East End Review

Tag: Jonathan Day

  • Geraldine Pilgrim at Toynbee Hall

    Geraldine Pilgrim Toynbee, photo Hugo Glendinning
    Artist Geraldine Pilgrim at Toynbee Hall. Photograph: Hugo Glendinning

    Toynbee is an installation by artist Geraldine Pilgrim highlighting the social, political and artistic significance of Toynbee Hall and Studios.

    During its six-day run Pilgrim addresses significant issues and historical events connected to the Hall, which was founded in 1884, such as the match girls’ strike of 1888, William Beveridge’s first ideas about a Welfare State and unemployment, as well as the role of former politician John Profumo who volunteered at the Hall after the Profumo scandal of 1963.

    “Toynbee Hall is the most important building in Britain as far as I am concerned. So much has happened there over the years which sets changes in a variety of areas,” says Pilgrim.

    The building’s history of involvement with welfare issues is reflected throughout Toynbee, with Pilgrim revealing fragments of the past within a landscape of live music, image and performance.

    She adds: “It is a performance installation journey, which reveals glimpses of the past and present – people have probably never realised the history of the building and what has occurred there.”

    Toynbee – Geraldine Pilgrim is at Toynbee Hall and Studios, 28 Commercial Street, E1 6AB from 10 – 15 December

    toynbeehall.org.uk

  • Spitalfields Winter Festival – Remember Me: A Desk Opera

    Desk Opera - Claudia MolitorSpitalfields Music Winter Festival 009. Photo credit- Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
    Desk bound: Claudia Molitor. Photograph: Tommy Ga Ken Wan

    An opera which takes place inside a writing desk is to be performed for the first time in London as part of this month Spitalfields Music Winter Festival.

    Remember Me: A Desk Opera is inspired by a Victorian writing desk handed down to the opera’s composer, Claudia Molitor, from her grandmother.

    “This desk was the only space that was just hers, and it has a life time of experience with it – I am fascinated by it,” says Molitor.

    The opera uses a replica of the original desk as a focal point, accompanied by film, an orchestral pit visit and live performances.

    “The desk is the central focus, with performance going on around it, helping it to come alive.

    “I wanted to do something different when writing this opera – it means I can tell big opera-style stories on a small scale,” says Molitor.

    The opera tells a fictional story of two Greek heroines: Dido and Eurydice – both of whom are dissatisfied with their lives.

    “Dido laments the fact her husband is going around the world while she is left at home, while Eurydice’s husband Orpheus is an amazing musician and singer.

    “They are two women who are trapped and can’t do anything: Dido in the palace, and Eurydice in the underworld.

    “I thought what would happen if they were friends and moaned to each other about their lives,” Molitor says.

    The idea for Remember Me came early last year, when Molitor discovered a lot of composers were working on operas – something which she thought was “bizarre” in the 21st century.

    The opera uses no score or libretto, but instead makes use of a variety of recordings made by Molitor which are then put together for the performance.

    Molitor says she hopes Remember Me will appeal to a wide range of people when it comes to the Winter Festival this month.

    “It’s a playful attraction, as it is quite small and tiny,” she says.

    “The idea you can make stories from something from very little is almost like when children can spend hours creating and playing in their own imaginary worlds.”

    Remember Me: A Desk Opera  is at Rivington Place, EC2A 3BA from 9 – 10 December.

  • ‘Larger than blood and gore’ – The Grand Guignol at The Space

    The Space in the Isle of Dogs
    Grand Guignol venue: The Space in the Isle of Dogs.

    The story of one of the most feared horror theatres in the world will be told this month in a production at The Space, an arts centre in a formerly derelict church in the Isle of Dogs.

    The Grand Guignol, written by East End playwright Francis Kobayashi, chronicles the story of the titular Parisian theatre that was also known as “the theatre of fear and terror”.

    However, the production will concentrate on the history of the theatre itself, rather than just on the macabre and bloody scenes in which it specialised.

    Tales will be told by characters including Maxa, the “most assassinated woman in the world”, and Andre Lorde, the “Prince of Terror”.

    Hardcore horror fans fear not though – director Adam Hemming says that there will “definitely be some blood” in some of the shorter scenes of the play, but he adds that the theatre itself is the focus.

    “It will be about the real life stories of the actors and staff, not just recreating the blood and gore of the theatre’s plays,” he says. “In the early days of the theatre the plays were much more about putting the lower classes and criminals on stage to perform.

    “The history of the place is what the play will be focused on. It’s larger than just blood and gore.”

    The Grand Guignol is on at The Space, 269 Westferry Road, E14 3RS until 2 November.

     thespace.org.uk