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Culture on the couch: theatre performed in homes

Home Theatre in Brazil

This month sees the broadcast of an ambitious international project featuring 30 new one-person shows performed in 30 homes across the capital. Organised by the theatre Royal Stratford East, the Home Theatre project aims to link boroughs with extremely low arts engagement to more affluent areas of the city, with artists working on the project taking inspiration from the stories of those hosting the performances in their own homes.

Run in partnership with the Festival Internacional de Cenas em Casa (International Festival of Home Theatre), the idea to bring Home Theatre to the UK was inspired by artistic director Kerry Michael’s trip to Brazil earlier this year.

“Home Theatre is about staging performances in people’s familiar surroundings. In a sense, we will be serving our audiences and letting them be our masters. It’s about telling great stories from across the capital,” he says.

“It’s also a great opportunity for artists and London audiences to come together, share a meal and have an open dialogue about their stories and the project.”

Exploring the relationship between art and audiences, Home Theatre extends the legacy of the theatre Royal Stratford’s East Open Stage project, a radical community-curated programme aimed at redefining who decides and makes theatre and how it is made and presented.

The collaboration between the 30 hosts, artists and filmmakers should generate exciting new ideas and insights for staging and creating theatre outside of established venues and in the very heart of local communities.

For your viewing pleasure, a film of each bespoke performance will be released every 30 minutes on the theatre’s online performance platform and at the theatre itself as part of the Home Theatre 30 x 30 digital event taking place on Saturday 9 November.

November 7, 2013
A Season of Bangla Drama – preview

Scene from Ayndrilla Singharay’s Unsung

Now in its eleventh year, Tower Hamlets Council presents A Season of Bangla Drama, a vibrant celebration of local Bengali talent.

Taking place throughout November the festival includes an array of drama and discussion performed at a variety of venues across Spitalfields and Bethnal Green, continuing its relevance to residents of Tower Hamlet today.

The programme combines long-established aspects of Bengali tradition with innovative productions exploring recent developments in the culture, continuing with its deliverance of social history.

Drawing inspiration from the literary tales of Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, a number of the performances bring to life issues that still resonate through society decades after having first been written.

As part of the festival Wilton’s Music Hall will be featuring “Unsung”, a performance inspired by one of Tagore’s most haunting short stories. Bringing the story into the contemporary space of modern day London it tells the tale of two brothers and their wives and the horrific events that take place within their family unit, exploring issues of female oppression in society that still remain topical to this day.

Francis Mayhew, Artistic Director at Wilton’s said: “A Season of Bangla Drama, presented by Tower Hamlets Council, is a growing artistic success story and we are really delighted to be supporting the next generation of new artists and new work.”

The hall will also host a performance from Komola Collective that provides an insight into the events that unfolded during the 1971 war of independence struck Bangladesh. The war displaced over 30 million people and saw large-scale atrocities occur, and “Birangona: Women of War” displays such crimes against women through the story of one woman and her family.

The festival aims to entertain its audiences while facilitating discussion on hard-hitting topics that often go untold.

A Season of Bangla Drama is on at multiple locations throughout East London from 2^nd – 24^th November. Prices and times vary.

November 6, 2013
Hoxton Hall celebrates 150 years

Burlesque: performer Immodesty Blaize

Hoxton Hall, one of the last surviving music halls in East London, is this month celebrating its 150th birthday with a series of fundraising events.

Having provided entertainment and support to the local community since the days of Queen Victoria, the hall is now in need of critical repairs and is looking to raise £30,000.

Headlining the celebrations will be international burlesque star Immodesty Blaize, whose first solo performance in London was held on stage at Hoxton Hall back in 2004.

The anniversary festivities also include a vintage variety day which incorporates live music, a ballroom tea dance and a market at which treasures unearthed from the hall’s wardrobe department will be sold.

Hayley White, Group Director of Hoxton Hall, says: “Over our history we have presented an array of talent, often those starting out.
“It is a delight to celebrate the history of the building with a diverse and stunning showcase of events presenting our past alongside our future ambitions for the space.”

In Victorian London, often dubbed ‘the music hall era’, Shoreditch boasted more than ten music halls. But over the years these numbers dwindled and now there are just two remaining in East London.

Hoxton Hall first opened its doors to the public in 1863, hosting its first entertainment evening in the November of that year.
The year 1878 saw the site offer an entirely different service, when Quaker W. I. Palmer bought the hall and used the space to house and clothe local women and children, as well as to provide the period’s equivalent of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

The hall was then used as an air raid shelter during the Second World War, once more highlighting the crucial role it has played in the community over the years.

Hoxton Hall, 130 Hoxton St, N1 6SH

November 6, 2013
UK Film Festival returns to Aubin Cinema

Buzkashi Boys: one of the star films of last year’s festival

Independent filmmakers from around the world will have the chance to showcase their work at the UK Film Festival, which returns this month to the Aubin Cinema in Shoreditch.

The festival, now in its third year, provides unsung talent as well as more established independent filmmakers a platform to have their work screened to a wider audience. Last year’s big discovery Buzkashi Boys, directed by Sam French, went on to achieve an Oscar nomination, and the festival was also instrumental in broadcasting another winner Why Don’t We Do It In The Road on Channel 4.

Filmmakers Murray Woodfield and Mahdi Hussein Nejad set up the festival in 2011 as an alternative to major festivals which they believed no longer served those ‘unheard voices’ in film.

“All major festivals will tell you that they’re looking for the next big talent but they become mainstream and so sought after that new voices don’t get much of a look in,” says Woodfield.

By the festival’s second year they found they were receiving a lot of submissions from established filmmakers, leading them to change
their policy.

“We decided that half of our films would be from quite well established people and other the half from that very new emerging talent. It is not very difficult because there are so many extremely talented new filmmakers out there making it easy to find amazing material done by people that no one – even in the film industry – has heard of.”

This year the festival has brought in the acclaimed director Petros Silvestros to help choose the films, a move that Woodfield claims has raised the level of professionalism.

He says: “ The films in the first year were good, the lms we had in the second year were excellent – but these ones are exceptional and I’m not just bandying these words around.”

Three features already on the programme are the Italian drama Miele (Honey) by Valeria Golin, romantic melodrama The Broken Circle Breakdown directed by Felix Van Groeningen and Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant based on the Oscar Wilde story of the same name.

Festivals like Raindance already claim to be celebrating the best of independent film, but Woodfield is confident that the UK Film Festival offers something different.

“We’re newer, we’re younger in terms of what we look for and although I’ve got great respect for Raindance we’re not doing quite the same as them – we’re taking a younger look.”

The UK Film Festival is at the Aubin Cinema, 64-66 Redchurch St, E2 7DP from 11-15 November

November 6, 2013
Tom Marshman: searching for the lost gay cockneys

Artist: Tom Marshman performs in Move Over Darling: The Lost Gay Cockneys

In Move Over Darling: The Lost Gay Cockneys, artist Tom Marshman uses the testimonies of over 60s to explore a forgotten generation of gay people in East London.

Marshman’s work is often autobiographical, but as part of his continuing LGBT oral history, he is calling on the experiences of others.

“I guess what inspired me was because often those voices aren’t really heard in the mainstream – there’s much more visibility around younger gay people,” says Marshman.

The project began with a tea party, which Marshman describes as an active social space that allows people to identify shared experiences through a series of sensory triggers.

“Part of quite a lot of gay people’s make up is having to hide something, which is still present somehow – it’s about when you’re open and when you’re closed.”

And in creating a safe space where these memories can be discussed, Marshman has managed to unearth a multitude of memories.

“Within these interviews I’ve heard so many interesting minuscule and massive moments in people’s lives,” he says. “From a lesbian couple being the first to get married through to someone having a little book in their desk which they used to record a list of everyone they knew who had died of HIV.”

The voice of the older generation provides an insight into a number of monumental moments at a time where homosexuality was highly controversial and attitudes towards it were rapidly changing.

“Older gay people have a lot to say about their experience,” he says.

“Some people talk about it as if it was a bit more fun because it was illicit and it was undercover – others were really excited about the change and were instrumental in moving it forward.”

Move Over Darling: The Lost Gay Cockneys is at Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA

November 6, 2013
New choreographers emerge

Falling for dance: work by Kimberly Clarke to be performed at Emerge 13

Opportunities for budding dance choreographers to try out work in front of an audience are limited, which is why dance producer Adam Towndrow founded Emerge, which returns to The Space this month.

Emerge 13 will give choreographers a five-night run at the Isle of Dogs theatre, allowing them to see their work brought to life on stage.

“It’s a unique platform that really helps to grow the piece,” says Towndrow.

“The work is seen by an audience each night which means the artist can say ‘oh right that’s interesting… I’ll do something different next time’. You can’t always do that if you’re touring.”

The programme includes work by Lewis Major, a highly rated Australian choreographer and dancer, and the world premiere of Wolfpack, a new piece by John Ross, winner of the Matthew Bourne 2014 New Adventures Choreographer Award.

“His particular piece is going to be filmed and taken to the V&A – to be preserved on on some dusty DVD probably,” jokes Towndrow.

“There’s a lot of anticipation and I know it’ll be really dynamic.”

Choreographers from all over the UK and beyond will take part in Emerge 13, which is run by the established C-12 Dance Theatre.

However, Towndrow is keen for the project to make an impact on a local level.

“Part of our ethos is to bring movement and dance to people who haven’t experienced it before,” he says.

“Since we did the show last year [at The Space] there’s been loads of dance here that’s been well-received by local people so it goes to show that trying out something for the first time can have positive effects on the community.”

Emerge 13 is at The Space, 269 Westferry Road, E14 3RS from 5-9 November/12-16 November

November 5, 2013
Uncertain States exhibition at Bank Gallery

Detail from Ten Ways To Kill Yourself by Charlie Fjätström

Community, collaboration and a real passion for photography is how David George and Fiona Yaron-Field describe the ethos at Uncertain States, the artist cooperative they co-founded with fellow photographer Spencer Rowell in 2009.

Through exhibitions, talks and a quarterly broadsheet, the group aims to nurture critical dialogue on photography and promote work that reflects key social and political concerns.

Available in galleries and museums across the UK, the Uncertain States broadsheet presents work by lens-based artists looking for an alternative platform to show their images outside of the commercial gallery system.

“The photography scene here is incredibly rich but I think underrepresented by the big institutions like the Photographers’ Gallery,” George says. “The newspaper isn’t glossy, there are no ads and it’s not for profit and that’s been really important in enabling us to show the type of work we’ve wanted to show. Above all it’s about the dissemination of ideas.”

Now Uncertain States is celebrating its fourth year with an exhibition at the Bank Gallery in Whitechapel showcasing works by 28 photographers who have contributed to the broadsheet.

It includes works from photographer Tom Hunter’s Life and Death in Hackney (2000), a series of melancholic images loosely based on Pre-Raphaelite paintings which depict the lives of travellers in the post-industrial landscape of the Lea Valley in the East End.

Photographer John Goto’s portraits of young people taken at Friday night dances at Lewisham Youth Centre in 1977 are also featured. Named after the musical sub-genre that emerged from the South London reggae scene in the 1970s, Goto’s series Lovers’ Rock initially met with little interest from potential exhibitors but has recently been praised for offering a counter-narrative to the dominant image of black youth at the time.

Uncertain States co-founder Fiona Yaron-Field is well aware of the problems artists can face in getting works featuring particular subject matters exhibited in commercial galleries.

She recalls being told that her body of work based on her experiences raising a child with Down’s syndrome was not ‘sexy’ enough for the gallery space. Her portraits of pregnant women carrying children with Down’s syndrome entitled Safe Haven are also on show at the Bank Gallery.

“Uncertain States is really a nomadic thing, a network to support photographic practice,” Yaron-Field explains, adding that the cooperative also holds free talks with photographers and filmmakers on the first Tuesday of every month upstairs at the Cat & Mutton on Broadway Market in Hackney.

Uncertain States is at Bank Gallery E1 7PF from 8-30 November

November 5, 2013
Movember exhibition at The Lauriston

Titan of the ‘tache: Lionel Richie (detail). By Ben Rix

This month people across the world will stop shaving and let their top lip whiskers grow wild to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer and men’s health.

But for illustrator and painter Ben Rix, the jibes from friends about his inability to grow a “sponsor worthy moustache” were enough to make him put down the moustache comb and pick up a paint brush.

His Movember Series is a collection of watercolour portraits of iconic musicians, all of whom are well known for their moustaches.

Paintings of Freddy Mercury, Lionel Ritchie and Carlos Santana all feature in the exhibition at the Lauriston pub on Victoria Park Road, as well as a portrait of Frank Zappa who himself died of prostate cancer in 1993.

Rix works in a variety of media, from large scale murals to animation, but he chose a different style for this series.

He says: “I chose portraiture as I find it stirs great emotional reactions in people, which is very heart warming and gives huge purpose to my art.”

He is also open to those who would like to commission their own bespoke watercolour ‘mo’-mento.

“I am also taking requests for Movember portraits so if people want to commemorate their ‘tache or have a hairy lipped icon painted they can get in touch and cash from the sales will go towards the cause,” he says.

Until 15 November at The Lauriston, 162 Victoria Park Rd

benrix.co.uk

November 5, 2013
Take away art – Confiscation Cabinets at the Museum of Childhood

On display: 30 years of children’s confiscated toys and collectibles

The Museum of Childhood is set to become home to Guy Tarrant’s Confiscation Cabinets, an exhibition displaying an array of artefacts that have been taken from children in London schools.

The collection provides a retrospective look at the evolution of toys and children’s collectibles over the past three decades, tracking the movement from action gures and toy cars to mobile phones and cyber-pets.

It also functions as a social commentary addressing issues such as the impulse towards rebellion and resistant behaviour across primary and secondary schools in the London area.

Having worked as a teacher in over 150 state schools in the capital, Guy Tarrant has always been interested in pupil interactions and the ways that children reject and evade rules.

“The effect of the exhibition has always been one of intrigue and reflection,” he says. “The items in the cabinets are very varied and involve aspects of resistance in all their many guises.”

While some of the cult toys and games give a throwback feel to this collection, Tarrant introduces an element of danger through the homemade weaponry taken from pupils. He explains: “The exhibition does contain threatening items, of course the act of confiscation implies by its very nature items to be deemed inappropriate to classroom learning and capable of creating lesson disorder.”

“Of course, the inclusion of weapons does appear to demonstrate an extreme level of aggressive behaviour. Often though, these items are used in a more gestural nature of bravado rather than in a specifically intentional act of
violence.”

Visitors will also be able to view notes passed in class between children, such as one that reads: ‘Do you still want to be my friend? If so tick here, if not put an X’.

While some traits appear not to have changed, Tarrant expresses some concern about the matter of progression in behaviour.
“I do believe children’s behaviours have become markedly more aggressive over time, and that our schools’ environments have been slow to adapt to these changes,” he says.

Confiscation Cabinets is at the V&A Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA from 9 November 2013 – 1 June 2014

November 5, 2013
‘Alone in a box of stone’ – Benjamin Clementine

Stage presence: Benjamin Clementine. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

One morning in June I was listening to French radio when I heard some folk-soul music. The voice singing “I am lonely, alone in a box of stone” sounded intense, fragile and incredibly sincere. I was moved to tears.

“Benjamin Clementine is from Edmonton, London” said the presenter. Edmonton is the final stop of my 149 bus route and I’d never heard of him?

Then last month in St Luke’s church, Old Street, a hushed crowd listened as Clementine played ‘Cornerstone’, a song emblematic of the loneliness he carries within him.

Clementine, 24, actually left London two years ago. He explains it was “because of family problems, friends, work, studies. There was nothing there. The only thing I was good at was English.”

His career started after being spotted busking in Paris. Astonishingly, Clementine claims he never aspired to be a singer. “It was more a matter of finding a place to stay and finding some sort of accommodation, food … No matter how bad, I just sang. I had no choice,” he says.

An extreme honesty runs through his music, which he writes himself. He cites his older brother’s advice: “Don’t waste your breath if what you say isn’t important. There is no point.”

Clementine’s style developed while he sang covers on the Paris underground.

Nina Simone was a “revelation”, he says. But his main influences are the classical and operatic music he listened to as a boy. He started playing piano by ear aged only 11, after hearing Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie. Later came Noel Coward and Pavarotti.

“When I say ‘I am alone in a box of stone’ it is not a lie – it is true,” he says. “I don’t perpetuate emotions. I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. I think I just want people to understand me more.”

November 5, 2013