Hannah Nicklin

These Four Streets

As promised, here I am blogging about some of the free theatre I’ve been to see. Contributing to the general discussion is probably the least I can do in exchange! So I went to see the REP’s These Four Streets on Friday. The piece was drawn from the events surrounding the riots in Birmingham in 2005 it started out with about 30 writers workshopping the ideas, and turned into 6 female writers working together to fictionalise characters and situations based on verbatim accounts. I think it’s worth noting how rare it would be that 6 female writers could be found in the same place anywhere (which is why it’s made a point of in all of the literature) and I’m intrigued as to whether that was an active choice, or just the way things happened. I did feel a little like possibly at one point someone had gone ‘we are all women, we should be careful this story does not become female centric’, this could be entirely wrong, it is just my impression, (but my impression is worth just as much as the next persons :-)) however I did feel like the male voice was over-compensated for, and in the end, a story that started from a rumoured rape didn’t even begin to tackle the aspect of urban tribe property/belongings (and how women fit into that) and how that relates to belonging to a place, and rather drew its emotional centre from the death of a young boy. This was one of the main problems with the whole thing though- unfinished stories. The piece had 6 actors covering over 30 characters, most of which you saw only once, and at most, twice. Normally a fractured narrative is united by the telling- by the writers voice, however because this series of snapshots was contributed to by 6 writers it needed more than the bookend device of several voices saying ‘these four streets, I live here etc.’.

Having said that, I still think this piece was much better and more interesting than Don John. Don John was the skeleton of a story stretched out for far too long, and far too flabbily (good word). These Four Streets on the other hand was just so much, so many stories, the main problem being that they didn’t have enough of an airing. Not necessarily by doing less, but by looking at things with more depth – asking questions more, of their characters, of the audiences. I think the best compliment I could give the piece is that it really made me want to write a play about the subject material, and it was an important story, that deserved exploration. I was listening to the conversations around me, and it seemed most of the people were local people who hadn’t been to the theatre before, the audience as a whole was probably at least 50% black, and it sounded like a lot of them were there because it was about them. As I left a young girl was crying about a friend who had been killed. This was theatre talking directly to a people about their own lives, which is very basically what I believe theatre should be. It was flawed, but because of all the right reasons.

It was also performed with tact and a lovely light touch (in fact Bharti Patel and Lorna (can’t remember second name) have both worked with Foursight, and Lorna was an actor with the MPhil showcase) and the direction made the most of the difficult structure and storytelling.

So yes, those are my quick thoughts. I’ve got a billion other things to do so I wont do an in depth dissections, but if you have any questions or comments, will be very interested to hear them.

It’s The Hounding of David Oluwale this Friday- a WYP co-production I think, in the main house, so stay tuned for my reaction to that.

Thanks for reading.

Forward

So here I am, next post! Only a bit more than a week after the last one, so I’m doing OK! I am going to try and post a few more regular blogs in the coming weeks though, because ACE (Arts Council England, who, if you’re of the uninitiated – the arts world sort of hates in the same way a mardy teenager hates their parents, not without reason but conveniently forgetting the good bits) have introduced a new scheme called A Night Less Ordinary which gives free tickets to under 26s. All you do is phone up the box office of one of the many, excellent, participating theatres, say for what performances you would like tickets and when, provide email and a mobile number, and then it’s all done! So yes, I have tickets to upcoming productions of Don John by Kneehigh, These Four Streets, a play written by 4 local female writers about the riots in Birmingham a few years ago, and The Hounding of David Oluwale. All of which look really interesting. I’m really excited, and despite a small amount of guilt for using the offer, as it’s clearly not aimed at already theatre going young people (though my big problem has always been affording to go), I think it’s a brilliant initiative. I just wish more people knew about it, they should def have an advert on Facebook or something- raise awareness. Anyway, all of these upcoming shows mean something to blog about, and a nice bit of critical thinking, which I generally miss, so stay tuned for some mini-reviews. I only wish I lived in London, and could afford to take up the offers there- at the Barbican, the RSC, the National, the Royal Court, SOHO, all of them! (Maybe I’ll take a holiday after work is less crazy, find a friend to stay with, and go see lots of free shows).

So yes, what’s going on with me? Well last night was the guest night performance of Foursight (the company I do admin for 3 days a week) Theatre’s Can Any Mother Help Me? which is going to be touring from now until May. It was really lovely to see something that’s been worked on since 2007 come to fruition. It’s a devised show, so obviously it will continue to evolve over the run, but everything is definitely in place, and massive congratulations to all of the team! It was also a bit surreal for me, as administrator this show is something that I have been greasing the rails for for my whole time with Foursight, but obviously haven’t seen much of the actual creative side, so seeing the show was just lovely. Although my opinions on it should definitely be considered as biased, those who know me, know that I try to always be honest with my criticism, of myself an others, otherwise it’s generally useless! So yes, I thought the piece was lovely, very respectful of the fact that it was a book. Adaptation is a strange process – you can use the work as a stimulus, or you can use it as literal material – neither approach is wrong, it’s just a choice. This show was more of a literal adaptation of the book, and I think this worked well. There was no larger narrative, as the piece considered a group of over 25 women, from the 1930s, all the way to 1980, these were lives, not narratives, and so the piece sewed together snapshots into a kind of theatrical pop-up book. You retained the well crafted rhetoric of the women’s writing, and the piece didn’t sink into hysteria and psychology, the telling was simple and faithful, and held together by repeated images, sounds, projection, and lighting. I think the design was nice and simple, but the windows, spots of light etc, reinforced the ‘windows into worlds’ as well as letters/book feel which was good. The performances were all very strong too. It did take about 20 minutes for me to get used to the non-narrative style, and at the outset, it took me a while to care about the characters, but around about halfway through, a combination of design, and warmth of direction/performance drew me sufficiently in. SPOILER — One of the women’s stories is sort of a thicker thread than the others – that of Isis, Isis falls in love with a Dr X, though nothing ever happens, eventually she confesses and apologises, Dr X tells her husband, and they both give her electric shock therapy to ‘cure’ her. Every time we began her story a zip of electricity followed her across the windows to where she was on the stage, close to the end you realise that with that, each memory she spoke of was being erased. She had nothing, and they even contrived to take that from her — END OF SPOILER The piece definitely needs tightening up in places, and a few of the character’s stories suffered a little from lack of time/depth, because of the couple of main focuses, but all in all I enjoyed it. If you get a chance to see it (tour dates can be found here) it would be really interesting to hear what you think!

In writing news I wrote a short story last week and sent it off to a competition. It was nice to flex my prose muscles, and I don’t think it was too bad. I got an email from the Royal Court saying that they’ll deliver feedback on our submissions in March. And Scary Little Girls Productions got back in contact with me and offered me a longer workshopped reading in a new writing Salon on May the 1st. I’ll get a day with a director and a couple of actors, and can work on anything I like, I have a new idea simmering around at the moment, just a two-hander, which it might be nice to try and write 15 mins for, and I also have a redraft of Being Someone Else to get on with, so both of those, as well as Eismas are possibilities. I’m going to have a think about it and get back to them. I also talked briefly about the Irish play commission, and should be meeting to talk a little more about that over the next month or so!

Finally, something that has been ticking over in my mind for a the past year or so may have seen some shifting. Recent contact from one of my brilliant lecturers from Loughborough University about the possibility of doing a PHD. Despite a growing longing for academia I have been reluctant to give it a go because of the fiasco that is applying for funding from the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council). However there have been changes in how it all works and a new ‘block grant’ system which means the money is doled out to the institutions-and it is they who are now responsible for handing it out to students. I have a lot of questions, I want to know that I could still continue to dedicate as much time to my creative writing as I am, I would want to know that I could work on something that really would hold my interest for three years (somehow combining feminism, theatre theory AND practice and web 2.0), and I could only afford to do it if I got a full grant (fees paid plus £12000 per year). I have mentioned it to people before and they’ve always asked, ‘how could you give up three years of your life like that?’ but I really wouldn’t see it like ‘giving up’-because my plan was always to work flexibly for 3-4 years whilst getting my creative career off the ground. A PHD, for me, would make me feel although I was having a theoretical impact as well as a creative one. Plus £1000 a month is a hell of a lot more than what I live off now, not taking into account hopeful commissions by that point. So yes… many thoughts. And I’m going to go talk with my lecturer about it next month.

I definitely feel like I need to move back East. This side of the country just doesn’t sit right with me. And I liked Loughborough, close to many friends, and two major cities, and everything was only 15 minutes away, the library, the swimming pool, Sainsbury‘s, and most importantly the countryside. There’s a direct line to Euston, and good theatres in the vicinity… So yes… another avenue re-opens. It’s all quite exciting, this life-choice stuff isn’t it?

:-)

Limbo

First off- let me apologise for the longer than normal gap in blog entries, without the routine of the Royal Court keeping my writing progression regular, finding a time to sum up more disparate happenings is harder. Here I am though, ready to give you a decent update, so let’s go!

A few interesting things have happened writing wise since I last posted – obviously I’ve had a few more rejection letters, I sent off a pack of 15 submissions about May/June time last year, so this is the kind of time that most of the replies will happen. A couple of thanks but no thanks from competition submissions, pretty standard, but also a really lovely letter from Esther Richardson (previously from Theatre Writing Partnership where I did my first ever playwriting) who’s now at the Soho, accompanied by an extremely positive and useful readers report about Being Someone Else, which will be really helpful in draft 4 (it really is an epic of an idea, and is still searching for the right format, let alone anything else).

I’ve sent off a few more submissions over the past few days, a couple of ideas to the Red Ladder treatment development opportunity, two plays to an IdeasTap/Theatre503 initiative and obviously I’m waiting for feedback from the Royal Court.

I was also contacted (or re contacted-some emails junked somewhere I think) by Box of Tricks Theatre Company, who want to meet up with me and talk about my work- the pieces they have are positively ancient -Cloud and 2112, I’ve moved on a great deal from then, so hopefully that’s positive. I also have a new idea for a two hander, which it would be lovely to talk to them about. My meeting with them is at the Young Vic on Monday the 16th of Feb.

And there was also the Scary Little Girls Salon! Amongst London snow, via my first experience of the London bus network (a bendy bus too – the 73!), and despite the tfl website‘s crappy maps with no road names and big red dot that marks where you get off, but doesn’t actually provide you with a stop name – I made it just in time. Thanks to the bus driver who actually pulled over to help me work out where I was. So yes, the Bodrum Cafe was a really sweet venue, just the right size, an intimate audience, I don’t say that as a euphemism for ‘small’ it was a good size, but not too scary, and everyone was really supportive and open to new things. It was a really refreshingly different feel to the normal ‘death by networking’ that these things often tend towards. There were some lovely pieces; short stories, music, play extracts, a comedian, poems. The sections I chose for a reading were scenes 1 and 2, and scene 13 from Eismas. As a fresh first draft I really wanted to hear it, see how it felt in front of an audience, so I chose the opening, and then a more revelatory, emotional scene at the end of Act I. There were some really interesting reactions, particularly a couple of really quick reversals, a line that got a big laugh, followed by a very dark line which even got a little gasp! I love the idea of making an audience feel guilty for their reactions- it implicates them, and attaches them more to the story- makes it more relevant. I think that implication is key to effective political theatre … (though political theatre is a difficult thing to define itself, surely all theatre is political?). Anyway, despite that I had to dash off to get the train back Brum-ways, quite a few people came up to me to say it really intrigued them as I was leaving. Now I need to develop the piece to really work with that intrigue. Anyway, big thanks to Scary Little Girls for the opportunity, and my wonderful actors too, Dominic and Ona were played just right. There was a photographer at the event, so I shall see if I can get hold of a few shots.

I’ve also been reading about the women involved in the Easter Uprisings, a book by Margaret Ward, and one by Sinead McCoole. It was this commission which I contacted SLGP about originally. I was going to chat to Rebecca (the director of SLGP) about it on Sunday, but the event overran a little and I had to rush off to Euston. Really thrilling and heart-wrenching stuff. though, and some astounding characters too, think it would be a massive and fascinating undertaking.

My website is due for renovation soon – Lycos hosting has ceased business, so I’m in a right muddle trying to transfer my domain over to a new provider (Strato), who keep requesting the domain to no avail. I’ve phoned the 12p per minute Lycos help line many times over many days and it’s always just an engaged message so I’m a bit stuck. Eventually there will be some downtime (though not of the blog, obviously) and then I should be able to move everything to Strato. I may think about making the site a bit simpler. There’s too many links I think, too many buttons to all of the plays. I think I may collate into one page with links to download PDF extracts. I considered a ‘news’ section, do you think that would be a good thing to have? I mean the blog sort of suffices, a news section would just be a lot more succinct. I may also sort out Painting and Drawing to include some kind of commission info. so yes, a general shake up, the next time I have a couple of days. Should be fun!

Finally, I’m really enjoying the microblogging, it’s nice to just do on the go, and you honestly feel a part of something too – a feeling you don’t often get so much with other social networking options. @stephenfry is currently trapped in an elevator, and just tweeted a

of him and all his fellow trap-ees, and @Dave_Gorman recently wondered out loud after some new vegetarian recipes, and got very many in reply! The tweets around Obama’s inauguration were fascinating, and the #Londonsnowfail hilarious. I definitely recommend it, you can follow my tweets via my facebook status, to the left of this blog, or via twitter itself, where I am @hannahnicklin.

Right, time to go methinks- at work tomorrow, a short week or so until we begin previews for Foursight‘s new touring production, needless to say – all a bit crazy! So think I will try and actually get my 8 hours tonight. I should have some pictures for you soon, hopefully some of the Salon, and also a scan of the painting I’ve done for my dad’s birthday, which you can have a look at after it’s handed over!

Oh and the blog title ‘limbo’ is just a reference to that ongoing state of almost breaking through which I’m living in at the moment, not complaining, just part of trying to make a living in the arts. Onwards! (Hopefully).

Thanks for reading, if you have any good ideas for website renovation, let me know.

Once More Into The Breach

So here we go, another year of trying to make it as a professional writer, and as twenty-something too – I mean there’s the make a career in the arts during global economic meltdown and the expected cuts throughout the sector, but then there’s the whole find a city I want to live in, earn enough that I’m not living off £4 a week, manage to get out of the world of house shares, and work out a stable relationship/local friends… I know I only finished uni like half a year ago, but I want to get a start on at least some of this soon! I miss university today, undergrad uni that is. You spend uni making some really good friends, not realising that before long you’re going to be spread out at different ends of the country, none of you with enough money to travel to visit more than twice a year or so.

I definitely don’t want to stay in Wolverhampton, even if it just means moving to Birmingham for a bit. It’s rubbish here, there’s almost zero culture, and no-one my age, it’s either locals, or Wolves university students, who for the most part are locals, or other people who wanted to go to one of the worst (3rd from bottom last year) universities in the country. Yes, I know, intellectual snobbery, but it’s not that that bothers me, I’m sure just as many people are clever and talented (the arts part of Wolverhampton is reasonably well renowned for example) its more…lack of ambition. That sounds horrible, and is by no means exclusive to Wolverhampton, but more generally I think one of the most important things I identify with in others is ambition- making things happen instead of talking about them. Trying and ignoring the fear of failure. I can’t speak with real authority on Wolves students, but I’ve yet to meet one who had much passionate to say for themselves (there are, of course, exceptions to this)… Though that might not be these people in particular, there’s always the idea that this is a generational thing, kids at uni now could be 6-7 years younger than me, these are people who have grown up with the internet, during a massive period of economic and political stability, with the worst things to happen far away, or in the form of middle class anxiety… Massive, sweeping generalisations I know, not fair, but I still can’t help feel a mix of nihilistic apathy, people-as-consumer-entities, middle class security vibe emanate from much of these kids at university today. Might as well get the pipe and slippers ready! That paired with how much you really change after you leave university leaves me just as unable to speak to them as them to me… this reflects badly on me, I know, but it doesn’t half leave you feeling isolated in a town with few people your own age to talk to.

So, how to remedy this? Fair enough it’s rubbish, but I’m the only one who can change this, so let’s look at how. 1) I need more money, well, I’m working on that. I will go into it further on, but I am beginning to get places with a couple of creative routes, which is excellent, and I am learning to rein in my spending a little, food budgets etc. I’ve not bought a bottle of wine for a long time, or spend more than £1.50 on a block of cheese. Morale is accordingly low, but I can do things like pay my bills, so that’s ok. Problem number 2) I don’t like where I live, well, I have started applying for jobs elsewhere, Leicester, Leeds, London, Manchester, places I have friends, and where stuff if going on. I don’t expect to get a job for a few months as I am specifically applying for theatre jobs, ideally literary ones, so it’s quite tough competition, ideally I should be moving around summertime, that way I’ve not screwed with Foursight, and I can try and save some money to make the move smoother. And hopefully this move, will either be to a bedsit (I don’t care if it’s a box, as long as it’s my box, and there’s no arguements about whose turn it is to take out the rubbish), or a two person shared flat – preferably with a friend, but just to make it fewer than 6 in a house would be nice! and that means that 3) I would then be in a more cultural, happening city, and meeting more people, making friends, finding a local feminist movement, (Manchester and London are good for that) going to see some theatre, etc etc.

So there you go. That’s the plan, I’ve set my mind to it now, so watch this space…

And for career plans – there’s not a great deal you can plan, for writing, you can just keep working hard writing and submitting and hope that you fit into someone else’s plan. Having said that, I do have some promising things on the radar this year and had an excellent meeting with a production company last week, so things are looking OK. Scary Little Girls Productions are a really cool multi-artform theatre company who do mixed up Riot Grrl cabaret, electro and jazz recordings, straight up theatre productions, site specific work, ghost stories, comedy and poetry. They’re a really exciting female-led matrifocal company, at the forefront of this generation’s feminist performance. As mentioned in a previous post I originally wrote to them about their Medals of Lead commission – a piece they want to develop on the women who played a massive part in the 1916 uprising in Ireland, and in the Irish Nationailst/Socialist movement and yet have been scandalously left out of much of the official history. I met with Kate Hughes the Literary Associate of SLGP non Thursday, and she was absolutely lovely, they’re really interested in my work, content and style, I have a reading in a new writing ‘Salon’ that they’re running in London on the 1st of Feb, where I’ll also get a chance to talk to the director of the company (Rebecca Morden) about the Irish project (it’s a huge 2 year research led historical epic, so it’s really important that I’m right for her, and she right for me) which is excellent stuff, and the hint of perhaps a first professional production. And then finally, I’m also contributing the main art work for an album cover. I’ve been comissioned to paint Kate’s picture for a jazz album she’s working on. Kate and Rebecca saw my artwork on my website (which I had hitherto thought was a bit of a vanity corner) which has led to this comission! Exciting stuff, my first professional piece of art, which I should be working on in the first week of February.

In other writing news, I finished the first draft of Eismas, and sent it off to the Court. I didn’t like doing that, weird to send off a first draft, but hey ho-it’s at the point I really need some distance/outside work on it right now, so hopefully the Court will see that, and just maybe invite me back to do more work… fingers crossed. Also, Foursight might have a bit of work for me as varbatim scriptor on their current devised piece, it might be a bit of extra cash if they want me out of my normal 3 days a week, and it’s also an excellent experience/thing for the CV.

I’m also really enjoyng the microblogging thing, really interesting people you can follow, and I like that I can do it easily on the move. Do give it a go if you’ve not before, there’s lots of good phone apps for it, and you can sync it with your facebook status and lots of other fun things. You can follow me here.

So yes, all in all, there’s a lot on the horizon this year, it’s my first full year as a real person, and I really need to start making the most of things, not hesitating, and just going for what I want.

Here goes!