Hanging @ The Tron

Roger Casement was 'on the right side of history'. As a revolutionary for Irish independence, and a homosexual who, in Peter Arnott's play, refuses to apologise for his orientation, he becomes more a victim of early twentieth century attitudes than the traitor he is called by the British state. The double 'crimes' he committed, a century later, would not be prosecuted today. The incriminating diary of his sexual activity, used by British Intelligence to discredit him, would probably be a best seller.

Arnott is too subtle a writer, however, to make a simple, ironic tragedy about a man out of time. Using a basic structure - two men are locked in verbal battle - his script teases out the complexity of political action, questions of honour and the thin line between idealism and violence.

Given Casement's rehabilitation after his death (he counts among the martyrs who died for an independent Ireland), his characterisation is strikingly ambiguous. His initial honesty and display of moral integrity - refusing to lie or implicate others who may yet be innocent - gives way to duplicity in the second half. Captain Hall, representing the British state, gives reasonable justifications for Casement's arrest, spending the first hour attempting to offer the prisoner escape routes from the gallows. Hall turns vicious after he realises that Casement was involved in the organisation of the Easter Sunday uprising, and reading his explicit diary. The blend of sexual paranoia and disappointment at Casement drives Hall to violence, finally assuming the mantle of colonial oppressor.

Arnott's script is less interested in the hallowed hero and imperial

stereotypes than the complexity of his protagonist's life. Casement's work in Africa (which he regards as a financial deal with the oppressive empire) made him a dashing Victorian hero, the inspiration for Conrad's Heart of Darkness and a dream-like interlude suggests that his experiences on the continent informed his attitude towards the British Empire. Benny Young captures an edgy, nervous energy, as Casement alternates between to desire to act the gentleman and protect his fellow activists. At one moment he is apologising for inconveniencing Hall: the next, he is describing his integrity in refusing to accept money from the German state. While his execution is tragic - and as a coda taen from George Bernard Shaw implies - unnecessary, Young's performance reveals a man ready to take responsibility, and pride, in his actions.

Stephen Clyde, as Hall and a few other characters - including a brutal Irish policeman - is a foil to Young's central role, but is given a presence and intelligence by the script. His initial concern and respect for Hall may disappear in a homophobic disgust, but his sadness at the brutality caused in response to Casement's conspiracy offers a picture of a colonial warden driven by duty rather than sadism. The power is clearly tilted towards him - he regards the Irish revolutionaries as 'children' and their defeat as a necessary punishment - yet he attempts to be just, and identifies the value of Empire within its belief in justice.

The possible relationship to Scotland's own independence is unspoken - and, despite the programme notes, tangential. It's clear that the stakes were higher for Ireland in 1916 (the activists ending up executed then). Although Casement is given dignity, and drawn as both a sexual and political revolutionary, the script is far too nuanced to leave a clear moral, but rather invites continued discussion on the morality of Casement's actions.

Hanging Dramaturgy: Peter Arnott @ The Tron

What was the inspiration for this performance?
I've been writing plays now for more than thirty years and I've been wanting to write a play about Casement for all that time. Ever since I first came across his story, the idea of the execution in 1916 of an Irish Nationalist Protestant Gay British Civil Servant Hero of the struggle for human rights in Africa well before such a thing had anything like a name...has had a certain appeal. 

This year being the centenary of that execution, and of the Easter

Rising, it became a time limited kind of a thing...particularly when I realised that no one else seemed to be doing it...which I find frankly astonishing. It's a key story for our times, I think, in more ways than can be comfortably fitted into 90 minutes...Just start with the idea of the break-up of Britain...throw in individual as well as national self-determination...plus the fight to expose European perfidy and hypocrisy in the Congo...and take it from there.

How did you become interested in writing for performance in the first place - does it hold any particular qualities that other media don't have?I acted before I wrote plays. Writing plays is still a second cousin of performing in them, only you get to play everyone in the privacy of your own home – though my wife tells me I have the distressing habit of going over dialogue while walking down the street to the alarm of innocent members of the public. I'm an actor with a pencil and without the guts to be an actor.

Was your process typical of the way that you write a script?
Yes and no, in that there is nothing ever entirely typical because of the specificity of the demands on the piece each time. A play text is not a play...the play is something that happens only in performance and only in the minds of the individual spectator (each of whom sees a slightly different play, naturally) so the job is to provoke the story telling in the audience rather than to tell the story. On the other hand, yes, it wasn't unusual in that I was responding to the fact that this was going to be a two hander at the Tron scheduled for May 2016...I mean in terms of craft...

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
The action of the play is basically an interrogation. So those who know about Casement will have one experience, and those who don't know about him will have another...Will he hang or not? Is a Socratic question, a political question, a moral question...and a very personal one? Even if you know what happened...

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?Now you're asking! The title comes from an article written by George Bernard Shaw in the Manchester Guardian in 1916. And the play is unfashionably Shavian...it's an argument about Britain, loyalty, Ireland, war, love...between two people who speak in whole sentences. It's historical on a couple of levels. But I think it unfolds nicely...and with actors of the calibre of Stevie Clyde (who does menace better than any other actor in Scotland, I think) and the intelligence and charm of Benny Young as Casement...I think the audience will find themselves in the room with these guys...which will hopefully be an interesting and slightly terrifying experience...

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
I see myself as reinventing what I do every time I do it...I'm not sure I could stand it any other way.

We Are Poets, Why Do You Stand There in the Rain?

Inky Fingers are first up in this week's trawl of the inbox. We Are Poets is a film about six Leeds teenagers as they prepare for the world’s most prestigious poetry slam – Brave New Voices, and Inky Fingers are putting it on next week. 

At the end of the evening, they are having one of their usual open mic sessions. Since the film has been called a moving insight into freedom of expression, the North of England and the slam poetry scene, it's expected that the open mic might have a touch more heat...

While I can't agree with Screen International's comment that the film "should be mandatory viewing" (critics really seem to be mistaking themselves for the school dinner lady these days, telling everyone to eat up their greens), it has won a few awards so far:

Winner Youth Jury Award, Sheffield Doc Fest 2011

Winner Best Documentary Award, Darklight Festival Dublin 2011
Winner Goethe Film Prize, Berlin Zebra Film Festival 2012
Winner Audience Award, Univerciné Film Festival 2012
Official selection, Guadalajara International Film Festival 2012
Official selection, Bradford International Film Festival 2012
Official selection, New Zealand Doc Edge Film Festival 2012
Gala Presentation, Leeds Young People’s Film Festival 2012
Official selection, Sottodiciotto Film Festival 2012

The screening will be followed by a wildcard Open Mic, running 9.30pm – 11.30pm! Come along, add your name to the hat before or after the film, take your chances for 5 mins on the Inky Fingers stage!

Why Do You Stand There in the Rain? is my second find. Peter Arnott is one of Scotland's finest writers - the recently revived White Rose  is a storming critique of gender and collectivist politcs - and this show was commissioned for the 2012 Fringe. And although the company, Pepperdine University, are from the USA, they have made it back to the UK.

Apparently, their campus is in Malibu. They must be serious about the play of they are coming here from there.

Fair enough: Arnott takes up the story of the  Bonus Army March of 1932 on Washington DC: a kind of prototype occupy movement, in so far as it represented a spontaneous uprising of the dispossessed. The press release explains:

20,000 ragged and desperate First World War veterans and their families from all over the U.S. set up ‘Hoovervilles’ around the nation’s capital, to lobby Congress for the early release of a promised compensation package for services in the First World War. Congress voted no and Hoover called upon MacArthur and Patton to drive the veterans out of the capital. Armed with bullets and tear gas, 1,000 infantry and cavalrymen pushed the veterans out of Washington DC burning everything they owned.

I am inclined positively towards political theatre that looks to the past. First of all, it's a reminder that the state has been messing about with its citizens for quite a while - and Arnott is especially skilled at capturing the way that the Big Issue impacts on the personal. It has the added bonus of not being an attempt at explaining recent events before the dust has really settled: no co-opting of last week's news for this week's cause. 

And it has got tunes from Woody Guthrie, Bessie Smith and Leadbelly. 

TOUR SCHEDULE

Friday, 31 May Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Saturday, 1 June Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Monday, 3 June Òran Mór, Glasgow
Tuesday, 4 June Òran Mór, Glasgow
Thursday, 6 June Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock
Saturday, 8 June Aros, Portree, Skye
Sunday, 9 June SEALL at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye
Monday, 10 June Lochan at Dornie Hall, Dornie
Tuesday, 11 June Eden Court, Inverness
Friday, 14 June Mull Theatre, Tobermory

White Rose by Peter Arnott

Last time out, Firebrand toured Iron: a claustrophobic tale of parenting and criminality, it was give a sparse, effective rendering that emphasises the moral complexities of Rona Munro's script. Keeping with the theme of great, contemporary Scottish authors, Firebrand are following up with White Rose by Peter Arnott.


Although White Rose was a hit in its debut at the 1985 Edinburgh Festival, this is the first revival of the tale of female Russian World War II fighter ace Lily Litvak, the so-called ‘White Rose of Stalingrad’. Not only was she part of the USSR's heroic female pilot corps (thirty Citations of Hero of the Soviet Union went to women pilots, and three regiments of the Air Force were made up entirely of women), Litvak became a legend in her own right.

Firebrand’s director Richard Baron follows the tale of war in the sky and in the bedroom: White Rose offers an insight into the spirit of the warrior and the pull of patriotism. He also responded to my questions...

First of all, can I ask you a little about the company: you've been pretty busy lately, and are located outside of the usual locations. How did Firebrand come together, and how important is your "home" venue to the company's development?
Firebrand came together through a series of happy accidents: the actors Janet Coulson, Ellie Zeegen and I originally met in London but all ended up living in close proximity in the Scottish Borders. We found it an area rich in history and full of writers, artists and musicians but with little theatre going on. Having got some local businesses to sponsor us, we tested the water with a couple of productions at the 80 seat Wynd Theatre in Melrose and having been told we'd fill one night if we were lucky, managed to sell-out five performances each of David Mamet's Oleanna and David Greig's Being Norwegian.


This response convinced us that there was a Borders audience enthusiatic to see the sort of challenging plays we were excited by and we also saw that the work itself benefited from being produced in intimate theatre spaces. Having achieved Creative Scotland funding we now rehearse and open our shows in the 110 seat Tower Mill theatre, at the impressive Heart of Hawick arts complex, before touring across the breadth of southern Scotland and exporting our work to the Tron in Glasgow and Traverse in Edinburgh.


It was fantastic to be able to produce a weighty, rarely seen show like Iron in our home territory (sponsored by the new Scottish Borders Brewery and with a set built by local craftsmen), to attract an actor of the calibre of Blythe Duff to come and rehearse with us in Hawick and then to sell-out every performance both to our developing audience in the Borders and in the big city.


2. You've also gone for two pretty impressive scripts in the past two years. does this attention to classic scripts reflect a policy of the company?

Firebrand's simple guiding principle has been to seek-out plays that we think might work to advantage in an intimate space and to produce them to the highest possible standard: hence Oleanna, set in an office; Being Norwegian, a bed-sit; Iron, a claustrophobic prison. Other defining features are that they are all superbly written and intensely theatrical; they stir the mind and the emotions and provide great acting roles, particularly for women. 

We are also very interested in Scottish plays that have been unfairly neglected or are overdue a revival. As a director, for the most part I've worked with large casts in large spaces, from the Edinburgh Lyceum to Nottingham Playhouse, and with Firebrand it's been fascinating to reduce the palette a bit and concentrate in finer detail on the storytelling: the script and the actor and the relationship with a new and inquisitive audience, some of whom are new to theatre full stop. White Rose pushes all these buttons: it's beautifully written, takes on the epic battle of Stalingrad with a cast of three, has terrific acting roles (the original cast featured Tilda Swinton and Ken Stott), is seen from a female perspective and hasn't been revived since its debut in 1985.

When you stage something like White Rose, how far do you have contact with the author, Peter Arnott? Is he involved at all?

In researching White Rose I eventually hunted down two different typed versions of the script in Glasgow University's Scottish Theatre Archive and on contacting Peter learnt that despite its critical acclaim in 1985, the play had never been published. Peter has now sent me a revised version of what was his first play and has said: "I'm looking forward immensely to what an audience today makes of not just the conflict the play is about, but the atmosphere of conflict and optimism in which it was written. Can't wait."



This play hasn't been staged for a while... but is very well respected. How did you approach the interpretation of White Rose, and what inspired its selection?

I was intrigued by the fact that the play had had such a great reception in 1985, "Dazzlingly clever...unbearably moving" to quote The Guardian, had made Tilda Swinton's name and had been part of the most successful Edinburgh Festival season the Traverse had ever had and yet still had not been revived for 27 years!


I also really liked the idea that it was a Scottish play about Russian history (it tells the story of legendary World War 2 female fighter pilot Lily Litvak); bold and ambitious in its European style and outlook, taking on big themes about modern warfare and sexual politics but relating them to the intimate personal relationships of its three main characters: the brilliant, rebellious Lily, her friend and female mechanic Ina and her Squadron Commander and lover, Alexei.


I wanted to see if in our production we could achieve this marriage of the epic and the personal. I am very optimistic that with our cast of Alison O'Donnell, Lesley Harcourt and Robert Jack, and with the help of the set designer Edward Lipscomb and the theatre filmmaker Tim Reid, we have the right ingredients.


The themes in the play are timeless, but it is also located in a specific period of history. Does it have much to say to a contemporary audience, and how does your interpretation enhance this?

The play was written in the wake of the Falklands War, at the height of Thatcherism, the Greenham Common protests and the miner's strike and before the Berlin Wall was pulled down. What is fascinating is that its issues will now be seen through a different political and historical filter but I believe that its passion and commitment are visceral and its analysis of the politics of modern warfare and the battle of the sexes, seen from a female point of view, still has the power to engage and enrage.




Listings Information

Tower Mill, Heart of Hawick, Thursday 21 – Saturday 23 February 2013 7.30pm

Tickets: (preview) Thursday 21 February £10

Friday 22 & Saturday 23 February £12

Box Office: 01450 360688 www.heartofhawick.co.uk




Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tuesday 26 February -Saturday 2 March 7.45pm
Tickets: Tuesday - Thursday £12/£7

Friday & Saturday £15/£12

Box Office: 0141 552 4267 www.tron.co.uk




Lochside Theatre, Castle Douglas, Sunday 3 March 7.30pm Tickets: £10/£8

Box Office: 01556 504506 www.lochsidetheatre.co.uk




Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Wednesday 6 - Thursday 7 March 7.30pm

Tickets: £11.50 (£9.50) £6.50 under 18s

Box Office: 0131 665 2240 www.bruntontheatre.co.uk




Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, Friday 8 March 7.30pm

Tickets: £14, Friends of the Eastgate/Registered Disability/Carer £12, U16s £5

Box Office: 01721 725777 www.eastgatearts.com




The Wynd, Melrose, Sunday 10 - Tuesday 12 March 7.30pm

Tickets: £12

Box Office: 01750 725480 www.borderevents.com




Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wednesday 13 - Saturday 16 March 8.00pm
Matinee: Saturday 17 November 2.00pm

Tickets: £15/£11.50/£6

Box Office: 0131 228 1404 www.traverse.co.uk