Review: Collide Theatre's Hamletmachine

Never have I ever seen a performance in an abandoned warehouse. Never, that is, until two weeks ago, when I went over to Ugly Duck on Tanner Street to watch a performance of Heiner Müller's Hamletmachine. The German postmodernist play was produced and directed by a small, up-and-coming theatre company called Collide Theatre, and it's this small, up-and-coming theatre company that introduced me to a completely new way of experiencing theatre.

Perhaps the best way to explain Hamletmachine is that it's weird. Really weird, as you'd expect a postmodernist drama to be. I was initially attracted to the event because it had 'Hamlet' in the title, and Hamlet is my favourite Shakespeare work. Hamletmachine, it turns out, is loosely based on Hamlet, and it does help to have read or watched Hamlet being performed to get a sense of the literary context of the play. But Collide's Hamletmachine is more challenging than Shakespeare's early modern writing. For one thing, it's performed around a warehouse, which means that the audience follows the actors from scene to scene. We are literally following the story; we are almost part of the play. The actors don't quite interact, but neither is the audience wholly invisible. We're shielded by a kind of translucent veil, and our place in the play is deliberately uncertain.

Reading back the script today, it's even clearer how well Emily Louizou, as director, and her creative team have done to adapt such a complex and difficult play for an everyday London audience. As I read the script, I have flashbacks to particular scenes from the warehouse. The first scene, in which we watched a bride glide in slow motion down a path of soil towards her groom, followed by a group carrying an empty coffin, was executed with such precision and skill that it sent shivers down my spine – and I'm not one to use those kind of cliches very often. I'm also reminded of Ophelia in the second part of the play. Actress Ava Pickett is transfixing as she recites Müller's most beautiful passage, “I am Ophelia”. I loved Susan Hoffman and Maximilian Davey's mimed duet at the piano, and Hamlet's declaration, "I want to be a woman", led to a eerily beautiful scene in which the actors pair off and dance, slow at first and then with increasing mania, while the audience looks on as spectators.

For something so complex, and with such a challenging space, Collide has done really well for itself. It's proved that, contrary to conventional theatre groups, it can work in the most difficult of artistic circumstances that leaves the audience feeling curious rather than confused. Their commitment to a different kind of theatre is admirable, as producer Rachel Horowitz tells me that while they're looking to perform the play at other venues, perhaps in Brighton or Edinburgh, “we're not just going to go to a black box theatre and do it. If we find the space and like the space and think the space can tell the story, then we will go for it.” Louizou tells me to watch this space – and I definitely will.

After The Storm: Vince Cable at Durham Book Festival 2015

Image: Liberal Democrats via Flickr.

The Conservative Party’s origin story of the financial crisis has always been that the Labour Party had a significant role to play. Speaking with Chris Mullin at the Durham Book Festival sell-out event at Durham Town Hall on Saturday, Vince Cable was quick to dispute this myth. “It is not true that the Labour Party grossly mismanaged finances up to the crisis of 2008,” he claims. Rather, the Conservatives’ claim was swept up by the right-wing media and soon became the “established story” of the crisis.

The event was organised to discuss Dr Cable’s new book, ‘After The Storm’, which looks back at the financial crisis seven years on. In discussing the crisis, he was keen to emphasise his high regard for Gordon Brown, complimenting his “basic integrity” in the face of public scrutiny. He praised Mr Brown’s passionate concern for the economy in Europe, claiming that his good work has been largely forgotten in the UK. The former prime minister’s first two terms, he maintained, “did create a framework of stability” that has led to a highly-regarded reputation abroad that continues to this day.

Asked about the 2010 coalition government, Dr Cable said that the collaboration was inevitable. “We were propelled by parliamentary numbers and a sense that this was where the national interest lay.” Meanwhile, he said, the Labour Party made it clear that they had “no trust” in the coalition, and instead wanted to “get back into opposition and sort themselves out.”

Turning to his new book, a sequel to his 2009 bestseller ‘The Storm’, Dr Cable made it clear that it is not a memoir, but rather “an attempt to be serious about the economy.” He commented on the importance of reviewing the 2008 financial crisis at a greater distance: “The shock that we had back in 2008 was much more profound than any politician has looked at in the short term.”

With the focus of the interview turning to the current Conservative government, Dr Cable was critical of George Osbourne’s upcoming financial decisions. Commenting on the growing housing crisis, he said: “When you’ve got a fire blazing out of control, you stop putting fuel on it.” Asked whether he would halt the sale of council houses, he expressed his anxiety about the loss of affordable housing, calling it a “great tragedy”. He told Mullin that the sales are missed opportunities – that if councils were given the freedom to operate, they could be building more affordable housing to counter the growing housing emergency, particularly in the South East.

He was also critical of the spending cuts planned by Osbourne and the Conservative Party. In 2011 and 2012, some of the planned cuts were wiped off by Osbourne after extensive Liberal Democrat opposition. Now, without the balancing force of a coalition to restrain them, Dr Cable expressed his concern for the severity of future cuts, stating that Osbourne has “redefined what the deficit is in a much more extreme way” than what was originally planned under the coalition government.

For the last fifteen minutes of the session, Chris Mullin opened up the floor for questions. Inevitably, the issue of tuition fees was raised. Dr Cable expressed his unhappiness of being faced with such a decision. “Any government was going to be faced with that problem,” he said. He was tasked with making 25% cuts to the sector, and to take funding away from universities would have had an “absolutely crippling effect” on the quality of university teaching. “What we created”, he suggested, “was a more progressive system.”

One of the final questions of the evening was whether Dr Cable could see his party returning to popularity in the future. He offered a hopeful reply, suggesting that the movement of the left to a more radical space under Corbyn, and the potential movement further right under a new Conservative leader, could leave an “enormous space” in the centre with a chance to expand into it. Already, Newcastle has a “changing mood” under the new government, and Dr Cable expressed his belief that his party’s local government base will be restored. Although there is hope, he said, “it’s not going to be easy”.

Review: Chris Mullin, 'The Art of Political Leadership', Durham Book Festival 2015

In his sell-out event at Durham Town Hall, ex-Labour MP and Minister Chris Mullin told his audience: “One thing you should know about life in the stratosphere is that it is rarefied.”
The former Labour Minister and South Sunderland MP delivered his touring talk, The Art of Political Leadership, at the venue for Durham Book Festival on Saturday afternoon.
He began the session with a few well-received jokes about the refined life of a politician, before talking about the key attributes needed to be a successful politician.
 Drawing from examples of leaders such as Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Clement Attlee, Mr Mullin shared what he had learned from his years in politics, beginning with his first lesson: “No matter how high you rise, keep your head on the ground.”
He also emphasised the importance of clear vision, citing Mr Blair as an example of this: “He had a capacity, which he never lost, to think strategically.”
Mr Mullin served in Tony Blair’s government, and his admiration for the leader’s early governing actions was apparent in the talk. Blair, he said, was ‘young, dynamic, brave, and most of all moderate.” He added: “His aim was to drag the Labour Party to the foreground of British politics, and to keep it there.” 
Mr Mullin also discussed Clement Attlee in his speech. He said that while Attlee was “utterly lacking in many of the qualities required for political leadership”, he “helped to get results and to get the best out of his colleagues.”
Mr Mullin was, however, more critical of Margaret Thatcher, claiming that “the longer she was in office, the more imperious she became.”
After the 30-minute talk, Mr Mullin opened the floor for questions. As expected, the recent election of Jeremy Corbyn to Labour leadership gained attention in the context of Mullin’s 1982 novel ‘A Very British Coup’, the plot of which is very similar to Corbyn’s surprise appointment.
Commenting on Corbyn’s leadership skills, Mr Mullin said that while he is a “lovely fellow”, he is “a man utterly lacking in many of the basic skills for political leadership.” 
Asked whether he thought Corbyn could become Prime Minister in four years, Mr Mullin said: “Jeremy has inhabited a small, fairly dark corner of British politics for many years.” He added: “The jury’s still out.”

Your rape jokes aren't funny.

Trigger warning: rape, sexual violence.

My friend made a rape joke today.

It's not the first time he's told one, and he's not the only person I know who has, either. Today, after he said it, he turned around to catch my reaction and laughed when he got it. He knew that I'd be angry and that I'd object - and he found it funny.

The reason he found my reaction funny is because it fulfilled his expectations of how I'd react from the last time he told a rape joke. And the time before that. And the time before that. And backwards and backwards to the first time I told him that no, I didn't find it funny and yes, I did want him to stop.

A few days ago I got told to get a sense of humour when I was told a rape joke. Apparently, I was the person in the wrong. It was a rape joke! Everybody makes rape jokes! Who doesn't enjoy a rape joke? I must be the odd one out, the unreasonable one, the one who doesn't get it.

Herein lies one of the many, many problematic aspects of rape jokes. The fact that you're told to get a sense of humour when you don't laugh means one thing - that there are enough people who have responded to the jokes with laughter and smirks. That there are enough people who have affirmed the joker's belief that yes, rape jokes are funny.

Laughing at sexual violence, the violation of a person's human rights, the exploitation and abuse of a human being - it's completely normal. It's funny. Start laughing.

The thing is that most people defend rape jokes by saying that they'd never actually rape someone. Don't get me wrong, that's brilliant. Fab. I'm glad you don't intend on committing a sexual offence. Good for you. Have a cookie.

But by laughing, smiling, smirking at a rape joke, and by telling it in the first place, you're showing that there is a part of you - a public part of you - that finds rape funny. That you get entertainment from the concept of it. You're sending that vibe to the people around you.

I won't go into how rape jokes can affect rape survivors and potential rapists. That's already been done to a better standard than I ever could. I have never been raped, so I can't and won't speak for those who have. People are voicing their experiences and their feelings on the subject more and more, and that is a truly brilliant thing.

I won't go into detail about the facts and statistics surrounding rape and other forms of sexual violence. I'd like to think that people already know them, but let's be honest - even if they do, it won't stop the rape jokes.

Because most people who make rape jokes know what rape is. The content of their jokes shows that they know it's a violent, intrusive and deeply unsettling concept. They know it's a controversial topic - just like my friend showed when he glanced at me, waiting for my reaction, earlier today.

But do they know that rape jokes aren't funny? No. They wouldn't make them if they did. There is something ingrained in people that makes them think rape is funny. Despite the facts and figures, the survivor accounts and the social media buzz, they're still making the jokes, and they're still laughing. To them, it's funny that the extreme violation of someone's rights can be made into the butt of a joke. It's funny to make low-key contributions to the rape culture we're all living in, as members of this society. It's funny to watch the reactions of those who object. 

For the rest of us, though, rape isn't a joke. Sexual violence, domestic violence, any violence isn't a joke. To the people who make them into jokes - think about what you're endorsing, and think about what you're implying. Your rape jokes aren't funny.