Issue 29 April 2018

Society

ISSN 2040-2597 (online)

Published by the Society, Bath, England Contents ‘KM’s Second visit to Bandol: A special weekend commemoration’ by Gerri Kimber p. 3 ‘Une hivernante célèbre à Bandol’: Bernard Bosque et Coralie Buchoul-Bosque p. 6 CFP: KM Studies vol. 11 p. 8 Report: Postgraduate Day at Queens’ College, Cambridge by Joe Williams p. 10 CFP: International Conference ‘New Directions’ p. 12 Alex Lodge & Cherie Jacobson’s play Modern Girls in Bed: an interview p. 13 Ben Hoadley’s opera : an interview p. 18 Review: Ben Hoadley’s opera Miss Brill by Christine Alexander and Chryssy Tintner p. 20 Announcement: Essay Prize ‘KM & Elizabeth von Arnim’ p. 22 The Daughters of the Late Colonel: A new play by Grant Gillespie p. 23 Announcement: KMS Annual Birthday The Red Hat by Myna Arndt Oil on canvas c. 1914 Te Papa Lecture ‘KM & D. H. Lawrence’ p. 24 Museum of New Zealand ‘Garnet Trowell: A bit Wilde?’ p. 25 Te Papa Tongarewa ‘Reflections from Wellington’ by Jane Chapman: p. 27

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Welcome to Issue 29 of the Katherine Mansfield Society Newsletter. The multi- lingual reports from Bandol commemorations are a testament to the hard work of the instigators Gerri Kimber and Bernard Bosque and also the cross-cultural reach of our favourite writer. I only wish I could have been there! A new generation necessitates a fresh perspective on the past. For a glimpse of the themes faced by KM scholars read Joe Williams report on the post-grad day at Queen’s College held just before Easter. Also don’t forget to check out the online journal Heron, which is a dedicated online, open access forum for creative writers from around the world, who are inspired by KM, to showcase their work. In the premier March issue former newsletter contributors Jan Kemp and Tracey Miao are featured writers: http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/heron/ This issue of the newsletter has a focus on the dramatic, musical and visual responses to KM. We are pleased to be able to share background information on Grant Gillespie’s yet-to-be-performed play The Daughters of the Late Colonel. Likewise you can enjoy Q& A interviews with three talented Kiwi artists, including Ben Hoadley whose recent opera Miss Brill premiered in Sydney earlier this year. Less well known but similarly talented, Alex Lodge & Cherie Jacobson are both playwrights and I am pleased to introduce them here to our readers. For those with an interest in the visual arts check out KMS newsletter contributor Susan Wilson’s exhibition at The Pah Homestead in Auckland [information at https://tsbbankwallaceartscentre.org.nz/events/ ] and Jane Vial’s informative article on Myna Arndt [available at https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/. ] whose painting ‘The Red Hat’ features on the cover of this newsletter. Arndt was a contemporary of KM who died at a similarly young age. She spent several years training in London before returning to her home city of Wellington. Finally, special thanks must go to KMS chair Gerri Kimber whose ongoing support is vital for putting this newsletter together. Also thanks to Daniel Smith for sharing his photo of Garnet Trowell. Please consider making a contribution yourself to the next newsletter published in August. These should be sent to: mailto:[email protected] Martin Griffiths, ed.

We are pleased to announce that Wayne Drew is the winner of our prize, Pierce Butler’s book, A Child of the Sun. Wayne correctly identified Adèle Kafian as Lithuanian. To enter our next competition answer the following: What was Garnet Trowell’s middle name? If you are struggling to remember, think of the name of a painter in the Bloomsbury group. The winner will receive all six copies of the KM Birthday lecture booklets (2010-2017). Entries to mailto:[email protected] 1

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A special weekend commemorating Katherine Mansfield’s second visit to Bandol

by Gerri Kimber

On February 23, 24 and 25, the KMS commemorated the centenary of Katherine Mansfield’s second visit to Bandol, with a very special weekend of events organised by KMS member Bernard Bosque, with the support of the town of Bandol, in particular Mrs Molinier from the Cultural Service, as well as Mr Jean-Marie Schneider, President of the Bandol Authors’ Circle, as well as Mr and Mrs Martinez, owners of the Villa Pauline. Two delegations from Fontainebleau-Avon and Gray were also present and it was wonderful to have their support as they had travelled across France to take part in the weekend. During the course of the weekend our thoughts were very much with Janine Renshaw-Beauchamp (granddaughter of Mansfield’s youngest sister Jeanne), who was to have been the guest of honour, but who, due to ill health, was sadly unable to be with us. Mansfield set out for this second trip to Bandol on 7 January 1918 alone. It was wartime, and her companion Ida Baker had been refused a travel permit. She finally arrived in Bandol on 11 January. Bernard Bosque had organised a packed weekend of events for us to enjoy, starting on Friday 23 February with a walking tour of Marseilles, looking at all the places that Mansfield recorded having visited on her first trip in 1915/16 and again in 1918. The group started at the Gare Saint-Charles and Bernard’s itinerary took in the Hotel Oasis, the Thomas Cook Travel Agency, the offices of the P & O shipping line and the Café de la Samaritaine, where the group stopped for lunch. Later on Friday, the delegates reconvened in the Salle Marcel Pagnol in the centre of Bandol for the official opening of the conference in the presence of the Cultural Deputies from both Bandol and Avon. This was followed by a vin 2

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d’honneur hosted by the town of Bandol. Sylvie Léger, an English teacher at the Lycée International François I in Fontainebleau then delighted us with a witty dramatisation of Mansfield’s story ‘Late at Night’. The evening concluded with a talk by Bernard Bosque accompanied by a very detailed slide show, recapping the various stages of Mansfield’s visits to Marseilles.

On the afternoon of Saturday 24 February, the participants met again at the Salle Marcel Pagnol, for a two-part programme. The afternoon kicked off with another dramatization by Sylvie Léger, this time an excerpt from Mansfield’s story ‘An Indiscreet Journey’. The story is a loosely fictional account of Mansfield’s original journey to Gray to meet Francis Carco which had taken place on 19 February 1915, exactly three years before her first pulmonary hemorrhage which occurred at the Hotel Beau Rivage on 19 February 1918.

Bernard Bosque then enthralled the audience with another wonderful talk, accompanied by a remarkably comprehensive slide presentation, detailing Mansfield’s two visits to Bandol (December 1915 - April 1916 and January - March 1918). Both of Bernard’s slide shows can be viewed on the KMS website: http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/bandol- 2018/ and we are immensely grateful to him for sharing his research with the KMS community.

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On the morning of Sunday 25 February, the delegates participated in a walking tour of Bandol, taking in many of the places Mansfield is known to have visited during her two stays in the town. This included the Hotel Beau Rivage, and ended at the Villa Pauline, where the current owners, Mr and Mrs Martinez, generously allowed us into their house and garden as well as offering us an aperitif – a truly fitting way to end this wonderful weekend. Bernard Bosque, together with his wife, Coralie Buchoul Bosque, are to be congratulated for putting together yet another magnificent event in France, where Mansfield spent so much of her adult life and where she is buried.

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Une hivernante célèbre à Bandol

Bernard Bosque et Coralie Buchoul-Bosque

La KMS commémorait les 23, 24 et 25 février dernier le centenaire du deuxième séjour de KM à Bandol. Le programme des trois jours était le suivant : • vendredi 23 : Escapade pédestre dans les rues de Marseille au départ de la Gare Saint-Charles pour découvrir les lieux fréquentés par KM durant les hivers 1915-1916 et 1918. Notre promenade nous a menés successivement à l'Hôtel Oasis, à l'emplacement de l'agence Cook et du bureau de la P&O ainsi qu'au Café de la Samaritaine où nous nous sommes restaurés. Sur le chemin du retour, nous avons évoqué les deux nuits passées au Grand Hôtel de Russie et d'Angleterre.

En soirée, ouverture officielle de la manifestation par le Docteur Gerri Kimber, Présidente de l'association, en présence des adjoints à la culture des villes de Bandol et d'Avon. Sylvie Léger, professeure d'anglais au Lycée International François Ier de Fontainebleau nous a ensuite régalés d'une théâtralisation pleine de piquant et de sensibilité de la nouvelle "Late at Night". Bernard Bosque a clôturé cette journée en reprenant, dans une conférence assortie d'un diaporama, les différentes étapes des séjours marseillais de KM. o 2

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o samedi 24 : Les participants se sont retrouvés dans l'après-midi à la salle Pagnol, gracieusement mise à disposition par la ville de Bandol, pour un programme en deux parties. Sylvie Léger a tout d'abord mis en scène un extrait du "Voyage Indiscret" qui fut l'occasion de rappeler que cette aventure grayloise s'est tenue le 19 février 1915, soit précisément trois ans, jour pour jour, avant la première hémorragie pulmonaire subie par KM à Bandol durant son deuxième séjour à l'Hôtel Beau Rivage. En deuxième partie de cette soirée, Bernard Bosque a retracé les deux villégiatures de KM à Bandol (décembre 1915 - avril 1916 et janvier - mars 1918).

dimanche 25 : Le temps incertain n'a pas empêché les participants d'effectuer un parcours de mémoire dans la ville de Bandol, qui a débuté à l'Hôtel Beau Rivage pour s'achever à la Villa Pauline en passant par la jetée, le Palais d'Azur (Poste de la ville au début du XXè siècle), la mairie et l'église, tous lieux décrits dans la correspondance de KM. Nos plus vifs remerciements vont à la ville de Bandol, notamment Mme Molinier du service culturel, à M. Jean-Marie Schneider, Président du Cercle des Auteurs Bandolais pour son soutien de chaque instant, ainsi qu'à Mme et M. Martinez, propriétaires de la Villa Pauline, pour leur accueil chaleureux. Une mention particulière pour les "Amis de Katherine", tant de Haute-Saône que de Seine-et- Marne, qui ont spécialement fait le déplacement.

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KATHERINE MANSFIELD SOCIETY Call for Submissions

Patron: Dame Jacqueline Wilson

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR VOLUME 11 OF Katherine Mansfield Studies

THE PEER-REVIEWED YEARBOOK OF THE KATHERINE MANSFIELD SOCIETY PUBLISHED BY EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS

KATHERINE MANSFIELD & ELIZABETH VON ARNIM

Editors Gerri Kimber, University of Northampton and Todd Martin, Huntington University

Guest Editor Isobel Maddison Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge

Katherine Mansfield to Elizabeth von Arnim 1922: ‘I would like to write one story really good enough to offer you one day’; ‘please let all the pride be mine that you are my cousin’.

*******

Recent scholarship on the complex relationship between Katherine Mansfield and her best-selling author cousin, Elizabeth von Arnim, has done much to shed light on the familial, personal and literary connections between these unlikely friends. Although their lives appeared to be very different (Mansfield’s largely one of penurious poor health, von Arnim’s chiefly one of robust privilege), we know that each of these women experienced the other as an influential presence. Moreover, Mansfield's narrator in her early collection of short stories, (1911), bears marked resemblances with the protagonist of Elizabeth and her German Garden (1898), and von Arnim’s most radical novel, Vera (1921), was written at the height of her friendship with Mansfield. The final letter Mansfield ever wrote was to von Arnim and, following Mansfield's death in 1923, John Middleton Murry dedicated his posthumous collection of Mansfield’s poems as follows: ‘To Elizabeth of the German Garden who loved certain of these poems and their author’.

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The relationship between these cousins was marked by personal affection, occasional tension, but primarily by a love for literary expression. For Volume 11 of Katherine Mansfield Studies, we invite comparative essays that explore aspects of the manifold relationship between these two writers and their works.

Some possible (not exclusive) comparative topics might include:

Early Lives / Influences Places, Spaces, Houses, Gardens Music The Natural World Gender Motherhood Childhood Sexuality, Loves, Marriages Transnational Connections The Art of Appearing: Mask, Pose, Look, Gaze The Great War The Body / Ageing Perspective, Genre, Form, Voice Satire and Irony Mutual friends, Acquaintances, Influences KM and EvA in Translation Letters, Diaries, Journals, Notebooks Manuscripts and Archives

Please email submissions of 5000-6000 words, including endnotes, formatted in Word and in MHRA style*, 12 pt, Times New Roman, with an abstract and 50-word biography, to the editorial team at [email protected]

PLEASE NOTE: ALL SUBMISSIONS WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE ENTERED FOR OUR ANNUAL ESSAY PRIZE COMPETITION UNLESS AUTHORS INDICATE OTHERWISE.

*An MHRA Style Guide is available on the Katherine Mansfield Society website: http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/yearbook-katherine-mansfield-studies/

Creative Writing We welcome creative submissions – poetry, short stories, creative essays, on the general theme of Katherine Mansfield. Please submit them, accompanied by a brief (50 words) biography, to [email protected].

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS 31 AUGUST 2018

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Report: Postgraduate Day held at Queens’ College, Cambridge

by Joe Williams

The river Cam cuts Queens’ College into two halves: the ‘dark side’ with its original fifteenth- century courts and the ‘light side’, in late- twentieth-century glass and concrete. Foot traffic between both sides must pass over the famed Mathematical Bridge — which has nothing to do whatsoever with Sir Isaac Newton, his tree, or his apple (despite what you may have been told by a fervid punting-guide). For this year’s Katherine Mansfield Society postgraduate symposium, we were generously hosted by Queens’ College in a large room on the ‘light side’, overlooking the Queen’s Road (sometimes just known as ‘the Backs’ for its picturesque views of Cambridge). Flavoured with a genuine variety of excellent papers, the delegates braved the wavering March weather for an engaging and action- packed day. This was the 4th postgraduate event convened by the KMS since it was founded, entitled ‘Katherine Mansfield & Writing New Worlds’. Organised by Gerri Kimber, Janet Wilson, and myself, it saw early career scholars hailing from a myriad of institutions to present work on Mansfield and her contemporaries (I here spell ‘myriad’ correctly, and not as ‘myriam’, as I somehow missed several times revising the programme). The day pulled in scholars from all over the UK, including Birkbeck, Cambridge, Kent, Middlesex and Northampton, Oxford, and St Andrews, as well as a dozen or so non-speaking attendees. Having broken the ice the night before at a dinner at a Thai restaurant, our first panel saw four papers on Mansfield and Virginia Woolf. Loosely psychoanalytic in their approach, they covered the depiction of hats in Mansfield’s short stories, reflections on submerged selves in Mansfield, how the narrative structure of ‘’ 2

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forms the characters’ identities, and the central role of ‘touch’ and sensory experiences to Woolf’s Night and Day. Our second panel explored the nature of the telephone in Mansfield’s work, Woolf and Mansfield’s attempts imitate the qualities of music in their writing, and the role of the New Physics and scientific discoveries of the twentieth century in the fiction of Woolf and James Joyce. Our final panel engaged with Mansfield’s inconsistent depictions of New Zealand, the modernist form of Olive Schreiner’s The Story of an African Farm, and an analysis of depictions of Alexandria in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet. Many of the attendees remarked that the papers were of a uniformly high standard, but aside from being lucid and intelligent, they were all enjoyable to listen to – and followed by lively Q&A sessions. Andrew Thacker, Professor of Twentieth Century Literature at Nottingham Trent University, gave the keynote talk on ‘Mood, Affect and the Modernist City: Katherine Mansfield and Jean Rhys’, expanding on his forthcoming monograph on the same subject. Whilst Jean Rhys features prominently in this book on mood and modernist space, Thacker took the opportunity of his talk to give excellent reflections on how such ideas apply to Mansfield too, both émigrés into the bustling city of Paris. I found particularly compelling his ideas and archival finds concerning bookshops, including the purported borrowing card of Jean Rhys, showing clearly her taking out a copy of The Garden Party & Other Stories. The day ended with Janet Wilson and Gerri Kimber offering thoughts on how Mansfield studies has evolved in new directions, invigorated by the influence of the KMS. For all, it was enthralling to see the diverse future orientations of scholarship on Mansfield, Woolf, and others. All delegates were warmly invited to join the commemorative conference in June at Birkbeck, University of London, which is being held to celebrate ten years of the KMS.

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Alex Lodge and Cherie Jacobson’s play Modern Girls in Bed: an interview

Cherie Jacobson and Alex Lodge are two-thirds of full.stop.theatre, the Wellington- based company behind works such as Tea for Toot, The Island Bay Loners’ Doomsday Christmas Sing-along and Cherie Jacobson: Diary of a Young Cynic. Together with director and designer Ed Watson, full.stop.theatre have made a name for themselves taking real people and events, and weaving them into dark comedy. The work of Enid Blyton, the pitfalls of self-publishing authors, and even their own childhood diaries are among past subjects.

Their new work, Modern Girls in Bed, brings a collection of women from Aotearoa’s artistic and political history into conversation with modern day women.

Modern Girls in Bed is, according to sources, a “collision of historical heroines and present-day family politics." Can you elaborate on this for our readers?

CJ: One of the questions we asked when starting to write Modern Girls In Bed was ‘What would happen if Kate Sheppard or Katherine Mansfield walked into the room right now? What would they think of us? What would we think of them? What would they think of each other?’ Historic trail blazers have a kind of public persona intertwined with the story of their achievements and as time goes on and they are held up as inspirational figures, we tend to forget that they were also complex individuals living in a particular era and shaped by society at the time. We also asked what a modern equivalent of these women might look like - Heni Pore, also known as Heni Te Kiri Karamu, was fluent in three languages, and translated captured British documents during the Land Wars. In what kind of woman today might we see similar qualities of sharp intellect and bravery? Of course nothing throws up drama like being in a family, so we put a lot of our ideas into a family context and explored how strong female personalities negotiate that very particular territory of family relationships. If you had a sister like Kate Sheppard and a sister like Katherine Mansfield, it would make for an interesting family dinner!

What is the plot or story? Is it a comedy?

CJ: It’s definitely a comedy, I think it would be impossible for us to write something that wasn’t a comedy because our whole relationship is based around trying to make each other laugh. But there are also some very heavy and moving moments as the central character, Ally, is dealing with a really tough situation. Without wanting to give too much away, Ally finds it’s all too much and decides to take to bed for the ‘rest of her life’ and enrols her best friend Petra to keep her company. They soon find 2

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the bed becomes rather crowded with women from New Zealand history who have also spent time on bedrest. These women aren’t too impressed that while their bedrest was out of necessity, these two young women are choosing to retreat in order to avoid dealing with the realities of life. So there’s a kind of magic realism involved in the first Act which was incredibly fun to write, but as much as you might try to avoid the real world it always finds a way of sneaking in at some point.

Alex, as both a writer and actor in Modern Girls how do these roles relate for you?

AL: I was only cast as Mansfield by Rachel Lenart (director) after we had been developing the script for a year or so already. When we first started the project, Cherie and I had had a loose idea to write the two millennial characters for ourselves to play, but it ended up better for them to be quite a bit younger than us. Cherie and I have written roles for ourselves in the past (Tea for Toot and Nucking Futs), and would often improvise in character, then transcribe and script out whatever worked. So our characters would have a lot of ourselves in them organically by the time we got on stage.

This has been an unusual experience for me, because the play has been workshopped with two different actors playing Mansfield already (though Playmarket and Silo Theatre). So I feel much more like I’m stepping into a pre-existing role than something I have to work at from scratch.

I am told your portrayal of KM veers toward the darker side of her character. Is this the case, and if so how and why?

AL: Yup, absolutely. Who wants to go see yet another serious, worthy story about how quirky and talented Mansfield was? Nah. We already know all that. Generally, we wanted to have an irreverent take on each of the historical figures - to show the idea that being courageous doesn’t also mean being perfect. Our original pitching title for the show was, ‘Women from History Are D*cks’. So, for example, Kate Sheppard is wonderful and inspiring but also like your bossy aunty who is a bit of a downer and can get exhausting with her constant moralising. When we were first writing the script, we talked about how Mansfield reminded us of a certain type of hipster that we went to university with. Rather performative in her shyness and extremely proud of being a weirdo. We thought that that was a funny way to think of Mansfield, so we’ve ramped up those aspects of her character. That said, we definitely also balance it out with exploring the beauty of her writing and the sadness in her life.

Did KM’s stories and her personal life both have influence on your writing? What was the most important?

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AL: We focussed on a time in their lives when each historical woman had to take to bed for some reason. So for Mansfield, our primary source material was her letters and various bits of information about her being in the south of France for TB treatment, near the end of her life.

CJ: Definitely the primary source material of KM’s letters from her time in Menton were a key part of our research. The Letters of Katherine Mansfield: Volume II is available electronically through the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection which is a great resource. We were really influenced by the tone of those letters in forming the character of Mansfield in the script. We are both English Literature graduates and knew Mansfield’s writing well, but re-reading those letters it really struck me how irritating she might have been to be around! She can be so patronising in the way she writes about people and so melodramatic. Yes, she was unwell and quite confined in that she didn’t have a lot of physical strength to go out and about, but even taking that into consideration she is very self-focussed.

Mansfield had little time for the suffrage movement. Does her seeming indifference to the work of Kate Sheppard and others have a bearing on the Modern Girls in Bed?

AL: Mansfield does try to flirt with Sheppard at one point in the play. But I’d say it’s more out of compulsive antagonism than even a slight interest in the suffrage movement.

CJ: Mansfield is more interested in who has heard of her than anyone she might recognise. Another woman from history who inserts herself under the covers is Helen Hitchings, who started New Zealand’s first modernist gallery. Mansfield is particularly enamoured with Hitchings because Hitchings knows who Mansfield is and they share feelings about art and the role of artists in society. For them art is life, not politics.

According to one press release Modern Girls in Bed presents a KM as a“demanding” personality. What does this mean?

CJ: All I can say is that having read many of Mansfield’s letters and excerpts from her journals, I have a lot of sympathy for Ida Baker. Nothing paints a picture like Mansfield’s own words, so:

“We had a good journey but a slight contretemps in Paris. Ida disappeared with the porter to find a taxi, and she forgot the door she'd gone out—rushed off to another and lost me. After about half an hour I appealed to the police but they were helpless. The poor creature had lost her head and when we did meet finally it was only because I saw her in the distance and simply shouted. This tired me and made my nose bleed 4

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and I had a very bad night and had to do my review in bed next day, being fanned and bathed with eau de cologne.” KM to JMM, September 14, 1920

AL: Oh my god, Katherine, don’t have a passive-aggressive nose-bleed! Poor Ida.

As co-writers of Modern Girls in Bed, how did the creative relationship work?

AL: We’ve written together for years. But this was different because it was our first script since I moved away from Wellington. So it was a great excuse for us to have writing holidays together.

CJ: This play has travelled quite a bit - we started it in Whanganui, had workshop in Wellington, wrote across time zones while I was travelling overseas for a few months, and then had a week long workshop in Auckland with Silo Theatre. That was amazing because it was such a luxury to be able to spend a whole week together focussing on the play and seeing it on its feet with actors. When we’re writing in the same room together we tend to get a bit hysterical which is a key ingredient in our creative process!

In a small country like NZ ‘pillow politics’ can have a wide reaching influence. Are there broad themes along these lines that can be inferred from your play?

CJ: When we were first discussing ideas for the play, we talked about what a powerful space the bed is. It can be a place of rest and restlessness, a place of retreat and advance, a place of comfort and fear. It can also be a very vivid illustration of the idea that the personal is political. For Ally and Petra, taking to their bed is taking a stand and in the current world climate who wouldn’t want to bury their head under the covers? Being a young woman today isn’t magically easier because we have a female Prime Minister again, there a lots of ways in which feminism is still relevant and urgent and trying to figure out a feminist identity as a young person is a political act. It’s often quiet conversations in a private space that help people figure out where they stand on issues and what they value, so that’s the kind of pillow politics we’re exploring in Modern Girls In Bed.

Why would non- Kate Sheppard or non-KM fans appreciate your play?

AL: I think if you really dislike either of them, you will have a great time, because there are some truly sick burns on both of them. If you’re a bit apathetic about those historical figures, hopefully you’ll learn a little about some less-famous figures from Aotearoa history, and about other generations. One of my favourite things about ‘Modern Girls’ is the variety in the characters, and the conversation between 5

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generations that happens after the show. It’s a love-letter to the complexity of sisterhood.

What is your next project(s) after this one?

AL: We’re currently developing a project with director Sherilee Kahui. It’s a script I wrote called Sing to Me, and is inspired by both the traditional story of Pania-on-the- Reef from Ahuriri, and T. S. Eliot’s poem The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. Wonder-woman Cherie is producing again for full.stop.theatre, and we are currently in conversations with Ngāti Kuhungunu about permissions for representing such a precious character as Pania, who means so much to so many.

Modern Girls in Bed will be at Circa One from September 1 - 22nd.

1. Maria Williams as Ally in Modern Girls in Bed. Photo credit: Tabitha Arthur and Ed Watson 2. (L-R) Cherie Jacobson and Alex Lodge. Photo credit: Anita Pitu Photography 1

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Review: Ben Hoadley’s opera Miss Brill

by Christine Alexander and Chryssy Tintner

On Sunday 18 February 2018, the Omega Ensemble, one of Sydney's leading professional chamber music groups, joined forces with soprano Jessica Harper and the Art Gallery of New South Wales to present the premier of New Zealander Ben Hoadley’s chamber opera Miss Brill in a concert version (no staging or costumes).

Based on Katherine Mansfield’s short story of the same name, the opera presents a day in the life of a lonely spinster living in a seaside town in regional France in the 1920s. The libretto by Craig Brush and the music focus not only on Mansfield’s sensitive rendering of the spinster’s narrow life, but also on Miss Brill’s triumphant revelation that life is ‘all theatre’ and she too has a role in the plot of the play. Alongside music by Glinka and Beethoven, the event was a wonderful combination of great music and great art. The Omega Ensemble, together with composer Ben Hoadley, who also plays the bassoon in the opera, hope to perform the opera in Auckland later this year.

Miss Brill is a delightful work. Hoadley's music brings her epoch alive, an idiosyncratic mix of the contemporary and early twentieth century period French, with shades of Satie and pointillist Debussy. It was charming to hear the balance between in particular the double bass and piano with Jessica Harper as the eponymous heroine (‘what has been happening to me.’) And the evocative responses from the bassoon, horn and clarinet. Not to mention satisfying to see the work performed in a room of Australian art from a similar time to the setting.

The libretto is also a character study, drawn in beautiful miniature. Miss Brill is an aging Governess, whose Sundays are eked out in observation of the people in the French park, many of whom ridicule her. She longs to be part of things. Mansfield’s character reminds me of Paul Galico’s creation Mrs. Harris, the English charlady, who saves up for years to buy a piece of couture she can never wear in public. Craig has adapted Miss Brill's longing with great skill. Her innocence and optimism are well drawn. We may think a couple walking through the park are really a hooker and her potential client: but Miss Brill is happy to presume they are married, in her simplicity.

The melodic charm of Miss Brill and its success as a character vignette, should ensure a long life for the work, programmed with other characters. It also fills my heart with Miss Brill-like optimism, that such a study of spinsterhood could be sensitively adapted by a different gender.

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Ben Hoadley’s opera Miss Brill: an interview

What inspired you to write an opera based on the short story Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield?

Craig Brush and I had discussed collaborating to write an opera, and the idea to set a Katherine Mansfield story was his. I was very receptive to this idea of course, and after reading the draft of his libretto I was completely sold on Miss Brill as an opera.

Presumably Craig Brush’s libretto focuses on the main character sung by Jessica Harper. Do other characters have a presence in the opera?

Yes, the opera is based around the character of Miss Brill, although the fox fur, while silent, also has a strong presence. Scene 2, set in the public garden and by far the longest scene, introduces nine characters. These can be divided between four singers, as we did for the Art Gallery performance. Miss Brill never interacts directly with these characters in the park, but her internal monolog continues as she observes them and she sings a short aria to herself at one point in the scene.

Chryssy Tintner reviewed the performance in Sydney and predicts “a long life for the work”. Given that she is the daughter of the famous opera conductor Georg Tintner and an aficionado of opera herself, this must be gratifying…..?

Yes this was most encouraging. Chryssy is a very accomplished director and writer, and has a strong understanding of the complexities of theatre. Securing a second (or third) performance is often harder to achieve than a premiere, and we would be thrilled for our setting of Miss Brill to have a future.

Chryssy Tintner notes the influence of French twentieth century composers in Miss Brill, specifically Eric Satie and Debussy. Perhaps this is a reflection of your choice of instruments in the ensemble? Were you consciously trying to recreate the mood and sound of the period?

Not deliberately, but I love the music of early twentieth century France and so it is not a surprise that that has influenced my own composition. The choice of the trio of wind instruments was actually to reflect the little band that plays in the public garden, which is a key part of the story. Coincidentally, much important chamber music for wind ensemble is from this period, so that strengthens the association. In a fully staged version, I intend these players to be onstage and serve as characters in the drama themselves. The instrumentation was originally trumpet, horn and trombone but I transcribed it to clarinet, horn and bassoon to suit the instrumentation of the 3

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Omega Ensemble.

Chamber opera may be considered a niche entertainment. Is the genre deserving of a wider audience?

Of course. One of the many charms of chamber opera is that, because it requires smaller forces (and budget) than Grand Opera, it can be easily toured and can reach many. Companies such as Oz Opera, and Nimby Opera which you mention below, are doing very important work touring chamber versions of the classics to regional centres, and often this is the only opportunity some some people have to see live opera. I am disappointed that chamber opera is still sometimes viewed as the ‘poor cousin’ of Grand Opera, as it is an important genre in its own right. The intimacy of chamber opera allows characters and stories to be developed in unique ways, and it gives the audience a vivid experience. It is a perfect vehicle for Katherine Mansfield’s story.

I understand you are seeking funding for a performance of Miss Brill in New Zealand. Will this be easier now you have a performance completed? Will it be fully staged?

I hope that having a well-received performance under our belt will help with applications, as we know now that the piece works successfully. Our plan is for the next performance to be fully staged and fingers crossed that that can happen in New Zealand in 2019!

I suspect you are not finished with exploring Mansfield’s oeuvre for adaption to opera. What other stories do you think might make transfer successfully to chamber opera?

Craig Brush and I have been discussing this, and have ‘’ and ‘’ on our list of possibilities. And we would welcome suggestions that any readers may have!

I was lucky to see Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, when it was performed by Nimby Opera in Hamilton, as well as other centres in New Zealand in 2010. Although not a chamber opera it toured successfully with a very small ensemble. Could you see Miss Brill presented fully staged but with a smaller touring ensemble?

Absolutely. I am very open to the idea of arranging to suit available forces, although I’d like to keep instrumentalists on stage in Scene 2 to portray the band in the park, particularly in a fully staged version. With skilful acting and use of props and costumes, the characters in the park can all be sung by as little as two singers if necessary. Dramatically, this could also add an interesting element to the audience’s 4

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perception of these characters.

Katherine Mansfield was herself a musician and had a musical ear for the combination of words: for telling sonorities and dialogue. Over and above the libretto, were you able to make use of her flair language in your composition?

I have read many of her stories and love them. I think it is more a case of absorbing her characters, their worlds and world-views, rather than a direct influence of her writing on my music. Having said that, Craig did quote lines directly from the story. So in that sense I used her flair for language in the music on a few occasions.

In her early years Mansfield was a performer as well as a writer and used her life experiences in her writing. How do you think live performance informs the work of the artist?

Many writers have commented on how their interest in and love of music, particularly classical music, has benefited their writing. A deep interest and love for music helps develop an innate sense of rhythm and the musicality of language, and also structure and pacing that might not be so pronounced without it. A love of opera and vocal music in particular is of great benefit to a writer, it allows them to absorb and understand the musical possibilities and capabilities of language. Being a performer can only enhance a thousand-fold the influences on writing that music can have, as mentioned above.

Opera in concert: Miss Brill at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

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KATHERINE MANSFIELD SOCIETY ESSAY PRIZE 2018

The Katherine Mansfield Society is pleased to announce its annual essay prize competition for 2018, open to all, on the subject of:

Katherine Mansfield & Elizabeth von Arnim

The winner will receive a cash prize of £200 and the winning essay will be considered for publication in Katherine Mansfield Studies, the peer-reviewed yearbook of the Katherine Mansfield Society, published by Edinburgh University Press.

The distinguished panel of judges will comprise:

PROFESSOR DAVID TROTTER University of Cambridge, Chair of the Judging Panel

CLAIRE TOMALIN Renowned biographer and author of Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life

PROFESSOR SUSAN SELLE RS University of St Andrews

DR ISOBEL MAD DISON Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge

Essays that address any aspect of the relationship between Katherine Mansfield and Elizabeth von Arnim are welcome. The full CFP for this volume can be viewed on our website: http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/yearbook-katherine-mansfield-studies/

Submissions of between 5000–6000 words (inclusive of endnotes), in Word format, Times New Roman 12 point, double-line spaced, using MHRA style referencing with endnotes, should be emailed to the editorial team, accompanied by an abstract, keywords, and 50-word biography: [email protected]

A detailed MHRA style guide is available from the Katherine Mansfield Society website: http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/yearbook-katherine-mansfield-studies/

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS 31 AUGUST 2018

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The Daughters of the Late Colonel: a new play by Grant Gillespie

A new play, ‘The Daughters’ has recently been written by Grant Gillespie, based on the short story, ‘The Daughters of the Late Colonel’, by Katherine Mansfield. The play is set just after the First World War and centres around the elderly sisters – Josephine and Constantia Pinner. The two women are forced to spend their days ricocheting between their tyrannical father, Colonel Pinner – who lies upstairs on his 'death-bed' – and their terrifying maid, Kate, who rules the roost downstairs. The unlikely heroines dream of being born a hundred years later – now, in fact – when they’re sure there'll be universal equality . . . ‘The Daughters’ is a tragi-comedy about sisterhood, senility, and the prospect of being overlooked by time and history.

Grant is a professional writer and actor who lives in Soho, London. His début novel, The Cuckoo Boy, was published in 2010 to great acclaim, described as ‘an emotionally visceral debut’ (Guardian); ‘The Cuckoo Boy is a savage indictment of hypocrisy and forced social convention’ (Observer). His short story, ‘The Upper Hand’, was recently published by Simon Schuster in He Played For His Wife and Other Stories, also featuring Patrick Marber, Jennifer Tilly and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Grant also writes plays and screenplays, often collaborating with Kate Ashfield (writer of Born to Kill). Their series, The Harvest, is on the slate at Kate Lewis and Julia Walsh’s production company, Neon Ink.

Grant writes: I first read Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The Daughters of the Late Colonel’ when I was at school and it immediately struck a chord. The image of the sun coming out and these two elderly women almost reaching spiritual enlightenment stayed with me, haunting me really, to the point that I felt compelled to write the play – if only to allow these women the resolution they craved. I have read and reread all of Mansfield's works over the years and they always bring me joy, as do the stories of her indomitable spirit and extraordinary life.

Grant Gillespie grantgillespie.com

Note: KMS will let members know when/where the play will be performed. [Ed.]

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‘Garnet Trowell: A bit Wilde?’ [Ed.]

Though not yet a member of the KMS society, Daniel Smith of Columbus, Ohio has shared his research [photo and letter page 26] and rekindled our interest in Garnet Trowell and those obscure years after KM moved back to England in 1908. I have done a bit of sleuthing myself and come up with some interesting background to the violinist, including some aspects covered in previous editions of this newsletter.

It is most likely that Garnet met Marguerite Werner, the wife of Henry Werner, a banker and shoe manufacturer from the United States, in the early part of 1907. The couple were holidaying in Europe while their house was being built in their hometown of Columbus, Ohio and perhaps Garnet met them when he was performing in Brussels. We know that the violinist was back in London in the summer of the same year for in an earlier issue of this newsletter [‘Musical Chairs in Quartet Portrait’ by Martin Griffiths December 2012 Issue 13, page 4] we presented a photo portrait from the violinist Jan van Oordt. It is worth quoting the inscription:

To Garnet Trowell, for great friendship from J. W. L. van Oordt London 22-7-07.

Garnet studied with van Oordt in Brussels and it is probable that the latter attended van Oordt’s wedding to Edith Macnair in London on the 15th of November 1908. Certainly Garnet was in London on 30 June 1908 when he participated in a chamber music recital with Australian pianist Madeline Royle. The occasion was the afternoon entertainment of the Austral Club, a forum for artists from all over the British Empire to perform in London (Martin Griffiths’ thesis pages 67-68). Interestingly Royle was born the same year as KM and was part of the Pollard’s Opera company that toured New Zealand in 1898. Significantly this production involved Garnet and/or Arnold, as members of the opera orchestra.

At the end of 1907 Garnet was once again in Brussels, probably to finish his studies or fulfill concert obligations. He returned to London in Spring 1908 to join his sister Dolly Trowell and their parents, who had recently arrived from New Zealand. A postcard addressed to “Mlle Dorothy Trowell” at 52 Carlton Hill, St John’s Wood is from Garnet Trowell and was posted in Brussels. It reached London 22 April 1908 and reads “will be with you on Sunday morning.” 1

1 Alexander Turnbull Library, MS-Papers-8972-10

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To whom it may concern:

Attached please find a photograph of Garnet Trowell dated 1907. I came across this photo reading an article in the Columbus Dispatch. Trowell's style reminded me of Oscar Wilde and I began a search, which led to Katherine Mansfield. I could only find one other photo of Trowell, as an older man, and this photo bears a resemblance.

I have also included a link to the article for your information.*

Now I shall go on the read some of Mansfield’s work. What an intriguing woman, artist and intellect.

Sincerely,

Daniel Smith Columbus, Ohio

*http://www.dispatch.com/entertainmentlife/20180318/couple-selling-century- old-broad-street-mansion-hope-buyer-appreciates-its-history 1

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‘Reflections from Wellington’ by Jane Chapman

1st March and an email from Martin Griffiths asking for contributions to the next KM newsletter. It’s the evening of a long day of struggles. We are experiencing the worst day of the winter. Our small hill farm in the Peak District of Derbyshire is in the throws of a raging blizzard. Snow drifts and blows across the fields and into the buildings where our precious beef shorthorn cattle are bedded down. The sheep are huddled in the fields trying to find shelter against the biting east wind. We spend all day bringing the pregnant ewes into the shelter of the building. Water pipes are frozen so we have to carry water from the farmhouse to the cattle and sheep. We struggle to repair holes in the roof where the wind has blown the sheeting away.

My daughter rings. It’s really humid in Wellington and the long hot summer continues. It’s hard to visualise compared to what we are experiencing but I go back to the memories shared with her of life in Wellington, my home from home. Unlike KM who couldn’t wait to get away, from the first time the plane circled over the bays, the green corridors of the town belt and the painted wooden houses, I fell in love with the city and its surroundings.

Early days in Thorndon with my first grandson, pushing him in his buggy from home in Hill Street and up Tinakori Road to the Botanical Gardens and then down again through Bowden Street Cemetery. A first visit to the KM birthplace, the only visitor on a Sunday morning and the place to myself to imagine ghosts, real and fictional such as the grandmother, like me, helping out with the children. But I can only be the solid, comforting grandmother for 3 weeks at a time roughly every 2 years. Reading the New Zealand stories again and more vividly brought to light by my own echoing footsteps across present day Wellington. It feels so close even across so many years- as though little has changed.

One of our delights was to take the ferry across to Days Bay and imagine what it would be like to live there. Five years later and the dream becomes a reality as my daughter becomes Anglican minister of St Albans parish of Eastbourne and Days Bay.

We’re . Now with 2 grandsons, my very own Pip and Rags, we range the beach looking for treasure, building dens out of driftwood. In early morning walks it’s not hard to imagine how it was all those years ago before the sun is up and the days 2

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activity begins on the beach. Flocks of sheep no longer pitter patter along the Muritai Road but my 2 grandsons hurtle along on scooters and BMX bikes.

Then my most recent visit in June last year when in an amazing ceremony at the new Cathedral my daughter is made a bishop and starts her new role as Assistant Bishop of Wellington. A Maori welcome, contributions from the Pacific Islands and a full congregation cheer at the culmination of the ceremony; then firecrackers, a Chinese dragon and dancing to a rock band in the aisles. Not quite the usual British affair. What would KM have thought of that?

Wellington Cathedral of St Paul