ISSN 2040-2597 (Online) NNEEWSLETTEREEWSLETTERWSLETTERWSLETTER Issue 5 April 2010 Inside: KMS News and Competition Results Page 2 ‘Peacock’s Day’ by Quentin Furlong Page 3-5 ‘At Katherine’s Bay’ by Maggie Rainey- Smith Page 6 ‘Something Childish but Very Natural’ by Gary Abrahams Page 7-10 ‘Katherine Mansfield, the Underworld and the Blooms Berries’ Page 11 Gerri Kimber speaks at the Godolphin and Latymer School Page 12 Westonbirt lecture Page 13 Book Announcements Page 14-15 Conference Announcements Luisa Hastings Edge as Mrs Dove in the 2006 London production of Page 16 Gary Abrahams’ Something Natural but Very Childish Issue 5 April 2010 Page 2 KMS News This issue is for the creative types among us. We feature a poem, ‘At Katherine’s Bay’, from KMS member Maggie Rainey-Smith, a Wellington writer and kayaker (check out the photo of KM’s holi- day home on page 6). We also bring you two articles by artists who are reworking KM’s stories in new ways. Filmmaker Quentin Furlong discusses her new short film ‘Peacock’s Day’, adapted from the story ‘Reginald Peacock’s Day’, set and shot in Dunedin and due for release in 2011. She has promised to keep those of us not fortunate enough to be there posted about a possible DVD release. Actor and theatre director Gary Abrahams also discusses the artistic processes that went into his play ‘Something Childish but Very Natural’ to be performed at La Mama theatre in Melbourne next month. La Mama is offering a discounted ticket price for KMS members (details are on page 10). Next month also brings the ‘Katherine Mansfield, the ‘Underworld’ and the ‘Blooms Berries’’ Sym- posium at RMIT University in Melbourne. Our own Honorary President Vincent O’Sullivan will be giving a keynote address, and KMS members Susannah Fullerton and Penelope Jackson will give feature presentations on Mansfield’s life and works, and portraits of KM. Registration is now open and details are on page 11. The Symposium could be a great way to introduce a friend to KM. Inside you will also find two reports of lectures given by our Chair, Gerri Kimber, and an announce- ment of the impending publication of Katherine Mansfield and the Modernist Marketplace: At the Mercy of the Public by our very own Jenny McDonnell (congratulations Jenny!). Happy reading for the next few months and we look forward to bringing you news of the Symposium in September. Sarah Ailwood and Jenny McDonnell, Joint Editors of the Katherine Mansfield Society Newsletter STOP PRESS! KMS members in New Zealand and Australia can help generate revenue for the KMS by using Fishpond.co.nz – New Zealand’s biggest on-line store – for all book, DVD and music purchases. 10% of your purchase price will be donated to the KMS. Please use the following link: http://www.fishpond.co.nz/index.php?ref=2186&affiliate_banner_id=38 Alternatively, go to the ‘Support us’ page of the KMS website: http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/support-us/ and click on the ‘fishpond logo’. NB: only these methods will activate our affiliation link and generate revenue for the Society. Keep this info handy near your computer, and remember – before ordering anything from Fishpond – think KMS and go to our link!! Competition results In our last issue we invited members to tell us where they find Katherine Mansfield—to go into a draw to win a copy of Susannah Fullerton’s CD Finding Katherine Mansfield. Our winning entry was received from Melissa Reimer: ‘For me Katherine Mansfield is in "the people – and at night from the top of the tram – the lighted interiors of houses – you know the effect – people gathered round a lamp lighted table – a little, homely café – a laundry – a china shop – or at the corners the old chestnut sellers" (CL1:77-78), KM to Garnett Trowell, 24 October 1908, from Paris’. Congratulations Melissa—a copy of Susannah’s wonderful CD is in the post. Published by the Katherine Mansfield Society, Stroud, England Issue 5 April 2010 Page 3 Peacock’s Day By Quentin Furlong Last month I received a call from KMS member Judy Wilson in Auckland, who had tracked me down in Dunedin after hearing about my new film, Peacock’s Day. She in turn had been alerted to the film by Gerri Kimber in London. This was my introduction to the Katherine Mansfield Society, and I was quite impressed with the Society’s sleuthing capabilities – or as Judy said, “Our spies are everywhere!” The Countess (Goeknil Meryem Biner), Mr. Peacock (Robert Tucker) and Betty (Aislinn Furlong) © PicturesQue Films Peacock’s Day is a short film adaptation of Katherine Mansfield’s 1917 story, ‘Mr. Reginald Peacock’s Day’. As those familiar with the story will recall, Mr. Peacock is a gifted but pompous singer and music teacher who has difficulty reconciling life’s daily realities (marriage, a child and the drudgery of household routine) with his artistic sensibilities (public acclaim and the doting admiration of his female students and fans). Issue 5 April 2010 Page 4 As a friend of mine (a KM devotee) said only half jokingly, “This is one of KM’s few non- depressing stories.” It is a delightful and entertaining story but often seems to be interpreted with a broad brush and with Mr. Peacock made a caricature. I believe Katherine Mansfield crafted this story more subtly and that she achieved a certain poignancy with her characters, perhaps reflecting her own experience as an artist in facing the “sordid details of existence” as Mr. Peacock calls them. It has been theorized that KM based aspects of the character of Mr. Peacock on George Bowden, who was a professional singer. In Katherine Mansfield’s Men: Perspectives from the Katherine Mansfield Lecture Series (ed. Charles Ferrall and Jane Stafford, publ. by the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Society, Wellington, 2005) John Middleton Murry is quoted as describing Bowden as “The gentleman artist with the bedside manner of the type after- wards depicted in ‘Mr. Reginald Peacock’s Day.’” Aenone Fell (Terry MacTavish), Mr. Peacock (Robert Tucker) and Lord Timbuck (Dave Hunt) © PicturesQue Films My concept for the film was to reset Katherine Mansfield’s story in her homeland, giving it a distinctive New Zealand stamp, through the locations, music and artists chosen. The story lends itself beautifully to a 1918-1920s Dunedin setting. (Dunedin is a vibrant university city in the South Island of New Zealand with a rich cultural heritage.) Several Dunedin architec- tural jewels were selected for the interior scenes of the film. I wanted to emphasize the musical elements to the story and decided to give the film an op- eratic twist. Opera singers Robert Tucker (who is currently based in the UK and has just completed a tour with Scottish Opera) and Anna Leese (now in Belgium performing the role of Tatyana in Eugene Onegin for Vlaamse Opera), both formerly from Dunedin, were back in New Zealand in December, performing in various Messiah’s, and we were able to sched- ule filming in a narrow time frame just before Christmas. Composer Anthony Ritchie and Issue 5 April 2010 Page 5 pianist Tom McGrath, and soprano Goeknil Meryem Biner rounded out our array of talented professionals. Marian (Anna Leese) and Mr. Peacock (Robert Tucker) © PicturesQue Films In the course of one day, Mr. Peacock (Robert Tucker) interacts with his family as he con- ducts lessons with each of three students, the shy ingénue Betty Brickle (Aislinn Furlong), the dramatic and eccentric Countess (Goeknil Meryem Biner) and the sentimental diva, Miss Marian Morrow (Anna Leese). Each lesson is an opportunity to feature the musicality of the talented cast. The character of a devoted fan, Aenone Fell (Terry MacTavish), is subtly woven into the tapestry of the day and serves as a further magnet, pulling Mr. Peacock away from his wife (Emma Fraser) and son (Josh Meikle). Not intended as a “museum piece”, Peacock’s Day gives the essential Mansfield elements a fresh and contemporary treatment while still retaining classical period details. The film is a duet of drama and comedy with the action driven by the artistry of music. The film is currently in post-production and will soon be submitted to film festivals interna- tionally. It will be publicly screened in Dunedin in 2011, and (depending on distribution pos- sibilities) will also be made available overseas. We intend to produce a DVD and will keep the KMS updated. Quentin (Quenne) Furlong, originally from the United States, has lived in New Zealand for almost five years. She is a professional photographer and filmmaker and the founder of PicturesQue Films Trust, a recently formed trust dedicated to the production of quality art films with an emphasis on literature and music. Please feel free to contact her at the following e-mail address: [email protected] Issue 5 April 2010 Page 6 At Katherine’s Bay Water washes over the road at Eastbourne while latte spume licks the heels of city jeeps. The southerly lifts sand and little blue penguins invade the investment, once were holiday homes where Katherine stayed and Stanley Burnell’s children played their part, native bush and real estate collide in Sunday kaleidoscope sunshine. Jonathan Trout isn’t shouting out from the waves nowadays he sits instead, in the shelter of the boatshed and watches Stanley catch the ferry. Linda feasts on eggs florentine and Beryl’s no longer afraid the Kembers’ brittle laughter can be heard over barbecues and in the bush, if you listen carefully from somewhere in the shadows you can hear Jonathan saying, It’s all wrong, it’s all wrong.