Tuesday
Mar152011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 12:25AM IF YOU LIKE OUR BLOG, PLEASE SHARE
"So today I spent the morning with the reigning Alternative Miss World, Fancy Chance. And the afternoon with my old Vauxhallville co-conspirator Timberlina. It was good to see them. And great to get into the rehearsal room. I’ve spent the last few weeks staring at a computer screen, editing the show’s two films. One with video artist Kate Pelling. The other with actor and activist Bette Bourne. Tomorrow, David Hoyle…
Together we’re developing a new show called ‘I Love You But We Only Have Fourteen Minutes To Save The Earth’ at the Oval House Theatre. And you can take a ‘first bite’ of it this Sunday, the 20th, at 7 o’clock. Which will be, for me, the culmination of a year’s work.
The idea first germinated early in 2010 when I discovered the TED app: TED is a twice-yearly conference which invites some of the world’s ‘inspired thinkers’ to ‘give the talk of their lives’ in eighteen minutes. The app then streams these talks - many of which were, indeed, inspiring. As was the format: wouldn’t it be great, I thought, to do something similar giving artists a guiding time frame and concept to produce a performance rather than a talk? And then Dale Arden’s voice popped into my head hollering ‘Flash! I love you but we only have fourteen hours to save the earth!’ (as her character does in Queen’s title song to Flash Gordon.) And that was it. I had it. The title, the time-limit and the concept.
I would invite artists to ‘save the earth’ in fourteen minutes. The time limit would be literal enough: the lights would go out fourteen minutes after they came up. But not the concept: artists might save us in whatever fashion they chose to… they might choose not to save us at all.
Five of my favorite queer artists accepted the invitation. Next stop: a venue for us to perform in. Over the past few years I’ve directed a lot for the Vauxhall Tavern, including a trilogy of pantomimes. But there’s a limit to what you can get away with at a south London gay pub and I felt perhaps it was time to move on and give myself, and the cabaret artists I would be working with, the opportunity to do something a little more serious. So we slipped down the road to the Oval House. And they said ‘yes’. It’s been great to have their support, and that of the Arts Council – for which, in these straightened times, I’m especially grateful. I must also say thank you to the various individuals who crowdfunded the remains our development budget.
I say development because I’m hoping there’ll be a life for the show beyond Sunday’s performance. The plan is a London run later this year, or early in the next one, followed by a UK tour and global domination.
But now it’s bedtime: I’m tired and there’s a lot still to do before the weekend. I’m not certain it’ll all get done. I’m not even certain what we’ll be doing. Or why we’re doing it. But it’s all part of the development process…"
'I Love You But We Only Have 14 Minutes To Save The Earth' features David Hoyle, Fancy Chance, Bette Bourne, and Kate Pelling. It premiers at the Oval House Theatre, 52-54 Kennington Oval, London SE11 5SW on Sunday 20th March, at 7pm, tickets are £5
Wednesday
Mar092011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 2:45AM IF YOU LIKE OUR BLOG, PLEASE SHARE
Underclass Hero. Oval House Theatre Thursday 9th March 2011
REVIEWED BY MARTIN PERRY
In the middle of a small dark theatre space, lit by a single spotlight knelt the androgynous figure of La JohnJoseph, dressed in an electric blue shellsuit, head bowed, hands clutched as if in prayer. The wall in front of him was decorated with reflective shards of mirrored paper resembling a large arched stained glass window, or perhaps the head of a huge penis or is a bishops hat? Shiny silhouettes of rats rush up towards its centre.
Over the next hour we are taken on a journey, beginning with the Pope's first visit to UK in 1982, an event that also marked the date of our Underclass Hero's birth into a life of poverty in a Liverpool housing estate. Punctuated by iconic indie torch songs the formative years of La JohnJoseph are recounted, often surprising, sometimes funny but always poignant and unshrinkingly candid.
La JohnJoseph's studied delivery of his own exacting prose transported the audience into a vivid world of childhood turmoil, multiple house moves, an unending stream of 'stepfathers', of child abuse, a wayward mother, Catholisism and uplifting adolescent sexual explorations in the most ungodly of locations.
La JohnJoseph's haunting singing voice accompanied by violin and harmonium was the perfect tool to convey the mixture of melancholy and pathos. The makeshift screens, hung either side of the stage faintly reflected scenes form Thatcher's Britain subtly adding historical context to La JohnJoseph's monologue. By his own admission part Noel Coward, part Joan Crawford, part Penny Arcade, part Quentin Crisp La JohnJoseph owns the stage and brings vivid light and shade and not a little charm to what must clearly be a painful, yet cathartic story to tell. A story which on paper could sound depressing, but the overall effect of the show created the complete opposite effect. It was both life-affirming and heart-warming and I urge anyone with an interest in contemporary queer performance to seek out the next (as yet unannounced) performance from this most talented of orators.
Underclass Hero is the third of a trilogy of monologues, and I was left wishing I'd seen the other two. I'll certainly be first in the queue as and when La JohnJoseph's next sermon is delivered.
Underclass Hero was written and preformed by La JohnJoseph and directed by Jeffery Gordon, set design was by Stevie Hanley and musical accompaniment by Jordon Hunt on the Violin and Jack Tame on the harmonium. The show is a work in progress and is planned to be developed further so check La JohnJoseph's website for details.
Underclass Hero formed part the First Bites: Transgressions series taking place this month at the Oval House in Vauxhall a shining light of London's experimental Queer theatre. The same series will see the next offering by the Writer Director Nathan Evans I Love You But We Only Have Fourteen Minutes To Save The Earth. Watch this space for a blog by Nathan himself on the process of working on the piece which stars David Hoyle, Fancy Chance, Timberlina, and Bette Bourne with projections by video artist Kate Pelling.
