Paper Retweet

The Times has printed one of my tweets. Holy fuck. I have been published by The Thunderer. For your infinite interest, the tweet in question is:

I think David Cameron's 'Big Society' is a GREAT idea. I've always wanted health, education & culture to be provided by religious nutcases.

It’s been retweeted a dizzying number of times. Searching back I think I have Mitch Benn to thank, who retweeted it to his umpteen followers.

In April, my equally incisive contribution to the political philosophy of the nation -

The Tories launch their manifesto from Battersea Power Station. From where the Cybermen launched their takeover of the world. Just saying

was massively retweeted and ended up in The Guardian.

Tweets are public domain, I think, and it’s interesting to see them published in a newspaper. It’s a bit odd for The Times to use public domain material and then stick it behind a paywall. Still, there it is.

The Good Actor

An interesting day spent with Andy Lavender and his company at Central School of Speech and Drama. The new project is called The Good Actor; the good actor in question is John Matthews and he is beloved and feared, brilliant and destructive, everywhere and nowhere. He’s the proposed central figure in a theatre show but for now he will (not) appear through a series of short films that form a constellation around him. Friends, colleagues, acquaintances and associates meet in his absence and discuss him - or not - and slowly a sense of him will emerge through his absence.

Mostly these scenes will be improvised by the actors. Andy’s asked if I might like to script one or two. I have an idea for a Restoration actor on the phone. The scenes are to be filmed guerrilla-style, one 3-minute scene every half-hour through the week. These will be available online initially, but may be a step on the way to - or even a component of - a theatre show.

The Suspect Culture Book

I’m thrilled to say that Oberon Books have commissioned me and Graham Eatough to edit The Suspect Culture Book which will be a record, tribute and introduction to the Scottish theatre company, Suspect Culture.

I’m pleased because Suspect Culture have not had the full recognition that they deserve. Partly because they were based in Scotland; partly because they rarely played London (only Timeless, Mainstream, and Static, I think) and also because their mixture of experimentalism with a strong interest in text and narrative made them hard to place. But their body of work is truly impressive.

I was involved with the company personally from the beginning, but only as a friend and supporter. I actually designed lights on their first two shows, but mainly I supported, sometimes from afar. In the early 2000s, I wrote the first academic article that surveyed and interpreted their work. Then in the mid-2000s, I started working with them. I was part of the team that made Futurology. I wrote Static. And then I contributed Theatremorphosis to Stage Fright. I’ve known David, Graham, and Nick for over twenty years (they were all at my wedding). I’ve seen most of their shows and I’m very proud that I’ll now play my part in helping fix their legacy and publish selections from their archive.

The book will contain the full texts and associated materials for three Suspect Culture shows - Timeless, Mainstream, and Lament - with essays, interviews, and a wealth of photographic material. The publication is supported by the Scottish Arts Council. It will be out in Spring 2011.

Terence Rattigan

I’ve only gone and blogged again at the Guardian. Follow this link and you’ll see my piece on Terence Rattigan and the well-made play.

I’m arguing that the dismissal of Rattigan because the well-made play was old-fashioned and inadequate was misplaced. Rattigan used the well-made play as a kind of metonym of the kind of society that was unable to cope with emotional outsiders. That’s the course of his brilliance as a playwright; he makes you cry (and cheer) because he finds the spaces between the harsh lines of the well-made play formula and in doing so he subjects the society he depicts to sharp critique.

Love the Sinner platform

On 15 June, I’ll be in discussion at the National Theatre about the new play, Never the Sinner, with its author, Drew Pautz, and its director, Matthew Dunster. The play’s a complex and punchy discussion of the relation between faith and selfhood, religion and business, North and South. Should be good.

Starts at 6.00. Tickets available here.

After the Dance platform

On 17 June, I’ll be chairing a platform at the National on After the Dance, one of my favourite plays by one of my favourite playwrights, Terence Rattigan. I’ll be discussing the play with the brilliant Thea Sharrock.

Starts at 6.00. Tickets available here.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should add that I’ve written an article for the After the Dance programme, interweaving interviews with Penelope Wilton, Harriet Walter and Gina McKee discussing Rattigan’s women.

Contemporary European Theatre Directors

I’m chairing a panel on European director’s theatre, to mark the publication of my book. On the panel are my co-editor, Maria M Delgado, journalist and critic Aleks Sierz, and contemporary European director, Katie Mitchell.

Platform begins at 6.00 in the Cottesloe Theatre at the National. Tickets available from the website.

Artistic Retweet

I was a bit thrilled to find that Irkafirka had graphically rendered one of my tweets. The idea of the site is that they take a tweet that’s captured their imaginations and draw it.

Mine was a silly musing on the London Marathon and it’s been given lovely form by the graphic artist Nick Hilditch.

You can see more of the Irkafirka images here and the image is above.

Guardianista

I’ve done a couple of blogs all over the Guardian website. Both are about the theatre’s relation to the General Election. The first is general, the second is a theatrical reading of the Leadership Debates. Enjoy.

‘Stage-managed? Theatre and the Leaders' Debate’.  The Guardian.  29 April 2010:  Stage. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage>.

‘Can political theatre change the world?’ The Guardian. 13 April 2010: Stage. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage>