rubble and ruins of Jewish cemeteries and visited Auschwitz, you cannot live with a version of yourself that is silent. I cannot be uncaring, I cannot forget, and I cannot deny that it ever happened.

Denial wasn't just about the libel suit, but the absolute passion for truth, that the holocaust HAPPENED. It was about speaking against all prejudices and facing denial in all it's forms, from bedroom-denouncings to outright racism.

odeon.co.uk

I've been to Auschwitz and 'Denial' managed to capture the exact essence of the place that remains through some respectful film-making - although I am sure that many early mornings were needed to find the place so empty. From the shoes and suitcases of Auschwitz 1 to the endless rows of barracks and razed crematoria at Birkenau. Upon my visit I did not cry but since then, I have come to consider many holocaust survivors I work with, as friends or extended family even. To see that place again, was as though I was seeing it through fresh eyes, and I cried. (This helped me to gain some idea of why some second and third generation survivors cannot bring themselves to know their family stories in detail). The stillness of the shots, the mist, the coldness of the image, the quiet - it was exactly the eerie place I remember. Somewhere you can almost feel the past vividly. 

The film reflects and values this experience. It also asks us to be vigilant in our analyses and critique those who claim to be experts in the field but he film above all, champions that the truth is ultimate. The outcome of the case was as it should be, and Deborah and her legal team can indeed say that the voices of the victims were heard as justice was done.

EveningStandard

The fact that posters for the film were defaced with anti-Semitic comments and drawings here in London, tell us exactly why it's important to show it at present. The fight against denial did not end when Lipstadt and her team won the case. It continues today and is rife in social media. What comes next is up to us but it's important I think that we take from the film, that truth is ultimate. Do not deny truth. Be someone that fights for it. 

time.com

'The Nether' at The Duke of York's Theatre

'The Nether' - the adopted, scarily advanced grandchild of the internet. It can create sensations of touch, of smell, of sight and can even allow humans to 'cross over' into a universe we ourselves play God to. 

thenethertheplay.co.uk

I'm always a little bit dubious to believe reviews that use the words 'riveting' and 'spectacular', but true to its critics, 'The Nether' gave us everything we expected and more - more being the hour long debate me and my partner had following the show. 

theselfishyears.blogspot.com

The atmosphere within the Duke of York’s Theatre procured an essence of Charlie Brooker-esque imagination accommodated by 5 strong performances from our cast. Our actors were supported by some interesting aesthetic projections of a live video feed from a camera on the interrogation desk CS and some effective and well-executed technical transitions between the downstage 'real-world' & upstage 'The Nether'. 

'The Nether' is a play set in 2050, that explores the interrogation of the man behind the creation of a coded reality, 'The Hideaway' - a server hidden in the depths of the future of the internet (the nether), that gives paedophiles of the 'real-world' a place to act upon their urges in a false world, a secondary world. In this world, anyone can enter, so long as they adhere to the rules of 'the nether'. This means, that in 'The Hideaway', those who appear as children, are in fact adults posing as children. So is it immoral - or isn't it? Who are we to deny our escapists the chance to enter another world? Who are we to define what is imagination and what is reality?

I have invited a guest blogger, Kamal Shaddad to pick apart the concept of 'The Nether' and its morality here: http://watchinabitotheatrenstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-nerdy-nether.html whilst my blogpost focuses solely on the production. In doing so, I have to commend the ladies for their performances. Amanda Hale is wonderfully abrupt as our interrogator yet brilliant as our emotionally-broken daughter also. Although, even Hale is marginally overshadowed by the London debut of the young Zoe Brough as Iris.

royalcourttheatre.com

The two older members of the cast had their moments although I felt that Stanley Townsend was perhaps a little stale when compared with his co-stars. David Calder’s performance was as I expected; he gave us diffidence as well as once again attributing a remarkable naivety to his character.

I also enjoyed the performance of Ivanno Jeremiah as Professor Woodnut. He was full of energy, full of likeable physicality traits that lure us too, into the trap of ‘The Hideaway’. The relationship that blossoms between Woodnut and Iris is believable because our cast make it so. It almost feels, dare I say it, REAL.

Jennifer Haley’s script is wonderfully eloquent in both exploring the future, and in identifying and challenging our moral altruism, particularly towards children. She lures us in to the interrogation, into assuming that Morris (Hale) is in the right, and Sims (Stanley) is in the wrong. Yet as the plot unfolds, the blur between right and wrong appears more obvious. Our interrogator herself, may not be so innocent of the 'crimes' committed within 'the hideaway'. Or are they crimes? Is Iris still a child, even though she is merely coded to look as such? Will we one day have to adapt our laws to define in which reality, in which world they exist to rule? Haley boldly throws up every counter-argument in the book before it has even a chance to settle. 'The Nether' is abundantly masterful. The set-design is simple yet bold and beautiful at the same time and the sound, video and lighting provide the transitions we needed to define both worlds represented onstage.

Its 80minute running time leaves its audience wanting, which is just how a play should leave it. When the lights came on, I was still captivated and it took me a while to leave my seat. It’s been a while since I was challenged in a similar way to ‘the nether’ and it’s a welcome break to find a playwright that writes with angst, with honesty and with foresight. I can’t wait to see Haley’s next works, don’t make it too long a wait!

Remember to head over here to discover more behind the concept and moral questions 'The Nether' provokes: http://watchinabitotheatrenstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-nerdy-nether.html