Vesalius: rehearsals, week two
Energy and excitement as we launch into production weekend, with the Various People team at full stretch – whether in the construction of an auditorium for the space at RiAus, the finalisation of backing tracks (I can hear man Chew tapping away furiously at the keyboard in his basement cave), Choir rehearsals, Lighting/Technical plot, or the rounding up of the props and furnishings from medical institutions from around the City.
(Further details of the show or how to book can be found at the RiAus site.)
In the meantime, here are a few glimpses at the past week’s activities;
…Von Hagens, anonymous body donor & Albinus for lunch. Performer/singer Philip Griffin spends his breaktime genning up on the specifics of human dissection. Iron-clad stomachs a prerequisite for this job.
The early dissectors procured their working materials either from the gibbet or out of unsecured graves. Fearing a controversy and in respect to our public funders, we decided to commission sculptor Diwani Oak to create ‘Jack’ instead. After each visceration, Jack has to be ‘stitched back up’ for a rehearsal or performance.
Resurrection men Chew and Rose after a radio interview on South Australia’s EBC (Ethnic Broadcasting Co.), Adelaide. A calm before the storm?
Watch this space for further updates on progress.
GR
Filed under: The Resurrectionists, theatre | 3 Comments
Tags: cheryl pickering, diwani oak, RiAus, richard chew, various people, vesalius
Vesalius: an incomplete jigsaw
We’re piecing together Vesalius – a Requiem, from fragments – scratchy video excerpts, musical manuscript, leftover props, pamphlets and notebooks; photos taken by Martin in the police mortuary in Southwark, typed-out texts from Alan, scribbled texts from me…
…and memories. Memories which often contradict or fail. There was no single clean documentation of a performance, no complete script. Over the course of the 24 or so previous performances of this work – in Birmingham, London and Bologna – the piece changed. Scripts were edited and rewritten; props were tested, broken, remade or abandoned.
What seems strange, coming back to it now, is that despite its elusive quality the show inspires an almost blind faith in it for Richard and myself – which isn’t always helpful. Cheryl is directing, and it’s been a struggle to relinquish our ideas from the past, even when they don’t stand up to much rational scrutiny. It’s been a process of reinvestigating the validity of the ideas.
Week One of rehearsals was spent re-finding, researching and embedding the autopsy-related content. Visits to the South Australia Police Dept. Forensic Science Section (morgue) and the Flinders Medical Centre (anatomy / dissection dept.) together with bed-time viewings of Von Hagens Pathology Lessons. To be given the opportunity to see with your own eyes the viscera of another human being feels an enormous privilege, because the body is without question an astonishing machine – full of colour, form and wonder. Ethical debates will continue to rage as to whether this territory should stay the privilege of the licensed few – the death professionals; morticians, pathologists, funeral directors, etc. – but I remain convinced that our contemporary sensibilities deny us a community with death. Seeing a dead person may not yield all the mysteries of the universe, but I believe it a life education in itself and after visiting Flinders Med Centre I have the greatest respect for those who have chosen to bequeath their mortal remains for the advancement of medical knowledge. Like our guide-dissector Corey, I’m not yet ready to make that commitment myself, but the experience certainly reminded me to update the organ donor card.
With some powerful mental images to take away for the weekend, the show’s specially-assembled 16-strong choir came together for the first time on saturday, working their way coolly through Rick’s score. Here’s a tiny fragment from the Pie Jesu – which for a first rehearsal holds up pretty well, I think.
Filed under: The Resurrectionists, theatre | Leave a Comment
Tags: autopsy, requiem, vesalius
the world turned upside down
One of the more lasting gifts of knowledge acquired from the Scouts was learning how to turn your watch into a compass. This pearl has earned praise or bewilderment on a number of occasions – but, as someone who invariably takes ‘the path less trodden’ it has also helped me navigate my way out of a few sticky corners. This is how it works: Holding your wrist flat and rotate your watch until the hour hand is pointing directly towards the sun. then split the difference between the hour hand and the 12 (this is for GMT, use the 1 for BST daylight saving) and this marker on the watch face indicates due South. A line directly through the centre and beyond leads to North. Easy peasy.
If there’s no sun (or clouds) at night, locate the Pole Star (North) with this other Boy’s Own favourite:
Find The Plough and take a straight line upwards through the front two stars of the ‘pan’ end (as opposed to the tail end) and upwards. Now find Cassopeia (the sideways ‘W’) and extend a straight line directly, as if upwards from the ‘W’. At the point where the imagined lines from The Plough and Cassopeia meet….you will find the Pole Star (not the brightest in the sky)…and therefore North.
Granted, I have no daily need for these tricks, but I rely on intuition for a sense of direction and the idea of Satnav I find disconcerting. Anyway, here in Adelaide, my old World wisdom is useless. The desert or bush would’ve consumed me already. The sun passes across the sky in completely the wrong direction, because it’s in the North….weird. At night a stunningly impressive starry sky is utterly unrecognisable. The new Moon is still new, but on the wrong side. I would never have known, but it just looks ….odd.
It’s the middle of May and late Autumn. Day is night and night is day – but to make the time conversions even more difficult, Adelaide is 9 and a half hours ahead of Blighty. I wake up in the middle of the night and it’s too hard to do the maths.
An unfamiliar dawn chorus heralds the day, as does a scorpion in the bathtub.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Tags: compass, southern sky, sun
chicken and the egg
Which came first?
Big questions…but straightforward answers from 3 year olds at Gracelands Nursery, where I’ve been working on an animation project through Stan’s Cafe/Brightspace with willow artist Charlie Lupton.
Filed under: Stan's Cafe | 2 Comments
aldgate east
Some places remain undeniable hotspots for the culturati, and a visit to E1. is a rare treat, bringing back great memories of events and encounters. It was after a visit to The Whitechapel Gallery in the spring of 1991 that James and I first conjured the idea or forming a new theatre company. The crucial epiphany took place in Stan’s Cafe, of Greatorex St., now sadly gone – a casualty perhaps of the trendification of the Brick Lane area. Last week I met Jill Dowse at The Whitechapel to speculate on a future collaboration. We went for the obligatory Brick Lane curry (mine not good; a lesson in not being lured in by doorstep waiters) and thence walked to the People Show space in Bethnal Green, where Foursight co-performer Emilia and her company Strike a Chord were presenting a work-in-progress of their research into the West African refugee experience. The piece, entitled Flight of Hope, is at an early stage of development and I hope will go further. It is an experiment in using a musical vocabulary to narrativise the asylum process. For me though, the illustrative nature of the score doesn’t yet work and it has raised issues for me about how delicate the relationship between music and action is. Eg. Use and abuse of the ‘melodramatic’ (prescribing or counterpointing emotion through the use of music), creating dynamic interplay between sound and action.
I have these questions very much to mind as I stave off my jetlag (wide-eyed, early morning) in an altogether different Aldgate: I’m in a hilly suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, listening to an unfamiliar, yet spectacular dawn chorus. Here to remake Vesalius – and with Cheryl Pickering at the helm and Rick Chew reviving his Requiem score for 18 voices, the prospect is tantalizing. Last night I met the Board of their newly incorporated company, Various People Inc., together with the production team of Vesalius. An immense amount of hard work has gone into getting this far and every moment of the next 3 weeks, jetlag permitting, will be relished.
Filed under: The Resurrectionists, theatre | Leave a Comment
hovis
The week went ….Brighton > Birmingham > London > Birmingham > London > Birmingham > Dorset. A band rehearsal in Digbeth, a nursery school project in Sparkbrook, an Installation in Wandsworth, a board meeting in Aldwich – a deep and varied sandwich filling between 2 slices of fun.
This Blog is one year old today. A brief moment for reflection – (cue Dvorak’s New World Symphony).
I find myself climbing Gold Hill in Shaftesbury,(setting for that most famous of Hovis ads) getting sentimental for 12 months of stuff committed to the etherscape, and importantly all the stuff that didn’t. Time now, perhaps, to consider what it has all been about? And what might happen with it next.
Thanks for visiting it / stumbling across it.
Filed under: Rose Bunch | 3 Comments
images of the ziggurat
The Digbeth Ziggurat: a performance lecture with 72 housebricks.
…where the canal crosses the dregs of the river, at the heart of the old town, there is a steep bank of industrial detritus resembling the wall of some ancient iron-age fort. I stumble through a break in the dilapidated fencing, clamber up to the top… and there, behold a hallowed space – a seeming graveyard of stacked, abandoned skips.
…anticipating the chimes at midnight a local celebrity dj galvanizes the crowded square with a frenzied call to arms -“scream if you think this city is the best city in the world”, he says. I want to scream… but maybe not for the right reasons.
…part recession-busting Rockefeller Tower, part Roman Pantheon, part Sagrada Familia. The Ziggurat will be a monument to those whose lives have been shaped from this well-spring plot, with earthworks as foundation to a mighty structure that will nuzzle the clouds. It is a place of rest and contemplation, a continuously growing platform from which the magnificence of the city can be viewed.
…built by the people of this city, for the people of this city, visited upon by the people of this city and ultimately containing the mortal remains of the people of this city. Your ashes – compacted, plastinated into a brick, which will face its glittering exterior.
…shall I have the courage to ask my dad about his death? Discuss what circumstances he’d like to depart this life? Ask him where his remains might be scattered? Shall I tell him of the mighty Ziggurat, built in his honour? Shall I gift for him the first brick in my mausoleum of the People?
Boy: Dad? What is a ziggurat?
Man: Well, it’s…. at the moment, it’s just an idea.
Boy: Can I help you build it?
Man: (pause) Yes. You can.
Boy: And dad? It’s late… Can we go home now?
Man: Yes, Archie. We can. (they leave)
The Digbeth Ziggurat (a work-in-progress) was presented at Pilotnight 19, AEHarris Factory, Birmingham, 1st April 2010. It was curated by Paul Warwick (Chinaplate) and co-pilots Kindle Theatre. Photos by Alicja Rogalska
Filed under: theatre | 2 Comments
The time for secrets is over.
Today we split the heart sac.
In this small room we unpack the hidden things, set free the stopped voices, the sins kept silent, the shut breath.
Here, at the terminus, nothing matters.
(words by Alan Hay, photo by Martin Crook)
Vesalius – a Requiem was the first music-theatre piece created under the moniker of The Resurrectionists, a company formed around the partnership of Richard Chew and myself. It previewed in the Hexagon Theatre, mac, in March 1996 but was designed for the extraordinary dynamic of The Old Operating Theatre Museum, Southwark where it ran for 2 weeks in May/June of that year. Vesalius was the recipient of a coveted Barclays New Stages Award and was well received.
A version of the piece travelled (courtesy of The British Council) to Teatri di Vita, Bologna in January 1998, and despite intermittant suggestions of a revival, the cadaver has remained silent ever since. …Until now, that is. Richard, Cheryl Pickering and their family emigrated to her native Adelaide several years ago and thanks to their labours Vesalius – a Requiem will be presented by their new company Various People Inc. at the Royal Institute of Australia, in Adelaide.
Vesalius will be performing at RiAus between the 3rd and 6th June 2010. there will be a preview performance on the 2nd June. (link to RiAus site...)
In a mixture of excitement and trepidation, Alan and I agree that revisiting the show is comparable to a former lover emerging from the distant past. Vesalius had a very powerful effect on those who were involved and whether the show can stand the test of time, remains to be seen. Reaquainting yourself with an old lover is not always a good idea, even if the flame still burns strong. But the joy will be discovering how the show’s themes and resonances have shifted for a generation who have been fed nightly doses of CSI and for whom the ‘Body in Performance’ has a more established currency.
Filed under: The Resurrectionists, theatre | Leave a Comment
Tags: RiAus, the resurrectionists, various people, vesalius
Toys and the Town Hall
After much speculation, a date for the diaries; The Modified Toy Orchestra will revisit Birmingham Town Hall on Wednesday 8th September 2010. This will be the official launch opportunity for the second album, Plastic Planet *. More UK gigs will follow throughout the Autumn at venues yet to be confirmed.
Watching the mto triumph at the Town Hall 3 years ago (as part of the venue re-opening celebrations) was a real highlight for me – and an introduction to much of the material which will be released on Plastic Planet *. Now an opportunity for me to join the band in gracing a stage previously trod by Elgar, Dickens, Beatles and Stones.
My dad chose to spend his apprenticeship wage on a Town Hall ticket for Muddy Waters rather than Buddy Holly, and he was also present at the now infamous “GO HOME DIRTY BOPPER!” gig in the late 50’s – when Humphrey Lyttleton’s substituted a sax in place of clarinet, whipping the Trad mob into a banner-wielding rage. The Town Hall has a history of public protest: Dylan’s electro make-over might’ve got a similar pasting from the crowd, though the Band’s well-documented Manchester gig is best remembered.
With any luck, there’ll be more fuss and holler when Barbie’s bottom-end starts rattling the stucco cornicing.
More when details become available…
(* Up until now I’ve been incorrectly calling the new album Earth One, which is in-fact the name of the limited-edition demo, released for last year’s visit to Hong Kong. )
Filed under: modified toy orchestra | Leave a Comment
old skool
A visit to Wren’s Nest (a limestone outcrop just west of Dudley Town) feels like a step back in time. The last time I was here was 30 years ago, fossil-digging. From that day I’m still niggled by the fact that I failed to complete my logbook for a Scout Geologist’s badge. I need closure.
As if to confirm the time-slippage, I notice white dog-poo on a woodland track – stuff thought to have vanished long ago on the heels of Lord Lucan’s brogues.
Football-crazy BoyThings1 & 2 (inspired after paying homage to Black Country Legends Billy Wright and Duncan Edwards) head down to Dudley’s Priory for some serious kick-about. In an astonishing compound-ricochet challenge worthy of many a slow-mo replay, Boy2 takes the ball clean on the mush, knocking out his wobbly tooth. There’s bloody carnage in the goal-mouth. It’s the loss of his first front teeth and a wave of sentimental old skool pride hits me. I begin to wonder if Kenny Burns would’ve forsaken his fearsome toothless-look by spending a Premiership paypacket on for a modern-day, dent-perfect Lampard or Beckham smile?
My comparative value systems take a terrible blow that night, however, when I realise the ToothFairy has run out of coinage and must trade a choke-inducing tenner for the match-winning incisor!
Filed under: Rose Bunch | Leave a Comment
Tags: white dog poo, wren's nest
GraemeRose Blog 
