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The Performance Magazine 14 Peto Place, London NW1. 01 935 2714 Editors Rob La Frenais Luke Dixon Lynn MacRitchie Design Editor Chloe Nevett Associate Editors Pete Shelton Features Margurite McLaughlin Opinion ...... 4 Bruce Bayley Irish Performance ...... _. 5 Music Four Artists ...... 9 Paul Burwell Red Artists Threat? ...... 17 David lllic Contributors London's Dance Crisis ...... 30 John Roberts Hesitate and Demonstrate ...... 15 Roger Ely Phil Hyde Gillian Clark Interview Diana Simmonds Geraldine Pilgrim ...... 12 Andrea Hill Liz Stolls Neil Hornick Music Guest contributors Women and Jazz ...... 18 Nick Stewart Peter Hill Mike Toobey Reviews Distribution London Roundup, La Ronde, Optik , Ariadone Co, Boogie! , ...... 20 Full Time Distribution Duel Duet, Media Arts Group , SEM Ensemble, Forkbeard Fantasy , Typesetting Windhorse Photosetters Bread & Puppet, Delado, Pastorale , Leicester Performance Week Printing Calverts North Star Press Ltd Publisher Rob La Frenais Copyright (£; 1982 The Per1ormance Magazine ISSN No 0144 5901 This issue receives financial assistance Listings ···················································J from the Arts Council of Great Britain.

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quality argument lead? Inescapably to the conclusion that men do not hold the patent on genius, but that they've cornered the market in powerful mediocrity. \ Women Live Which brings us back to the end of the tether and 'Women Live' - a month Diana Simmonds asks some awkward questions organised by and dedicated to women's work in the arts. The full programme is eclectic, nationwide and largely, of the fringe: the placid manly brows in high places remain, for the time being at least, unfurrowed. This is hardly surprising, given a budget of £3,500 (not a misprint ): £3,000 from the Equal Opportunities Commission and £500 from the Greater London Arts Association to get the event off the ground. Ironically, in the great tradition, this has meant that many women have given their time for nothing in between making a living and running their private lives. The rich, rambling result is thus even more an extraordinary phenom enon. There is wonderful theatre, world class music and scores of films. Out of the woodwork have come technicians and per formers who have never before realised each other's existence let alone the possi bility of finding work together - and transforming entertainment. If Women Live! is to mean anything out side of this glorious month of May, it is that transformation that has to come - not the once a year joys of a festival, but the daily, weekly, monthly, yearly work requirements of the participants, who after all, need to live in order to continue holding up their half whilst persuading the rest that they're also entitled to the simple perks of being alive. And it is this aspect omen Live! 'Live' as in 'strive' oozing from every orifice bring us almost I that is most worrying. Already a male W rather than 'give', that is, is the unadulterated pap on all three TV colleague has said 'Well, maybe we can title given to the culmination of · channels: the West End's current crop of have a bit of peace now you've had your over a year's extraordinary back- bum-numbing drama (63 productions month '. He meant it as a joke but, as I room work by Women In Entertainment written or directed by men, six by women pointed out (in the way of humourless and, as their programme says 'launches our at press time) and, recently, a crop of films · feminists ) the Falklands started out as a drive to transform entertainment in depicting such grotesque violence towards joke too. Musicians, electricians, play Britain'. women that even the tabloids began to wrights, designers (journalists even) need But what does it all mean? Transforming question whether it was perhaps a bit work, affirmation and control over their entertainment means re-adjusting our sets much. The latest of the genre 'Visiting lives all year round. Blowing or singing - theatncal, TV, music and film - to Hours', even brought the urbane your lungs out for a month is progress of a take into account that the species who hold Alexander Walker out in hives. Neither is sort but it will be interesting to see how up half the sky would like to do other cinema exactly overflowing with works of many have anything like the same amount things as well. It also means that those who pacific genius elsewhere either: 'Chariots of work in October. And, although the are already 'doing' would like the oppor- of Fire' may well be about the triumph of stamina of women is legendary, one tunity to do more, do it differently and do the athletic will over, inter alia, racism, but wonders whether the pushers, pullers and it as a matter of course rather than in the is also a great deal to do with the resur movers of W0men Live! could or should grace-and-favour, nudge-nudge system gence of (respectable ) British nationalism. continue with this sort of burden. Can that currently passes for thought in the Imagine swapping Wilma Rudolph for they/we keep up the pressure? Is it the corridors of entertainment power. Harold Abrahams - the declared inten- right kind of pressure? The taskforce has A (male) theatre director, asked why tions would be achieved but the actual set sail with , for some of the crew at least, he'd put on only one play by a woman in result wouldn't ... little idea of the fundamental nature of the over ten years work, said 'We don 't cater Then of course there is the music battles that could lie ahead - or even a for minorities'. However, this minority business where, whether it's a record corn destination . No one gives up power easily, accounts for 52% of the population and pany executive, revered jazz man or good least of all the beneficiaries of the richest over 40% of the official workforce - not to leftie supporter of RAR, their attitude industry of all (we're talking about enter mention 100% of child production. The toward women is rarely more thoughtful tainment here, not imperialism ). Do we other favoured argument for the apparent than that of the apparently parodic Meat simply want a fair share of the action or do inability of women to participate in the loaf with his sweat-stained, beergut rape we want to reshape that action entirely? upper and wider echelons of the arts is that of act. Women are not expected, nor are they Ultimatel y, if Women Live! is going to be quality . Women just aren't good enough encouraged to put anything as threatening anything other than a wonderfully brnve - if they were, then of coursethey would as a musical instrument to their lips, much and exhausting gesture, the answer must take their rightful place ... alongside the less expect and encourage each other to be the latter and we all know what that men who, with talent and excellence play them sublimely. So where does the means .

Glasgow and Belfast both have complex conjunction of performers and audience histories and many ties link the two in where the audience may not be too well up he series of performance art events dustrial cities. A shared culture split on form but will appreciate effort, respond run over eight weekends at The between the Orange and the Green is ex to sincerity, take symbols in their stride. Crescent Centre, Belfast, was only pressed in songs and dances, walks and Where the performers are sincere about the second time this form of art work has wall paintings, drinking and talk. A their work, often happy just to have a been seen in the city - in fact, this pro common culture in which high art would chance to perform, at all, packing in gramme was the first to be organised in seem to have no place. content and personal commitment. dependent of the Arts Council. Recently, live work by Irish artists has Commitment and sincerity do not go un Angela McCabe and myself had the op been seen at the series of performances noticed. A dialogue is begun. portunity to use a large old school gym organised at the Crescent, Belfast by Nick nasium in the most 'neutral' part of Belfast Stewart and ·Angela McCabe and at the Lynn MacRitchie to stage the programme. The neighbour Third Eye Centre in Glasgow, part of the hood Open Workshops - N.O.W. - a Hibernian Inscape exhibition. In both community based arts group - had asked venues, the artists' work made an impact us to help them with their film/theatre more intense than that usual for an art form festival by scheduling some performance often assumed to cater for an elite audi art work. At first we were simply going to ence. Nick Stewart describes the most invite a maximum of five people to present positive response to the Crescent shows as work to be scheduled with N .0. W. 's film/ coming from 'ordinary people' - some theatre events. However, things rapidly thing Andre Stitt has also commented on took on their own momentum. A (See interview in Performance Magazine' programme of 24 performances by artists issue 16). from all over Ireland was organised. There It would be easy to draw high flown and were a number of interesting things about empty conclusions about performance's this series of performances. Firstly, several much vaunted ability to break down of the artists presenting work had never barriers and communicate to all. Such attempted live performance before. communication is not a given. It takes Secondly , the programme was scheduled work from both sides - from the per to create maximum contrasts including as former, something to communicate, and it did everything from street theatre from the audience, a desire to be open, to through to 'Viennese' style actions. Third try to understand. Perhaps what occurred ly, the work took place in a 'non-art' in Belfast and Glasgow (despite the press's venue . This yielded valuable experience field day of distortion ) was that all too rare in dealing with an uninformed audience. Fourthly, an encouraging number of women artists took part. Willie Doherty began the series in a quiet and understated manner. Live work was a new experience for him though the possi bility of it was never far from his previous work in photograms. His work demanded close attention. A complex set of slides, was projected onto a screen in front of which he maintained a static pose, back to James King the audience. The slides juxtaposed pro gressively closer - more telescoped - views of his back with images from his home environment of Londond erry . Slides of himself - in the same stance he main tained during the piece - projected onto him made it at times difficult to distin-

'What is a qualitative judgement'. This phrenic - Food fer Thought '. Hebe tape was difficult to rationalize at first phrenia is a condition charcterized by hearing. I constantly felt the need to either delusions, idiocy, and general silliness. It listen to it and ignore the activity or vice was the second 'half of the action that re versa. In the end it was the visual activity lated most strongly to this title . I had the that sustained my interest. With this type feeling of watching a kind of ~razed of work I feel that any taped narratives/ 'Generation Game', crossed with an eating monologues need to be paired down to the competition whose two participants were essential elements . This applies all the on speed . By this stage I was looking for more to someone with such strong sculp some light and shade. The piece seemed to tural sensibilities as Julie Stephenson . be pitched too much at the same level, and Philip Roycroft has been living on the by the end I felt quite detached from the north coast of Ireland for a number of years action. There was, for me, something too now. He has a full time job with 'Save the dark in this work. Nevertheless , I admired Children ' and is not seen within the 'art the level of commitment and professional world' that often . He prefers it that way, ism in its organisation missing from many shunning the title 'artist'. He works mainly other performances. in the open countryside in ritualised time Damien Coyle's piece succeeded in front periods - sometimes hours, sometimes of a small but appreciative avdience . It had days - during which he may be walking in certain similarities to Julie Stephenson's a straight line across country, canoeing in a performance of the previous weekend, river, or sleeping rough in derelict houses. relying as it did on strongly ritualised His work is often synchronized to solstice actions utilising symbolic/metaphoric, Andre Stitt and Tara Babel dates and fire is often of paramount im sculptural props and objects . As with guish the real from the illusory. At a point portance in the work. several other pieces during the programme I in the slide sequence where he turned to He presented a piece at The Crescent of performances I was confronted with _face the camera, he, in actuality, turned to which was part documentation, part per work which could only be felt and not face the audience. He then walked slowly formance. Against a back projection of an rationalized. The symbolic content , which towards the projector - taking one step earlier work, Roycroft attempted to light a seemed to me to embrace the entire work, between each slide. At this point it became fire using a wood and cord 'bow' , some was totall y mysterious. The use of such noticeable that the raincoat he was wearing dried grass, flint and wood. He put a great things as black and white cloth, fish, had attached to it a large number of twigs deal of energy into the technique and candles, copper wire, and earth, could and leaves. On reaching the projector he gained a lot of support from the audience. inspire many interpretations - too many removed the coat and placed it over the After around twenty minutes labour , some to attempt a clear understanding without projector , in effect turning it off. A second four letter words , and not a little per firstly consulting the artist. Suffice to say, projector was switched on - throwing a spiration, Roycroft failed to kindle a fire. the poetry of the work was sufficient to single image of a twig seen against a blue At the end he stayed and spoke with some hold the attent ion . A feeling was com sky onto the screen. Thi s was a subtle, people who were keen to try out his municated. Perhaps for Coyle that was poetic work with an, at times, almost sur implement s. The openness of his approach enough . realist air. engendered this response and for me this Vivien Crane 's piece was entitled, James King's work mines an altogether was a refreshing change from the over 'Islands and Waterways' . Like this title it different vein. He chose to build up to his ritualisation that inhibits many people in was simple in structure, clear in intent, and performance by undertaking a series of terested in performance . poetic in reference. With her nine year old actions in the city centre area. The se were Andre Stitt and Tara Babel presented an son , she repeated, nine times during four direct , simple and powerful political and altogether different work , extremely hours , a kind of poetic gesture of, on the social comments. In one, King painted one professional. Every detail was checked and one level, friendship, on another , spiritual arm green and the other orange. Then , double checked . Th e set was theatrical in kinsh ip . The piece commenced in subdued stripped to the waist, he proceeded to flail appearan ce involving a kind of stage - a lightin g as a stasis, the mother facing the himself. The considerable pain he endured long table - and seating for the audience. son a few feet apart, relaxed and at ease. In was compounded by the sub-zero tempera The work was pitched at a near manic time she picked up a candle, lit it, and then tures that day. In a second action King level, which at the start really stunned the Nick Stewart chose the recently restored Belfast Opera audience of around 50 people. House as his 'stage '. Utilising a canti My first impression was of an explosion levered part of its structure he stood on a of light/colour/noise and movement. Stitt chair and mockingly held the building up - male , aggressive, lunatic, gesticulating with his hands . The point was hammer ed and shouting : Babel - female, twitching, home by his wearing a T-shirt emblazoned teasing, calming and seducing . The sound with the names of several small - recently was like white noise but evidentl y put defunct - theatre groups. King success together with considerable care. fully trod a tortuous path between street References to authoritarianism and theatr e, 'straight ' drama, and perfor Northern Ireland were, from time to time, mance. discernabl e. Stitt would react violently to Julie Stephenson 's piece was ambitious these references, perhaps be screaming and many-layered . Her work mixed a with great passion into one of the brightly strong sculptural content with personal coloured telephone receivers placed on the narrative. The piece was entitled 'A Choice table around which the action took place. - 1 in 3'. Three sculptures - similar in Bin lids were banged and whistles were form but of differing materials - were blown, perhaps referring to an activity utilised in different ways, allowing the made famous in Belfast as a way of warn materi als to speak for themselves. While ing people about the approach of the these were being 'activated ' a tape alter securi ty forces. The second half, if it could nated between a male voice relating a sensi be divided like that, took place at the table. tive and obviously personal story, and a At this point I should mention that the female voice enlarging upo.1. the question performance was entitled - 'The Hebe-

picked up a rose. Mother and son then the space was turned off and in the ensuing painted in a similar manner. A single set of started to walk in a spiral out from the silence Rolfe developed a much more slides, shown at the other side of the space, centre of. the space, gradually encompas ritualised behavioural mode. The culmin was of her legs descending or ascending sing the whole space. A viewer was selected ated in him transferring the images from several steps, seen from the side. The per and presented with the rose. The spiral the flour beds - using his body - to a formance as such consisted of Adams walk was then repeated back to the centre canvas set up between the two beds. The synchronizing with this second set of of the space and once again, stasis. This end result was an unusual and very slides . was a powerful, elegant work which, aesthetic object. This was a very formal piece which though perhaps irritating to those expect An aspect of performance highlighted by related quite strongly to the earlier piece by ing a show. It touched the hearts of most Rolfe's work was the problem of how to Nigel Rolfe, dealing as it did with notions visitors to the Crescent that Saturday after document the action without interferring of positive/negative transference. Echoes noon . in the actual performance. One solution is of Duchamp's 'Nude Descending a Stair Tommy Kelso was one of the few artists to integrate the process of documentation case' were also discernable. who attempted to use the entire space. His into the performance - a solution fav Donal Ruane's work had a very strong was a slowly paced work which contained oured by Rolfe. Generally though, this is ritualistic quality involving not a little en several memorable images. A beam of an area not well thought out by most of the durance on his part. For me it recalled light, about ¼inch wide, projected along performance artists whose work I have ex some of the earlier work of Stuart Brisley the floor, split in two by a sheath knife as a perienced. For the most part it is carried or the Austrian school. Ruane shaved his metaphor for the whole piece. It dealt to a out with little consideration for the entire body - with the exception of his large extent with polar opposites made audience. I have, several times, been asked eyebrows - and had himself tied, face up, most specific by Kelso removing his if the person with the camera is to be seen to the floor at the centre of the room. His clothes and placing them, half on one side in the context of the performance. limbs were tied by lengths of rope to the of the light beam, half on the other . The Later the same day Michael Arbuckle four corners of the space. Four bowls of main part of the performance involved the presented a 'static action' of one hour's porridge and his body hair were placed cutting into and cutting out of two plastic duration. For me he spoilt an otherwise around his torso. This was not work to covered wooden boxes, each about seven interesting video of treated Photomaton warm the heart on a cold Sunday after feet in height. One was enclosed in black self portraits taken over a twelve year noon. This kind of action seems so per plastic , the other, clear plastic. In one, a period, by introducing a loud, constantly sonal, one wonders why an audience is flashing light was used, in the other a playing sound track and several other pro required at all. constant light source prevailed. The jected images. At the start of this piece I Anna O'Sullivan, Tony Hill and I..:ynne activity was conducted slowly and casually had the strong impression of speed - due Davies-Jones completed the weekend with with considerable attention to detail. probably to the constant high pitched a subtle and poetic work lasting for one Kelso's work has a strong sculptural sound . This linked in a way with the notion hour. Hill used simple means to great content and it will be interesting to see liow of time being speeded up in the video. The effect. During the first part of the per this develops in future work. piece lasted for an hour, by which time this formance he stood just inside the beam of a Nigel Rolfe opened the busy weekend initial feeling had been replaced by one of fog lamp shining diagonally across the session with a work entitled 'Red Man - considerable irritation at the volume of the space. A soundtrack of a bonfire burning Advance'. This was a development on sound. What started as a promising per played while he nervously fingered a cup of recent work using beds of flour with formance turned into an endurance test - hot water. The main purpose of this words/figures stencilled in colored pig an old ploy in live work and one that would seemed to be to allow steam to be caught in ments on their surface. In Belfast he spent be best laid to rest. the fog lamp. Slides of areas around Dun about five hours setting the piece up for a Vicky Adams presented three carousels stable - where Hill lived for seven years short action . People were free to come and of slides projected, side by side, onto a - were projected to one side of him. There go all day. Rolfe was quite casual in his free-hanging screen . In these slides was a strong tension in the work by this approach to the work and his audience at Adams' body was either painted black, stage which snapped when Lynn Davies first. At around 3pm the German rock white, or black and white striped . She was Jones unexpectedly threw a bucket of music that he had been playing loudly in seen ascending or descending a staircase water across the fog lamp beam. This Angela McCabe

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. Feature action was echoed a moment later when tive sculpture painted bright red. Aherne education system in the South is only now Hill threw the water from his cup onto the crawled slowly towards this, dressed in a reaching Degree standards, and forms of floor with a gesture of resignation. The kind of ornate net. The soundtrack which work such as performance have only been piece continued in this vein with periods of was extremely professional in production, catered for within the last several years. inactivity, abruptly changing, cued by moved from the world of everyday sounds Consequently, there are but a few 'cultural either a slide or part of the sound tape. The to an increasingly dream like quality. This models' within the local community of whole was carried out in a poetic, almost soundtrack reached a peak as Aherne artists. Alistair MacLennan and Nigel romantic atmosphere. In this piece there managed to stand upright in front of the Rolfe are perhaps the two most influential was a strong feeling of distance reduced in ominous figure, only to fall dramatically to artists working in performance over here. scale and of time speeded up which at times the floor, leaving the audience in darkness Nigel and Alistair have done much to was extremely evocative. for some tense moments. The final part of enliven the local art world. It is Mac Anna O'Sullivan's piece, on the other this performance seemed to offer an opti Lennan though, who I feel has had the hand, was staged very much for an audi mistic vision, as Aherne, freed from her biggest influence on students here. This ence. Entitled 'A Girl Called Rose', it in shackles, walked confidently through the influence may perhaps be discerned in the volved several theatrical techniques - now divided figure, into blinding blue frequent use of a kind of solemn ritualised lighting, props, costume etc - and was set light, an image which recalled the final behaviour favoured by a percentage of up on a small stage with seats for an audi moments of the film 'Close Encounters ... '. students involved with performance. On ence . Anna dressed in black somewhat This was a precisely rehearsed piece of the other hand this may simply be due to a masculine attire, read confidently from a work which left little room for the kind of lack of confidence on the part of the artist. pre-written script. In the background a spontanteity which to my mind, character Nevertheless, it is worth saying that Mac tape of a whispering female voice played. izes much of what is best in performance Lennan was one of the very few people who This tape dealt with overtly sexual experi art. received a hearty round of applause after ences whilst Anna's script related more to Martin Wedge presented the final work, giving a talk on his work at Belfast College romantic love. A boy and girl wearing a suitable ending for this rather long series of Art. His popularity as a person and the masks of her face sat on either side of her. of performance events. A path of seaweed integrity and strength of his work have un The piece had a very strong sexual tone divided a billiard table sized area of flour doubtedly influenced live work in Ireland yet little emotion was expressed. The main placed at the centre of the space. One black during his seven years of residence here. theme was O'Sullivan's feelings regarding chair was placed at either end of this path. Nigel Rolfe organized the first national bi-sexuality, as it related to her. Simplicity Three pieces of coal lay the centre of it. festival for young artists making live work, and openess regarding this delicate area One small black book, wrapped with one in Dublin last year. This did much to was complemented by the simple and length of white tape, was placed upon each create energy and confidence for students formal design of the set. chair. Wedge, his face painted bright red, to carry on working in this way. He has By this stage of the programme of events divided by a thin black line, and wearing a also done much to gain publicity for live certain facts were becoming obvious to me. black silk dress over black trousers and work in Ireland. Slowly but surely things Most of the publicity and support we were jumper, carried out a number of ritualised are improving. Triska! Arts Centre in Cork receiving was coming from a, by and large, actions in this setting. Like Tommy runs regular programmes of performance uninformed public. The notable exception Kelso's work, Wedge seemed to me to be art as does The Orchard Gallery in to this was the local Polytechnic student primarily interested in polar opposites: Londonderry. A.R.E . in Belfast occasion union who enabled us to cover the travel black/white, male/female, intuition/ ally present live performance, most expenses of all the visiting artists - due reason, etc. The piece lasted for around recently that of Roland Miller and Zbig mainly to the fact that a percentage of those seven hours and moved at a very slow pace niew Warpechowski from Poland. participating were art students. Generally with quite long periods of 'inactivity'. A rigid, unyielding tradition of painting though, I was amazed at the almost total When movement occurred it was confined, and sculpture embedded in a, by and large, lack of interest shown by those people who in the main, to· walking between the two 'upper class' social structure, is slowly would like to see themselves as being 'in chairs while moving a piece of coal around giving way to a healthier fracturing and touch' with art, artists or the art world. his body. This was, on the one hand, an cross fertilizing of traditions which are in Here I am not just referring to people in aesthetically pleasing work, and on the creasingly in touch with, on the one hand, museums, galleries, or various art beauro other, a conceptually demanding one ' a wider international sphere of art activity, cracies, I am also implicating the local which confounded rationalization by and on the other, a growing local circuit of 'community' of artists and the staff and dealing in paradox . spaces and groups . students of Belfast College of Art. Over the Looking back over this programme of As a footnote I would like to acknow period of eight weekends the attendance live work it is hard to discern any parti ledge that words are always a poor substi and interest shown by these parties was, to cular pattern which might be related to tute for live action . In compiling this say the least, minimal. Ireland, North or South. Certainly, any article I have concentrated on those aspects Mike Murphy presented a quiet though one hoping to see the 'Irish Question' ref of the work which I felt were strongest, risky performance with a strong religious lected in the work would have had to do a consequently, many details have been left flavour. He chose to enact a Christ cruci lot of digging for possible references . out . It is also worth mentioning that fied stance against a backdrop of photo However, a number of artists seemed to Angela McCather and myself both pre graphic paper, onto which were projected a apply 'oblique strategies' to this area. With sented performances for the programme, series of slides of almost schematized Willie Doherty 'The Troubles' were and that of the 24 works scheduled only 3 drawings relating to the crucifiction. simply one thread in the tapestry of his were unable to perform. Nicholas Stewart These drawings had been done directly work. Andre Stitt and Tara Babel employ onto the slides and were carefully related to ed more 'up front' imagery and sounds but Short Biographical Notes: the standing position of the performer. then gave them a more universal context. After about twenty minutes, Murphy With Tony Hill and Lynne Davies-Jones a Willy Doherty: Fine Arts graduate from moved away from the photographic paper kind of tension, akin to that experienced Belfast College of Art (1981) - currently revealing the form of a ghost like figure. To while waiting for a bomb scare to be working in Derry. James King: Lectures at those people present who knew nothing cleared, was manifest: and so on. the Ulster Polytechnic - is involved with about photography and even less about One generalisation that I feel confident street theatre events. Julie Stephenson: study performance art, this must have been, to about making is that a certain lack of ing for her MA at Belfast College of Art. say the least, a surprise. sophistication seems to characterise much Philip Roycroft: Bread-line productions. A Later that evening Jacki Aherne presen of the performance art on this side of the fom1er graduate of Belfast College of Art. ted a strongly theatrical work entitled channel. This may be due to its relative Andre Stitt and Tara Babel: Both from N . 'Hag'. The centrepiece was a 9ft tall figura- newness within the Irish art world; the art Ireland, now based in London, are currently

Mik e Tooby of the Third Eye Centre sent us the fallowing statement about his intentions in including live work in the 'Hibernian Jnscape' exhibi tion.

Four exhibitions were arranged as part of . Third Eye Centre's season of Irish arts. · The aim of the season was to show exam ples of the breadth of activity in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ire land, and to include individuals and groups working outside Ireland. The main exhibition was 'Hibernian In scape', Paul Overy's selection of contem porary Irish art that came to Third Eye Centre after a tour of Ireland. The organ isers of the exhibition had, in its early stages, planned to have a live work section. This had been dropped, but I felt that Third Eye Centre ought to represent this area of work for two main reasons: live work has been a very important part of the recent art scene in Ireland; and some of the most interesting artists in Ireland were working in this area. The four artists were selected to repre sent different approaches to using a space, and to working over time. There were some correspondences between them, such as common use of natural, soft, granular materials, but these were secondary con siderations. It seemed appropriate that they each represented a different career: one born and educated in the .south-west of Ireland and still working there (McCarthy ); one born and educated in Scotland working in Belfast (MacLennan); one born and educated in England and living and working in Dublin (Rolfe); one born and educated in Belfast who had studied in London and was now based in London (Aiken ). They were not all performance artists, and only considered themselves perform ance artists if some aspects of their work were considered in isolation. I invited the artists to work in the gallery for a period of time rather than simul tal'leously in different spaces. This was primarily out of consideration for the nature of the work, but also to provide a new approach to art work to Third Eye Centre 's audience, particularly those who visit the Centre daily. Michael Tooby

Jacki Aheme

An air of genteel voyeurism hovers about the work of Hesitate and performances. That's really what our main work was at that point Demonstrate. Their latest offering, 'Goodnight Ladies' (curren and basically we began to get a bit cold so we started working in tly on tour and discussed below by Neil Hornick) is a collage of doors as well. We did our first performance at The Oval while we glimpses into other lives. It shows a world obliquely glanced at were still at college-'-- called Monkey Puzzle. And then we began to through the windows of passing trains, a world of elegant, furtive do a sort of dual type of performance. So in the summer we'd work refugees, of Ruritanian romance, translated onto the stage with outside and in the winter we'd work inside. The theatricality of it just high definition theatricality and the iconography of early Hitch grew bit by bit as we learnt more and more of the techniques and cock and film noir. It is a priviliged view of lives and events of what it was possible for us to do. which we are given only hints, tantalising clues in the form of LD: 'Goodnight Ladies' is extremely elaborate technically ... elaborate, stylish visual images. GP: In our inside shows the lighting and the sound are an integral The effect has much to do with Tom Donnellan's extra part. Without them it wouldn't work, obviously, in the sense that we ordinary lighting and the individual performances of members of use them as the colours in our painting. We never think of them as the company. But criticism of the work inevitably takes on an seperate even in the conception of the work. The sound is our script auteurist stance, for whatever the collaborative nature of their and the lighting is the beginning of our patchwork of colours. So in work, each performance can be seen as the vision if not the that sense we don't think about it as lighting a show. The lighting is creation of one woman, Hesitate and Demonstrate's artistic such an important part of it that we just talk about it the same time as director, Geraldine Pilgrim. everything else. Developed out of a partnership between Pilgrim and Janet LD: So how does a show develop? What's the starting point for you? Goddard, who has since left the company, Hesitate and Demon Do you do sketches or write notes? strate has its roots in that most unlikely melting pot from which so GP: Well, it always starts from one idea which is the base point and much performance has come, the Yorkshire of the early 1970s. then we start working around it and we start building up the tape and There, at Bradford under the tutelage of Albert Hunt and in Leeds thinking about different images. And we usually talk for about eight where John Darling was on the staff of the art college, and with weeks: just sitting in coffee bars, sitting in each other's rooms Welfare State roaming in a caravan somewhere in the background, because we don't have our own rehearsal space. And we just talk and much of the visual theatre, street performance and outdoor spec talk and talk. Then we go shopping and looking around, seeing tacle that characterised a decade and is still shaping a new one, something that might stimulate us into an idea or having had an idea was nurtured. looking for something to go with it. So it works both ways really. The Pilgrim and Goddard went to Leeds Art School in 1972 and it objects being used are important either to stimulate us or else to use was there that the work that was to become characteristic of for the idea that we've had . Then we start building and that's when Hesitate and Demonstrate began. At the end of the three year we start really thinking about other aspects of the show. Such as how course, Pilgrim spent twelve months as a member of John Bull we are going to see it in the space. We start doing little drawings . But Puncture Repair Outfit with John Darling, and Mick Banks. It was because we're a touring company we never build it just for a specific to be the group's last season. Banks went on, via the Natural space because it has to fit in anywhere. Theatre Company, to found British Events and train performing LD: 'Goodnight Ladies' looks as if it would be a real bugger to tour ducks. Darling gave up performing altogether and has only now around . returned, featuring in 'Goodnight Ladies' and about to launch a GP: It's actually a million times simpler than 'Do Not Disturb' our new and wonderfully named trio, The Bronte Brothers. Pilgrim last show. We can do it in a one-day get in. 'Do Not Disturb' took us co-founded Hesitate and Demonstrate. something like thirty -six hours to put up. So this is our simple It was over steaming mugs of tea, four floors from the nearest touring set. Not quite as simple as we'd meant it to be! teaspoon in the airy garret she inhabits atop a large pink house in LD: That must limit your touring. the hinterland of Holland Park, that we talked to her. GP: 'Do Not Disturb ' caused us a lot of problems. This one we've done from York Arts Centre to De Lantaren . It actually expands and Luke Dixon: Were you doing performances whilst you were at shrinks amazingly . Much more so than we thought. Leeds? LD: Do you have a fairly well established circuit of places you play Geraldine Pilgrim: Yes. From the first year I arrived it just regularly? happen ed that our year was picked, maybe by chance maybe on GP: We've got our old favourites that we've been going to every purpose, in the sense that we were all interested in performance, year, like York and Bradford and The Oval and the ICA. But we're which was extraordinary. We went into doing things which we didn't also trying to go to new places that we haven't been before and it know anything about. We just happened to stimulate each other all looks as though this year that is beginning to happen. the time. So I started doing one-off performances at the beginning of LD: When you went to Leeds did you go as a painter? the course and then all the year formed a company called Soft Soap GP: I couldn't decide whether to go to drama school or art school and we started touring that around as well. So most of the time was and I decided that I wanted to go to art school and that I wouldn't spent doing performance work of some kind . think about theatre. Before college I used to work with a theatre LD: What sort of work was it? group (in Putney) called Group 64. But I decided no, I'd stop GP: Well the first piece I ever did was set in a derelict house. I did a thinking about drama and go to art school. I just put a pin in a map performance piece based around the history of the house, which I'd and went to Leeds . It was completely accidental that I went to some imagined, using people from the course and using a tape by John where that made me realise it was possible to do both art and drama. Darling - that was when we first started working together. That's But I went to be a painter and started off painting and sort of have what triggered me off on the idea of memories and atmospheres carried it on in a very minimal way. because this particular house was so evocative of different things. LD: Do you still paint? LD: Has the development of the work to more obviously theatrical GP: Not so much as I would like to. My scripts are my paintings. venues been conscious? LD: There's almost no dialogue in 'Goodnight Ladies' and there GP: It just happened really without realising it. Janet Goddard (co was none in 'Do Not Disturb'. Are you ever tempted to introduce founder of Hesitate and Demonstrate ) and I started doing street dialogue into the shows?

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. .------Interview------GP: I personally hope not. Because I'm very wary of words in that really start work. But we build the picture during that week before sense. I mean I like words but I think there's so much literary theatre the show. By that stage we'll have worked out certain images but that it's much more exiting to try and do what you want to do without because we haven't got our own rehearsal space we don't rehearse in using words, and see if it is possible. I'm not saying we're not ever that sense. The last two weeks before the show are the most intensive . going to use words. One of the main reasons that we have a few words And panic stricken! in this show is because we didn't just want to get a reputation for LD: Is there any concern for narrative or storyline? being the group that nt."'leruses words, because then we'd be terrified GP: We always have a very strong story line for the company. to open our mouths again. So we've started to try and bring words in, Whether that comes across to the audience in its entirity we don't feel but it's at a very exploratory stage. The image is the most important is that important. We feel that if there's a strong enough storyline part of the show. The visual aspects will always be more important that we've got ourselves then that is a line from which people can than the verbal side. pluck what they want or imagine what they want. We always know LD: How much of a Hesitate and Demonstrate company is there? some sense of the beginning, middle and end. It may be all jiggled up GP: There's four of us . There's Tom Donnellan, the lighting and juxtaposed but there's always a very strong storyline, a narrative designer, Lizza Aiken, Alex Mavrocordatos and myself. We're the line. four full-time members of the group. But we also have a family which LD: Is the same true of the characters? we draw on such as Jan Hardisty and John Darling. John has been GP: Not so much so, no. We have shades of characters but as long as associated with us from the very beginning. So we like to draw on each character has their own image we don't do work on character. people that we know and who have worked with us before. It's very much shadows and shades of different personalities . It's LD: And you're all involved in devising the show from the very more situations with the characters than real depth of characterisa beginning? tion. GP: Yes, absolutely. We spend a lot of time together talking and LD: How did the present company come together? collaborating and working things out. As the remaining founder GP: I never audition, ever. People are often recommended to the member I carry the style with me. I start it off and then we collabor company but normally I like to work with friends. Once Janet left it ate within the original conception of the show. became more important to work with friends; to work with people LD: You don't perform in 'Goodnight Ladies' yourself. Is this the who understood that type of work. It's a lot to do with being able to first time you've not been in one of the shows? do nothing very well and that 's a very difficult skill to have in that it's GP: Yes! And it's awful. It's very painful not performing in it. It 's a a performance skill rather than an acting skill. very interesting experience. I seem to get as much tension and nerves LD: And is that something that people just have? Can it be taught? as I did before, but there's no way to get rid of that so I'm worrying GP: I don't know. I think some people have got it and some people without the outlet of that wonderful nervous energy you get from haven't. I think that once again is a difference between performance performing. and acting . Lizza has definitely got it. Alex has definitely got it. In LD: Has it meant that you've had a tighter control on the show? fact all the people we've worked with in the past have had that certain GP: Well, it's the first time there's been an outside eye. I think something which is hard to define. It's a belief in what they're doing that 's important because performing in it and thinking about all the without feeling frustrated because they can't open their mouths to other things began to get just too much and this time we decided it talk. The fact that the company is striking looking is m a way · would be really good to have an outside eye. So I've sat outside and, accidental. But it does help . for the first time, seen a Hesitate and Demonstrate show. So I think LD: Do you go and see other shows? it 's been very good for the company and for myself. But I do miss GP: I try very hard not to see other shows when we're working on a performing. show. I've obviously always loved the People Show. They've been a LD: So you're not giving it up entirely? very strong influence. The company at the moment that is strongest GP: Definitely not. No. in my mind is Pina Bausch. Having seen her, suddenly the whole LD: How finished do the shows get? Is there a moment when you world seems to have opened up. You realise what is possible with 40 think, that's it, as you would with a painting? people on the stage. She is quite extraordinary. I just hope she comes GP: As soon as it got to the point of thinking it was finished, that is to England. when we'd stop, because it would then become simply touring a LD: What about future plans? show, whereas it's got to be a process of constant reassesment. So GP: The next show we've got planned is a musical and it would be although 'Goodnight Ladies' isn't that different from when we did it really nice - instead of dreaming about it because of lack of money before Christmas at the Oval, we have actually worked on it a lot. - God, it would be nice to have six dancers that come on and go off, LD: Do you particularly like period settings? and only use them once maybe. GP: I think it would be very easy to like period settings and to get LD: Do you mind having to tour the shows? stuck in them, and that's a constant battle. GP: I would love one day to have a theatre of our own and to be able LD: Do you go down Portobello Road and think, that would be to do say three new shows a year. But the touring side of it is very really great, we must find a use for that in the show? important because of the excitement and the nerve-wracking quality GP: If there's something very lovely then, yes, if it triggers off an of having to squeeze a pint into a tea cup. It means that the show idea. constantly has to change. It has to change. But obviously it gets very LD: What was the starting point of 'Goodnight Ladies'? tiring. Because venues are only able to give you very, very limited GP: Well in fact the tape of 'Goodnight Ladies' was the tape of the performing periods, it means the get in time is much, much shorter very first show which Janet and myself ever did. And we only did it and what we don't want to get into is turning up, getting in, doing the three times. It's such a beautiful tape it seemed a waste of time to just show, getting out, without having even noticed where we've been. have used it three times so this was quite an experiment . What I Because the environment we work in is so very important. We'd be decided to do was use an old tape and build a complete new show very happy to do weeks at a time with a three day get in, but that's around it. So in this sense the tape was the original starting point . sadly cloud-cuckoo land in the present economic climate. But if we Obviously the tape gave us evocations and ideas we were able to work could have our own space it would be wonderful. on . We explored Collectors' Corner in Euston where all those wonderful old train spotters' bits and pieces are, and then we just went shopping. So, for example, something like the old tin bath we found in a junk shop at the bottom of this road. It's very difficult to Hesitate and Demonstrate Productions: May 77 Points of Departure explain how we do it. It just happens somehow . Nov 77 Ha-Ha January 78 Horrid Things May 78 Minutes July 78 LD: There must then be editing and structuring of all'the material. Frozen Moments October 78 No Regrets April 79 Horrid Things GP: Very intensive editing and structuring. We always have a (reworked version) May 79 Scars (first version) July 79 Scars (second building week before we open and that's when things really get version) Jan 80 Excuse Me (first version) March 80 Excuse Me (second slashed and sliced and structuretl and rehearsed . And we begin to see version) Nov 80 Do Not Disturb Sept 81 Goodnight Ladies! what we've got and usually we only really see what we've got on the first night of the performance. Aft~r that first night , that's when we

'Hesitate and Demonstrate in 'Goodnight, Ladies!'

didn't see Hesitate & Demonstrate's 'Do Not Disturb' at the films without directly quoting them, satmzmg them or merely IICA last year. But when Tom Donnellan, the company's lighting past iching them. It is more evocation than hommage, played straight, designer, treated me to a quick-fire display of his lighting effects powerfully refined. amidst their impressive environmental set, I resolved not to miss The iconography may derive from Hitchcock, Lang, von Stern their next one. And so once more to the ICA for their latest touring berg and Reed but, to continue the cinematic notion, the charged show, 'Goodnight Ladies'. I was not disapointed. elliptical encounters rather suggest the mood and style of Resnais A programme note sets the scene: and a touch or two of Bunuel: a crucifix sheathing a dagger, an 'Sleepless nights alone in unfamiliar rooms, days spent lingering elegant box slowly opened to reveal its surprising contents to some in pavement cafes waiting for new~. Are they being observed or is one on stage - but not to us . it only imagination? Emigres, haunted by shadows of their past, The piece proceeds by a series of disclosures and transformations: drift through unknown capitals of Europe, drawn towards their a train-compartment door swings back to reveal a hotel bedroom; a ultimate destination like moths towards a flame.' vacated cafe table is suddenly illuminated by a toy train chugging On stage, as we take our seats, a tableau: A woman, her face con around its perimeter, lights glowing in the dark; a passport official's cealed, embraces a man in apparent farewell, a suitcase by their side. table-top is lifted back to reveal a gaming-board on which the woman A sonorous piece of music begins, Albinoni's Adagio for Organ and bids and loses her jewellery. The table top then mutates into a mes Strings, and as they slowly part company we're off on a mysterious merizing mirror. A red laser beam plays fitfully upon a lifted journey through train compartments, cafes, hotel bedrooms and champagne glass and surrounding perspex slats to create a jagged salons, a succession of almost wordless encounters conveying a spidery light-show of eerie inexplicable beauty and a cabin trunk is paranoid magical world of suspicion, romance and skulduggery. abruptly dismantled to disclose a portable acquarium! The show Orson Welles described film as 'a ribbon of dreams'. One way of reverberates with such exquisite shivers. describing this hour-long theatre piece which, happily, eludes John Darling, who also appears in the piece, provides a virtually precise definition, is as a cinematic dream-montage drawing on our continuous taped sound-track of mood music and SFX, including collective impressions of mainly pre-war train-mystery -secret pan-pipes, cymbale, the Red Army Choir, bird-song and, of course, police-European-spy films. Movie buffs will be thrilled by visual trains, while Tom Donnellan's lighting design is wonderfully echoes of such films as 'The Lady Vanishes', 'Sleeping Car to incisive and selective. In fact, the carefully modulated sound and Trieste', 'Shanghai Express', 'Night Train to Munich', 'The Secret lighting are as much players in the piece as the four performers, all of Agent' and 'The Third Man ' . But the notable achievement of them active elements integrated within a unified texture of visual and 'Goodnight ladies!' is that it manages to conjure up the spirit of these aural richness, the whole almost entirely unencumbered by dialogue.

I have to admit that the few spoken lines gave me a feeling of slight And since we're venturing up this particularly rocky garden path, deflation. Alex Mavrocordatos, for instance, with his dark, exotic let's go a little further. Collectively created impressionistic pieces, and rather brutal features, looks very good as the central male though maybe plotless, are quite likely to express something of the protagonist but his voice is too lightweight, lacking the impact of his state of play in the group dynamic of their creators. Is it too fanciful visual presence. to suggest that, on one level, Goodnight Ladies! psychodramatizes Towards the end, the fairly slow deliberate pace gives way to a an artistic journey (towards, of course, an unknown destination ) flurry of fast-moving vignettes suggesting a nightmare intensifica undertaken by a creator intent on shrugging off dominant past male tion of the reverie. Then the woman wakes up in bed, apparently inlfuences in order to articulate an independent female sensibility in refreshed or relieved, moves slowly in brightening light towards the control of its own artistic destiny? Well, it's just a speculation, in no screen-windows at the back, which open before her, and leaves. way meant to simplify or even over-elevate a piece irreducibly rich in Though there may be no literal story-line to Goodnight Ladies! its many associations. After all, I'm sure it's only mere coincidence that psycho-dramatic resonance strongly suggests women's liberation . the name of Hesitate & Demonstrate's highly gifted Artistic Director Here's how it goes: a woman bids farewell to her lover only to find his is Geraldine Pilgrim ... spirit oppressively persists in the image of pursuer, spy, inter After the performance I met John Darling (ex-People Show, ex rogator, border-controller and game-manipulator. This menacing John Bull Puncture Repair Kit, now launching a new outfit, The masculine persona is multiplied via the extention of the image of Bronte Brothers ) and congratulated him on his sound-track , heavy overcoat and sharply contoured trilby hat to two male accom mentioning that I was only a bit puzzled why he chose to use plices, as ambiguous as himself. In one sequence alone does the male Gheorghe Zamfir's rather familiar theme music from 'Picnic at appear to be in thrall to the female as, reclining on the floor, he Hanging Rock' at one point. He told me that when he first put watches her bathe, slowly don black gloves, then rise to walk bare together the tape he didn't then know the Zamfir piece had been used foot in evening dress down a green carpet strewn with War Memorial in Peter Weir's film. Thus I came to learn that the sound-track for poppies. At length, she awakes from her nightmare of pursuit and Goodnight Ladies! was originally created four and a half years ago departs, free at last, it seems, from the ghosts that haunt her. for a completely different show by Hesitate & Demonstrate, their The archetypal chime is of a woman alone, menaced and violated first , 'Points of Departure '. On this present occasion they decided to by male 'agents ' from whose dark influence she finally extricates create another show on the basis of the same sound-track . From herself by a simple act of will. At least that's the shape of the stain which I conclude that not only does Hesitate & Demonstrate have that showed up afterwards on my personal blue-tinted litmus paper. class - it also has chutzpah . My salutations, for a piece after my own heart. Neil Hornick

'Goodnight Ladies!'

Red Artists Threat? Community Art is often attacked - most recent example the letters column of 'City Limits' - not so often analysed. Pete Shelton reassesses its contribution

here has always been a strand of one talks about wider audiences (best joke when their real concern lies somewhere T artists, musicians, writers and per so far: the Barbican Centre believing it has amongst the other eighty per cent. formers who have formed a radical great relevance and a potential audience in From those who have sought different mo\lement in the arts. Although rarely an the East End ) but much of this is mere lip solutions two movements have been estab identifiable group working in unity, there service to a trendy idea. Maybe some lished. They are Arts in the Community is a common ground which would probab people can honestly say that by working for and (yes, you guessed it) Community Arts . ly be acceptable to all of them, and central the most influential portion of society they Arts in the Community is a very loose in this is the belief that their artistic out can persuade them to hand over that influ amalgam which includes artists in resi put could be a tool to create change in the ence to those who were not born with it as a dence, street theatre, local arts centres, world. right. Good luck to them. But, not sur community theatre and arts workshops. Until recently, however, the artist was prisingly, it i~ this issue that is the What they have in common is nothing limited to working by proxy. The artist 's snapping point for many radical artists. more than a desire to practice their art for work wasn't actually changing the world, For them it is simply not possible to create the benefit of a wider, or different, more it was a symbol of the change they work for twenty per cent of the population audience, though all have more speciflc in- sought . They could work with radical initiatives in form, which demonstrated their stance, or they could use their work as a vehicle through which they could ex press their views. Likewise, performers whose livelihood depended on the inter pretation of musical or dramatic classics could lace these works with heavy irony. Experiments in form run very much in tandem with the development of the radical movement. After all what is the point of creating a new form, other than the fact that existing ones are no longer capable of expressing new ideas? This ,is visible in the emergence of contemporary dance, in "cut-up" experiments in litera ture, and the whole movement away from classics towards artists being their own authors . But far as these manifestations have stretched the limits of their art forms, the artists are sooner or later faced with the problem : does it work? Does the radical stance taken by the artist change the wor)d? . Now , I'm not opening this can of worms in order to disparage the work of these artists, nor to come to an undisputable con clusion . It 's an open question. Rather, I want to portray the radical movement in the arts as something that doesn't stand still, as an area that requires constant ex perimentation with forms and objectives, and look in detail at just one of these . First, though, let's just have another quick peek at the problem. Assuming that at least part of the objectives of the radical movement is to see greater influence going to those who have little, to see those who have been disadvantaged traditionally in our society having a more audible voice and access to power, to see society restruc tured (depending on the artist ) on a scale that stretches from lukewarm liberalism to outright anarchy - how is it possible to create work that will have an audience only in the top social brackets? Of course every-

Marguerite McLaughlin: Can you explain why in your writings you've criti cised the use of the term 'jazz'? Val Wilmer: The word 'jazz', what it meant originally in its first remembered use in America was a synonym for fucking. A lot of the early music was played in bro thels though not as much as some books claim, and also in gambling joints in places like New Orleans. So it seems that white people began to refer to it as 'that fuck music, that dirty music'. Well 'dirty' can be used as a compliment too ... In my un derstanding of it musicans themselves, black people that is because I think of it asa black music form, have always referred to · what they play as 'music', the word jazz wasn't used. There was a short time when the word jazz might have been used by black musicians, but not at the beginning and certainly not very much today. In the wave of Malcom X and the '60s black con ciousness and black nationalism in Amer ica, there was a deliberate move among black musicians to change the way the music was referred to. 'Jazz' was seen as, whatever its possible origins, a white man's word. As one person once told me: 'We were told we were Negroes, we're not Negroes , it's not our word, we don't want it and we don't want 'jazz', that's a white word. It became the feeling of the move ment generally so musicians started to identify their music as black music, Afro American music which is a term used in America a lot but not used in this country very much. It became absurd anyway to use a term like jazz to identify music that is so diverse . The pressure on the people who create the music was put on them by the white media to conform. It is a form of black people's expression, I feel, that is possible for people all over the world to play. Max Roach, an American drummer, called it 'The true music of democracy'. Some people when he said that thought it was the wonderful backdrop for the American Dream. What he meant was that it can express the mood and the life situat ion of any individual that plays it. If you were to pick up a horn and play it now, you would be expressing what it is like for you at this stage in your life to play. But as soon as white people start talking about the uni versality of the music it's like saying isn't it all wonderful we're all members of the human race, we're all brothers and sisters and, you know, let's all hold hands and conviently forget about who invented it and who and for whom it continues to be a major form of expression and also a major form of resistance. Far be it for me to put down white people who play, who are sincere about what they are doing. It's just

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. MUSIC when people start claiming significance in about what they play but others are world little bit more thought and practice, in my the music without acknowledging its class musicians . There will never be the humble opinion. When I first started origins. What became clear to me when I proportions of world class English listening to music I assumed, like most got older, having listened to the music musicians to Black Americans. people that music was something that men from my early teens, was that there can't be M McL: And the role of women in jazz? did. Women were singers, pianists and we . any other form of artistic expression in the V W: There have always been women all knew women sometimes played violin World which is criticised by a group which playing 'jazz' for want of a better word. For and cello because we'd seen them in sym is so different from the group that invented instance in New Orleans in the early days phony orchestras or playing chamber it. You can argue that people writing about some of the arrangements which were music . But it never occurred to me to ask boxing, if not boxers themselves, might written down rather than head (learned) why there weren 't more women musicians . learn to box. That could apply much more arrangements were done by women No matter how interested I was I never to me as a European woman writing about because they had had the opportunity of thought about playing music, only much Charlie Parker in Kansas City in 1940. It training in the church or at a college or later when I thought I'd like to there was was pretty extraordinarily presumptious of something. Li! Armstrong who played for the thought that I might not be good me . And it reflects the way white people the King Oliver band and married Louis enough. By then I only had time to be have in a sense attempted to control the Armstrong was quite an important better than men at taking photographs and music. Of course they haven't managed to arranger in the twenties. There have writing . You felt you would have to be control the music in any part of its history always been women musicians but like better than men and God knows I had to be - the music continues. One of the most in women painters and so on they haven't better at just taking care of myself and teresting things about this music is that been remembered . They've been written walking down the street than men had to when magazines and journalists are looking out of history. When you talk to male be. Ten years later I knew I could be as around for a story they'll bring out the old musicians you 'll hear women's names good as any woman and not worry about stories and there's one called 'Jazz is mentioned in bands but women weren't men. I suppose I was a feminist a long time Dead'. Somebody says jazz is dead every promoted as mus1c1ans. They were ago but we all needed the theories to back it five years. One time I was talking to Billie expected to be singers or pianists. But up . I think example is very important. Harper (saxophone player) and he said there were saxophone and bass players but That's why this women's season will be 'Yeah jazz is dead, it really takes me out they've been written out of history the way wonderful because it will remove the when they say that. That's like saying the women always have been. In the last ten excuse for not knowing who the women are black man is dead, and that's ridiculous years, as you know, women have just playing jazz in this country. And most of because blacks are alive, are alive.' And it's emerged out of the woodwork in this this Drill Hall line-up is local in the sense true you can't change the people and you country. A lot of women have been that man y of the musicians are not known can't change the music either. attracted to playing jazz since it allows outside London except for people like M McL: How did you reconcile your more freedom for self expression than Kathy Stobart who grew up playing in big interest and your writing about 'Afro other forms of music. For a lot of women bands and played in Vic Lewis' band and American' music as a white English the more macho image of rock music has who has guested with Ted Heath. And woman? Weren't you challenged and asked been quite off-putting. Women might be people like Irene Schweitzer who is a 'How can you say, how can you know?' attracted to something powerful with a pianist from Switzerland. And of course V W: You don't question it when you first little more thought behind it rather than there are lots ofJ)ther people who wouldn't get into it. You find something that you throw themselves around a stage with a or couldn 't play in this programme and like. Obviously it's the arrogance of our guitar. That's not to knock women who women playing in rock bands who all need people as such that we didn't learn that play rock music but 'jazz' does require a to be better known. what we're doing is telling another race of people 'This is how your music should be' . You become politicised through experi ence, as I did, rather than anything else. Meeting black people continually from all over the planet, from all walks of life, not orily musicians. I find that a lot of white people who write about music, the only black people they know or have met would only be musicians. They would judge a race or group of people by the musicians they met. But because I met the families and friends of musicians and I began to know all types of black people I learned about the black movement in America as it Linda Malone developed, people became more political and the era changed. That experience and my own politicization as a woman (dis covering the women 's movement, etc.) has affected everything I've written in the last ten years . Before that I used to write criticism. M McL: You've talked a lot about the music in America, what about the musicians in this country? V W: What about the musicians in this country? I know what you're coming around to ... M McL : Is there an English jazz? Or is it as you say that people 'play their own lives'? V W: As long as they don't take too much credit for inventing the stuff. You get musicians in this country who are arrogant 19

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. ReviewsReviewsReviews the writer next door woken with the dream 1 has liardly been explored in London . But London Round-Up of Kubla Khan in his head and tapping they need to be programmed with great away to get it on paper before he forgets; astuteness if all those seats are to be filled the person from the Porlock Lightening night after night . The risks are bigger, but In a ramshackle room, tucked away above Rod Company who disturbs him with his that much more exciting . A hundred a pub in Notting Hill, lurks what is prob offers of protection from 'the ravages of people at the Bush means a handful of ably London's only genuine theatre de wild electricity'; the girl abandoned by punters having to spend the evening in the poche, The Gate. The absurdity of the ven lovers or pimps; and the landlady who will bar. At the Drill Hall or the Bloomsbury ture has not diminished even though Lou not leave him alone ('if you're jerking off they look lonely . The Tricycle still has not Stein, its American founder and chief it's $3 extra' ). All heard through cheap pulled off what these other venues are just mover has now turned his attentions to a cardboard walls. beginning to attempt. 'Blind Dancers ' new Gate south of the river. Gate produc The three characters are creatures of the which wen« into the Tricycle trailing tions, in a space that would not comfor night, suspended until dawn or something clouds of Canadian glory was a duff play tably house a game of bar billiards, have blacker lets them go. 'There's no need to given no help in its direction but with a never been less than epic and the show that check out,' says the landlady, 'I'm crossing couple of performances that themselves went in there whilst Stein opened in Batter you out of the book. There. You're gone.' made the two hours interesting, but not sea with 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', It was a tacky triumph to bring off this interesting enough to pack the punters into was in the tradition of the place - the production in this space with these the spaces between the scaffolding . English premiere of Len Jenkins' 'Limbo resources. The acting - Ray Charleson, But the most uneconomic theatre of all Tales'. John Schofield and John Sessions - was must be that curious phenomenon , the A success at Westbeth in New York and extraordinary . Schofield is familiar to fol lunchtime show. It survives , seemingly winner of an Obie, the play demands the lowers of the Crystal Theatre and the show untroubled year in year out , and Sue greatest of technical sophistication and the had that mix of bravura, stylish writing Jamie son's odd-ball thriller 'Rabbit in a most elaborate of resources . It had neither and surreal striking visual effects that has Trap ' turned up for a lunchtime season at at the Gate in Michele Frankel's produc characterised their work over the years. It the King's Head after two successful tion but by pushing every scrap of equip is rare to see a piece of theatre so visual yet evening runs at the Oval. By the time it ment further than it might reasonably have so densely packed with words and it was reached Islington, if not before, the pro been expected to go and bringing in a hand something of a coup for the Gate and duction was decidedly slapdash but there ful of holograms, it was made to work. Michele Frankel to have secured its British was much to relish in the writing Never can so little have been used to so premiere . including, for my money one of the best great effect. But the economics of such a production lines I've heard this year. Passing up the The play falls into three parts, each a must make no sense whatever. The little offer of a joint so as to dash home instead monologue, linked by a master of cere pub theatres of London survive only by and feed the pussy , one of Ms Jamieson 's monies who delivers the central dependence on large an1ounts of subsidy characters opine s, 'There 's nothing worse monologue himself . It was John Schofield (the Bush ), impecunious idealism (The than going home stoned to a thin cat. ' we saw first, on a two hour drive to meet up Gate ), an open door policy to itinerant Luke Dixon with a woman who might or might not be companies up from the country (the Old driving in the opposite direction to meet Red Lion ) or a mixture of the three . I him. In a mesmerising performance, doubt whether, even in the present climate driving his car as if suspended in space of financial stringency, such venues are from his shoulders, Schofield acted out his actually doomed but they are certainly road-movie drama with the aid of a hard being eclipsed by a new generation of board roadway and little models. His ram larger, more financially viable spaces. bling thoughts as he drove, were inter The Drill Hall just off the Tottenham rupted by the recording of notes for an Court Road is one of these . National anthropology lecture on the Mayan Theatre of Brent turned up there with 'The concept of time to be delivered the Black Hole of Calcutta ' and played to large following day. All pretty bizarre . and largely hysterical audiences . For my And then the compere came on to des taste the company have stretched their cribe the acts that he would have booked if original idea as far, if not further, than it only he had had the money or the Gate the will go, and to anyone who had seen either reputation. This was a grotesque and dis of the show's predecessors , much of the concerting verbal freak show: the wax material was familiar. But the techniques works of a bombed Japanese town; Count have been refined , characters developed Orlav, the transparent man and the human and with its red floor and back drop , balloon, impersonated for us by an unsus oriental screen, aubergines and chapatis , pecting member of the audience. Distur the production was very good to look at . bing stuff indeed. And all he had to show The audience - shrieking with delight us after all was the mechanical fly made by before even a word was uttered - were a watchmaker in Bremen and swatted by clearly getting the good time they were the Emperor Maximillian. 'It's never after. worked since. Hardly worth showing you With the Drill Hall now a permanent really.' And he didn't, merely rattling the fixture, the Almeida opening on a full time matchbox which contained it. basis in the autumn and the Collegiate Lastly, the ripest slice of Americana. A renamed the Bloomsbury and clearly re man in a hotel room with no wife, no vamping its image and its programming , children and no job ('and this isn'r the De there is now a circuit of middle scale pression so there's no excuse' ) was beset theatres quietly altering the face of the from outside by an army of unseen voices: fringe. Such theatres have a potential that Limbo Tales

Major ran out of instructions. In the ensuing crisis of the soldier's raison d'etre, Taylor managed with all the pluck of a Little Englander to drop in a command for self-destruct. The Major and all his works were returned thus whence they came. The show ended on a complex emotional note with a pacified Taylor shrugging off his mistreatment in a "Now, as I was saying ... " mood. Satire on storybook endings of the 'Biggles Wins Through ' variety contrasted with a genuine celebra tion of Taylor's luck and heroism. The final sight of a bumbling, beaming Taylor soliciting approbation while exuding pathos had a singular poignancy. The area of experience explored by F. F. has suffered from two sources: one being critics who settle for easy descriptions of surrealistic tomfoolery and the other artists who seize on absurdity as a carte blanchefor chaotic discourse. For although the Britton brothers are happiest entertaining (and provoking! ) a responsive audience, it

C: is a complete misjudgement to see their i'i 0 work as being only a humorous, absurdist a: look-at-life. F.F . is marshalled by ob 1 F orkbeard Fantasy sessions not gratuitous neurotic pursuits but the continuing interests of a (Tim Britton ) took this rather wonderful celebration of exultant chaos and glorious unique cultural outlook. A whole world is opportunity to distribute free, catastrophe. offered to our view. Miniatures and models autographed volumes while the balaclava'd A very different sight greeted the visitor reveal a world animated by tension and caretaker (Chris Britton ) extended a lugu to Theatre Space to see what "The Cold threat, turned upside down and peopled by brious welcome with a vicious looking Frame" had in store. In the midst of a cartoon personae. At its heart lie the essen date-stamp. Mr Fairybreath's agent (John swept and gently lit space stood one such tial elements of personality which reach Schofield ) looked rather unusual in his be frame, solid and attractive looking with its outwards and suffuse the piece as a dye whiskered, besuited bemusement. Even hinges and catches, picked out from the colours cloth. Phil Hyde tually, Fairybreath stood before his invited surrounding darkness by a white lunette audience and, spotlit before a white back backdrop which suggested both the gard drop, thanked them a zillion, trillion ner's utilitarian whitewash and the night Bread and Puppet times. A handy scalpel from his jacket mare flutterings of a giant cabbage white . enabled him to evade the glare of the public Tending the frame with loving care was ex Riverside ity by slicing gingerly through the back secret agent Taylor (Tim ) whose rotund drop . Magically, the bleeding cloth and gaberdined appearance indicated his They are indeed something of a legend. whisked up and away to reveal Fairybreath espionage exploits to be firmly in his past. Along with the San Francisco Mime aloft in his observatory, waving and Interrupted by a tic-like squeak and other Troup and El Teatro Campesino, Bread blinking at the stars. Beneath him, the ' assorted fidgets, he recounted his efforts to and Puppet are one of that tiny band of cavernous body of the library extended . resuscitate his backyard from wartime des American performance groups whose Rickety shelves and shaky pillars of books truction, settling finally for an old cold work is famed and spoken of in places it has marked out a domain that, with its gad frame - which still would not grow any never been seen. But the reputation of the gets, cubbyholes and rude carpentry com thing. And then ... blackout! Taylor was company was forged more than two prised the adventure playground of the thrown into whimpering terror as port decades ago and burnished in Britain with personality which makes up the character holes opened on the cold frame, it's own a memorable visit to London and the Mer istic Britton brothers situation . With the lighting apparatus extended and the lid of cury Theatre, in the heady days of 1968. appearances of John Schofield as a manic the frame cranked open as a giant quad There have been occasional return trips browser, and the caretaker in positively ruple chinned Colonel Blimp emerged. A since then and it was to Riverside that they liverish mood, the dramatis personae was zip fastener on his chin released a more came in festal mood this Eastertide to now complete to play on the swings and human sized Major Britton (Chris). present 'The Story of One Who Set Out to roundabouts of triangular conflict. It soon Taylor's proud possession of all he sur Study Fear' and sadly to show that the became clear that where he should feel veyed was now usurped by this military company capable of glistering evenements most at home, Fairybreath was not highly man who produced boxes and gadgets in 1968 is now more than a little tarnished. regarded at all. In fact as a Bunterish wimp from the depths of the cold frame like a Though the opening procession, with a he was easy game for the unsubtle bullying magician drawing rabbits from a hat. large, crude, papier mache sun slung aloft, of the caretaker and the rasping malice of Taylor was press-ganged into serving as a hinted at a much earlier age of theatrical the browser. Their cumulative beating of guinea pig for the Major's experiments. A experience, the folk theatre references his brow precipitated a loosening of the giant join-the-dots picture tested his were all too swiftly displaced by a vision of bowels and he was mercifully dispatched to creative ability while public speaking was time-warped sixties. With its rustic sim the smallest room. His later incarceration examined by flooding Taylor's face with a plicities there was an almost deliberate per in a builder's-yard-cum-wastepaper constant stream of water caught in a giant versity about the roughness of the produc basket brought the house down in afin-de bib - a liason between Mothercare and tion. Though directed by Peter Schumann, spectacle cataclysm that is a lastnight F.F. Chinese water torture. Twenty questions the group's founder and father figure, the speciality. The shuddering subsidence of and a stint with a fairground shaky-hand performers were all of a new generation, shelves discharging their contents into a tester reduced Taylor to a nervous wreck some of them doubtless unconceived when littered mess on the floor formed a gleeful until the unthinkable happened . The Bread and Puppet first began their mission

Media Arts Group Paton Gallery

If the streets of London were ever to be paved with gold, then Covent Garden would surely have hand-sculpted slabs of I platinum. Money talks and in W .C.2 the streets are full of the merry chatter of shops and winebars servicing a world of chic and clique. Blending in perfectly with the new Covent Garden ambience is the Paton Gal lery, a fashionable gallery of the sort that used to be more at home in Cork St., but is now more than content to eke out a VAT inclusive existence not a stone's throw away from the old fruit market. It was consequ~ntly quite a surprise to see a new company, the Media Arts Group, overcome the confines of this bijou setting to present a vigorous, stimulating work en titled 'Two, Three or Four..?'. The M.A.G. is a mixed media company whose primary discipline is dance. Choreography is by Michael Petry whose studies in New York with Bill T. Jones influenced a move towards performance art and an image con scious use of the body. Working with three other dancers, his piece occurred on the groundfloor and basement of the Paton Gallery but mainly on the stairs and landing that link the two. The evening unwound in three parts. The first established a clear framework; A writhing black plastic bag ripped open to Media Arts Group show a child clutching and grasping for Duel Duet life. The child was then greeted by the Ikon Gallery mother, descending the staircase. Soon it danger in the confines of the stairwell, was displaced by the father and left to rickety bannister and all. At a slower 'Duel Duet' is the generic title of a num watch from the side as mother and father tempo, suspension and deposition of body ber of performances being undertaken by entertained each other. Furious with jeal weight proved a subtle metaphor for caring Fiona Templeton throughout 1982. Each ousy it interrupted and was dragged up affection . Occasionally the stock of new will be the outcome of a collaboration with stairs for chastisement, a lumpen bundle of ideas ran thin giving way to cliche (the another performer and will take its shape spite. Oblivious to domestic duties, the writhing black bin liner that reveals the from her relationship with her partner. father continued in his preening, self developing child) and the occasional lapse Future 'Duel Duets' are planned with satisfied way, finding time to play with the into pantomime seemed to jar with the Julian Maynard Smith, Glenys Johnson; brat until both meet an untimely end ef clear physical expression. The music for Anthony Howell and Peter Strickland. For fected by the mother driven to distraction. tape compilation and baritone saxophone the Ikon her partner was Miranda Payne. The second and third episodes were rep by Marc Fraser was enjoyably economical, The piece had already been seen at the etitions of this scenario but with the differ in particular a tortuous sostenuto passage Theatre d'Hoogt, Utrecht, and will be seen ence that in each set, the dancers exchang imitating the child's colic. Simon West's later this year in New York. ed roles so .that the four parts of mother, interpretation of the score avoided the ob As evidenced by the title, the piece father, child and bystander were rotated vious excitement of squealing harmonics, touches on paradox. It is a process of between the two male dancers (Michael preferring considered phrasing. He enquiry, juxtaposing extremes of confron Petry, Jonathan Barker) and the two ed reticent about coming upfront when re tation and cooperation to see what clues women dancers (Lynn Morley, Avis von quired. can be thrown up about the dynamics of a Herder). As roles changed, one had to It is to be hoped that this company will relationship. Working in the basement of work hard not to be overwhelmed by pre continue to work together and push their the Ikon and making clever and playful use conceptions established not only by life in exploration of non-dance spaces into more of the lift shaft, the two women explored a general but in previous episodes. challenging, risky situations. The cloister number of situations using an old reel end The choreography sustained by these ed gallery space seemed a bit tame despite of newsprint as their main source of props conceptualisations was no less interesting. their gutsy animation of it. There was an and costumes . A naked Fiona Templeton Petry's repetoire of movement is full and extraordinary quality of precision about clad herself in this raw material of Fleet varied. By contrasting earthbound forms those talented dancers with sweat breaking Street with all the unselfconsciousness of a with reference to the classical canon that on their brow and fighting for breath, child at a dressing up box. She scrunched seeks to uplift and extend, he achieves an plummeting from wall to wall and ; th paper around and about herself to interesting vocabulary of meshing and springing into space. And not one expens- I emerge with the cumbersome profile of an blending floor movements with sweeping ive picture frame was broken. origami samurai gone wrong. This movements that have plenty of air. Of note elevated to paper tiger, she challenged her also was the complex, bold lifting that, Phil Hyde partner, clad in a skimpy paper wrapabout . when executed at speed, gave a sense of With scrumpled giant cones serving as socks, hat and gloves, the unavoidably

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. Reviews humorous impression in a uniformly Part Two is devoted to all-black trios - solemn and sober piece was of the Ku Klux Boogie! wisely the team refrain from blacking up Klan reduced by the recession to dispos Mayfair Theatre - with Sarah McNair's low throaty voice, able ceremonial robes. On a more probable in Part One notably off-key, coming more note, the image of the cone again suggested 'Boogie!' (or is it 'Boogie Woogie Bubble into its own. The Supremes and The Three a child's world with the overtones of a 'n Squeak' - the programme is in two Degrees epitomize the high-gloss supper dunce's cap or a classroom geometry minds about the show's title) is a chrono club style. With the final group, The model. logical survey of singing female trio acts Pointer Sisters, we come full circle, since Eventually, introductions and from the forties to the seventies. Seven they sprang to fame (originally as a quartet ) costumings done, the two protagonists groups are impersonated with high-camp via a repertoire based on forties nostalgia performed their interaction . Their rela satirical relish by Leonie Hofmehr, Sarah and a vividly camp sartorial style. Their tionship drew more from the striving of a McNair and Michele Maxwell, all gradu flamboyant costumes, until they settled duel than the harmony of a duet. The two ates of Cape Town University and ex down into their more moody soul-orien squared up to each other then clashed in alumni of the Market Theatre Cafe, 'Jo tated mode, combined early post-war and stomach to stomach collisions reminiscent hannesburg's first multi-racial arts centre' contemporary chic. By the way, their of a mediaeval joust. Paper brickbats were where the show originated. Since half the vocal masterpiece, 'Salt Peanuts', is exchanged and a sinister hide and seek programme is devoted to black trios, you scheduled e,n the programme but dis developed around the lift shaft. With the can't help wondering, in passing, why appointingly doesn't get sung . assumption of the two performers and Skirted Issue is an all-white company. I wasn't crazy about the low-comedy up their battle scarred remnants via the lift, Still, it's a simple but effective format, staging and catty jealousy jinks in the the audience were left in a bare and mercifully free of the sort of hokey charac Supremes routine, and their habitation of a deserted gallery . The performance ended ter dialogue interludes that marred 'One single connectively linked dress is an idea in silence as it had occured - broken only Mo' Time'; it fits snugly into the Mayfair that goes back to Tom O'Horgan's pro by the occasional phrase, cough or clatter, Theatre's intimate auditorium, and it duction of 'Hair'. But · in general the intruding as ephemeral emissaries of the offers the welcome chance to see how much numbers are well-staged, with detailed, everyday . musical and presentational fashion has inventive and well-drilled movement by The world it had revealed was one where changed over the years. _ director Stuart Hopps. Costume changes the rule of stressful, minor emotions held It's not quite a historically exhaustive are wittily effected - choreographed on sway. Here there was sibling competition, survey. I'd like to have seen The Boswell stage musical happenings in themselves. sulks and spoilsports. Guilt maintained a Sisters get their due as the grand And there is a very nicely-judged finale, thin hold on wilful demeanours and turned mummies of popular vocal trios . A white the three chanteuses re-appearing in the gleeful enjoyment of waste and mess, group with stron;:: jazz links who some simple white dressing-robes to sing a into the furtive and anxious disposal of the times cultivated a Southern sound (this number new to me, 'Suffer little Sisters to masses of torn paper created throughout was the era of Homes in Caroline ), they be beautiful till the end' as, in perfect the performance. This was a world of take were influential precursors of the better unison, they wipe off their glittering make it-or-leave -it friendship and niggling known Andrews Sisters, whose greater up with cold cream and tissue to reveal enmity - not here the pain of adult con fame in the forties owed a lot to.the war, the their shiny unadorned faces beneath . frontati on but the fractious whine of movies and the expansion of the record It's an endearing ending to an often quarrelsome contention. The burgeoning industry. exhilerating entertainlllent which only lets personality, trapped in egocentric pursuit But Skirted Issue make a striking be itself down badly in its backing slide show, and driven by whim and mood, was the ginning with Patti, Maxene and La Verne by turns heavy-handed and half-hearted. topic portrayed by the artists' actions. Andrews, reminding us that those broad The Andrews Sisters sequence, for in Phil Hyde shouldered comrades-in-arms really did stance, gets the crudely ironic treatment: Duel Duet swing. The truly opulent style begins in in 'Oh, Johnny!' the line 'You're not the fifties, according to 'Boogie', with the handsome, it's true' is backed by a slide of heavily furred and bejewelled McGuire a badly wounded soldier; for 'The Three Sisters, a more disdainful feline image of Little Fishes' images of Hitler, Hirohito gals who expect to be pampered, wined and and Goering; for 'Lay that pistol down, dined. Fifties Bubble 'n Squeak is repre Babe' the atomic bomb. And there are sented by Britain's only home-grown trio some feeble cartoons, including one of any popularity, The Beverley Sisters notably tasteless 'Gay Lib' gag. (one of whom , as I recall, was actually 'Oh What a Lovely Second World War!' called Bubbles ), blonde and blue-eyed it certainly ain't. Nor, despite the pro dolly girls, all flounced skirts and foamy gramme notes consisting of a (fine) quote petticoats . The coy gestures are right on from Virginia Woolf and a sturdily right the button but Skirted Issue don't quite eous summary of women's changing social manage the Beverleys' sweetness of tone, status since the forties, does 'Boogie!' pack instead endowing them with a false debu much feminist punch. Despite the polemi tante-like refinement of accent. The cal trimmings this is essentially a good Beverley Sisters , though often saccharine, natured cabaret-style entertainment which were not upper-class tweets . Their basi leaves the brow pretty-well unfurrowed cally homely middle-class appeal is more throughout. aptly captured when the trio don rubber Finally , let's ask: whither the Singing kitchen -gloves and head-scarves while Sister format? So far this musical genre has singing 'Mr. Wonderful'. This conveys the remained firmly in the mainstream show right flavour of wholesome Green Belt biz camp, a vehicle mainly for big ballad domesticity. The first half of the show ends belters and flashy dressers. However, with some hyper-dramatic doom-laden there are signs of a new direction with the ballads from the mean and moody Shangri current popularity, in America at least, of Las, including 'Leader of the Pack' and a The Roches who have rejected the brassy rendering of 'I'll Never Go Home Any high-gloss image in favour of a fresh faux More' that pulls out all the emotional stops naive odd-ball style distantly related to the with maximum impact. GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously ), one

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. Reviews of Frank Zappa's short-lived production failings of their performance. First, the ventures of the late sixties. The Roches are characterisation of the show's master of humorously winsome originals who write ceremonies just didn't come off. Those Ariadone their own material, actually play musical execrable men are already parodies of good Roundhouse instruments and cultivate a baggy humour, and the Square Leg Theatre's trousered charity-shop sartorial style far nervous and ill-prepared attempt at carica The Ariadone Dance Troupe was formed removed from the narcissistic glamour ture fell well short of what was needed. in 1974 by choreographer K6 Murobushi modes represented in 'Boogie!' The future Second, one of the performances's main and Carlotta Ikeda, who is the lead dancer of the female trio perhaps belongs to them. devices, the constant interruptions to the in this, 'the only all female Buto dance Take it away, sisters! Neil Hornick taping of the programme caused by the troupe' . According to the programme, mistakes made by the show's contestants in Murobushi studied under the true founder Performance Week reading their cue cards, was obscured by of 'The Dance of Shadows' before himself the fact that there were so many genuine founding Dairakuda Kan, 'one of the major Leicester mistakes and interruptions. Whereas ser off-shoots of Buto Dance .' But, forgive an In staging their events between an art ious concerns can skitter quite persuasive ignorent Occidental for asking, just what, gallery and a pub, the organizers of Leices ,]y across the table top of a more polished exactly is Buto Dance? Is it a variation of ter's 'Performance Art Week' unwittingly performance, when things go as badly Imperial Bugaku dance (Yes, I consult my located the poles between which much wrong as they did for Square Leg Theatre aging copy of 'Theatre in the East')? Un British performance has ranged itself in on this unfortunate night, they just sit likely, since the dancers don't wear masks. recent years. The week's eight perform t~ere leaving embarrassing dull sticky And their near-nudity suggests another ances and three films also presented a con nngs. influence: Japan's all-girl musical comedy siderable range in terms of style and, less So, to something rather more optimistic troupes. fortunately, in terms of quality: at the one - Brendan Charleson and Robert Mc Not that 'Zarathustra' could in any way extreme Loi Coxhill's music like an elabor Gregor's 'Work', Roland Miller and be construed as musical-comedy. The per ate and brightly coloured toy in the Shirley Cameron's evocative all-day cele formance consists of eight 'Tableaux', sunshine, at the other Square Leg bration of spring, or the perspiring sales solos by Carlotta Ikeda alternating with Theatre's embarrassingly under-rehearsed man of Peter Wilson's 'Made to Measure'. group dances by a six-woman corps, the 'Work Makes Us Free.' Alongside this, the Wilson's one-person performance, part final tableau involving all seven per week also demonstrated the range of per lecture to young recruits to the sales force formers. formance's potential toughness, if I can of a gentleman's outfitters, part dialogue In the first tableau, 'The Palace of call it that. Performance is a medium that between salesman and customer, part Dreams', a nude pasty-white supine body, can swagger confidently in an area that it apparent reality, part undoubted fantasy, legs tautly spreadeagled, slowly jerks into works out for itself, somewhere on the formed half of what was without doubt the life. In the second, 'The Umbrella boundaries between art and life, taking in week's best evening. The other half was Dreams', two identically dressed courtly gallery and pub as it were. The Leicester provided by Roland Miller, in political ladies, their heads masked by sunshades audience was treated to examples of that. saire mood, as Ronald Reagan at breakfast. suspended over them by means of long But performance can also often be so With a Cruise Missile dong hanging from sticks carried by attendants, meet and fragile that it will crumble before your the front of his pyjama trousers, Miller's confront each other in a series of extra eyes. Arriving on time for Andy Smith's Reagan wheezed, stuttered, and clutched ordinary mirror movements. In 'The 'Not Necessarily Together' to find him grotesquely to a needle-stuck-in-the Forge in the Forest' ragged creatures talking his assistants through their lighting record soundtrack. Just like those greased huddle together , cavort, and pound the cues just about evaporated any poetry that presenters of television's celebrations of ground like the apes in Kubrick's '200 I'. he sought for his piece and revealed a sad mediocrity and greed, Reagan is already The figures suggest primitive creatures, and unsuspected appropriateness to his something of a parody, already an over destitutes or disaster victims. In 'The title. blown caricature of himself - a fact Ritual Sacrifice : The Beast' Carlotta Ikeda An experience like this is not only disap suggested by how eerily life-like (if that's crouches at the front of the stage, her hair pointing in relation to the particular piece the right term ) the shiny plastic Reaga - wild, her body rotting with disease, eyeing you're there to see, it's also irritating in head that Miller wore was. Miller, like the audience like a caged animal or im terms of what might be thought of as the Peter Wilson had done earlier in the even becile . From time to time she gnaws at her responsibility artists owe one another. Per ing, carried his performance because his own rotting flesh, tearing off bits and formance still has to prove itself so far as characterisation went just that right chewing them. It's quite a virtuoso many members of its potential audience amount further than the real thing. The routine, mesmerisingly grotesque. In 'The are concerned, still has to win consider gulf between this and Square Leg Witches Season' the women scrabble and ation as a serious and legitimate area of art Theatre's attempts at something similar plunder, laugh uproariously, try to claw making . It doesn't take more than one or was vast. their way out of their seething body-pile two poorly presented pieces to persuade A successful evening then, but even here towards the audience only to be pulled this potential audience that no, it isn't a pessimistic note. In the main, and I add back by another emerging creature. And so worth the bother . Though artists are at lib that reservation to distinguish Peter on . erty to choose just what language they're Wilson, who is in any case establishing a What's it all about? A programme going to use, technical competence in that considerable reputation as a painter, the scenario details a highly classical theme language is indispensible . This is as true of week's best performances were those pre and development, invoking dream, myths performance as it is of any other medium, sented by artists whose names are not only and fairy-tales, the world beyond, the and to forget this is not only irresponsible, best known, but which were established Gods and animal ancestry, Ariadne, the as I've suggested, but also to reveal a lack some years ago. Though no one could Bacchantes, the Serpent, the Sphinx - of confidence in the importance of art. sensibly have expected extravaganza from and Nietzsche. But while this scenario This may sound a little harsh, but the sort a modest few days of performance in a pro provides a possible aid to understanding of failing I'm referring to is, I'm sure the vincial English city, they might well have the conceptual story-lines of the dances, artists themselves would usually admit, expected the turning up of some fresh you don 't need it to appreciate what's signalled quite obviously within the work talent. Leicester 's 'Performance Art actually happening on stage - where itself. Using the format of a studio record Week' didn't really do that. Hopefully a more contemporary myth seems to be ing of a ludicrous television quiz show, what it might have done was provide the enacted: Children of the Ashes. For the Square Leg Theatre sought to deal with a precedent for an annual event. creepy imagery and movement inescapably number of serious social issues. Most of Robert Ayers suggest the convulsions of nuclear these were lost however in the technical holocaust victims rather than Nietzschean

super-humans. And there's another even dancers turn their faces toward this golden mediately one of a kind of plainchant, more recent association: the crippled hand rain, then tum again to crouch before us especially as the 'melodies ' move general posture s, the bodies lying suspended on like a row of miniature Sphinxes as the !y to a note nearby, and the metre is regular platforms high above the stage, the vulner light brightens and music - Ligeti's and never changes. Any meditative feeling able nakedness and tight-fitting skull-caps 'Atmospheres' - thunderously soars. It's this might evoke is dispelled by harshness are very reminiscent of photographs of the utterly breathtaking, and the final kneeling of sound, rawness of texture and the nature Minamata mercury-pollution disaster curtain bows of the troupe accompanied by of Stein's texts, generally bemoaning the which contaminated fish and left a Satie Gymnopede, makes a perfect ordinariness of existence. thousands of people horribly brain envoi . 'Explorations in the Geometry of damaged, deformed and diseased. 'The Sphinx or the invocation', explains Thinking', written in a similar m~er - The dancers use their faces like masks . the programme note. 'The static force and using only 'perfect' intervals and with cer The action often has the slow measured the salt forever falling. In Japan salt is used tain rules governing the beginning & the pace and minimal movement of No in ritual celebration to purify birth and to ending of sections - was altogether more Theatre, as well as No's capacity to spring exorcise death' . That's as may be, but once lively. The piece made a freer use of sudden dazzling surprises - witness the again you can't help picking up the ashy monody and of more expansive lines and moment in 'The Umbrella Dreams' when odour of nuclear fall-out . Whatever else it the playing and singing was generally more the two wayfaring ladies suddenly fling claims to be, 'Zarathustra' creates a sickly expressive, matching the emotive charge of handfuls of white pellets at their feet. The climate of post-nuclear deformity, disease Buckminster Fuller's 'We can make influence of Martha Graham, Ikeda's and mutation, its sub-human creatures boring robots, but we cannot make teacher in 1964, is also apparent in the striving for survival and salvation in a state thinking, loving, life', and the references carved emblematic postures and reliance more of agony than ecstasy. Murobushi's to Polynesia and to Viking & Japanese on classical models as generative narrative 'Zarathustra' may end in purification and sagas. sources. And when the women slowly haul obeisance but one might be forgiven, for Kotik seems to have ,gucceeded in themselves across the stage there's a reading the entire work as a weird and producing a true 'New Music' without distinct reminder of Peter Book's 'The Ik', wonderful ritual dance of death, more like saying as much. His work stands on its that other potent expression of communal an appeasement of the gods than an as own, neither truly modal, tonal, atonal and extremity. sumption of their powers. A grisly serial nor improvisational. Though it clear The music used is an eclectic mix, inclu exorcism indeed. Neil Hornick ly owes a debt to early liturgical musics, it ding original music by Goto, and works by is characterised by a total absence 6fphrase Keith Jarrett , Eric Satie and, I think, ending or closure (ie cadences). This in Jean-Michel Jarre . It's great to hear some particular gives it a deep and probably in of these recordings issuing through the SEM Ensemble tentional quality of unfulfillment. Round House 's mighty speakers - Keith ICA Robert Schuck Jarrett's piano-playing resonates almost symphonically . But there is one major The ICA recently saw a return visit of the lapse of judgment when, for one lengthy SEM Ensemble from Buffalo, USA, as part group sequence, the wishy-washy voice of of a European tour. The group, formed by Delado Roger Waters (Pink Floyd ) is to be heard Czech-born flautist/composer Petr Kotik, Liverpool singing 'Cry Baby Cry'. An agreeable num consists of five vocalists (three sopranos, ber in the film for which it was originally tenor and baritone ), two flautists, one Dynamism and high spirits were the key written, the British documentary , 'The doubling bass flute, a cello player and a notes for this afternoon workshop and per Body', in this context it drastically punct violinist doubling on viola. The perfor formance by Delado, Liverpool's home ures the magic so far achieved, setting off mance lasted five hours and although the _grown African dance and drumming too extreme a stylistic distance between it ICA publicity generously advertised that .group . Add informality and a packed self and the choral movements of the 'the audience may come & go at will,' audience ranging from eight months old to troupe. Suddenly the show looks like one Kotik in his introductory comments tried eighty years and you start to get a sense of of the cheaper sixties group gropes. And to discourage those present from doing so, the occasion. there's one further loss of concentration adding 'the audience has to work .. . but not An immediate rapport was established when Ikeda, clad in a scarlet period gown much really. It is not entertaining music .' with the audience. By the end of the after performs a protracted solo that had me Certainly an unusual way to introduce a noon, proceedings had taken on the feel of glancing at my watch a couple of times. performance. a festive social gathering rather than a con Come to think of it, considering that 'Zara The evening's music, entitled 'Varia ventional performance and teaching thustra ' runs 105 minutes without an inter tions ' consisted of three pieces by Kotik : situation with people sharply defined into val, nearly every tableau goes on just a little Many Man Women (1975-78), text by Ger performers and spectators. In fact, the bit longer than need be. trude Stein; Explorations in the Geometry barriers that usually permeate Western But though the show does make de of Thinking (1978-82), text by Buck European culture, dividing dance as art mands on one's patience, it is, in the main, minster Fuller, and Chamber Music ( 1981- from dance as a social activity and high art of intense, hypnotic and unsettling beauty, 82). Each piece overlapped the next. In from popular culture, were nowhere in evi and its curious, even mischievous, choreo 'Many Many Women' , the singers and in dence. The dance was performance, enter graphy often revises one's vision of the strumentalists always played or sang in tainment, participatory and above all fun . human body. At times wonderfully exotic pairs eg the two flutes, the two sopranos. First the dancers and drummers came on (the sunshade encounter looks very orien The music is divided into sections, and in their street clothes and presented one of tal and very ancient ) 'Zarathustra' furnish each pair may begin a section at any time. the dances in the repertoire, a simple boy es images of potent unclassifiable strange Once started , the section is to be per meets girl story. The women entered in ness : the six creatures convulse in unsion formed to its end exactly as written, then single file, circled around the space and like a mutated girlie chorus-line; Ikeda's the pair may wait as long as they wish danced together. The men strutted on and mu scular white back undulates on the before going on to the next section . Thus, a after a peacock display were chosen by the ground like an animated rock formation . constantly changing texture was created as women and the couples danced off. This The final tableau is magnificent. Seven pairs of musicians entered and dropped was a straightforward story with move white bodies, naked except for G-strings out. The textures and sonorities are also ments that seemed equally straightforward and head-caps from which long-hair braids governed by the fact that all the duos are until audience members found in the sub protrude , slowly shift and turn in fixed written using only the intervals of the per sequent workshop that they involved com position s as slim streams of salt steadily fect fourth, perfect fifth and octave be plicated co-ordination and isolation of the pour onto the stage, in yellow light. The tween the two lines. The effect is im- muscles of the pelvis and stomach. Groups

of people learnt the dance they had just lack of professional polish , which given a documentary about the work of Common seen. Others were introduced to the their extreme dedication they are bound to Stock Theatre Company . language of the drums. Whilst some develop , the quality, verve and spirited Now David Hutt has directed a film participated, other s watched and children nature of their work is such that I hope the about, of and around Trevor Wishart's ran about, threading their way between the group will be seen outside the community music/theatre piece 'Pastorale '. In its dancers , none of whom were at all in from which they have grown. As the original form the piece is a complex, convenienced. graffiti might say, African dance and erudite critique in theatrical and musical Delado concluded by showing four drumming is alive and well in Liverpool 8 terms of the creation, the Judaeo-Christian Ghanaian and Nigerian dances which - and should be exported. Gillian Clark myths surrounding it, and in particular a followed each other in quick succession in dialectic on the ideas expressed by an energetic performance, beginning with B.F. Skinner in his book 'Walden 2' . The the courtship dance with which they had film takes the form of an interlinking of opened. The drum under the exuberant Pastora le excerpts from the performance itself, with master drummer beat out intricate cross ICA comments by God (Mick Banks) on the rhythms which formed a vital accompani performance, comment s by B.F . Skinner ment to and integral part of the dance . Unique amongst the multifari ous depart (Banks again) on God, and comments by Although they have only been in exist ments of the Arts Council of Great Britain, Wishart on Skinner, God and his own ence for under a year, having come into the Art Department actively promotes performance. Complex, not to say baffling being through a project by Steel 'n Skin in events of its own devising. It mounts stuff. Obscure but good to look at. the now infamous summer of 1981, this exhibition s, owns a major collection- of The pleasures of the film derive in large group of young Liverpool Rastafarian s painting and sculpture , and even makes part from Banks' impersonation of the gave a commanding performan ce. From movies. In general Arts Council films are deity . In the original theatre piece Wishart the court ship dance the pieces grew in worthy documentaries about artists, not him self appears as God, a manipulative , complexity of movement and interaction necessarily British and not necessarily deus ex machina controlling events as a between the dancers. The culmination was living . But very occasionally something silent mag1c1an. Banks, chin thrust a hunting story. The women danced the out of the main stream has been tackled and forward as he strides around the grounds of roles of gatherers of crops and the men there have been a handful of films about Harewood House in his most severe with spears and shields displayed their live performance. manner, irradiant in silvery evening wear, athletic prowess as they stalked their The first of these, and now a valuable if has been given a much expanded role and quarry ; leaps, split s in the air, spins with little seen record of the early pioneering one which he takes to with droll relish. the axis on one hand and the body days, was 'The Performance Art Film' As an illumination of a particular per stretched out parallel with the ground. A ( 1974) which featured the work ofLumiere formance, a commentary rather than an in demonstration of agility and macho vigour and Son, Johh Bull Puncture Repair Kit, tegrated entertainment in its own right, the that derived as much from the Liverpool Roland Miller and Shirley Cameron, and film is somewhat baffling in isolation from streets as from the dancers ' black African The Phantom Captain. Ian Johnson's films that performance. But it is a challenging heritage . 'The Phantom Captain Appears' (1979) and enjoyab le three quarters of an hour and Delado have built up a strong popular and his reductio ad absurdum of the com an intriguing appetiser for the live event. following as they perform around the local plete works of Ken Campbell 'No The ducks were trained by Bert Smart. schools and the music circuit. Despite a Problem' (1981) have followed, along with Luke Dixon

tention s, and virtually all of them have If this sounds wonderfully idealistic and This might seem like a funny thing to been actively developing new forms for totally impractical (and there's obviously say, but it's said in compliment rather than their work. Community Arts, on the other the good, the bad, and the indifferent in criticism . Rumour has it that the street hand , has a clearly defined set of objec Community Arts as in anything else) it is sales of Performan ce aren't doing so bril tives , and a much greater sense of identity. worth remembering that even though the liantly in Moss Side and Brixton, but it's More interestingly, it is, in theory at least, movement is relatively young, community precisely places like these - and there are the most radical expression of the arts. It artists have been working for fourteen many more of them that don 't hit the head has gone further along the road of experi years or more - and you don't keep going lines - where community artists should be menting with form than any other artistic in the big wide world for that long unless working . Once again, it's a point of prin field. It is impossible for Commun ity Arts you've got something that people want . ciple. If community artists were getting to function without a re-definition of arts So far, so good . But I'm sure many of high acclaim for working in galleries or and the role of artist s, and it is for this you will be wondering why this subject has fringe theatres they wouldn 't be working reason that I am concentrating on this cropped up in these pages. When Com with the people they want to work with. So movement here . munity Arts is mentioned the image that in a sense, invisibility is a good thing. In In a nut-shell , Community Arts is con jumps to mind is that of a mural. Some of another sense it isn't. As a radical move cerned with work with groups who are you will have seen posters printed in a ment which seeks to be highly influential "educationally, socially or environmen community printshop, and a few of you in forming the shape of arts to come, it tally deprived " . In reality this can mean may have made use of darkrooms and needs the same degree of coverage and anything from council tenants to residents video resources from a community media publicit y as any other campaign. of closed institutions . There 's nothing resource. But I doubt if many readers will Not surprising ly, the press Community amazingly different here from Artists in have come across performance based com Arts does receive is of the order "Red the Community. Where Community Arts munity arts, even if they knew it existed. Artists Under the Bed", and bitter contro differs is that instead of creating work for Two points here. Firstly, yes it does exist, versy seems to erupt whenever the name is these groups, it creates it with them, not and there is a growing number of people mentioned. There is no reason to suppose just in the sense of listening to their ideas wanting to work in this area (a fact that that the q)ntrove rsy will subside , so for and incorporating them into a finished pro must be due to some extent to the those who want to pick their way through du ct, but also giving them the tools so that increasing importance of performance at the mine-field it is worth looking a little they are equal creators with the artist, and art colleges, and the existence of general closer at some aspects of the work itself. putting the media of communi cation in performance courses). Secondly, I'm glad Let 's take an example. Suppose it is a their hands. you haven't come across it before . tenants association wishing to organise its

first community festival, and an initial greatest emphasis on the process of tive if its work leads to social change. Com enquiry has been made to a performance creation. munity artists certainly aren't so naive as to based community arts team. The The form the project takes isn't likely to believe that one or two projects are going to difference from preparing any other form be a purpose built model that can be taken create a major transformation of society. of performance is evident from the outset. down off a shelf. The question of the most They are some of the most practical people Whereas a performer will start from his or effective media for reaching an objective is around . What they can say, and with justi her ideas, the community artist will be probably more pronounced in this area fication, is that they have developed an area trying to uncover ideas, themes and people than in other fields of the arts. Not sur that otherwise just would not exist. They who are likely to be committed to a project prisingly, when the range of potential have developed projects which in many inside the community. In the final product projects is so great, artists working in this cases have had a much greater significance the artist may not perform at all. The terms area have had to become specialists in a than just the use of arts, and that people for of the project will determine this, not the wide variety of communications media. whom arts had no relevance have acquired, artist's whim. In planning, the kind of con Whilst one project might lead to a video through community arts, the tools with siderations running through the artist's tape that the community will want to use to which they can make a defmite influence mind will be "how can the planned event promote a case, another may require the on their world. This is no mean achieve contribute to longer term change on the artists to become completely immersed in ment . On the other hand, this is still only estate?", "will this group stay together to every aspect of creating a festival: pro true in a few small pockets - there aren't promote future events?", and "will the cession, environment, publicity and con that many people and groups working in energy created by the festival be usable in tinuity - both creating an effective this area, and good work takes time. Also, campaigning, for example, for better facili festival, and showing how arts activities many of the best conceived projects may ties on the estate?" When themes and pros can enhance every aspect of it . simply not work. The number of un pective projects are discussed the func Indisputably, these projects are fun. knowns the community a,rtist has to work tioning of the partnership is most visible. That's not to say that the product lacks with are far greater than any other artist. As people called in from outside (perfor , serious aims, nor that it is entertainment They are still working in an experimental mance based community arts is invariably I rather than art. The process of creating area. As well as the test of time there is one more mobile than a community printshop ) work together has to be enjoyable - or no other major factor that will determine the the artists will be challenging the group to one would want to do it. For this reason the success or failure of the movement , and achieve a clear and coherent statement preparatory stages of a project draw at least that is the attitude of artists. There will from the work done together. as heavily on techniques of creative play as always be artists who wouldn't touch any But what about this partnership? The they do on the arts. There's nothing pecu thing like this with a barge-pole, equally, prickly question recently surfaced : why liar about this - iI, preparing a perfor there will always be radical artists who will should a working class community want to mance any performer is in fact making use have to fmd their own answer to the ques jump into bed with middle-class artists? In of play both in the creative imagining of the tion of how their work will be most effec- a sense, community artists are providing a performance, and in improvisation and 1 tive. Depending on their answer we could service. No-one needs to use that service if working with objects. Community arts see Community Arts flourishing - or we they don't wish to, but like so many other allows everyone to partake . m this might see the emergence of completely specialist services, if you want it class experience. new initiatives. status is irrelevant . Ever heard of anyone And the proof of the pudding? In its own To my mind, at least, it will be consider not going to a doctor because he wasn't terms community arts can only be effec- ably more interesting watching these working class? developments than reading the kind of As with any other performance project coverage the press gives Community Arts this type of work requires considerable at present. preparation. As well as the work the artist Pete Shelton · needs to do in terms of his or her own planning, the community artist is also going to do the major structuring and preparation in situ with the .community. For most performers, contact with the public begins at the performance, for community artists the real work is done before. This is not to say the finished product is unimportant - it is - but any work that is dependent on the contribution of the community, and isn't just a sham of audience participation, is bound to put its

ancers like, and need, to work and for them for them because it's the chance to render the theatre financially inviable for Dif they can't they will look elsewhere get critical appraisal and yet they have to the bigger companies. - to Europe and America. They show their work under the worst possible London's problem has been recognised will be forced to leave - that is what they circumstances. ' throughout the world. The Dance fear and that is- what is beginning to Dance Umbrella's Val Bourne, says: Committee of the International Theatre happen" Val Bourne, Dance Umbrella. 'We are furious about this situation . Institute which represents, among others , London's claim to be the dance capital of People tried very hard to get some dance the Bolshoi Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet in Europe is becoming a joke. There may be involvement at The Barbican but they America , have sent support to the plenty of excellent dancers, choreogra didn't want to know. It is disgraceful that D&MAG. The committee singled out phers, and companies - but the stages dance is continually ignored like this when London as one of the centres where where they can perform are negligible. it is obviously such a popular art form cultural exchanges are inhibited by lack of This means that the big companies like now'. suitable performing space. London Contemporary Dance Theatre and Life is difficult enough for the small The Housing the Arts Committee of the Ballet Rambert are forced to squash on to dance companies. To obtain an Arts Arts Council has already agreed in the stage at Sadler's Wells - in Rambert 's Council project grant a company has to principle that a purpose-built dance case the smallest stage on which they are prove it can attract an audience. Draughty theatre is desirable - but money is the asked to perform in Britain - and the church halls and having to compromi se on problem. And with The Barbican now into smaller companies are left with the choice stage space and facilities are not the best its first prestigious season it will be a long of either not performing in London at all or ways of drawing on a wide London time before the Government forks out any presenting work out on the fringe of the audience . more cash for the arts on a big scale. city in inadequate venues. There is now in ei.istence a Dance & Lack of decent rehearsal space has also At the Royal Opera House - where life Mime Action Group which is pledged to reached crisis point across the whole spec one would have thought was rosy - there fight for a Dance House in London which trum of the dance world . At the Opera is now danger of a dance 'brain drain' as would - ideally - have two or three per House · principal dancers have sometimes principal dancers are forced to sit idle· forming areas of different sizes to accom performed a new ballet without ever while opera takes precedence in the pro modate all the companies, from the Royal having had a full dress and orchestr a gramming schedule . Ballet to the newer groups. rehear sal on stage because of fully commit For a long time dance has been left to get The Action Group has looked at several ted stage time-tabling. on as best it can by the Government. When venues in London with the idea of turning With a blooming of commercial studio the South Bank was built there were them into a dance theatre but they have not space in central London the problem facilities for every art form - including found one that fits the bill. For the small would see, to have been eased - but not film and visual art - but nothing for companies there is a ray of hope . The Place so. Hourl y rates for rehearsal space have dance. The multi-million pound Barbican is planning to operate two five-week dance rocketed recently and if reasonably well centre did not even attempt to provide the seasons a year starting this Autumn. The funded companies are finding it difficult to necessary staging facilities for dance. theatre would be operated by an indepen pay their rehearsal bills the problem for On the smaller scale the I SO-seat venues dent trust who would be responsible for small, less adequately funded groups is are left much alone to find volunteers and the programming but the seating facility magnified. Church halls are the only donated paint pots in order to provide will not go above 250. Along with the fact alternati ve. some kind of facility. But it takes more that 10 weeks a year is not going to be The Action Group, which came together than willing helper s to turn a stone or nearly enough to accommodate even the at the 1980 Dance Umbrella season, has concrete floor into a sprung stage. Not ony better-known groups and companies , this alread y prepared a research brief in an is it extremely uncomfortable for dancers is only a small drop in a prett y dried up attempt to collate the first ever compre to perform on concrete - it is also ocean. hensive survey of the state of dance in this dangerou s. Th e chance to see foreign companies in count ry . It has been approved by the At Riverside Studios - a venue heavily London - so important if home culture is University of Surrey and, when adequate relied upon by the Dance Umbrella to grow and expand - is also pretty bleak. funding is found , will take two years to organisers - the floor is concrete and a It is now seven years since Netherlands complete. Without the results of this wooden one has to be hired in. Batter sea Dance Theatre came to the capital. It may survey - which is sure of supp lying some Arts Centre has a difficult stage area, be another seven before we get to see good ammunition for their argument - Jackson's Lane has a wooden floor but them again because they refuse - along the Action Group deserves all the active poor backstage and front of house facili with other important companies like the support it can muster . ties and erratic programmin g. In fact, Stuttgart Ballet - to perform at Sadler's Th e Action Group has already pledged central London has nothing to offer the Wells theatre because it is too small. Alter itself to fight for more financial support for smaller groups. When the Greater London native theatres like the Colliseum have small dance and mime companies. Al Arts Association arrange tours the venues tight programming schedules with few though the interest in dance as a popular are always out of the centre of town. openings for anything other than opera. art form is acknowledged , the percentage Helen Dickson, chairperson of the Sadler's Wells do have plan s to widen of mone ys which is given over to it has in Small Scale Dance Management Commit and deepen the stage which would go some no way kept up with demand. Training too tee said: 'For most companies their Lon way to improving the sight lines. But to is another controversial area. don season is a nightmare. They have to make radical improvements to the audi Students taking vocationary training perform in venues that are '\\

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LISTINGS Directed by Sue Dunderdale 21-30 May 9.30pm Sitting Ducks Mon 24th 8.00 Zoe Redman (perf) We have tried to list as many 18 May-5 June are 'appearing live' Cabaret from Tues 25th 8.00 GUEST STARS events as possible that fall within KITSCH'N'SYNC Doors open Cisela Bjorklund, Rebecca .(Deidre Cartwright, Josefina our area. If you think we have left 7.30 N assauer, Kate Bagnall, Margo Cupido, Julia Doyle, Sue Ellery, something out that should have Friday 7 May 8.15 Sitting Ducks Gordon and Jacky Tayler, who Linda Malone, Ruthie Smith with been included please write to us at MARGO RANDOM also wrote the music. She has guest stars) PO Box 421 London NWI ORF. Saturday 8 May 8. 15 The Guest often performed at the Oval, with Thurs 24th 8.00 Carlyle Reedy Stars ,MARGO RANDOM the Sadistas and Disband . This is (perf), Lindsey Cooper, Lily Sunday 9 May 4.30 Cast Iron described as 'a musical performed Greenham (poetry ) from Holland: Women Live Special Fairies ,The Crystal Pyjamas in bags' ... of their last show the Maud Sauer (ob,cor ) Maartje ten The Drill Hall 8.00 FIG (Feminist Improvising Stage commented 'considerable Hoorn (vln), Annemarie Roelofs 'For Maggie, Betty and Ida' Group) talents.' Their last show drew the (trb, vln) with films at Film Co-op fwr Maggie Betty & Ida features Tuesday 11 May Gymslips She's following comments 'considerable Fri 28th 8.00 UT ,SCISSORS Elaine Loudon, Julianne Mason Moved ,THE DOLLY talents, astonishing acts, highly Sat 29th 2.00 Improvisation work and Sarah Morley, the harpist MIXTURES thought provoking, 'future work shop. 8.00 Carrie Born, Judith from The Sound of Music. It is Wednesday 13 May Amazulu should prove well worth the Higginbottom (perf) Julie written by Bryony Lavery and Fast Relief THE MIST AKES perusal' (S tage) Tippetts (vce), Sue Ferrar (vln) directed by Susan Todd . Bryohy Thursday 13 May Amy and the (Performance Mag .) Sylvia Hallett (vln) and Susan have worked with Angels Soul Sister AU PAIRS London Musicians Co-op Sun 30th Mona Hatoum (7 hour Monstrous Regiment and colla Friday 14 May The Skirts, The Sun 16th 8.00 WILMA performance project) ,Rachel borated on the National Theatre Delmontes, THE MODETTES WILLIAMS & THE COMBO Finkelstein in the Film Co-op of Brent's last two shows - Saturday 15 May UT Nadia Mon 17th 8.00 SOUL SISTERS Mon 31st 8.00 OVA ZULU! and THE BLACK HOLE Kapiche MALARIA. ZET ETIK Royal Court Theatre OF CALCUTT A. Oval House Thurs 20th 8.00 Anne Bean (perf) BAZAAR AND RUMMAGE by For Maggie Betty & Ida is not just 16 May 7pm Momentum Dance Pamela Marre , Kazuko Hohki Sue Townsend. Can phobia by a cabaret! The stories, songs and Company . Rosamund Shreeves, (perf) films at the Film Co-op funny? Yes, when a jumble sale in music link up to present a collage Nan Wigglesworth, Hazel Wil Fri 21st 8.00 JAM TODAY Acton brings three agoraphobic of the experiences of this collec liams, Sheila Williams and Bryony TOUR DE FORCE women out of their houses for the tion of very different individuals. Williams in a programme of solos Sat 22nd 8.00 Rose Garrard first time in years. May 18-30 (Tue-Sat 8pm, Sun at and company numbers. 'It is hard Stephanie nunn (cor,kbds) Sue 6pm) to define exactly what gives Rosa Ferrar, Sylvia Hallett Mrs Worthington's Daughters' mund Shreeves' work such an Sun 23rd 2.00 w'shop led by Daughters launch underlying quality, but it seems to Maggie Nicols (women only) Wyres' Cross be contained somewhere within 8.00 CONTRADICTIONS the Soap Opera You Can Really the threefold assets of line flow (Maggie Nicols . Viba Robinson , Relate To. By Pera ·Masters & and integr,ty, and in the way she Lindsa y Cooper, Ros Plotkin , Geraldine Griffiths - directed by finds the individual talents of her Sally Battista, Shirley Hall, Corin Angela Langfield. WYRES' dancers . (The Stage) Liensol, Ann Wolff) CROSS is a saga in four episodes. Plus 'Miss Dickinson' Fay Pren Each one plays for one week. Miss dergast in a mime and narrative one and the intricate threads of piece about the poet Emily Dick the many plots may never be inson. 'A touching and highly come clear - see all four and be wrought evocation which at times none the wiser. YOU CAN'T brushes the skirts of greatness' BEAT A LIVE SHOW. ,(Times Ed. Supp) Episode 1: The Drill Hall 16 'A thrilling poetic spirituality' Chenies St WCI 637 8270 (Box (Glasgow Herald) Office) open 10-6 Mon-Fri & 2-6 19-30 May 7.30pm Dovetail Joint Sat & Sun for advance sales in 'Venus Flytrap'. Two intef May 5-8 (Mon-Sat) 10pm May 9 dependent beings move away from (Sun) 8pm a sheltered life inside the Venus repeated: King's H ead Upper St N l Flytrap to the stunning realisation 226 1916 May 10-15 (Mon-Sat ) of survival instincts, emotions and 1.15pm that the world is ultimately sound. Evisode 2: The Drill Hall May ·Costumes and masks and original 11-15 (Tues-Sat) 10pm May 16 music are designed to give a (Sun ) 8pm surreal quality to this show, which repeated: King's Head May 17-22 developes the the theme of (Mon -Sat ) 1.15pm searching ... With Carol Stevens, gpisode 3: The Drill Hall May Birte Pedersen and founder 18-22 (Tues-Sat) 10pm May 23 member Luci Gorell Barnes. (Sun) 8pm Dovetail Joint were last seen at repeated: King's Head May 24-29 the Oval in 'Powercut' which was (Mon-Sa t) 1.15pm judged 'a strong and well con Episode 4: The Drill Hall May ceived piece .. .' with 'mesmeric 25-29 (Tues-Sat ) 10pm May 30 performances' and their Nativity (Sun ) 8pm Play 'Holy, Holy, Holy'. They repeated: King's H ead May 31-June have since been working with 5 (Mon-Sat) 1.15pm groups in the Community of Lambeth and return with this ICA show. (Spare Rib) MONSTROUS REGIMENT present the premiere of THE EXECUTION by Melissa Murray 'Maggie, Betty and Ida' Julianne Mason & Elaine Morley

Touring ,,,, ~ ---.yi · Touring :•·-~ 't The Women's Theatre Group , '· Info: 01-2510202/01-2500775 'New Anatomies' summer tour. 17-19 May Sherman Arena Theatre, University College, London Senghennydd Rd, Cardiff. Albany Empire 20th-22nd May Theatre Clewyd, 'Son of Circus Lumier e'. Follow Raikes Lane, Mold, N. Wales up to the outstandingly successful 25 & 26 May Theatr e in the Mill, 'Circus Lumiere'. A group of turn University of Bradford, Bradford, of the century travellers are lost in West Yorks. the jungle . They are discovered by 28th & 29th May Brewery Arts the Queen of the Jungle, who ,4 Centre , Highgate, Kendal , demands that they perform for CAST launches New Variety in Cumbria. her. This demand cannot be North London .... 4 & 5 June Century House , 4 refused ... Every Sunday evening from 9th Pierrepont St., Bath . A residential project in conjunc May, Cast will be promoting New 8 & 9 June Th e Old Town Hall tion with members of the Base Variety with four different acts on Centre, High St., Herne! Hemp ment Theatr e Co at the Albany. the bill at Brabant Road Trade The South Bank Show stead, Herts. Not to be missed! For perfor Union and Community Centre, 'A celebratory exhibition' based 8-11 July Stich ting Melkweg, mance dates ring 622/4865 & 622/ Wood Green NW2. Roland on four S London galleries. Lijnbaansgracht 234a, IOI7ph, 2053. Muldoon introdu ces. Coracle Press, Morley Gallery, Info: 487 3440 Sally East & S London Art Amsterdam, Holland. Cafe Theatre Scarlet Harlets in 'We Who Were May 16 Th e Flying Pickets, Attila Gallery - fine art , craft, installa Info : 240 0794 the Beautiful' the Stockbrok er, Th e Birds, Felix tion, sound and performance. 'Dadd y' by Keith Doxland . 14 & 15 Hope Centre , Bristol and the Cats Includes performances by Charlie Premier e of this work by a Hooker at the S London Art 19 North London Polytechnic May 23 Akimbo, Norma Cohen, Canadian dramatist. Holloway Rd, NI . 20-23 8pm Prop er Little Madams, Margo Gallery, JOMay, 7.30. David Medalla, Morley Gallery, 7pm, 14 Theatre Space, 48 William V St., Lyric Theatre Random & Band May and Carlyle Reedy, Morley WC2. (note - Thursday 20th is Info: 741 0824 New Variety continues at the Old Gallery, 8.15pm, 14 May. Women only) 27-29 Brick House Common Stock Theatre Co White Horse Info : 341 4533 or 701 5726 or Contact Theatre, Manchester. present 'The Second Line'. Info : 487 3440 703 6120 'WE WHO WERE THE 11-15 May A play with live jazz 'We Remember Bobby Sands MP' BEAUTIFUL ' looks at tales of music written by Hilary Trow and May 7th ; with AD Hoe Womens B2 Metropolitan Wharf women : images of the witch, the Frank Whitten , music by the Mile Band , Wendy Wattage and Chris Info: 488 9815 hag, the eccentric, the mad Mower Quintet . Common Stock is Ransome, Eileen 'Polly' Pollock Installat ion, film, video & per woman and asks: 'When are we a community touring co always in Oxy & the Morons. formance from mid-June on going to stop this happenin 3 to search of new audiences . 'Th e May 14 Attila the Stockbroker , Iwards. Gallery open Wed-Fri us?' Second Line' aided by a Special Gladys McGee, The Joeys, Mr 12-7, Sat 12-5 & by appt.

IS UP TO ITS NEW TRICKS AGAIN is a full-time 3-year course in fine art which is acceptedat University levelfor post-graduatestudies. Short-term, extra mural and post-graduate/post-diploma coursesalso available. Entry to all courses is by work and interview. Over 70% of UK students receiveLocal Authority grants. Contact Apply now for a prospectusto Neil Hornick & Joel Cutrara Byam Shaw Schoolof Art 618b Finchley Road London NWll 7RR 70 Campden Street, LondonW8 7EN (01) 455 4564 (or'phone 01-727 4711-24 hour service).

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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. NationalPerformance Listings · Newcastle Anthony d'Offay Info: 499 4695 Basement Works by Gilbert & George, Sat I 5 May Roberta Graham Richard Long, & Bruce McLean 'Campo Santo' . from 19 May to 20 June. Wed 19 May Sara Furse 'A Night Riverside Studios in th2 %ife' Laura H. Smith tape, Info: 741 2251 slides, stills, sequence. Vladimir Mayakovsky: Twenty Fri 21 May Yvonne Pinkney years of work. From 30 June. Sat 22 May Alison Winckle Inspiring exhibition . 'Remember ' Belinda Williams 'Lay, take to heart'. Tate Gallery 21 May. Lunchtime drama. Plays Birmingham by Frank O'Hara. 'T he Buick of Ikon Gallery Sighs', a young theatre group, will Info: 021 643 0708 present some short plays by the Alex Mavro; 'The Ballista'. Alex poet and museum curator Frank Mavro has peformed all over O'Hara. The performance will be Europe as dancer , acrobat and in the galleries where the works actor and with his own company. on display are by the Abstract Since 1979 he has worked with Expressionists, many of whom 'Hesita te and Demonstrate' (see O'Hara knew. feature this issue). A growing Theatre Space interest in sculpture led him to Info : 836 2035 train as a welder, fusing perfor 11-15 May 10.30 pm 'Whores & mance work with the building of whores?' Angela Holman performs environments and installations. a classic Brechtian song cabaret. The Ballista' follows Vitruvius' Late show, 17-19 May 8 pm specifications for the construction 'Rover , My Emancipation' - a of this ancient Roman war new show from Wenke machine. The Ballista will be acti \ Mulheisen, controversial Scandin vated in performance on Thursday avian performance artist. 6 May, 3 pm and Thurs 13 May 20-23 May 8 pm 'We who were at 7 pm. Free . the Beautiful' by Scarlet Harlets. Jacksons Lane Info: 340 5226 Bracknell 'Oi for England ' by Trevor Wenke Mulheisen South Hill Park Arts Centre Griffiths. Presented live for the Info: (0344) 27272 first time after a powerful debut ICA Tuesday 25 May at 7.30 pm. Video and film: 7.30 pm, free. on London Weekend Television. 1/s7 May 'Often durin g the day' Info: 930 3647 Recent Trends in Art Criticism. See also Women Live listing. (Joanna Davis and 'Light 18 May 7.45pm Carla Liss 'Nigh t Post Modernism : a one-day veading' (liz Rhodes). 24 May Oval House club' Video & performance . conference . This conference 'The Smiling Madame Beudet' Info: 582 7608 25 May 7.45pm A consumers brings together six artists and two (Germaine Dulac 1922). 'A house SEE WOMEN LIVE SECTION. guide to Armageddon BBC science critics to discuss these and related divided' (Alice Guy, 1913). & Closed first week of June . programme investigates Protect & issues. The first session will deal w§ne 'Changing Time' (Lindy June 9-13, I6-20 'The Duchess Survive with sculpture, performance and Summers, 1977) and 'Clapping Mislaid' - a commedia experi I June to 6 June IVA 2nd Nation extended media; the second with Songs' (Tina Keane). Sunday 27 ence presented by the Commedia al Independent Video Festival. painting and representation. June : Family Festival, 12 noon till workshop . 7.30 pm. Screenings of the best of recent Speakers include John Roberts, 3 pm. Music, circus acts, Jun e 11-13, 18-20'Shoot'-a British Video. Final sessions Stuart Brisley, Denis Masi, Susan fireworks, films. new gay ply by New Heart. include seminars events & a party. Hiller, Michael Newman, John Free weekend entertainment June 23-27 - GAY PRIDE D . E.T. Enterprises presents Stezaker , Alexis Hunter and throughout the summer in the WEEK . June 23-27 - 'The Story Layers, 'a musical romance' from Graham Crowley. grounds of South Hill Park. Ring Continue s', New Heart. June 8 to 26 June . Book and lyrics are New Contemporaries 1982. The for details. 24-27 9.30 pm 'Growing Up', a by Alan Pope, music by Alex annual exhibition of national performance by Philip Osmond. Harding, director Drew Griffiths. student work is showing in all June 25-27 8.30 pm, Carpark - galleries of the ICA throughout May. Includes Third Area work Wendy Wattage Spectacular. Manchester John Maybury's visionary new · selected by Mark Bullus, Marc Festival of India Super-8 film 'The Court of Chaimowicz, Rose Finn-Kelery, Radiator/North West Arts 29 & 30 May Riverside Studios: Miracles' (Moments Before JonNhan Harvey and Erica Info: 061 224 0020 Dhrupad Music/Performance s Desire). GB 1982 Colour Super-8 Rusht on. 24 Jun e Purcell Room. Uncertificated 55 minutes . A film Kutiyattam & Kathak ali Dance New Contemporaries Conference. JS May Manchester Actors Co in by John Maybury. With : Siouxsie Drama Introducti on. An Indian This day conference will examine 'Biggles': a Women Live event. Sioux, Hermine Demorienne , dance style not seen in Britain the work and workings of art The real truth behind the most lrincess Julia, David Holeh, before dating back to the 8th schools. Starting from the exhibi famous of all war heroes. Larry the Skin. Music: Virginnia tion itsetf, it will assess the art 22 May Jazira-African Highlife centu ry. Astley. ICA Cinematheque, 26-30 26 27 June Riverside Studios market and the 'outside world' Music. May, 6.30 & 8.30 pm. Art and its Performan ces 26 & 27 June , 3pm . and what opportunities exist for 1-5 June Son of Circus Lumiere Criticism - a series of student s. It will analyse the 8-ld June Extraordinary Pro Fringe Box Office: discussions. workings of the colleges them ductions in 'For Maggie', Betty & Based in the Criterion Theatre, Tuesday 11 May at 7.30 pm. Art selves - from teaching priorities Ida'. A Women Live Event. the Fringe Box Office gives in for Whose Sake? The Critical to the position of women within . Women telling stories by women. formation, sells tickets and takes Debate between Narrative and The speakers include Moira Kelly, 9 June An evening with Alexei bookings for most of London's Abstract Art. Mary Kelly, Nigel Greenwood, Sayle. fringe theatres. Open 10-6, Mon Tuesday 18 May at 7.30 pm. The Stuart Morgan, Shelagh Cluett, 12 June Theatr e Alibi in 'The Thurs and 10-5 Fri & Sat. Corridors of Criticism: Art Criti Peter Dunn and Lisa Tickner. Strange Affair' a double act in one Tel : 839 6987. cism and the Institutions. Tickets £1.50. act.