(2017) with the Permission of the Surviving Editors, Rob La Frenais and Gray Watson

• SL(

- from live electronics and tape to computer-generated sound 14 PETO PLACE LONDON NWI. 486 3985 TimSouster sound projection John Wallace trumpet, flugelhorn Roger Smalley Echo Ill for trumpet and tape-delay system Alejandro Vinao Go for4-channel tape Denis Smalley Vortex for stereo tape Michael McNabb Oreamsong for computer-generated sounds Jonathan Harvey Mortuos Plango Vivos Voco for 4-channel tape TimSouster The Transistor Radio of St Narcissus forflugelhorn, live electronics and tape

February 27 LONDON Round House 7.30pm 28 LEICESTER Poly, Great Hall, Scraptoft 7.30pm

1 MANCHESTER Royal Northern College of Music 7.30pm 2 LEEDS University, C.C. Concert Hall 7.30pm 3 KEELE University, Walter Moberly Hall 7.30pm 4 LIVERPOOL Bluecoat 7.30pm 5 DARLINGTON Arts Centre 8.00pm 6 DURHAM Sir James Knott Hall, Trevelyan Coll. 7.30pm 7 SHEFFIELD Leadmill 7.30pm 9 NOTTINGHAM Midland Group 8.00pm 11 WELLS Town Hall 7.30pm 12 BRISTOL Arnolfini 8.00pm 13 CARDIFF University College, Music Dept 8.00pm Art Line Newspaper Further details from the venues or from Music Department, it's new and it's special ... Arts Council of GB, 9 Long Acre, London WC2. (01-379 Sample copy for &Op inc. p&p (01-379 7717) 33 West Hill Wandsworth SW18. 01-870 0427

Performance Magazine 14 Peto Place, London NW1 01 935 2714

Editor Rob La Frenais Contributing Editors Lynn MacRitchie Marguerite Maclaughlin Luke Dixon Pete Shelton Administration Mary Lee Woolf Contributors Robert Ayers Paul Burwell Gillian Clark Meira Eliash Catherine Elwes Roger Ely Stella Hall Andrea Hill Neil Hornick Phil Hyde Chrissie lies David lllic Robin Morley Anna Mosynska Andrew O'Hanlan John Roberts Steve Rogers Diana Simmonds Liz Stolls Guest Contributors Mona Hatoum Julian Maynard-Smith Carol Devaughn Dave Rose Any Soutter Annabel Nicholson

Distribution Full Time Distribution Moore Harness Letters 4 National Performance Listings J F Ansell Profiles Documentation Total Distribution (US) Impact Theatre 5 Station House Opera Typesetting Short Reviews Windhorse Photosetters Blood Group 30 Printing Spaces ABDC Workshop, Robin Vineyard Press, Colchester Basement, Newcastle 9 Whitmore, People Show, Philip Publisher Media Jeck, Grotowski Workshops, Performance Magazine Ltd Mona Hatoum at Aspex 14 Dawn of Dusk, Zena Naj Bo Copyright © 1983 Doma, Young Lust in Kilburn ISSN no 0144 5901 Video Afterimage on C4 16 Special Feature Steve Hawley 17 Performance Nightlife 35 Reviews Plus Zen Abbatoir 18 Greenham Common by 36 SUBSIDISED BY THE Rational Theatre 25 Annabel Nicholson Arts ilimcil Cricot 2 28 OF GREAT BRITAIN Le Grand Macabre 27

Cover design by Robert Carter Cover photo of Impact Theatre by Steve Shill Ken Gill sharing a joke with a pair of cushions

Dea r Performance Magazine, OPEN LETTER ON PERFORMANCE Flat on my back with the flu I have had Cliches have arisen in 'performance' today ence certainly don 't care. So what is hap the opportunity to peruse your latest issue that are not only a waste of time but are pening? Nothing. A complete waste of and find myself utterly delighted. I don't generally ineffective and instrumental in time resulting only in a few more fairly kn ow why I hadn't realised until now what creating an image of self indulgence and open minds closing down . comrades we are when it comes to perform mysticism that turn potential viewers/ I do not accept that these well-worn ance art. I was particularly pleased with the spectators away in hordes. tedious approaches are at all necessary any attention you gave to the Neo-Naturists Among these cliches I would include more. Even the most sophisticated piece of and Art on the Run . This is what the world the use of endless repetition, painful vol work cannot be harmed by a little explana- needs more of and can, I believe, be the sal ume levels and uncommunicative 'myster vation of, if not all mankind, at least of ious' actions that serve principally to create L 'A rtPur. To hell with the avant garde. overwhelming tedium and secondly to 'Art should be uplifting. If it doesn't alienate, confuse and generally distress the make you feel better, piss on it!' - Ken viewer for all the wrong reasons. The right Kesey in High Performance 17/18. reasons are to make a point or create some Best of luck and congratulations . Keep thing out of the confusion . The wrong rea the faith . sons are to use the practice as a cover for te Sincerely, artist 's basic lack of substance , lack of orig Linda Burnham, Editor . inality, and need to humiliate those who High Performance, 240 S. Broadway 'don't understand'. It is basically his/her Los Angeles job to make people understand . Expressing a point clearly and concise Statement in reference to the series of per ly in a form that has impact via excitement formance akshuns by Andre Stitt/Tara and/or stimulation of the audience is re Babel under the functioning title 'Terra freshing and progressive . Inc.' I fully appreciate the need to explore Ritual akshuns are symbolic metaphores of the fringes of tolerance and to sometimes relationships in/out of context. use methods that alter the viewer 's percep T erra Inc ., is the duality of image in a posi tion in order to create subtleties of mood, tive therapy: atmosphere and response in the viewer. We Are All Schizo. This approach belongs mainly to the Fine Te rra Inc. , is part of a personalised on Art wing of 'performance' rather than the going system , it is part of the activity, the mid-range area that incorporates the use of activity that is the enemy of the state of drama , theatre and sometimes even ele tion and de-mystification , even in the form thin gs. Th e main themes are not, as has ments of that apparently dirty word 'enter of a short introdu ction or conclusion that been incorrectly stated and misrepresented tainment'. It is disappointing when a perf might to the artist seem to be stressing the by one critic, about Northern Ireland or ormer, obviously trying to reach a wider obvious, but may be the viewer's only key the war there or even about war in general. mid-range 'audience' apes the aforemen to the whole situation . Although we carry the stain and scar we do tioned conceptual cliches of the Fine Art Personall y, I propose a rebirth of ex not see that it should follow that all our gallery performers in the vain hope that by uberan ce, an appro ach designed to excite work would be automatically about the sit so doing he/she is adding intellectual cred and pro voke INTEREST (approval or uation in our native land, labelling creates ibility to the work. Such a performer is hostility) and a boost in self respect for the a vacuum of conformity, there are no literal usually faking it and invariably ends up indiv idual , the per former who, rather than explanations. wallowing in a performance nightmare of be aligned with whatever groups and labels In Terra Inc., we do not present meaning non-communication before an increasingly are flung his/her way, retains dignity and or explanations , it is up to the observer/ hostile audience, doing wbody any good. the strength and abilit y to put forward a personal viewpoint by which other s can spectator/voyeur/vampire to seek their They do not know what they're doing ) own through the ambience and energy of or why (no questions please, we're artists) assess their own. akshun . and apparently don't care, whilst the audi- Ian Smith T hose who have unders tood, understand the truth unto themselves. In Terra Inc ., I we seek our own truth thru trash and pulp . ) Our truth is cliche, a condition that perme ates our existence as functioning social/ ) anti-social beings . LVA AT AIR ') ' .. .. who is being controlled here .. . just Weekly presentat ions of video performance + other who is being hypnotised?' time-based media in the AIR Gallery Basement. For full programme details telephone LVA (734 7410) or AIR Gallery Babel: 'Little Devils are chattering to (278 7791). Great Ones' All events begin 7.30pm. Stitt: 'There are rumours without walls ... Price £ 1/75p concessionary . tim e fer akshun ... slash of life ... mask of AIR Gallery , 6-8 Rosebury Ave ., EC1. Basement entrance in mask .' Laystall St. (Nearest tube Chancery Lane.) Babel: 'T his is Babylon'. WE ARE NOT REAL. Stitt/Babel/Exiles Studio/Dec.82.

One of the most fascinating books that is yet to be written must surely be an explana tion of why so many influential artists should have come out of West Yorkshire in the late 60s and 1970s. Welfare State, DDART, and Hesitate and Demonstrate to name but three, and more recently Impact Theatre Co-operative, all have their origins in the Leeds/Bradford area. John Fox started Welfare State in 1968, and Impact got together in 1978. If 1968 marked one cultural revolution, 1978 fol lowed the year of punk and Impact are very much a cultural environment radically changed by a new, aggressive political and aesthetic movement. Impact are very conscious of the role played by the tradition of the Leeds/Brad ford art schools in their own development and they would be the first to acknowledge their debt to this. But in 1978 many of Impacts contemporaries were directing their energies into the new, politically aware and radical rock music. In fact in their early days Impact shared a warehouse with the Gang of Four, the Mekons, and Delta 5. It was as much the initiatives of young musicians in Leeds in 1978 as the inspiration of their predecessors in radical performance in West Yorkshire that formed the cultural environment in which Impact got started and quite naturally their work clearly reflects that environment. A third and less easily described influ ence on their work is the social, political and aesthetic environment of Leeds itself. It is perhaps an impossible and unneces sary task to see this as anything more than a quite natural influence that any environ ment has on any artists work but whenever I see an Impact show, whether it is the whimsical 'Undersea World of Erik Satie' or the more aggressive new work 'Usefu l Vices', there is a raw, expressionist quality that always reminds me of the dank world of unmodernised, Victorian terraces of northern industrial towns. For anyone who is at all familiar with Impact Theatre that world will know that it contains a bohemian element of backyard netties, brown ale and fiercely intellectual and anic methods of working and at the same styles. Having established these criteria radical politics . Impact , more clearly than time absorb the creative input of a large they develop the performance through almost anyone else, represent this vital, circle of artists who contribute to each group improvisation and discussion . This discreet and peculiarly northern element of show so that each show, despite changes of method of working ensures equal import English intellectual life. designer or performers remains distinct ance is given to all aspects of the perform These three formative influences add ively an Impact show. ance and that nothing is superfluous or up to an uncompromising and committed The process of developing a new work purely decorative. The purpose of the per political and theatrical radicalism that is so involves three strands of imaginative in formance is always kept uppermost and it intense that it can sometimes look like vestigation. Firstly they establish a is probably Impacts greatest strength that youthful naivety but which is nevertheless cultural milieu , whether historical post every element of design, sound and perfor always aesthetically , and intellectually rig war Berlin (as in Dammerungstrasse SS) or mance are vital to the explication. It has orously disciplined . imaginary (the big-brother future of Cer also led to some criticism that their work This kind of discipline has been made tain Scenes). They also establish a philos does . not follow any systematic develop possible by the stability of the central core ophy, what it is they want to say, and lastly ment from show to show, one show will be group of Impact members who have been they determine the performance style, verbal and the next non-verbal, but together since the beginning. This stability whether it is to be verbal or non-verbal, Impacts development has been quite clear has allowed them to develop their own org- physical or visual or a combination of ly in refinement of their skills and their

comes a prize precious enough to kill for, a packet of cigarettes is enough to persuade an ordinary woman to prostitute herself. Survival is the uppermost consideration and morals and human values have become mortal traps. Without resort to cliche it brilliantly reveals the cliche that just below the facade of civilisation lies a brutal anim al. In the four years of their life they have produced eleven shows, four of which were for children. They have lived the almost inevitable life of gruelling onenighters, with minimal public subsidy, but they have developed a large and extremely loyal following across the country. They have performed in London rarely and with little visibility but now they have just completed a very successful two week run of their cur rent show 'Useful Vices' at the ICA. This must appear as some kind of recognition and it comes at a time when the company are feeling the need , as most companies at some point do, to take a major step forward and stop the constant onenighting and to find ways of working in a larger and less pressured way. 'Useful Vices' is a typically bold and rigorous work . Set in the tribal milieu of East End gangland of the 1950s the show is loosely based on Conrad's 'Heart of Dark ness'. It concerns a 'family' of three broth ers and a sister one of whom has committed a murder, a killing that is justified within the ethical code of this rigidly structured world. The family escape on a boat up Thames, which, through a process of in ventive and simple theatrical devices brings the killing and the ethical code that endorses it into confrontation with the ethical codes of South American Head hunters, contemporary suburbia and a clinical, technological future. These comparisons are reinforced by the varying phenomenologies of the different cultures. A constant motif of a red bird occurs in each world, and in each it is given a differ ent value. The same bird is given either an aesthetic, a symbolic or an ornithological value according to the world it is in. The relativity of the act of killing to the ethical code in which it occurs as it is revealed by the journey forces the responsible brother to doubt the nature of his own ethics which he had believed to be absolute. The boat journey becomes a metaphor of the psych ological journey to the soul, the Heart of Darkness, which is the only real judge of our actions . There he finds the truth, that the killing was a crime against humanity, and punishes himself with guilt and fear and in the admission of his sin he finds for giveness. 'Useful Vices' is a complex multi layering of ethical and phenomenological philosophies. It confronts the very con temporary nightmare, that in a fragmented world, where all philosophie s are available to us, how should I behave? It is intensely intellectual, ranging across sometimes clear sometimes obscure historical, art his torical and philosophical quotations. Yet the performance is sustained through its complexity and obscurity by the strength

into the other are elements clearly visible in Barricade of Flowers starts with the mone Imbalance amongst others and fitted the final show. two performers, faces and hair whitened as in well with the style of work. She began After initially approaching rehearsals to be almost identical, gently see-sawing on work with Anna directing and performing collectively, Anna began to take on a more a giant pink see-saw. They are linked this time, the company was also joined by directorial role, scripting work as it pro throughout by a scarlet satin umbilical Jeanette Iljon , who would produce film gressed, translating images into theatrical cord, a physical connection that seems to and slides and Sylvia Hallet creating a mus terms. They had found a space that allowed · negate verbal communication, their vocal ical soundtrack. them to fantasise - wanting to be knee exchanges are reduced to the barest twit After two weeks of rehearsal, Kate deep in fresh flowers found its expression terings and chantings. Oven came in to design the production that with the stage for Barricade strewn with Images tumble over each other; the see would become Dirt. paper roses. saw becomes a table for a feast of La This show was to continue the explora Moving away from the text they work Grande Bouffe dimensions, each slyly wat tion of inner and outer lives, specifically in ed through sequences using particular per ching the other to see how much is devour the context of women as performers and, sonal objects round which to base improvi ed, a silver fish is whisked from between a even more specifically, drawing upon wo sations, developing what they describe as madonna's thighs, a fridge is opened , grail men who perform in bed and on the 'a complicity with the object', where the like for worship at the shrine; all the senses streets, prostitutes. Dirt would be about performer is a component of a larger are assaulted by colour, sound, smell. Tot 'performance - the sex of theatre and the whole, which includes each object as equ ally fluid, the whole piece is yet as taut as a theatre of sex'. The intention was to resear ally valuable. high-wire. ch prostitution and develop a common Each item finally used for the perform Barricade of Flowers received a good viewpoint, but the issues constantly gave ance belonged to the performers, building deal of attention, touring England and rise to problems of interpretation. The that resonance of an inner life which infor Europe from February 1981 when it open need to express a 'correct ' viewpoint in med their relationships with each object. ed at the York and Albany for the Women terms of the women 's movement was im That inner story is something the perform in Theatre in London Festival, to May portant, but within it were many conflict er keeps for herself. 1982. The company offered workshops ing attitudes. The material was dense, con The process was at times a painful one; with the performances, partly as extra rev tentious, the desire to use new media at personal self-exploration and mutual self enue and partly because of the need to times got in the way of a clear expression. revelation is never easy, but the rewards share the processes of their work, in order Women Against Violence Against Wo came in performance. They had developed to demystify it. Anna in fact teaches move men (WAVAW) changed their line on pro an intuitive awareness of each other which ment at Rose Bruford College on a job stitution during the rehearsal period, issu gave their work an overwhelming intensity share basis. ing a statement condemning prostitution, of expression, leaving the audience feeling Through the workshops new company but not the women thems elves. This, even as though they were privately viewing the members have emerged. Stephani e Pugs tually, was the view of the company. inside of two people's heads. ley has worked with New Heart and Hor - Sex and Militarism were major aspects 10

Dear Performance magazine, I am a London based performance artist. My latest performance at Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth (2nd of October 1982) has been misrepresented by the press SLI and the seriousness of its content largely doubted or ignored. I have written to the Editor of 'The Rowover Mona's art show News ' newspaper in Portsmouth, challen ging the author of a particularly slanderous article (see Silver's column ) and my letter A naked woman will "struggle" for three hours in red slime was ignored . at a Southsea art gallery on Saturday in a performance backed I am writing to you because I feel that by ratepayers' and taxpayers' cash. the voice of Mr Silver has been heard in a wider context than my performance could And that is crazy, according to the Chairman of Hampshire Ratepayers' reach (the newspaper readers ) and I have Federation (Mr. John Starling). been denied access to that same audience therefore allowing his remarks to remain "Someone wants their of the Portsmouth Association performance is considered con of Community Standards. troversial by some people. The unchallenged. The fact that my work has knuckles rapped. This is nude body has been a part of A spokesman for the Gal suffered numerous calculated distortions crazy at a time of financial art for centuries. restraint - or any other lery, Mr. Steve Chattle, said it in the hands of newspaper reporters is only was a serious performance. "Performance art is a rela time for that matter," he tively new ·art form. This a minor incident but I feel there is a need to "Performance art is gaining said. exhibition is controversial but I raise certain questions to do with press recognition as a powerful form The performance is planned of expression. This is an inno don't think an art gallery is reporting and the assumed authority of for the council-supported Art vatory piece of work by a doing its job if it is never reporters who claim to represent public Space Gallery at Brougham committed artist with some controve~ial, moving into new opinion and the whole question of mani Road, by artist Mona Hatoum. thing to say and we are very areas of art. "This is just one exhibition pulation of information not only in the Naked, and covered in red happy to put it on," he said. mud, she will spend three City Arts Administrator Mr. among many that have not small world of art but information that hours in a tall polythene box Chris Harrison believes the been controversial," said Mr. shapes our opinions, choices and our view trying to clamber out, failing performance will be less offen Harrison. because of the slime and sive than Fiona Richmond and The Gallery opened in June of the world in general. last year and, as well as an Mr Silver seems to have deep mistrust gradually disappearing from naked girls " without any view as the colour is smeared pretence of being art" posing annual £2,000 grant from the of the opinion of the public calling those over the plastic. A Palestinian, on the stage of the Kings City Council to cover adminis who responded positively to my work 'far she hopes the performance will Theatre , Southsea, also tration costs, it has this year out enthusiasts who thrive on symbolize isolation and backed by City and County been given a £6,000 grant by Southern Arts, which Ieceives controversy'. oppression. Councils. "I am just amazed, what can "That is deemed acceptable, cash from the County Council The response of people who attended I say?" said Mrs. Eileen Jones but nudity in an art gallery and the Government sup the performance in Portsmouth and who ported National Arts Council. had not seen such an art form before (being the first performance event in Portsmouth ) suggested a greater awareness of the issue the performance dealt with, namely the Palestinian issue which, ironically, has Row over vanishing naked artist been frequently written about in the press in recent months but Mr Silver refused to By KEITHNURSE housed in a former chuirch at galle,ry, said: "The cost to tl Aru Correspondent Portsmouth. public amounts to £70, whi, give it any notice in his article. is paid by the Southern A r Under the guise of evaluating the THE prospect of a naked At the gaHery la~ night one council a·nd I am surprised official insi·sted t½tat there was artistic merit of the work and choosing to woman artist disappear. the condemnation from som no 9.uestion of Miss Hatoum one who has never seen it sensationalise one aspect of the perfor ing, at public expense, phy&1cally writ'hin·g in the day. mance, Mr Silver has refused to give any withirt a polythene column, She would be firmly encarsed in Southe,rn Ants, the region polythene. arts associ,ation, made a gra importance to the content and by doing so amid surging brown clay, of £6,000 to the ga.Jl.ery, ar has only reinforced the local political brought a protest yes Strongly opposed it was from this that Mi Hatoum's show is being pai opinion about the issues expressed in the terday. But Mr John Spar·Mng, chair performance with a petty fostering of Mona Hatoum, a London man of Hampshire Ratepayers cliches and prejudices of 'modern art' and based Lebanese arti!Jt: wil}l be Foon ., suggested ~h:a the pJ.astic. " If any ratepayers' money Mr Silver's article could possibly attain. I 2 Her three-hour perfor,mance, is involved, then i-t must be clay gets do hope that my voice will at least be heard strongly opposed. I don't be symbolii&ingwhat has been des A NAKED woman will within the art context. cribed ,as it!he oppression of iliieve this performance is a va,Md an: form." writhe for three hours in Yours sincerely, women and isolation, ·wiill take brown clav at an art Mona Hatoum place at the A:spex Gial'lery, Mr Steve Ohettle, for the gallery in a performance backed bv £70 public cash 14

I have just received an article by John Sil ver entitled 'Modern Art? Yuk ... ' (Th e News , Fri. 8 Oct . 1982) in which he refers to my performance at the Aspex Gallery 'as Five exhibitions took place an expression of art, the spectacle ... is as in 1981 and this is the sixth this year. edifying as a pig wallowing in mud.' and "We aim to show all sorts of Modern art? dismi sses it by saying that ' ... her message visual arts . This will be the Yuk ... ws so obscure that only two or three mem second performance art work, bers of her audience claimed to' compre and it is only part of a show by As an expression of women artists whi ch has art, the spectacle Of a hend it.' already been seen in galleries naked young woman I would like to challenge Mr Silver to in other parts of the country . It struggling to extricate reply to these questions in his column: includes portraits among its herself from a pla:.tlc 1) Were you present when the work took painting s and other works,' ' box filled with red slime said Mr. Chettle . Is about as edifying e. a place at the Aspex gallery on the 2nd of pig wallowlng In mud. October? This unsavoury exhlbl 2) If you were present, did you interview t Ion, staged by P alestlnlan artist Mona or ask questions to the estimated 80 Hatoum at a SouthN& people who were present at different art gaHery,-s meantto times during the performance to back convey the struggle for up your claim? The tone of your article survival against tensions and oppressions In suggests clearly to me that you have Lebanon. Or maybe It compiled your article from other was something to do newspaper reports. This may be ac with women's problems ceptable newspaper practice but it (the performer appeared Nudehas to be hedging her bets does nothing for truth. on the Issue). 3) Were you really so offended by the fe It did not really matte, male body Mr Silver or is it really that - her message wn so your slanderous remarks are disguis obscure that only two or three members of her ing a crude and cynical manipulation ticketto of local political issues? audience claimed to comprehend It. 0 ne I would like to point out to Mr Silver wonders Just how many that there is nothing 'edifying' or 'savoury' art lovers would have attended the bizarre in the way the Palestinian people are being writhe peepshow If Mias treated in Lebanon and elsewhere. As a Hatoum hed c:hoNn to Palestinian I demand the right to express A NAKED woman is wriggle fully clothed In my anger, despair and horror at the un being paid with rate her simulated torment. The question now for speakable brutalitie s commited against my payers' money . . . to the Aspex Gallery in people . I have done so with the most ap writhe in a pile of Brougham Road is huw propriate means at my disposal - my body clay at an art show. do they follow this asi and the whole of myself - within the con nine production. Witlt a Mon a Hatoum , a Lebanese can of worms, maybe? text of art. artist, will pe rform for Mona Hatoum three h ours at the exhi Or a couple of snakes bition in Po rtsmo uth, writhing In a rucksack? R ants. It might be funny If And local ratepayers are were not so ludicrous - furious they are footing and If the gallery In th e £70 bill. question was not payrtlg H am p shire Ratepayers' for Its eccentricities with Fede rat ion chairman grants funded . by John Starling said: taxpayers and " Someon e wa nt s their ratepayers. knuckles rapped. Art teacher Mr. Dave Allen, of St Luke's Oppression School, hailed the slime - covel"IICIdamsel as not " I do n't believe this per . only '' splendid" but form a,nce is a valid art "moving and powerful." form." It -s ever thus. Any A rt ga ller y spokesman meaningless and worth- Steve Chettle sai d: ''The 1es s contribution ot symbolism involved is modern art will always important. find a few way-out en "Being naked is evidence thusl11ts who thrive on of isolation and the clay deepens the sense of controversy and who will oppre ssion she fee ls as see all sorts of a woman and possibl y significance In some a,s a Lebanese ." thing which has none. If this is the best that modem art can offer, let !1'1 us bring back the Old iit English Masters. At least 1d their message was clear 5S and their talent Inescap d. able. Who needs slime when Britain's heritage has so much genuine art Synopsis of performance by Mona sion, isolation , alienation as a Palestiniar · ,lunging into and culture to offer? Hatoum, October 2nd, 6pm-9pm. woman. A human figure reduced to a form covered The live action lasts for three hours and in clay, trapped , confined within a small is accompanied by three different sound .n art grant structure, struggling to stand up again and tapes contin uously blasting the space from financial restr ain t- or at any again, slipping and falling again and different directions creating a collage of other time.' again .. . and there is no way out ... sounds: songs, news reports, conversa Art gallery spokesman Mr In this live work I try to confront the tions in English, French, Arabic and Steve Chettte said the per formance ·- wh \ch takes place audience with my experience of oppres- Hebrew. 15

...... A --,, ~

~ / .--....1 ."'""""' HAVE A NO N -SEXIST t, o N - flA ClST NO N - HIERAR CtUA L RELATIONSHIP t ·A Ol C: :::, 0 >-

.c~ ~ f fy (.!)

Chic Pix, an animated cartoon for Afterimage

It is a long way from the opulence of asts with little money, but a great desire to five-minute items. Whilst this may sound Channel Four's broadcast centre m find a new type of magazine programme like an unnecessary limitation, it has its Charlotte Street to a couple of sheds in that would be able to present contempor advantages . Few people not conversant Brixton that house After Image, just as it is ary arts on the television screen. The fruits with television production would guess a long way from the hierarchies of the tele of their early work are clearly visible in what a greedy consumer of material tele vision studio and production system to both their well form ulated policies, and in vision is. It takes a remarkable amount of After Image's remarkably co-operative the quality of their productions. material to make five minutes of good tele venture, as independent producers of an Unlike the technocra ts, they believe vision. Likewise , the advantages of work arts magazine slot for Channel Four. that there are a large number of people ing to a magazine format, which in its half In the last issue of Performance I working in the arts who have good ideas for an hour crosses a broad range of arts (and voiced doubts that the television medium television. And they, quite rightly, draw a audience ) interests are not to be sneezed at. would allow artists to 'get to grips with firm distinction between people with a Certainly the preview material that I television technology ', and that it would good idea that can be televised, and an idea have seen shows no sign of limitations. package artists' work with little consider for an original television programme. they From Pookiesnackenburer 's Brighton ation or sensitivity. I am happy to make an categorically refuse to 'point a camera' at Rockish musi cal, through Masi's images of exception in the case of After Image. Their an existing performance or piece of sculp tribal and urban life, to Psychic TV's own half-hour slot is scheduled to begin in ture, rather they have encouraged artists to inimitable polemic, each is a compact and April, under the title Alter Image, and will think about the elements of their work that crystal clear statement. The overall effect run for about three months. In any one might work well on TV, and to create a of a thirty minute programme may leave programme you might find yourse lf watch special television project out of them. the viewer bruised, but certainly not in a ing work by dancers, theatre groups , Quite apart from the programmes they are TV stupor. Each piece shows not only a artists, performers, fashion designers , making, they are engaged in a very impor consciousness of the television medium, musicians, the famous and the infamous in tant exercise in raising artists' awareness of but a desire to fully exploit, as relevant, the a spikey and stimulating format. the potential of the television medium . potential technology. Broadcast TV is, for How have they managed to avoid the The majority of items they will broad the most part, notoriously unimaginative pit-falls of television , and its cosy bland cast have originated from discussions in its use of technology, and it is not sur ness? The answer must lie partly in the fact between After Image and the artists, with prising that when artists are allowed the that After Image came into life a number of the only constraints on projects being time. space to spread their wings they can show years before Channel Four contracts were They can rarely afford more than one day us just how much television we have been Ol C: in the offing, started by a group of enthusi- on recording, and aim to tailor work to missing - which says a lot for the confi- :::, 0 >- 16 E co .c ~ (.!)

When I reviewed New York video last suggesting the undifferentiation of infant ambiguity and ensure conformity to a issue, I wondered whether its prediliction ile perception (only gradually do we distin narrow range of social stereotypes. for media piracy and electronic music guish the parts from the continuum that is 'T he Extent of 3 Bells' ( 1981) features a would infiltrate the more structural work mother/child ). Within the limitations of musical calculator and the artist's imperf of British artists. Steve Hawley has already spoken language , Steve Hawley begins to ect rendition of 3 notes and all their permu combined Structuralism's linguistic pre describe his earliest childhood memory, tations. A delightful tune is then construct occupations with a more American interest musing on his sense of being ' ... a spectator ed out of a boy's (embarrasse d) oohs and in technology. Hi s own brand of English of my own memories'. Later, the sorry tale aah s conducted with the light traces of irony and the occasional complexity of his of a schoolboy humiliation takes shape moving candles. The new order that the ideas do not preclude a simple delight in a while the camera slowly reveals the image video artist can create from breaking up tune, an electronic conjuring trick or the as a monitor in a concrete space. The the old order of narrative is explored in fractured sights and sound s of an indoor video-confessional aspect of the work other works. Sentences are cut up , repeat swimming pool. interested me in that personal revelation ed, re-repeated and a fast rythm of words In 'New Laws of Chess' (1982) there is has been a feature of much feminist art (the and lightning associations are built up; a brisk series of geometric images: sky personal being political ). Steve Hawley 's divers criss-cross the air like a spray of scrapers, railway tracks, paving stones piece thankfully avoided this is me/spots & bullets; a trail of wax spots measures the intercut with the organic disarray of blos all/you'd better like it touch, characteristic temporal space of a heavily fragmented soming trees, sea-spray and a tangled of male interpretations of the personal. dialogue - impossible to reconsruct; an graveyard. The rational rules of chess The modesty of his peformance provided unbelievable '50s advert for a washing gradually disintegrate until the 5th game exactly that degree of human contact with machine is revealed to be the context of a removes the board. Words animate and which he intended to lighten what could laboratory handling radio-active material. scatter, trees close in, fields and sunsets otherwise have been a highly abstruse The pleasure s of visual trickery are resist the logic of systems and a soft voice work. never denied, nor do they take precedence tries to count its way out of a dilemma. In 'Bad Reasons' (1982), he offers over the more philosophical aspects of Order and chaos, reason and intuition , humour as a point of access. The limita Steve Hawle y's work. The one-dimension the machine and the artist, these opposi tions of formal logic are demonstrated in ality of much American video is absent, so tions are recurrent themes of Steve Haw absurd examples of syllogisms set in a too its manic energy or laconic elegance. ley's work. 'Those Flashes of Insight children's book: 'All farmers are kind, this But being incurably European, I found Which' (give us a view of something as a man is a farmer, therefore he is kind. ' The myself well-disposed to Steve Hawley's whole, as opposed to reasoning which deals daily lives of Peter and Jane are peppered breadth of vision, and his attempts to with parts ), this tape proposes the con with categorical statements of the most reconcile opposites (the greatest fallacies of struction of a memory as a transition from pernicious kind. 'Peter likes to help Daddy all?). Finally, I heartily sympathised with the inexpressible proximity of feeling to on the car, Jane helps Mummy in the kitch the rough edges that betrayed a lack of the distance of articulation - the image. en and bring s the tea' or words to that decent equipment - poverty of sponsor The video is conceived along similar lines. effect. Life is pre-packaged into a tidy syst ship is not something the Americans Out of focus close-ups pan across the artist em of signs and meanings that reduce appear to suffer from . Catherine Elwes Masai in a Dance Performance for After Image

The tantalizing title 'Zen Abbatoir' refers both to an event and a group. As an event it represents one of the prevailing trends of presenting an evening's entertainment in an alternative space with a wide variety of media. Not easily definable, it incorpor ates music, performance and cabaret of dis parate variety and in this instance is held together by the continuous strand of video presentation. I went to see Zen Abbatoir at the London Film-makers Co-op. The other venues were the Hammersmith Idiot Ballroom and the Central 100 Club. The scheme of the evening was well worked out in theory. A programme listed Zen Abbatoir all the events to be held with a Swiss showing them both nude and indulging m The evening's acuvmes were con delight in time-tabling and a poster noted a series of sexual games showing a private tinued with more videos and a slide these in outline - 'Noise Pop & Motion activity to an unsuspecting public. presentation followed by a short interlude Pixtures Performance Akshun Animations Innocent enough in itself, the action given by Russ on guitar and shouting (not Slides/Tapes Evangelist Disco'. Inevitably becomes more sinister when one realizes well received ). More videos followed and the tight scheduling fell through in that the devices used to enhance pleasure then the third and fmal set of the evening practice but this didn't really seem to (bondage gear - heavy studded leather took its turn to perform live. This was the matter as the main constituent parts all belts, twine etc and toy guns) are of course group Zen Abbatoir and their contribution happened eventually. These featured a suggestive means of causing pain . The consisted of a series of songs accompanied performance by Andre Stitt and Tara slide sequence ends and immediately after by visuals. The feature of their music is Babel, an appearance by Russ (alias George this the two performers enter the room that it is played on a variety of non-instru Formby/The New ) and a musical set by fully dressed in red costumes. They ments - 'noise pop' as they call it. The the group Zen Abbatoir (perhaps better conduct a complicated weaving movement drum kit for example, resembled a sculp known as C.O.D.E .bmus by which name in which they each circle the floor but ture by Tinguely - bin lids, cake tins, they produced a 12" single with Rough never allow themselves to meet, to a scrap metal cymbals etc. were mounted Trade). These live appearances were rhythm dictated by a synthesized drum high on top of each other and some of the connected together by a video/disco beat. This leads to a silent communication other instruments were equally bizarre. with semaphor flags and culminates in a continuation and a large notice at the en The sound/noise concept although such a roll on the floor - a bodily contact that trance advertizing a raffle set the atmos well used idea in the twentieth century was suddenly seems violent after the previous phere for the evening - 'Everyone a given a further dimension here by the sequence . The sex/violence syndrome is Winner' it announced. 'First prize : A group 's incorporation of other media as an Night of Abuse. ' then reintroduced in a film episode which involves a python . First, the phallic power integral part of the performance . Slides The videos themselves were screened and film reels were shown, sometimes sim on two television sets placed obliquely side of the serpent is suggested by an image of a human hand stroking its sides . Next the ultaneously, and it was from these that the by side and relayed images simultaneously audience gained the gist of the group's to the accompaniment of records provided python is let loose and we see it stalking meaning, rather than from the lyrics which by the Evangelist disco. The most notable prey. A mouse is captured by a rapid were generally unintelligible. The first presentation here was a film of one of coiling movement and is then hypnotized film showed sequences from televized Alistair MacLennan's performances - the into total paralysis. Once this is complet fish piece. It was fascinating to see his ed, the python consumes the prey entirely news items interspersed with shots of a pig compelling and deliberate movements in whole through its gargantual jaws - a feat being dressed up in clothes and then close-up and even on a television screen, of brutality that is nevertheless natural and decapitated . The second film was a rather his presence was magnetic. yet has powerful sexual connotations . The effective animation made by members of Stitt and Babel began the evening's live film ends and the action is passed on to the the group depicting scenes from urban life. component with their latest collaborative live performers once more. They both The overall theme that came across was an performance 'Akshun - Terra Inc .' This retire to the back of the room and light indictment of the ugly face of capitalism carried on the use and theme of media that smoke capsules . Suddenly the silence is and of twentieth century power politics was so much a part of the event as a whole. smashed by a terrible noise and the two and the cacophany of sound showed the Rather than relying on pure performance people leave their performance space by way they felt about it. technique, the pair incorporated slides and walking, almost bumping their way This kind of event as a whole is not for film footage in this piece - an addition through the audience bearing fog horns those who like their performances neatly which worked very well considering the and forcing the spectators to make way for rounded and highly polished. I would have timing problems that this can so often them. preferred fewer delays but admired the present. The purpose of the 'akshun' was I was admittedly a little suspicious of this commitment that brought it together in the not explicit but as with other pieces by form of sensory assault as it can be an all first place. There is a lot of potential in live/ Stitt, some sort of clue seemed offered in too easy way of affecting the spectator but media collaborations of this type and an the title . My personal feelings were that a on the whole it seemed to fit in with the evening spent this way offers a challenging meaning was invited and I took that to be overall tenor of the piece. What did bother alternativ e to more conventional ways of an expose of violence. ('Terra Inc' ). As me though was the very unclear attitude to viewing the two. usual too, it seemed that shock techniques violence that underpinned the perform All very basic stuff and the quality of the were required to get the theme across . ance. Although apparently warning against music was not exactly great. But, at the end Rather than taking physical measures of the violence that leads to war and the situa of the day, there was a refreshing rawness violent destruction that were used at the tion in Northern Ireland, the attitude to in their approach - a directness and Cabaret Futura (dissecting a rabbit with a sexual violence was ambivalent to say the energ y that seems rare in our apathetic chainsaw ), Stitt and Babel use a milder least. These issues are too emotive not to be 'Eighti es. form of surprise on this occassion. The handled with clarity and Stitt's intention Anna Moszynska performance begins with a slide sequence should be made more obvious.

Brighton the performance he will be touring Future Ten se, The Life and Zap Club the streets of Cardiff looking for Death Show, anti-nuclear drawings which 'reflect his material for his performance. videotap es. dreams, reactions and encounte Info : 0273 606906/506471 February 9-11: Flying Pickets March 24: Nan Hoover, video and with the external world in the The Performance Nightlife February 16-19: Dance Wales phenomena hits Brighton . To be February 22-26: Rational Theatre performance . struggle for change in South reviewed soon. in Orders of Obedience. See March 31: Continuation of joint Africa . February 5: Venus in Furs, Review this issue. presentation with Film Co-op. February 15: Boomerang to the Randolph the Remarkable, March 3: New Arts Consort Apples and Snakes Source , music for the opening to March Bara Caws (Welsh Mivvys, C & H ,productions. 5: Info: 0 I 223 7031 the above show. language performance ) Poetry Cabaret. March 2 onwards: Moving Art. February 12: Alexi Alexander in March 18: Loi Coxhill February 5: Adrian Mitchell, Installation , painting and Garotting the Audience, Phantom March 26: Cardiff Laboratory of the Opera , Eastbourne Theatre Theatre in For A Lost Hour . A Ferenc Aszmann, Chand Sharma, sculpture exploring aspects of Company, Tom Dell celebration for the changing of the Jenny Lecoat. movem ent. February 19: Cabinet of Dr clocks. February 12: Ghosts of Individ March 28-31: Akademia Ruchii. Galigari-Y orkshire Actors, Lyn uals, including Patrik Fitzgerald , B2 Recent work by powerful Polish Thomas. John Hollingsworth, Anne Clark, Info: 0 I 488 9815 Group. February 6: Simon Lane-Reading, February 26: Sue Carpenter , Otiz Kevin Hewick. February 19: Tom Pickard , Peter The Fish Starts Smelling At the Cannelloni, Dance Factor. Head + Film . March 5: Extremists in an Igloo, London Campbell , City Lines , Rory February 13: Neo Naturist s in Event Group , John Hegley . Air Gallery (London Video Arts) McLeod . Cro-Magnon Woman . March 19: Peters Army Info : 01 278 7751 February 26: Joolz, Emile February 20,27: American Video March 26: Roland Miller and Tim February 10: Dion and Poloni. Sercombe, Don Carroll, Newton selected by Mark Nash . March 6: Maureen O'Paley, Stuart Bat. Canadian video artists present Neurotics. recent works . Full programme for March, not Jane, Michael Rose. Film/Performance - Greater February 17: Neil Armstrong, yet confirmed. Bristol The One. Arnolftni video tapes . Battersea Arts Centre March 13-20: Continuous video/ Info : 0272 299191 February 24:. Iron in Flesh Info: 01 223 8413 film installation s by Jo Camino, February 22-26: Basement in presents Land Murder , February 2-27: Clapham Studios, Jim Diver, Judith Goddard , Ian Bristol. Basement Group from performance with video, music. using the gallery as a workshop Kerr, Michael Kosti ss, Steve Newcastle group show, with March 3: Susan Taylor, perform and studio space, aiming to Littman, Zoe Redman , Julia ance. complete paintings, drawings and Percy, Cordelia Swann, Cerith video, film, and performance from Wyn Evans. March 10: Joint presentation with sculpture during the first two Belinda Williams, John Bewlay, March 27: Mick Aslin, Julia weeks, giving the public the John Kippin, John Adams, London Film Co-op, video, film, Percy, Simon Phillips, Matthew Richard Grayson and Ken Gill. performance by women artists . chance to see artists at work and Bower - Film/video performance. (See feature this issue. ) March 17: Joram Tenbrink of to talk with them. March 22-27: Jeremy Welsh, Febru ary 25-26: Roberta Graham Moonshine Video workshop, Also, in the Cafe, Lefili Tladi , video installation. in Campo Santo, installation and performance . February 26: Jan Steele and Janet Sherbourne. Experimental music. March 1-5: Ian Breakwell, instal lation , drawings , film, video. Mar ch 10-16: Rational Theatre/ Malcolm Poynter in Orders of Obedi ence. (See review this issue.) Includes sculpture by Malcolm Poynter in Gallery. March 18-19: Impact Theatre in Useful Vices.

Cardiff

Chapter Arts Info : 0222 396061 February 1-5: Bob Carroll, with Belinda Neave, Dave Sulzer, and the Pioneer s in Cardiff Dirt Show. 'An exposur e to Carroll is like riding a freight train through the conscience of the cosmos ... a one man rock-opera without the mu sic, a tribal story -teller with out the costume and a cynic without bitterness, Carroll is also an actor who rejects form, who starts the show by throwing his coat in the corner , reaching for his beer stash and offering a can to someone in the audience.' (Montreal Gazette) Carroll's appearances here are apparently legendary, and two weeks prior to

Cockpit Theatre Eccentric Enterprises essential show, as all the other savvy, concrete sensuality and Info: 0 I 402 508 I Info: 01 969 7019 dates are now sold out. rock'n roll ... a tribute to adoles Angels of Fire: Festival of New February 25: Eccentric Enter March 1-5: Unconfirmed contin cent sexuality'. Poetry, February 7-12. prises presents the 'Has Anyone uation of Secret Gardens. February 24-25: Phillip Grosser Every night: Open hour for new Here Seen Kelly Show', Poetic March 6: Lost Jockey. March 10-ll : Carolyn Adams poets, plus Knife in the Light, a and Jazzy search for the Hamp March 16 onwards: IOU Theatre London Musicians Collective stage poem by Jay Ramsay. Plus; stead intellectual. Company in The Patience of Info: 01 722 0456 with compere Sylvia Paskin : At the Gypsy Queen, 166 Malden Fossils. Regular events: February 7: Benjamin Zepheniah, Rd. London NW5 . Featuring: Ian ICA Gallery : March 2 onwards: Fridays: The Early Club F . Dhondy, H .O. Nazareth, Alev, Hinchliffe, Terry Day, Maggie Artists-Architecture; Scenes and Sundays: Communication Club Allen Fisher, Jeremy Silver. Nicholls, Bob Flag and various Connections. Installation by Thursdays: The famous LMC February 8: Micheline Wandor, artists. General Idea and Video by Dan Club Club Night. Graham. March 25-28: Fast and Loose '83. Tina Reid, Stef Piimer, Maureen Electrum Gallery A non-stop (well almost) 3 day Duffy, Paul Buck, Berta Info: 01 735 6633 Oval House Info : 01 735 2786 roof-raising bonanza bringing pop, Freistadt. February 8 onwards: Media Arts February 2-13: A Late Show. Japanese, Greek, Afro-Caribbean, Wednesday February 9: James Group in Paper Plus. Continuous About the inner relationships of a improvised and composed music Berry , Mario Bayer, Helen installation plus occasional group of lesbians stranded in a together, including concerts, Deniston, Taggart Deike, performance. ' ... basically the idea cabin by a snowfall. By Jane workshops, contemporary films, Geoffrey Godbert, Sue Hubbard . is that anyone can be a perform Chambers, directed by Kate public discussion about films on February 10: Libby Houston, ance, anyone can be art, because I Crutchley. music, Cornelius Cardew pieces, Dinah Livingstone, Christopher feel the human form is such art. Cardale, Frederick Williams, What I am doing is taking that Madge Heron, Jeff Cloves, Pete basic figure and transforming it Zero. into living paintings or sculptures February 11: Joolz, Slade the by adding the elements that will Leveller , Little Dave, Little be on exhibit at the gallery. When Brother , Seething Wells, Don they are on they act as perform Carrol. ance elements, and when they are February 12: Jay Ramsay, Keith off, they act as documentation of Jefferson, Michele Roberts , Alison the performance. Fell, Ferenc Aszmann. ICA Dance London 83 Info: 930 0493 Info: 01 388 2211 February 2-6: Omnibus from (Various venues) Montreal present Beau Monde . February 11-13: Laurie Booth February 3: Jean Paul Curtay in February 28-March 6: Maedee How Do You Feel About.. ... (A Dupres and friends non-verbal sound performan ce) March 10-20: Will Gaines and It Would Blow Our Minds March 16-18: Selwa Rajaa (Mental Music for Survivors). Of March 20-27: Janet Smith and him John Cage said: 'His manner Dancers was striking. It was intense and March 26-April 8: Alpana somewhat alarming ... That I Sengupta found the brief performance Drill Hall Curtay gave me last fall in Paris Info : 637 8270 alarming is no criticism of it. To February 6: Nexus Opera frighten is one of the classical February 2-6: Three Women ill an all-Japanese group, and the March 17-19 GLC Nuclear aesthetic effects of a work of art in Clotted Cream and Wound s. very best of todays improvised Bunker Party Indian traditional terms.' February 9-13: Theatre Babel in music . March 22 onwards: Monstrous February 9-29: Secret Gardens . Memorial. Grotowski Theatre Their motto is 'never a dull Regiment in 3 Monologues. - I'm An ICA collaboration between Laboratorium based performance moment '. Ulrike, I'm Screaming - Muller, Tim Albery, Geraldine Pilgrim , and research company. A perfor John Whiting in Playback III Freaked Out Muller/Diary of a Ian Spink and Antony McDonald. mance evolved from the confront (Melvyn Poore), and the word was Prost itute in a Madhouse. By A comp lex piece of visual theatre ation existing between inhabitant s made flesh (Henry Brown) based Dario Fo and Franca Rame. which like the book The Secret and their environment - the on the writings of Alfred Jarry , March 1-12. Doppelganger in Garden, explores fantasy and wasteland of war. Of Passchen and combines religous and erotic Broken Years. A collage of obsession in the lives of the dale, of Hiroshima, of future fantasy with pataphysical material wartime photos, songs, letters and characters but moves beyond the possible wastelands, the wasteland to form an elaborate theatre piece. poetry - the plans that succeded childhood of the novel. The adults created by, and surrounding February 15: Maedee Dupres and and those that ended in bloody in Secret Gardens, from the hum anity and the consequent Lindsay Cooper. Newly created tragedies - a story of survival and fictional Mary of the book to the 'wasteland ' existing in the performance with music by veterans, of social disorder and tragic heiress Nancy Cunard, are individual. The perform ance has Maedee Dupres . making do - two broken people bound together in a tale of what evolved from English, German, Music Theatre Festival meet during broken years and men and women do to each other and Japanese texts and imagery. (New MacNacghten Concerts) attempt to break down the in the name of love and in pursu it Laban Centre Info : 0 I 387 9629 barri ers between them. An of their own 'secret gardens '. Info : 01 692 4070 (At Bloomsbury Theatre and impressioni stic tale told through February 20: Laurie Anderson in February 4: Marta Renzi and Logal Hall) Doppelganger 's distinctive musical United States Parts 1-4. (At Dancers. Only UK performance February 5: Vocem in Dum and physically based performance Dominion Theatre .) An extra of this New York group described (Roger Marsh), A Ronne (Luciano style. performan ce of this absolutely as 'a remarkable tribute to street Berio), Andante Cantabile (Steve

Stanton ), Bass Drum (Alan Belk). melt s and the day gets hotter. March 26: Glassworks in Project. Northampton February 7: Carles Santos, solo Goldfish and terrapins attack Northampton Co-operative programme for extend ed voice and innoc ent citizens. Carefree Newcastle Music piano . shopper s are sucked down drains Basement Group Info: 0604 '61666/403322 February 11: John Pott er and without warning. Some blame Info: 0632 614527 March 18-19: Oral Complex, with Teenagers. Others , the govern February 2: Ian Boddy, Sound Bob Cobbing, Clive Fencott, John The Slammer men t. And some the Stranger. Installat ion. Whiting. Info: 01 677 4085 Febru ary 15-19, 22-26: IOU February 5: Julian Maynard Performance and workshop . Performance selected by Richard Th eatre in a new work created in Smith, Performance . Strange. (See Performan ce and Manchester . February 9: 6 French artists from Nightlife , this issue.) Nottingham February 12-25: T heatre Totale in Paris, Performance . February !: Theatre Katharti c in Midland Group Movie, Movie. A non-naturalistic February 12: Mineo Aayama Current Event , Current Think , Info: 0602 582636 irnagistic show combining the guchi, 24 hour work . Hermine , and Popul ar History of February 9-10: Fergus Early in Signs. Are you right there Michael, are February 8: The Copy, The you right? Oblivion Boys, The Event Group, February 17-18: Maedee Dupres Richard Strange and Rene Eyre. and Friends in Face On a collab February 15: Death Magazine '62. oration of dance, music and film, (Birmingham -based performance with music by Lindsay Cooper, group ), Katha Munnery , Bob dance by Richard Alston, and film Connolly . by Sally Potter. February 22: Rosei Gibb , Rene February 25: Virginia Astley plus Eyre , The People Upstairs , French and Saunders . Japanese Theatre of London . March 3-4: Monstrous Regiment March ! : Frank Chickens : (All in 3 Monologues by Dario Fo. Japanese female Karaoke singers, March 9: Electronic Music Now . recommended. ) Tim Souster, sound projection, Any performance artists wishing and John Wallace, trumpet. to appear at the Slammer should March 16: New Arts Consort. call Richard Strange at the above March 25: Killer Koala, The number. Gymslips. Coming Soon: Silvia Ziranek , Ian Smith. Sheffield Zena Naj Bo Doma Cabaret Expanded Media Show Info : 01 607 2861 Info: 0742 5610 I Pub Cabaret with lots of perform Until February 11, daily perform ance, reviewed this issue. Dates ance, video, film, exhibitions and unconfirmed; ring above number. lectures by the following artists: For advice and information on Charlie Hooker, Sonia Knox, London arts venues, including Karen Knorr, Steve Hawley, Tim access and facilities for disabled Cawkwell, Roberta Graham, people, call Artsline on 01 625 Andre Stitt , Sharon Kivland, 5666 Tue-Fri, 12-4pm, Sat Chris Andrews, Ian Breakwell, 10-2pm. Anne Rees-Mogg, Paul Burwell, Chris Garrat , Ian Bourne, Tina Leicester Keane , Nigel Rolfe. The Magazine Info : 0742 660143 Wolverhampton Live Art Works. Wolverhampton Polytechnic Thur sdays, March 24, 31, April 7. Arena Space . Different programme each week Ian Hinchliffe with famous pot plant in an Eccentric Evening February 10: Marty St James and including Roland Miller , Feminist techniques ot the silent movie Febru ary JS-Ii': Peter Margeram, Anne Wilson . (Info this perf. Art Group (Nottingham ) and with dialogue, music, movement , Sound Installation . only, OJ 254 2410) other s to be announced. tap dancing and slides, to create February 19: Ian Walker, Film an outrageous total experience that and tape slide work . Touring Manchester sets reality against reality . Febru ary 23: Stuart Marshall, Forkbeard Fantasy P.A .T. (Radiator) 'The first large scale performance Video Installation . Info : Droxford 605 Info : 061 224 0020 event to be held in the NW for March 2: Craig Sisman, Touring the Brontosaurus Show. February 10-11: Cliff Hanger in many years (possibly since the end Performan ce. March 4-5: Tower Arts Centre, The y Came From Somewhere of the advance of the glaciers.)' Winchester . Else . 'Middle ford is a New Town . March 3-5: Jacky Lansley in 'The March 12: Nan Hoover (Holland), March 9-10: Aspex Gallery, Its inhabitant s are modern, Impersonators' . Video and Performanc e. Portsmouth . prosperous, busy and normal. March 10-11: Monstrous March 19: Joel Hub aut March 13: Zap Club Brighton . Many of them have jobs. They Regiment in 3 Monologues by (Normandy ), Performance. New Arts Consort eat, sleep, live, smile, dance and Dario Fo. Coming in April : Charlie Hooker , Info : 0222 25650 cry and, when it is necessary, they March 12: British Events in The Event with choreographed cars in Music for ensemble, film, buy shoes or wash up . Then the Island . Also, Dave Stephens Talks Gateshead multistore y car park . video and dance . Influences range Strang er arrives , and nothing will His Way Out of It. See art icle this issue about from systems music to Latin ever be the same again. The snow March 17-18: Bloodgroup in Dirt. Basement Group . American . Music by Charles

Barber, Film and video by Mike March 9: Trinity College, Leeds. Art. See profile this issue. Stubbs, performance by Nigel March 10: Bretton Hall, March 16: Midland Group, February 22-27: Ralph Thorsby Community Theatre, Leeds. Gilvier. Wakefield . Nottingham . Birmingham. March 3: Chapter, Cardiff. March 11: Polytechnic, March 17: Phoenix, Leicester. March 9: North Cheshire College, March 5: The Premises, Norwich. Sunderland . March 18: Thamesdown Arts, Warrington March 6: Blackfriars Theatre, March 13: Dovecot Arts Centre, Swindon. March 11-12: Exeter University Boston . Stockton. March 19: Almeida, London . March 14: Rolle College, Exrnouth March 6/7: Centre for Arts, March 14: Ilkley College. Impact Theatre March 18-18: Arnolfini, Bristol Birmingham . March 15: Chesterfield College of Info: 0532 445972

,it Forkbeard Fantasy on Tour LIVE ART NOW If you want to keep in touch with the radical and experimental end of the arts in Britain, a subscription to Performance Magazine, the Review of Live Art, is essential. Our team of writers experienced in theatre, dance, art and life bring the latest news, comment, analysis every two months, along· with artists documentation and the only national performance listings service in existence. No event is too extreme to be considered, no institution too established to escape comment. Read about Laurie Anderson, Stuart Brisley, Lumiere and Son, Hesitate and Demonstrate, William Burroughs, John Cage, Cathy Berberian, New York, Italy, Japan, Neo-Naturism, Video, Magic and more and more and more ......

Six issues annually at £6.50 (individuals) £11.00 (Libraries, institutions and overseas.)

I would like to subscribe to Performance Magazine starting with No. (please ring) 17 18 19 20/21 22 23 I enclose cheque/postal order for ______payable to Performance Magazine Name Address ______

Please send this form to: Theatre Despatch, 31 Shelton St. London WC2 9HT .

This year the Brooklyn Bridge is a hun of movement that open up when you are off women sit on chairs hung from them. Two dred years old. Station House Opera have the ground. waitresses wearing parachute harnesses, been invited to take part in the celebra On the ground, you can stand, sit, lie connected by a wire over a pulley, travel up tions, by performing in the tall, church down, jump . In the air these things lose and down from table to table. At the top sized vaults inside the anchorage piers of their meaning. In practice, in the air you table are rows of bottles, glasses, and the bridge. This will be one of a series of are normally spoken of as either falling or weights. The first half of the performance performances this summer organised by flying. There are not many words for demonstrates the workings of this con Creative Time in New York. human activity in the air, because of our in struction. Using the weights to bring them Today the Brooklyn Bridge is an object experience of it. Roll, soar, bank, dive - down, the waitresses distribute the bottles of sentiment, a piece of history providing the aeroplane's vocabulary is taken from and glasses to the tables, and when they an affirmation of the new American values. the bird's, and it doesn't refer to humans have been drunk, clear away the empties to When it was built, it was the largest, but to machines. Usually, humans who are the bottom table. The weights that collect longest, most advanced construction of the in the air are in something that might as at the bottom are passed up from table to industrial age. It used innovative technol well be, or actually is, on the ground - a table to the top. The whole process is very ogy to express an ageless fantasy to suit plane, or a skyscraper. The activities they difficult to control, because of the nature of modern requirements. This fantasy of pursue and the attitudes they assume the construction. With these dangers, triumph over gravity, and ultimately of would be no different if they were on the every movement must be signalled. When flight, was the force behind the building of ground. a movement is from the top to the bottom, five of the seven wonders of the ancient If you can fly, you are a bird, a bat, an all five tables and both waitresses must world, and of the Gothic churches, as well insect, or dreaming. If you are human, you signal their readiness. Each performer has as the twentieth century aeroplane and can dream, or you can stand, sit, lie down, an instrument - a whistle, gong, trumpet, rocket. Consistantly, people have tried to jump, or fall. All you need to sit is a chair. handbell, etc. Rehearsals will reveal the imagine an escape from worldly con With a few articles of furniture with you, it actual system of signals used, as well as all straints, by lifting up heavy, earthly is not difficult to do these things up in the details of performance, and the entire masses and making them reach to heaven air. If you accept the virtues of suspension, second part. It is the unpredictable or across the sea. you can dispense with the things humans behaviour of the construction that will Bridges are practical solutions to don't need, like walls, ceilings, floors, necessitate its own, functional music. practical problems. The fantasy is used to wings, fusilages, lifts, and balloons. These The second part will elaborate on the shape the physical future. In painting the things are needed by buildings, aeroplanes discovered irregularities of the system. As fantasy of flying is relieved of any necessity and the like, which we have abandoned bottles accumulate on a table, this may lead to deal with gravity. But in the theatre, along with the fantasy of true flying, in to strategies of drunkeness. Drink spilt on because a human body off the ground is order to find out what you can do with sus clothes and tableclothes may lead to the remarkably heavy and unwieldy, flying has pension. They turn out to be unpredict supporting cables being used as clothes suffered from the impossibility of making able. In a world without floors you are out lines . The waitresses may tire of their job the image well. Dramatically, 'there is of touch with your surroundings. Things and sit at the vacant chairs at the centre rarely any need to elaborate on the mere tend to be unstable . You can be seasick table . If they remove their harnesses, their fact of flying. Of the two kinds of harness while sitting on a chair, or jump sixty feet roles may be adopted by those at the tables available, neither can be worn for more up and not come down. Without the need above and below. The tendency for a table than five minutes without agony. Flying for legs as points of support, you can stand, to capsize when one person leans towards becomes a question of a quick up and sit and lie down any way up . someone leaning away may be the reason down. It remains a fantasy for the design The performance is a development for doing it, disguised as physical assault. ers as well as audience. In theatre no-one from 'Drunken Madness, Invertebrate For the solitary drinker at the bottom has yet used the fantasy to produce a Living', (reviewed by Leslie Dick in Per table, the decision by his chair to fly to the practical solution, as they have in engineer formance Magazine no.15). It lasts one top table may lead him to become a dog. ing. No-one has explored the positions and hour. Five tables hang from wires in a Julian Maynard-Smith motions of a body in mid-air, or the routes vertical column sixty feet high. Men and

This issue of Performance Magazine has been reproduced as part of Performance Magazine Online (2017) with the permission of the surviving Editors, Rob La Frenais and Gray Watson. Copyright remains with Performance Magazine and/or the original creators of the work. The project has been produced in association with the Live Art Development Agency. Review Raid On The Companies that create genuinely dynamic and exciting images are pretty thin on the ground these days . Rational Theatre shows Inarticulate. always have at least one particular image that is brilliantly simple in conception and compelling to watch in exucution. In 'Chi cken Tikka', a humourous speculation that the afterlife consists of an endless wait bet ween courses in an Indian restaurant, there is a moment towards the end when the walls of the restaurant collapse to reveal a blaze of light out of which walks a human oid cockerel. No less compelling is the image with which their latest show 'Orders of Obedience' begins. A slightly raked platform almost com pletely occupies the end of the ICA theatre support:ng a wasteland that suggests a lun ar landscape . A ravaged temple is hinted at in the fragments of fluted column that lie about. The mood is timeless and airless, a feeling echoed by the chalky textures and the matt monochromes of this environ ment. Towards the back, the rake builds up into a cairn from the depths of which appears the first figure to risk venturing into this arid world. Pushing open a trapdoor, the figure inches upwards and the light pouring up G) from down below reveals it to be human 8. but androgynous. It has no hair or clothes . The natural colours and texture of skin I Rational Theatre in Orders of Obedience have been supersceded by a neutral white uniformity. Neither male nor female, reach their homeland and the stage is set And then on to a whole collection of without personality or identity, the figure for this drama of the naked ape . It has been shuffling movements, slapping move gradually emerging from the shaft is a star an eloquent introduction. Through a mini ments and peculiar ways of walking bent tling symbol of this animal known as hum mum of activity, attention has been focus double using the knuckles for support. anity . It has life, energy, possibly thought, sed on the raw material of life and theatre The applaudable lightheartedness seemed intelligence even but it is threatening in its - human beings in action - and given an out of step with the enigmatic content and ambivalence for it gives no signs as to its atmospheric key through these actions completely out of step with the spirit of the propensities. Despite the lack of accoutre being pitche~ against a qualifyig environ beginning. The unfortunate effect at times ments and an accompanying cultural ment. was one of being downright silly and the stance, the figure has an evil access to tech This initial episode of'Orders of Obed appearance of three men wearing horse nology anq standing waist high in the ience' deserves the lengthy consideration masks, Equus style, was plain ridiculous shaft, it produces binoculars and scans the given above because it showed the comp due to the leeway given by the admitted landscape. Two rays oflight shoot from the any at its best, creating dynamic visual humour of the piece. When two men re lenses and pierce the half-light, probing theatre around a coherent artistic policy (as moved their masks to wrestle in rugged beyond the figure 's own encapsulated outlined by Peter Godfrey in Performance Lawrentian fashion, the commentary that world and into the dazzled eyes of the audi Magazine issue no. 20/21). This strong pointed out 'You've got to assert yourself, ence. The simultaneous receiving and beginning seemed auspicious but the sub you've got to show who's boss' seemed ris sending of light reinforces this creature's sequent development of the piece unfort ibly mundane . magical ambivalence and its technolog y unately began to fragment and become dis The piece recovered, though, to finish seems a sinister tool. tinctly unsatisfactory as material was pre well. The figures, now bedecked with With a crack and a thump, a twin being sented on an arbitrary, almost whimsical head-dresses, moved about fretfully in a reveals itself at the back of the auditorium basis . square of light in a way coincidentally or suspended from the rig. It drops apelike to With eight performers now fully re deliberately reminiscent of Samuel Beck the aisle and with several others, makes its vealed, five formed a body to perform ett's play, 'Quad', shown for the first time way towards the signalling light of the movements en masse while the three others on television the night before. Abruptly other. As they stumble down the aisle, performed simultaneous cameo actions on they entangled and fell to the ground. Like specific knowledge of this new species (or either side of the cairn. The central corpus an Advent calendar, many small doors in is it very old?) becomes apparent. Emotion now moved to performing various move the cairn swung open to reveal heads star is still with us. The figures' faces contract ment pieces. They faced the audience and ing balefully out. The overall effect had in silent screams of maybe pain or fear. one could see the glint of humour in their been one of a show drowning in a flood of The emotional expressions are heightened eyes as they surveyed the audience as if to different inputs and concepts. by contrast with the naked, bland, anony acknowledge the ridiculousness of their So why did this show not achieve the mous bodies that seem to move lumpenly shaven bodies covered in nothing more potential indicated by the calibre of the and sluggishly as an unhappy accompani than g-strings and a liberal coating of pan company? The problem seems to have two ment for minds that pay the price of their cake makeup. 'We have nothing up our aspects, one being the nature of the drama consciousness. Figures stir in the sand and sleeves,' murmured the commentary, 'We tic language that Rational Theatre are ex stiffly raise themselves to life. The figures have no sleeves!' ploiting and the other being the way that

It is an all too rare occasion that either of comfort of the back of the hearse. Through serious production problem. In the count London's National Opera Companies pro a sado-masochistic killing, a wonderfully down to the end of the world, instead of al duces 'an avant garde' work. Le Grand slapstick court of Prince Go-Go, we arrive lowing the music to build the tension, as it Macabre was written as a commission for at the final hour when Nekrotzar will utter does wonderfully, the producer found it the Swedish National Opera and given its the apocalyptic incantation which will necessary to add touches of authentic pan first performance in 1978. Ligeti has al finish off everyone. Prince Go-Go tries to ic, with scuffles in the audience and perfor ways been something of an 'avant-garde prevent him by getting him drunk, he fails mers running through the aisles. This at music-brat', defying critics and academics and the heavens split open. After the apoc tempt to involve the audience in the fate of by consistently cutting across boundaries alypse some life remains and Nekrotzar in life on earth succeeded mostly in destroy of current schools of thought, and doing it tragic vein bemoans his failure whilst ing the comic strip reality of the stage. with a flair and success that leaves many of Prince Go-Go tries to comfort him. Final Anyone who has been to Disneyland will the specialists in those fields behind. He ly, Nekrotzar tries to escape but is stopped know what a tremendous disappointment has proved equally inventive and exciting and he melts, Warner Brothers style until it is to meet Mickey Mouse, live in the whether it be with ambient electronics or only his leather cap and coat remain. The flesh, because like all movie stars, off stage with the witty eclecticism of Le Grand lovers emerge from the hearse oblivious of his velcro shows. I couldn't help thinking Macabre, and as such, is worth looking at. what has been happening and they all agree that someone with the brilliantly economic Le Grand Macabre is a whimsical that we shouldn't fear death until it comes, talents of Geraldine Pilgrim would never comic strip, surrealist work with a scenario we should just get on and have fun while have made these kind of mistakes which operatic and bizarre enough to give ample we can. The whole thing carries its simple made me reflect further on the costs of an scope to Ligetis wide range of talents . He direct allegory with a load of good humour ENO production against the costs of a Hes describes it as an 'anti-anti-opera' which is that makes it very enjoyable entertain itate and Demonstrate show. not quite the same as an opera . It is twice ment. The music, conducted with his usual removed from conventional opera which However, given the vitality of the energy by Elgar Howarth, is very much of makes it for all its musical difficulty a sur music, scenario and libretto the product the 'scratch and squeak' variety but with prisingly accessible work. The plot is es ion was curiously underplayed. It was as moments of real grandeur, and of brilliant sentially simple. The curtain rises to reveal though the producer wanted to avoid clich wit and hilarity, as in the theme played on a pair of lovers fucking in the middle of the es, but when you are throwing custard pies air horns of the Harpo Marx variety. M4. Inexplicably both the women are in there are only cliches and it is better to go Le Grand Macabre is not a great opera, ballroom dress. Meanwhile a drunk sings right over the top than to try and invent but is a wonderful entertainment that does the praises of this his homeland, Breughal some cautious restraint. Also, although the a lot to show that contemporary music can land. Nekrotzar drives up in a hearse clai set was spectacular it provided for some be fun and enjoyable. ming to be the archangel of death come to difficult scene changes and longeurs that Steve Rogers destroy all life on earth. He takes the drunk seriously interrupted the racy pace that the as his slave and the lovers relocate to the music demands. The set also led to a more

tl hi, A r d )Ill it on :ra a, Mi f)ao p 3 1ill in u1 IC€ sh 27

The role of an all-knowing master is some Another legendary company played action being conveyed in the Polish langu what abeyant these days, having been so London before Christmas when Tadeusz age. Set in a classroom, actors mingled ever since the expert was thoroughly de Kantor's Cricot 2 brought two pieces to the with mannequins in an event that was mystified and the specialist's authority Riverside Studios. As a sculptor, designer, made more difficult to comprehen d shown to be not totally reliable . But the writer and innovator, Kantor at 68 has a through being constructed around highly maestros are still with us and doubly irk career that spans some forty years spent personal points of departure from Kan tor's some through their conspicuous absence. creating theatre and manifestos. Since life and little known authors such as Wit Last year London saw Peter Schu 1965, he has concentrated on his own keiwicz and Gombrowicz. Although there man's Bread and Puppet Theatre with brand of 'happening' which he calls Cricot was a strong visual presentation, the large Schuman nowhere in sight. Was he here or age. In all his pieces Kantor is there on amount of inscrutable dialogue prised back in America, having despatched a stage with his company. Here there is no one's mind away from maintaining a rap touring party to Europe? Recently Peter mystique about an elusive famous name. port with events on stage and at the end, Brook's production of 'L'Os' played the The man himself wanders idiosyncratic ninety minutes seemed more than enough Almeida Theatre although close investiga ally in and out of his players, ruminating to have seen. tion showed that he himself wasn't involv on their actions, waggling his fingers as if The second piece was very different. ed in the production. Workshop event of to urge them on, visibly moved as events Lasting just thirty five minutes 'Where are the year must have been Jerzy Grotowski's take a turn for the better or the worse. the Snows of Yesteryear' is as recondite as Theatre Laboratorium at Chapter Arts The two pieces the company presented 'The Dead Class' but its brevity and the Centre. The problem is that Jerzy doesn't were 'The Dead Class' and 'Where are the clarity of its images made it a highly absor actually work with the group anymore, snows of Yesteryear?'. Both were devised bing spectacle . A critique of the event having gone off to do other thing several several years ago, in 1975 and 1978 respect seems only possible by way of a descrip years ago. At least there's a consistency ively, and both have received considerable tion. here. If you're going to play God, it's best critical acclaim. 'The Dead Class', describ A long avenue has been made in Studio done through an absent presence and let ed as a dramatic seance, 1sa long and diffi 1 at the Riverside Studios for these perfor the devil take the Trades Description Act. cult piece due to high proportion of the mances . This avenue is the result of posi-

28 Eustachy

tioning two banks of seatin facing each to a point at the far end. One man is left traught. The clanking contraption starts to other so that the audience are in two oppos alone to measure the rope with a wooden move and to the blaring sound of 'Her ing groupings looking at each other across ruler. With a futile slowness, he pedantic nando's Hideaway', twin brothers each a playing area whose width vastly exceeds ally goes about his task with military preci dressed in the red robes and mitre of a its breadth. At one end is a skeleton dress sion. Another approaches the skeleton and bishop, dance a full blooded tango with ed in black and at the other is a Heath Rob dresses himself in its black clothing. each other. This is a unique, glorious mo inson style contraption, seemingly the re Accompanied by a similarly dressed young ment, filled with the contradictory sult of a marriage between an outsized girl, his walk suggests a priest or judge. emotions of despair, humour, energy, life French horn and a pram. The next episode is coloured with the same lessness and absurdity as the area becomes As the audience enters, they must walk sense of futility . A short fat man clumsily alive with simultaneous events. All this is through the performance space to their and repeatedly attempts to rewrap a parcel swept away as a long white paper sheet is seats and Kantor is seeh pottering about with an ineptness that causes him to undo unrolled by the performers and rattled up and studiously observing the arriving spec on the final fold all his previous work. Now and down like a thunder sheet to the sound tators. He whips out a watch on a chain to a bucket chain is formed of all the perform of marching feet. Finally, after the general check the time. In his black suit and white ers and the mood changes to one of crisis has entered strutted for the second time, shirt without tie, he could be an interna and panic . The priest and child rush up Kantor unclips the cord and reels it in. tional conductor or the theatre doorkeeper and down to the contradictory sounds of a A masterly performance? Yes, that's helping out as an usher. Eventually the bluesy jazz trumpet. Now enters 'the gent about the right description. This was a audience are seated and Kantor brings the leman well known to us'. A tinpot general piece well nigh impossible to comprehend houselights down with a gesture and paces goosesteps down the full length of the rationally due to the difficulties of consid over to one end to cue his performers . space, made comicly menacing by her ering a performance lying outside the usual Eight men wearing white paper suits exaggerated paper uniform. The piece cultural references. Highly personal and pull a rope the full length of the space. builds to a climax. A man dressed in only idiosyncratic, it nevertheless remained an They pit their full weight against an unseen trousers and bib and tucker pulls his bride inspiration to anyone working with live force and with great effort finally attach it along on a sheet. The little girl runs dis- visual images in a theatrical format. Phil Hyde Kossakowski 29

For a single evening in January, the entire first floor of the Battersea Arts Centre was taken over by the ADBC Workshop giving interested persons a full taste of the variety of work on offer from this team. ADBC stands for the 'Art and Design Building Centre' (see last issue) and to date, their main activities have been in the realm of the applied arts not only of artist and archi tect but also of craftsman. One example was the designing and construction of a fountain, another was the making of a series of mirror constructions. The extension of these pursuits and interests into live performance was an appropriate and logical next step. Not only did this offer the opportunity to incorpor ate more skills into a single project, but it also allowed the group to explore and utilize the basic elements of performance immediacy, energy and public communication. A start here was made at the Edinburgh Mound last year, but Cennini's Private View is the first rounded collaborative effort. The evening started appropriately enough at the Private View of their exhibition in the Galleries at BAC which showed photographic and art documen tation of their projects over the last two years. The most visually arresting part of the show was the display of mirror con structions last seen in London at the Moira Kelly Gallery in 1981. Beautifully hand Cenninis Private View crafted artefacts, the mirrors also embody rituals relating to aspects of Life while the formance. Cennini is carried to the centre the collaborative ideas of the ADBC Artist draws a mammoth landscape on the of the now completed drawing and takes on Workshop. Not simply two-dimensional, back wall. The event is structured through a new persona - that of the warning angel the mirrors are titled and tilted to show a sound provided by two musicians on a in Klee's painting Ange/us Novus (as des projection of the world at angles. Ideas of variety of instruments and sound effects, cribed by Walter Benjamin on the front of architecture, landscape and also of art are and they working in conjunction with the the programme ). Whilst he, reflecting arti called forth either by their associative Artist who has to finish his picture by the fact, urges us to see the irresistable storm names or the three-dimensional forms. end, determine the pace of the perfor to which his own back is turned , the Labyrinth for example depicts the mance. The underlying principle is an drawing behind him splits down the centre miniature landscape of a maze as well as artistic one - that of exploring the concept revealing a tilted landscape of devastation suggesting an artistic conceit. Concepts of of the painted triptych (traditionally, a with piles of debris growing upwards and illusion and reality, perception and inter Medieval altarpiece composed of three angels of death flying in the sky above. The pretation subtly merge and it is no coinci panels ) and of breaking unity of space, four participants are powerless in the face dence that it is here, in the hall of mirrors, time and theme . The actions of the per of the apocalypse and fall helplessly to the the performance begins. formers become explicable in relation to ground bringing the performance to an Cennini, it transpires is one of the this idea as each person acts out three end. mirror constructions initially hidden from separate views which are totally indepen The layers of meaning and plethora of view by being placed on a bier and dent of each other and yet combined by the interpretation make this a demanding obscured by a shroud. Cennini is also of thread of art embodied in the Artist and by performance to watch. I found the end course, the name of the Medieval painter implication Cennini who 'watches' on. intensely moving and very much enjoyed and craftsman, skilled in the art of gilding. Given the many different actions happen the integration of artistic ideas both in The Artist (Ken Turner ) comes to look for ing on stage at the same time, it was diffi terms of the performance and in the con him in the exhibition and finds him, cult to take in the whole picture at the same tinuation from Gallery to Theatre . It is a revealed by Myth (Helen Powell) lying time. As with studying a triptych, the great tribute to the people involved that under the pall. Having thus interrupted invitation was to concentrate on each they have contributed activities from a the Private View, the Artist makes the separate part individually, as well as taking different background to their own train spectacle 'public ' by drawing the art audi account of the whole. Although people ing (Helen Powell and Eric Parry who did ence away from the Gallery and into the were encouraged to walk around the the lighting are both architects for Theatre via the stairwell where a second theatre, this was unfortunately difficult as example ) and the evening as a whole stage of the performance is enacted. there was not much space left. Also the showed that there is definitely mileage left The theme and form behind the three pace could have done with being a little in interdisciplinary projects of this kind . I part performance are heavily symbolic. faster. However, such criticisms were look forward with great interest to seeing The triple location of the action is mirrored vindicated by the finale. more performance work from the ADBC by the tri-partite division on stage in the The actual message of the piece is made Workshop . theatre. Three performers act out separate clear in the last five minutes of the per- Anna Moszynska

From the person who had his audience cyc The witty, often bizarre and totally absorb inflicted a verbal assault on a hapless ling thro ugh the Bristol countryside at 4am ing world he creates for us during our member of the audience that had the rest of to meet a rendez-vous in an isolated desert 'journey' communicates these ideas with the room suspended somewhere between ed house, where bizarre persons went an effectiveness which could only be achie hilarity and horror. The consequent about their business, seemingly unaware of ved by someone who understands that deli change from an abrasive dynamic to polite their odd behaviour, tetchily despatching cate balance between the sublime and the titillation seemed a tragic loss of direction. to bewildered performance goers instruct ridiculous, and has mastered it in his own And so it goes on. The George Khan ions on how to find the next clues in the work. Show (People Show No. 88) is from the 'treasure hunt' we have another adventure. Chrissie Iles same mould of latter day variety. It played Robin Whitmore, an extremely talented the pre-Christmas slot at the King's Head, performance artist, director and actor, a natty little theatre restaurant in a pub who has done much work in Berlin, has where a pint costs a quaintly anachronistic conceived, produced and directed from his People Show No. 88 fifteen shillings. It's a good place to con studio in an old printworks, a journey sider reputations made before decimal through a 'perfectly ordinary cabinet' to Kings Head currency was introduced . Number Eighty another world. Eight tells the story of four 'jossers' and This world is that of a strange family. The People Show continue to be one of the their tennis ball tumbling act, best imag The Ripley family's printing works closed most disappointing groups performing ined as a cross between Morecambe and down three years ago. As far as anyone today. A few years ago, shows such as the Wise and the Ken Campbell Roadshow . knows, they simply disappeared. But in Billy Holiday show (Jackson's Lane, 1979) From these humble beginning s, George fact from January 22 to 28th the Ripleys and Jim's Gym (Bush Theatre, 1980) vin Khan rises to fame and fortune as a musical terrible secret is revealed: they never actu dicated their reputation as an exciting and maestro and the show examines his success ally left the building (Robin's studio) but unique outfit. Over the last two years, a sea through traditional devices such as run have lived and worked by night and in that change seems to have occurred. Appear ning gags and shaggy dog stories mixed up time NOT ONCE LEFT THE BUILD ances at more upmarket venues such as the with absurdist excursions to Beirut and ING. What has happened inside the build Royal Court and the Hampstead Theatre considerations of Armaggedon. ing? What kind of bizarre things have Club have lead them into producing work The audience loved it. At seven pounds grown in their terror and isolation from the that seems merely to pander to the humour nineteen shillings for dinner and show, outside world? And why are they opening and taste of a cosy, comfortable middle they were determined to get their money's their doors to the public exactly three years class audience. worth. Good luck to them - you pays your to the day after they locked themselves The rot seems to have set in with their money and you takes your choice. It was away? adoption of a new cabaret format in place pretty poor stuff, though. Seen by itself, The Cabinet Trick is a half hour jour of their traditional anonymously number the show was pretty thin on the ground, ney which takes place in a maze of obscure ed shows. The People Show Cabaret was lacking the scripted routines and stunts tunnels, never ending passages and secret an entertainment piece which seemed to that make for engaging variety and the rooms, which is entered through a conceal reject the alogical juxtapositions of absurdity seemed to feed off the respecta ed panel at the back of an otherwise perfec previous work for a freewheeling selection bility that Monty Python has brought to tly ordinary cabinet. The audience are of stanup monologues, tumbling routines nuttiness in a comic vein. Seen in perspe c guided round in pairs at five minute inter and musical numbers. Instead of the tive, this show is a trough in a chart that vals. Once inside the maze the visitor ex previous mystery, the events and images marks many high points of unique and periences all manner of surprises in the achieved justification through a storyline amazing moments. At present the People Ripleys house-hold: a photo booth which of four musicians, in continuous personal Show are taking no risks and challenging produces hand drawn portraits; the secur conflict, attempting to play Glen Miller's neither themselves nor their audience. ity of the Ripleys cosy sitting room turns 'In the Mood'. Let's hope they can sort out the policy that into a ghost train; one room is 'computed' Well, why not? Perhaps a whimsical bit has made them into variety artistes to attend to nothing but the comforts of the of nonsensical entertainment is what's manque before theY.succumb to the fate of visitors. Throug hout the journey files are needed in recessionary times. Maybe this is any struggling variety act - a letter from kept on each visitor's 'progr ess'. what people want to see these days. It's the powers-that-be saying 'Sorry, lads, not The success of Robin Whitmore's work probably a sensible way to get enough fee good enough'. They've got 11 more lies in its ability to work on many different paying gigs to keep the company afloat. chances before their centenary comes up. levels. It appeals, on one level, to the best Rigorous artistic policies are a luxury that Phil Hyde side of our childish imagination; the idea of few can afford when the cash is tight. tunnels and corridors made from card Nevertheless, the People Show Cabaret board, transformations of rooms into other at the Royal Court last December was a worlds, the magic properties of objects and travesty. The national press beamed Philip Jeck the excitement of bizarre eccentric charact patronisingly and rationalised this oddball Chisenhale Dance Space ers. We are entranced in the same way that entertainment as being the work of four we are bewitched by Tinguely's machines; inspired clowns. And it was oddball yet the child like explorations belie a very because few leopards can change their Upon arriving at Chisenhale that evening, sophisticated set of ideas which explore spots and remnants of the old approach I immediatel y had a sense of being in a vast important social issues, in particular those still showed through. The overall effect unlimit ed space, filled with numerous which are relevant to early teenagers, such was cloying and frustrating. The middle passageways that receded into the distance. as unemployment, the military and media/ class audience politely lapped up with This effect was created by a series of enor glamour images. tolerated amusement the genteel mix of mous (news) paper screens which were If Whitmore's first aim is to provide an vaudeville and absurdity that the People hung from the ceiling to the floor at inter exciting experience, his second is to put Show were now presenting. Nine months vals throughout the space. Outlines of forward these ideas by involving the audi previously, the People Show had hit their human figures were painted on the screens. ence in an unconventional way; not audience very hard with a small environ This environment was softly lit from be through clumsy audience parti cipation , mental show upstairs at Oval House. Here hind , accenting the natural light and shade but through their thinking about and after was mayhem in a dentist's surgery with of the paper. A single plant had been wards hopefully discussing the implica mannequins and contraptions flying and placed in the middle, stage front. There tions of the show and how it relates to each whirring. Mark Long attempted to move was a variety of music recordings played in participant back outside in the real world. his bowels in full view of everyone and the background : 1930's-40's jazz, Polish

This issue of Performance Magazine has been reproduced as part of Performance Magazine Online (2017) with the permission of the surviving Editors, Rob La Frenais and Gray Watson. Copyright remains with Performance Magazine and/or the original creators of the work. The project has been produced in association with the Live Art Development Agency. bare. To reveal the untapped resources and the studio space as a energetic herd. By the this was the story of Honeria and it was she energies. Teatr Laboratorium showed third day my arms fell out of their sockets who bore the weight of the serious what was possible in their own perfor and others suffered other ailments of moments of the play. Honeria was the mances, based on Polish and international excess of movement, including foot sister of Emporer Valentinium and the classics. And also in workshops in Poland blisters the size of small fried eggs. As the innocent victim of his corruption. She was and on the international theatre network . work progressed discoveries were made, I executed for treason after her alleged Here in Britain their reputation is discovered a voice and felt its projection involvement with the arch-enemy Attila formidable but there have been few throughout my body, the finger tips vibra the Hun. chances of first hand experience. So up to ted with sound! The overall impression of As they entered the incense filled 300 people applied for the 90 places on the the seven days work, was that of being theatre the audience surrendered their workshops in Cardiff. We decended on picked up and shaken, until bits fell off. names to a shaman-major-domo who Chapter, packing out the cafe, with the We had been told that the reason for what shouted them out at the top of her voice. atmosphere of the First Day Back. we were doing would come to us, maybe Like senators, or witnesses to some bizarre Rumour and speculation about the week's not until after the work had finished. In tria they took their positions, some re work were rife . While among the coffee contrast to the workouts, Stanislaw asked clining, on the rough banked seating. It cups the newspaper announced Lech us to each present an 'invitation', what this was a large local audience, friendly, talka Walesa had been released from prison, we was caused some confusion at first. We tive and eager for a good show. While waited to be selected for interview, to be eventually discovered we were to present a Attila, on a raised platform at the rear of placed in one of the five workshop groups. short performance using a text, not an the hall brooded over the proceedings, the I was eventually called with eight others improvisation, to the rest of the group. performance took place in the central arena over to the Gym and told to wait in an ante Stanislaw used these 'gifts' as he called of stucco pillars and arches. The design room (in keeping with the many jokes in them to let us all watch each other per was well conceived and the period costume Poland about waiting and queuing for forming. And on occassion he asked the and technical effects not merely provided a things ). At last to an echoing 'Come', person to repeat the performance, pushing setting but synchronised and connected shedding shoes, we entered. Sitting at the it further and further each time, until it the piece. other end of the old gym were two men in transformed with the exhaustion of the It has to be said that ninety minutes is their late forties or early fifties. Shock. performer. The 'Gifts' included Brecht not the ideal length for an epic and a script Why did I expect younger people? Ludwik songs, passages from Shakespeare, well loaded with obvious political allegory, Flaszen and Zygmunt Molik who inter paradies of the workshop and Stanislaw, high flown truths, peevish argument and viewed us have been working together, Irish Protestant songs and Welsh myths. bad dialogue does not help. Quite often cod along with most of the rest of the Teatr The end came quickly, suddenly at the acting made a florid sentence into a beauti Laboratorium company , for 23 years. A finish of a long voice improvisation, the ful one-liner. As the slave girl said when lifetimes work, as one of them is to say sound drifted away and time had run out. she kissed the diplomat: 'I can't believe later. Some of us wanted to continue and others this is happening to me'. For all that, the That evening the results of the brief were ready to stop. But time had run out, evening was rich in all forms of theatre interviews were announced along with the and Stanislaw was having visa problems . skills . It was energetic, entertaining and starting times for the individual work What was it all about? After talking to above all unselfconscious and funny . The groups. Which ranged from 9.30 am to 11 people in my group and the other groups, I representatives of Rome- Emporer, Pope pm in the various spaces in Chapter. I was would like to suggest it was deep back and General - were portrayed as power part of a group of twenty to work with ground work . It was not character work, crazed idiots or fops. It was not easy to Stanislaw Scierski, who preferred to be stage skills, movement, mime, mimic and show twenty years of Rome's collapse called a 'work leader' rather than teacher . song but what lies behind all this embel through such ciphers. In the forward publicity for the workshops lishment of technique and style. Stanislaw In contrast Honeria was a still, each member of Teatr Laboratorium had was trying to get us to discover deep seated thoughtful character. She and her court described what their group would be energies and real direct forms of expressing women plumbed deeper levels of experi working towards . Careful reading of all the ourselves. I think we went a little way ence through some clear and simple move descriptions revealed they all had a similar down the road into this hinterland of ment. In spite of theirs being the most orientation, in removing the obstacles to expression. It seems the area he was aiming stylised roles one felt by the end of the expression whether it be in the body, us at is closer to performance with its risk evening that these were the only true voice, or mind . taking and visual imagery than theatre. people onstage. Similarly the final episode Stanislaw Scierski, 'Stan' as we were to Grotowski didn't turn up after all, but, of the show was most powerful. Each of the call him, had named his workshop Organic some of his discoveries did and I hope three fops court Honeria before her death. Man. The workshop description included Teatr Laboratorium will be brought back For the Pope she wears the head of Christ phrases such as 'Work which involves again, soon. - a splendid mask - for her brother she body, voice and movement , in improvi sa Robin Morley appears as Satan and the General sees her as tions which are sometimes structured. ' and Death . Atila, still behind us, drops dead 'The most important thing is presence, and it is left to his young son to announce comprising an open-ness to other.' and also Dawn of Dusk the end. 'All the same, one might describe the The process of preparing was probably essence of this work as the discovery, Oval House more important than the end product. through action, of the Common Nevertheless it was an exciting alternative Unknown.' to the usual Christmas production and the We started work the next evening , Every winter in south east London's Oval next one should be worth a visit. Stanislaw quickly establishing that House members of theatre workshop Andrew O'Hanlon although he was the workleader he was not groups combine their skills to stage a going to direct the group. As we dis Christmas show. They develop the initial covered he instead nudged the group in idea through corporate effort .and this Zena Naj Bo Doma several direction s, but on the whole let us approach is particularly interesting in that find our own level as a group . Each day's none of the cast are professional Hemmingford Arms, Islington work started with physical work which performers. rose in intensit y, followed by explorations There was intrigue, pride, unrequited 'Zee na Narge', 'Z imma Nig', 'Shooona in voice, movement, and what I would call love, comedy and a large stock of Chris blurg Nip', went the running gag at the group improvisati onal movement work. tians and Romans. The fall of Rome pro opening night of Londons newest pub cab- Which involved running, leaping around vided an epic theme . Set around 450 AD 33

This issue of Performance Magazine has been reproduced as part of Performance Magazine Online (2017) with the permission of the surviving Editors, Rob La Frenais and Gray Watson. Copyright remains with Performance Magazine and/or the original creators of the work. The project has been produced in association with the Live Art Development Agency. eret venture as each comedian in turn pick ed up on the venues name Zena Naj Bo Dama. It may have been hard to pronounce but it certainly wasn't hard to miss as it Feature hung from the ceiling in large wooden letters emblazoned with flashing fairy lights and created havoc with juggler Tim Bat's blazing batons. It was of course an exercise in self-parody but it does under line the seriousness with which promotor Laurence MacKenzie takes this venture; Pe low overheads (if you'll pardon this levity) The relationship between audience and and a general demand do not necessarily event is a crucial one. All events are rituals, create a successful venue. created in. order to focus on ideas. The art Rapport between the performer and ritual and the club ritual are very different; audience was facilitated by placing the so, therefore, is the performers' relation stage at the corner of an 'L' shaped room ship with the audience. The focus will above the bar. This compares favourably therefore vary enormously. In a club situa with other cabarets where arriving late can tion, which offers intimacy, sociability and only be likened to trying to reach the bar on a greater opportunity for interaction and an inter-city Buffet car at Christmas Eve. direct response (for example, dancing), the Lee Cornes (late of the Wow Show) audience have come primarily to meet and hosted the evening with large helpings of socialise. Their response to a performance material that was both interesting and will probably be fairly low key, since it will adventurous. It takes courage to feign lack not be the focal point of the evening in the of courage and start a show by hiding same way as a similar performance taking behind four members of the audience that place in a gallery situation. one has just pulled onto stage, but he suc It is a question, then, of audience ex ceeded. Unfortunately, as a host his range pectation, and,for the organiser, of careful isn 't quite flexible enough to adequately planning to match the venue and audience control the flow of the evening. with the work. The performance event at The Zena Naj is providing an experi the Waterloo Gallery in the summer of mental pot-pourri in terms of quality and 1982 for example, was notable for its quantity (albeit a conventional mix) which strong audience response, and can be said creates a testing ground for performers, to have had the right audience for the though restricted by the type of audience. event, i.e. an art audience who had come Future plans however, do include a Friday primarily to see the work, but because of night opening for evenings of more uncon the bar and food and informal atmosphere ventional theatre and performance groups. socialised as well. When each performance Dave Rose began, however, they gave it their undivid ed attention, something which is much Young Lust more difficult to achieve in a club situa Private House, Kilburn tion. The importance of the actual venue Timed to coincid.: with mass at the local emerges here. The Waterloo Gallery was a Irish community's large church at Quex scruffy warehouse which performed a fine Road, right opposite the small terr~ced art function but without many of the con house where this event took place (cunous straints and formalities of a fine art venue . mass-goers stopped to peer at the R.C. The audience, therefore, although basic icons posted to the front door ), this 2-hour ally fine art-based, was much more di show offered curious reconstructions and verse, and contained a fair sprinkling of distortions of church ceremony. The house people who go to clubs but do not generally was suffused with cathedral incense, the set foot in galleries. The club, on the other bar served only bloody mary's, children hand, has always existed primarily as a ran about shouting about what they focal point for meeting and socialising, and thought this life was for ('having fun') 3 ex that remains its primary function. It is members of Sisterhood of Spit played brass concerned much more directly with the madrigals, and a goggle-eyed woman and a business of 'entertaining'. man stripped to the waist enacted a tense All this is not to deny the possibilities communion at an altar-like table in the tiny of an exciting and successful club perform front room while meat kebabs sizzled on ance event. The likelihood of this, how cross-shaped wires on the open fire. Dense ever, depends very much on the choice and poetry alternated with cosily-deliv~red quality of the performers (some perform anecdotes of Jesus and Mary; genuflections ance work is simply not effective in a club and signs of the cross mutated into IRA situation), and a lively and essentially act salutes and Indian arm-wrestling; while ive programming policy (to sit and wait for statues of Buddha and Lenin watched from original acts to make the necessary approa the shadows. I certainly had no appetite for ches is a form of passive programming the kebabs offered for sale after this cere which has, in my experience, been a recipe mony, but perhaps this was Young Lmt's for disaster, leading to a selection of work intention. Quite where the Lust came mto of the lowest common denominator ). it was also a mystery (sacred or profane?) The audience response is an important and I felt that some of the performed imag element of this. In a gallery situation an es had lost their impact by having been hin assembles group of spectators will politely ted at too strongly before the actual ritual watch a performance, to the end, and as was enacted. After the show! the most sume that because it is being presented as commonly-heard comment was 'I'll let you know what I think of it tomorrow'. So will I. Andy Soutter 34

Rene Eyre at the Slammer

'at the camp we have had a vision of thous ands and thousands of women coming together around Greenham Common'

the beauty of this vision was that each wo man who came was needed as part of the making of the circle

'embrace the base' a concept which could only have come from women's experience

embrace - to take in the arms: to press to the bosom with affection: to take eagerly or willingly: to comprise: to admit, adopt or receive - to join in an embrace 'embrace the base' creating a supporting structure of and from ourselves within which our feelings could be expressed creating a network around the base acknowledging our fear our common cause for fear releasing it re leasing each other 'embrace the base' joining in an embrace around the base embracing as a physical form of expression bringing people closer together

women who have not taken part in such actions before wanted to come to this one women who friends knew particu larly older women who had not had contact with movements of this kind or been in volved with such activities wanted to come my mother could have come she would have been quite safe the circling of the base was in itself a circling of women protecting each other holding hands holding on the same purpose the same committment reaching round and round something so alien seen for what it was each woman was asked to bring something to attach to the fence something personal 'anything related to real life as opposed to made to bear our meanings the unreal world the military base repre made to bear witness sents' shying away avoiding thinking about 'As women we have remained silenced for fear of contact with something so too long, silenced by the argument of de alien not wanting to place myself or any fence - the balance has been tipped and at thing close to me anywhere near the site of last we see the ultimate insult to our intelli such gence: nuclear weapons 'contamination' another woman called it Women are no longer giving their silent fear of being contaminated consent to wars'

but being there seeing it all an expressive living reminder of why we were there our lives seen together most vulnerable most moving women coming to the fence found themselves al ready there .._...,,_,, n ,, .. 36

fires being lit darkness tents being pit - ched women singing small groups round fires attending to making shelters

so many of us so close so completely re sisting since early morning outside the gates in the road living out what we deal with everyday our rawness in this world what we know we see before us rescuing each other with 'the whole world 1.q is watching' ~ is this the only thing that stops them ~ how many times for how many women i no one is watching >- so close so comletely resisting ~ since early morning ~ women are singing

'1C\,,.. ~ 14U ~ spc..:,t

SL IS Lt~ Q M~ ,,, ,/l.;.._._.)s~ S'~ J~ ~~°"

~,_ ~~ t.:.4~~~t

~l._. is ~ Q ~~'fa·~ o-0~

fftU J../t ALUiN 37

(0 w 0 a: CD 0) ~ (") w ea .. J: -G) I- CD ~ ,...... : > :t: a: G) -·-... (J Q, a: "E < w co ~<( ii (J "C a: li: C"' 0 ·-en 0 < 0 ~ ~ cc ! J: C C CJ co ...J< ,.... (J N "' LL ~ "C LL (J co -C co... e a: ~ < :E j CJ ... co E

57 FILMER ROAD LONDON SWb THINKING OF A CAREER IN DANCE? TELEPHONE 01731 32 91

DANCE THEATRE Theatre lighting design, contr ol. TRAINING COURSES equipment and hire Leading to a Certificate in Dance or a BA (Hons) A udio-Visual presentation , degree (prerequisite2 'A' levels). des ign and projection Training in both coursesincludes contemporary technique and ballet, choreography,production (costume, lightingand sound), dance history, Equipme nt maintenance and refurbishing notationand sociologyof dance. For these and other postgraduatecourses and Insta llat ion, distribution systems, evening classes write to: special effec ts The Administrator,Laban Centre for Movement and Dance at Universityof LondonGoldsmiths' College, New Cross, LondonSE14. Tel: 01-691 5750. OUR PRICES ARE COMPETI T IV E - PLEASE RING US FOR A PRICE LI ST OR QUO T E

is a full-time 3-year course in fine coursesalso available. art which is acceptedat University Entry to all coursesis by work levelfor post-graduatestudies. and interview. Short-term,extra mural and Over 70% of UK students post-graduate/post-diploma receiveLocal Authority grants.

Apply nowfor a prospectusto Byam Shaw Schoolof Art 70 Campden Street, LondonW8 7EN (or'phone 01-727 4711-24 hour service).