Is Poetry as vital to life as food? Blog 121

I believe so....... controversial maybe, and maybe not a question we spend much time thinking about. Plainly you can't eat the complete works of TS Elliot or Sylvia Plath and it won't do your digestion much good if you try. But I'm serious when I ask this question. I guess for me food is indeed the poetry of the body and poetry the food of the soul. 

Why am I asking this question today? Well it has drawn my attention through a curious trend I have noticed for as long as Facebook has been around. That is - the posting by people every day of some little quote or 'words of wisdom' on their status page. These words most often get the most 'likes' from others and are shared with friends and family, so often the very same ones come tumbling onto my page on the same day.They simply connect with us in some mysterious way. There are no explanations usually as to why that particular poem or quote has spoken to the sender, but you can bet your life its because it resonates with something touching them right then. Some of them are pretentious twaddle of course, thin reproductions of some earlier fine words regurgitated through a self-help manual or management training course. And you can spot them easily, even if underneath the jargon they do in fact carry a truth. 


In spite of ourselves no marking-rite-of-passage is worth its salt without good food and poetry.They sustain us mind and body both. For weddings, funerals, christenings and birthdays we reach for a book of poetry or google 'quotes' to find words to travel us through the landscape of that moment. You don't even have to have ever read a book to find your way to a catalogue of suitably appropriate poems and quotes from writers. Indeed there are many sites on the internet that can give you instantaneous access to words that say what you want to, and which you think do it more eloquently than you can. There is a site I just googled called Poems for Every Occasion 

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/200. Its great - does the work for us, and has as many categories to choose from as an online shop - fit for every conceivable occasion. And lots of them are wonderful of course.

My guess is that we do this because we are all too often shy of our own words, suspecting that we can only generate derivative drivel, and this lack of confidence in our own metaphors and images means we reach for the first book or website we can find, as if by definition those will contain greater meaning than our own. But that's a debate for another time. 

Poetry is a portal to the soul. Whether through Shakespeare or the Bible, Pam Eyres or ee Cummings, there is something for all of us. One such piece of writing that touches me and is a mantra that supports me through tough times is indeed the St James Bible's version of Corinthians 13, well known even amongst the most atheist of us as it is read frequently at weddings. 

Regardless of whether we have a faith or not - the words sing off the page with such resonance that they cannot but fail but to pierce the heart. 

 Corinthians 13

1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

⁴ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

⁵ Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

⁶ Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

⁷ Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

⁸ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

⁹ For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

¹⁰ But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

¹² For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

¹³ And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

That's it for today - have a good one - maybe share a cake and drink a coffee with a good friend, post a favourite quote, share a problem, ask a question, maybe stay up with an owl -  if you are a lark you might learn something from her -  but above all - enjoy! 

Sam Beckett for Arka maybe? Blog 120

Portrait by Reginald Gray, Paris, 1961.

Busy day yesterday! Delighted that we have got through to the next stage of my application for a big three year girls programme! So now onto the hardcore next steps! Convivial time with friends, technology and curious meetings.

Having been invited to think about directing a show and with a blank canvas for Arka I have been deliberating what I might do. I've been in discussions with two young actors, one about to graduate from theatre school here and one working extensively in theatre and tv in Poland. I have been revisiting Molly Bloom from James Joyce's Ulysses - and am looking at two versions for the Solo performance season. Joyce always implicates Samuel Beckett too - the most significant writers to grace the world stage in the last decades of the 20th century. I studied Beckett extensively when I was a student and I find my way back to him often - through his plays and his novels. I'm thinking about directing one of his plays for Arka. There is a certain quality to the work that Renata produces for her company, largely because she has brought together an ensemble of differently abled actors - and her casting is inspired so that the actor in all his glory and difference is revealed through the character he/she takes on. Her Macbeth is genius in this respect among others. 

Our own Graeae Theatre has been producing outstanding work in this arena for over two decades and I am looking forward to linking them and Chickenshed Theatre when Arka come over in the summer for their Edinburgh and Barking stint!

Waiting for Godot is obviously Beckett's most famous and most produced play - and its an excellent entry point for people who are unfamiliar with his dark, post modern existential work. For actors its a great vehicle, demanding less rather than more and by definition access to the bare rawness of a world without God or hope. For an actor used to donning a character on top of themselves, Godot demands a peeling back of personal narrative and an engagement with the darkness of human absurdity. 


Beckett was influenced hugely by Joyce but in his view lived the early years of his career in the shadow of the iconic writer. In 1945, Beckett returned to Dublin for a brief visit. During his stay, he had a revelation in his mother’s room: his entire future direction in literature appeared to him. He was consumed with a feeling that he would remain forever in the shadow of Joyce and certain to never beat him at his own game. His revelation prompted him to change direction and to acknowledge both his own stupidity and his interest in ignorance and impotence:

"I realized that Joyce had gone as far as one could in the direction of knowing more, [being] in control of one’s material. He was always adding to it; you only have to look at his proofs to see that. I realised that my own way was in impoverishment, in lack of knowledge and in taking away, in subtracting rather than in adding."

Knowlson argues that "Beckett was rejecting the Joycean principle that knowing
more was a way of creatively understanding the world and controlling it ... In future, his work would focus on poverty, failure, exile and loss – as he put it, on man as a 'non-knower' and as a 'non-can-er.' The revelation "has rightly been regarded as a pivotal moment in his entire career." Beckett fictionalised the experience in his play Krapp's Last Tape (1958). While listening to a tape he made earlier in his life, Krapp hears his younger self say "clear to me at last that the dark I have always struggled to keep under is in reality my most...", at which point Krapp fast-forwards the tape (before the audience can hear the complete revelation). Beckett later explained to Knowlson that the missing words on the tape are "precious ally".

Its magnificent. The existential darkness that from time to time we all battle to keep at bay and which is so often pathologised - call it depression, hopelessness, diffidence. This is indeed for Beckett the very source of his creative genius. In a much-quoted article, the critic vivian Mercier wrote that Beckett "has achieved a theoretical impossibility - a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice".

I am seriously inclined to have a go at Godot. It will be the most challenging thing for me to attempt and in Polish! But maybe that too will be of benefit because I will be keenly immersed in a language that I don't understand, so will be left to meander through the tones, colours and images of sound, metaphor and feeling. Mmm- more, much more to think about. I will be in touch with Arka through Maciej later this week. Should be interesting - and I am also interested in thinking about how this piece might work here in Barking - given the burgeoning Polish diaspora and their existential migration experiences.

Have a good day all. 

Larks, Owls and Hummingbirds: Which are you? Blog 119

Morning!

Its quiet and still this morning - just the sound of the birds by the river. It really doesn't matter what time I go to sleep at night - I am always awake by 6am at the latest. A friend was making me laugh yesterday about the relative pros and cons of being a lark or an owl! As a lifelong signed up member of the Lark Club I sometimes feel a bit like the kid who gets sent home early.

I quite like the idea of being an owl, but even as an 18-year old I couldn't do much later than midnight in a club!

To me Owls seem more sophisticated and mysterious than we larks and they come alive in the dark - meanwhile we hobble to get the last train home and collapse comatose in our beds before the witching hour, only to spring out of bed transformed a few hours later. Larks and owls who live together often make a good team, especially when children are young. The predispositions lend themselves to shift work, although there are hidden dangers in adhering to this pattern too faithfully! 

It would seem the whole Lark/Owl thing is simply a matter of different body clocks. I know that I am most productive in the day from 5am-11am, and can get through a tremendous amount of work in that six hours. Its quiet and undisturbed by emails or phone calls - and I usually line up my draft emails to hit the recipient's desks by 8.am at the earliest, otherwise people do react as if you are a little strange working at this hour. Truth is a nice siesta fits this rhythm too, although not always possible in the sturm and drang of fast paced working. Left to my own devices a spanish style siesta is often an activity of choice.

One in ten of us is an up-at-dawn, raring-to-go early bird, or lark. About two in ten are owls, who enjoy staying up long past midnight. The rest of us, those in the middle, whom we call hummingbirds, may be ready for action both early and late. Some hummingbirds are more larkish, and others, more owlish. Animal studies suggest that being a morning person or an evening person may be built into our genes, like having red hair or blue eyes. This may explain why those of us who are early-to-bed, early-to-rise types, or late-to-bed, late-to-rise types, find it so hard to change our behaviour.


What Type of Bird Are You?

If you like to linger over your coffee to read the morning paper, you're probably more of a lark. Owls often skip breakfast, and they're always rushing to get to work in the morning. If you do your washing or surf the Internet at midnight, you're probably an owl. If you occasionally get up at dawn to go fishing, and sometimes stay up long past your usual bedtime at parties, you're a happy hummingbird.
Some of us think of ourselves as night people, but human beings can't truly claim the night as home territory. We are programmed to function best in the daytime. We can't see in the dark. Even if we insist on flip-flopping our schedules to work at night, Mother Nature isn't fooled. Night is still the down time on the body clock. Morningness and eveningness are as far apart as humans get.

Cape Cod Morning - Edward Hopper

Artist Edward Hopper often portrayed these extremes. In Cape Cod Morning, a woman already dressed for the day gazes out her living room window at trees bathed in dawn light. In Nighthawks, a man and woman in evening clothes sip coffee in an all-night diner.

Nighthawks - Edward Hopper

Lark and owl traits influence many aspects of daily life, including when we feel most alert and when we sleep best. These traits determine when we most enjoy meals, exercise, sex, and other activities. They also affect when we choose to work, or would, if we could.

If you're a lark like me, you probably wouldn't enjoy a job in a late night bar. If you're an owl, you'd have to struggle to report the morning news. Lark/owl traits may play a bigger role in job choice than most of us suspect. Casualty doctors for example, spend more time working at night throughout their lives than doctors in other specialties. 

Most of us adapt pretty well to life's demands. Cartoonist Scott Adams started Dilbert while holding down a full-time job, penning it between 5 A.M. and 7 A.M. before going to work. That makes me feel less alone! Although I was thrilled when I found out that our Patron Jon Snow blogs at the same time as I do! 

"I'm quite tuned into my rhythms," Adams says. "I never try to do any creating past noon. And I only exercise in late afternoon. I do the comic strip from 
5am to 7am. Then I write for a few hours. I only ink the strip in the afternoons or evenings when my hand is steady. I can't ink in the morning.
"I created my second career," he claimed, "by 'discovering' the morning."
In 1999, Dilbert made its television debut. He wrote "My schedule is completely reversed now, because of working in Hollywood," he reported. "They're night owls. So I sleep until 5am and then work off and on until midnight most nights. But I still don't do creative work in mid-afternoon. I do my mindless stuff, like inking or scanning then."

Like Adams, most of us view our schedules as a compromise between what we have to do, and what we would like to do. Most people say they would like to sleep later, for example. Students who seldom go to bed before 2am. almost certainly will turn off the lights earlier after they graduate and enter the daytime workforce, and they will become even more larkish after they become parents. They might complain, but most will manage. By the time they are in their sixties and over, most will be comfortable going to sleep and getting up earlier than they did when younger. All of us might feel and function better, though, if we could synchronise more of our required activities with our natural rhythms throughout our lives.

Indeed, the recent rise of flexitime in the workplace, allowing workers to start and stop as much as two or three hours earlier or later, as they wish, is a positive step in this direction. One in five full-time British workers now has flexible hours.

A gene may govern Owlish and Larkish behaviour in human beings. Daniel Katzenberg of Stanford University and his colleagues assessed morningness/ eveningness traits in 410 randomly sampled adults with a questionnaire. They also drew blood samples from the respondents, and examined the makeup of a gene called Clock known to exert influence over biological rhythms. Comparing results from the two tests, they estimated that the owls lagged ten to forty-four minutes behind larks in their preferred times for various activities and for sleep, a significant difference. Moreover, a particular pattern consistently appeared in part of the Clock gene in owls, but not in larks. Genetic studies such as this may prove a two-edged sword. They potentially could help workers decide which jobs suit them best. But they also could be used to discriminate against workers whose genetic traits do not correspond to an employer's criteria. That would be unfortunate, because lark/owl tendencies do not rule most people's lives. High motivation for all but extreme larks and owls probably has a much bigger impact on job success.

Time Tips
Larks who want to live more like owls, and owls who want to live more like larks can take advantage of recent research on the biological clock to ease that task. These tips won't change your basic make up-that's not possible-but they can help you adapt more comfortably to situational demands.


If you are a lark:
Spend time outside in the afternoon or early evening. This tactic should help you stay up later, and may help you sleep later in the morning, too.
Increase evening activity. A walk or light stretching will promote alertness. Socialising is more energising than reading or watching TV.
Sleep with blinds or curtains closed.Darkness tells your brain it's night time, the right time for sleep.Leave a dim night light on in hallways or bathroom in case you have to get up at night.

If you are an owl:
Sleep with blinds or curtains open, and let daylight wake you up naturally. It's a gentle process and much easier to take than the annoying buzz of an alarm clock. Set the alarm anyway.Walk outside as soon as possible after waking up. Exposure to daylight in the morning can make you more alert earlier in the day. One sleep specialist tells his patients, "Take your dental floss and step outside."

Since owls often leave things to the last minute, it may be hard to get up in time to have breakfast outdoors or to take a twenty minute walk. Trick yourself by setting the clock a few minutes fast. Close your eyes when you do it, so you won't know if the clock is five minutes or fifteen minutes fast. When rushing in the morning, you'll have a small safety net, but not enough to start making allowances for it. If you can't go outside immediately, have your morning coffee by the sunniest window in your home, or use a lighting device that provides artificial light of daylight intensity.Get up at the same time every day, including weekends and holidays. This tactic will anchor your biological clock at the desired time. If you go to sleep late one night, don't sleep in the next morning. Compensate for missed sleep with a twenty-minute midafternoon nap unless you find naps leave you foggy. In that case, go to bed fifteen minutes earlier the next night.
Do as much as you can the night before. Select the next day's clothes, put cereal boxes on the breakfast table, prepare school lunches. A morning routine helps owls function smoothly without having to think about what they're doing.
Keep evenings quiet. Don't exercise, start new projects, or watch TV "for just a few minutes" late at night. Reading, listening to music, and similar activities are good preludes to sleep. Have a regular bedtime snack such as milk or fruit. This ritual also helps program your body for bed.Use dim lights at night in the bathroom to avoid giving yourself a middle-of-the-night wake up call the next night.

Tips for Couples and Families:
Civility is the key to getting along despite individual differences  (I refer you to my earlier blog on manners!) - nothing excuses rudeness at any hour or under any circumstances, but perhaps we can excuse evening people from sociability until they have had their coffee! ASs a matter of common courtesy everybody is required to say, 'Good morning,' and to pass the sugar when asked and to reply to comments and questions addressed to them.... Being excused from sociability means that they may reply only by making 'Umm' and 'Uh' noises with the mouth closed, and need not engage much more in conversation at this point!

Summing Up
If you are right-handed, you may be able to learn to use your left hand. A Type A personality may learn to relax. An overweight person can slim down. In the same way, most larks and owls can manage most schedules as their jobs, families, or social lives demand. Some will feel more dissonance than others when they try to follow clocks at variance with their natural proclivities. Extreme larks and owls report the most problems. They may find it difficult, if not impossible, to function in some situations. They are not ill. They are not lazy. They are not lacking in motivation. Happily, in our increasingly twenty-four-hour world, there are plenty of spots where most larks, owls, and hummingbirds can find a secure perch.

Its a good job I wrote this post this morning as after a long day of creative activity, I much like Scott Adams can just about do an edit at this time of day (6pm)! 

So off for a bath and an early night - ready to blog again in the early hours tomorrow. Sleep well or play well - which ever takes your Owlish or Larkish fancy. See you in the morning - early! 

Ps: apparently we larks prefer baths and owls prefer showers? Observations and comments please.

Source material taken from The Body Clock Guide -  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Body-Clock-Guide-Better-Health/dp/0805056629

Tardis arrives back in Barking: Blog 118

Morning all. So I am blogging somewhat later than usual. In fact in Poland its 7.20am so this must constitute a lay-in!

Having recently done the early morning and late night flights in and out of Poland, I can definitely recommend the early ones as so much less stressful. I imagine regular business travellers have this sussed already - but its a new concept for me! Arriving back in the UK yesterday morning at 7.30 am was great, no queues at either end, and I sailed through passport control and out onto the Stansted Express with ease. And to boot, I got the whole Bank Holiday Monday too. Can't be bad. 

On the way through the take-your-shoes-belts-keys-jewellery-off bit of security I found myself laughing with a young Polish woman as we struggled to juggle all our bits and pieces. We exchanged niceties - including stories of other security searches, and she made me smile with her story of a recent body
search in public. There are certain sensitivities!.... and this attractive twenty something had found the experience of being body searched embarrassing although was not rebelling against its intention. The security line was pretty empty so we took our time to put our coats and shoes on, all the while chatting and laughing. As we walked through to the departure lounge I shared with her the huge difference in border control and crossing into Eastern Europen now compared to in the early eighties. Of course she probably wasn't even born when we made our early Triple Action Theatre journeys (with Maciej at the wheel of the blue Mercedes Monster!) but it was a time in her national history that she knows well of course through school and her family's stories. 

I told her about my 21-year old naivety in thinking that because I speak German I could ease the passage of the Blue Monster through the Polish border into Eastern Germany. You see its the manners thing I was blogging about the other day - I have a possibly Pollyanna-like belief that if you are kind and polite to people they will return the favour. This has proved to be my experience much of my life, but on this particular occasion it was a definite mistake! Much to the dismay of my fellow, sleepy-eyed actors, the fact that I could converse with the baby-faced border guard (not much older than myself if at all) actually meant he could instruct me in fine detail to tell Maciej and the others to pull the van apart with all the set, props and costumes in it, including taking off wheels etc! 

Maciej and I were having a chat about this very thing the other day. He revealed to me for the first time that we had in fact been smuggling some sensitive underground political papers out of Poland that none of us except him knew about. Thanks for that Machku! So the unloading of the van was a going cold moment for him which he kept to himself. Not even my polite German and a young smile could have attempted to manage that one. Maciej was mightily relieved that when the guard opened the back of the blue monster, he found the wooden coffin which was part of the set for our production of Ulysses by James Joyce (I played Molly Bloom - great monologue!) and this resulted in the guard calling over another of his number and then roaring with laughter at the absurdity of a coffin in the van. Fortunately for Maciej and the rest of us - this meant the search didn't go any further and the smuggled leaflets remained safely tucked where M had put them- where was that?

The journey from Mansfield where TAT was based took a good two days of driving, and Maciej was then as he is now a hardcore driver, irritated by our British (as he sees it) need to stop at regular intervals for tea! He's still a bit like that now - but at least he tolerates my requests with a wry grin these days. Age has softened him I guess.

So I was sharing this story with the young woman at the airport and before we went our separate ways I had shared more about my early Polish experiences

with her. We talked about how Poland is caught in a no man's land at the moment and the economy is dire - it is neither communist nor capitalist, falling between stools once again as has been Poland's destiny for centuries. And yet it is a land of gnomes, hope, great humour, dreams, soul and rather too much vodka. I love it deeply and the idea of being there for a month to direct a show fills me with such glee - I hope it comes off. 

And so it is that my sturdy Michael O'Leary tardis landed me back in Barking yesterday - ready for a week of Arc living and imagining.

Have a lovely day.

The Gnomes of Wroclaw: Blog 117

So marathon over for the moment and up and getting ready to catch my 6.55 Cryinair flight back to London. I'm not sure how Maciej does it but he organised my timetable to make it possible to fit three days into one! I'm tired but excited. Things have progressed with the planning for Teatr Arka's visit to Barking in August - and on top of that I have been invited to direct over here. Very early stages so enought said, except I am really excited by the projects! 

Its too early yet this morning for the trams or Polish birds - and to top it the lightbulb has gone in my room so I am packing my case in the dark! Its a bit heavier going home thanks to some gifts - namely a book about Wroclaw and two gnomes. If you ever get the chance to visit Wroclaw you will certainly meet the gnomes.

Wrocław’s most popular, memorable and iconic attraction is possibly not a

cathedral, not a castle nor a monument, but a legion of little people: Gnomes, or ‘krasnale’. In Wrocław’s city centre these little people are simply ubiquitous, dotting doorways, alleyways and street corners, constantly underfoot but seldom seen by the unobservant. You may well overlook the first dozen or so that cross your path, but inevitably – and often literally - you will stumble upon one of them. 

 I have it on good authority  - from the President's office no less that there are over 200 tiny gnomes dotted all over the town!  They are all busily engaged in a variety of activities from guarding public spaces to passed-out drunk. Beloved by locals and tourists alike, and the object of more photos ( I have taken about 20) than the towering Cathedral, these prolific pranksters have become the unlikely symbol of Wroclaw - which is one of Poland's most beautiful cities.



Although it sounds like little more than a twee tourist gimmick, gnomes have long held a place in Polish folklore, and their current iconic incarnation as symbols of Wrocław actually has a direct correlation to the political climate of the 1980s. Under communism gnomes became the absurdist calling card of the 'Orange Alternative' movement – an underground protest movement that used absurdity and nonsense to stage peaceful, yet subversive protests. Armed with paint cans and led by Waldemar ‘Major’ Fydrych, an artist and art history student at Wrocław University, the group specifically ridiculed the establishment’s attempts to censor public space. 



During communism, any anti-establishment graffiti or public art was quickly painted over by the militia; upon seeing fresh daubs of paint, the pranksters of the Orange Alternative quickly painted over them yet again...with gnomes. As the movement gained popularity, gnomes became inexorably linked with the Orange Alternative and Wrocław, though they soon began appearing in other major Polish cities as well.


As the Orange Alternative graduated to bigger happenings, gnomes began to appear in demonstrations as well. International Children’s Day on June 1, 1988, was celebrated in Wrocław by dozens of locals dressed as gnomes and smurfs, complete with red hats and handkerchiefs, while an anti-Chernobyl protest saw Major Fydrych handing out iconic peaked red gnome hats to passing pedestrians. After the fall of communism in Poland, the gnomes remained a symbol of Wrocław, repurposed by the new regime to be a tribute to the Orange Movement and playful city ambassadors.

The first gnome in its modern statuette form was Papa Krasnal who was placed in 2001 on the corner of ul. Świdnicka and ul. Kazimierza Wielkiego (A-4), near the subway where Orange Alternative demonstrations often took place. Commissioned by Agora (the publisher of the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza) to celebrate the history of the Orange Alternative, Papa Krasnal remains perhaps the largest of his progeny.

Things really took off in 2005 when local artist Tomasz Moczek - a graduate of the Wrocław Academy of Fine Arts – created five gnomes. The little fellows soon proved so popular that envious local businesses got in on the game contracting other artists to produce more. Some of the most popular include Życzliwek (Well-Wisher Dwarf) who even has his own official holiday (November 21st), blog and Facebook page; Śpioch on the back of the Jaś tenement house on ul. Św. Mikołaja and Więziennik on the parapet of the old prison building on ul. Więzienna . Costing about 4,000zł apiece, each work has become embedded in the hearts of the locals and now has a GPS device embedded in its heart - a necessary precaution after Rzeźnik also disappeared (he has since been recovered and is back at his post on ul. Jatki).

In almost no time at all gnomes have proliferated around Wrocław to the point that now we’re not even certain exactly how many there are. Due to their number and range, it really isn’t possible anymore to find them all on your own but the nice lady in the Presiden't office did give me a map as well as a little gnome. I might start something similar in Barking! 

So home now - and a bit of take up time before I return to Wroclaw in late June as guest of Renata Jasinska (Arka's Artistic Director) for a special awards ceremony at which Arka's work is to be a winner. We also plan to spend time then launching the first stage of the partnership of the two Arcs!  - couldn't have made it up if I wanted to. Thanks to Maciej for his networking and facilitation! 

If you are in the UK - have a great Bank Holiday Monday and if not have a lovely day anyway! 



(Information source: In your Pocket - Essential City Guides)

Manners Maketh Man: Do they really? Wroclaw 2013. Blog 116

Dzień dobry from Wroclaw!

Lubiaz Abbey

Another sunny morning in the city. I seem to have spent most of the night dreaming of marble and alabaster cherubs. Sad I know but true. Thankfully none of them spoke to me so I could get on with dreaming about other things. I suspect that this must have been provoked by our visit to Lubiaz Abbey, about 70 km outside Wroclaw?! Thank you Holmes.

According to Maciej this was to be a field trip in search of a space for our imagined site specific performance for 2016 - and so four of us, a motley crew of his friends piled into the old english Ford and headed off to somewhere? 


I really wasn't sure where, but fortunately Maciej was. He loves driving and as we were heading out of the city we were remembering our hard core drive across Europe in the eighties in Triple Action's clapped out but sturdy warhorse - the blue Mercedes.

A bit like this one -  but blue and longer

When we finally got to the castle, Maciej in his usual fashion came round to open the door for me. I always feel slightly embarrassed by this and when he helps me on with my coat - given my fierce renunciation of such behaviours by men in my early feminist and Greenham days! Dear God, if a builder whistled at me now from a pile of bricks - I would immediately take a picture and put it on Facebook! I think we got it all a bit muddled up you know.Even though I might be grateful for an appreciative smile these days, there is still the horrid, offensive, abusive and demeaning stuff too - so maybe better to chuck the red lippie and the stilettos when it comes to it?  Surely its all about intention though isn't it? Kindness, thoughtfulness and manners have to be worth it in anyone's book for oiling the daily moments we all have with each other?  

Only the other day I was talking to a dear friend about this very subject - which I have to admit still slightly taxes my sensibility around the hard won equality for women, and an adult life of avowed leftism! But then there is chivalry - and I must admit to rather liking it in men and women. Its like theatre in its form or a dance of courtesy and consideration and of course has its roots in the archetype of the Knight: 

"A knight should be bold, fair, courteous and well-mannered, generous and loyal, not foolish or rash, and should speak fairly without discourtesy. A knight should be all this, and also proud and fierce to his enemies, and kind to his friends."  

-Durmart  

And of course the problem for us is that notions of knights on white horses riding in and rescuing forlorn damsels is one that we as women have worked hard to debunk! My guess too though is that it remains just a little bit there in a secret corner for even the most diehard of us! I am expecting some strong reactions to this! I haven't defected sisters  - honest! (We could just substitute the word Knight for person in the above quote - couldn't we?)

Manners Maketh the Man 

This was a phrase coined by William of Wykeham (1320-1404) and is the Motto of Winchester College and New College, Oxford - he believed that 

'It is by politeness, etiquette and charity that society is saved from falling into a heap of savagery.' 

I have to agree, but I struggle with some contemporary British associations that this brings with it  -  the sense of entitlement and class  - as if by definition manners are the sole domain of the ruling classes. 

This of course is a huge insult to the rest of us and the whole thing needs demystifying and uncoupling from class. Good manners are just that  - good manners - considering the other, giving credit and acknowledgement for achievements, showing genuine interest and care, saying thank you and much more. I hope I taught my kids well enough that when they get a gift they write a thank you letter, that they open a door for someone older or offer up a seat on a tube and they show interest in others. There's myriad things that we have recently called 'little acts of kindness' which in my book are really just good manners. 

So the castle was great - the Polish Fish and chips were..... well ....Polish. The stop by with Ewa and Krystof was lovely too - I was shattered and they had no problem with organising a blanket and a pillow so I could take a short nap - kindness you see. I had a great day Thanks for opening the door when we got back to the flat Machku- sorry I got my foot stuck in it! 

Have a great Sunday! 

Ps. That's Maciej and Anna in the frame - get me - in the frame! Hee hee.

STOP PRESS: COMMERCIAL BREAK! Flying Solo and Soulful Actor workshops booking now

Good morning from Wroclaw - Poland

I am pleased to announce my forthcoming workshops for actors: Flying Solo - June 29, The Soulful Actor (fragments - first piloted in Poland in April 2013) 27-29 August. Flyers below with booking details - 
if you want to know more or have a chat with me to see if the workshop feels right for you email me at Jasminestreetlab@gmail.com.Booking can be done direct or through Eventbrite - see below! Do please pass on to any actors or theatre practitioners who might be interested. I have had enquiries from a few drama teachers - and if you are one I'd like to chat with you about the workshop before you book. Thanks for reading!

Poetic Poland - A Fleeting Visit: Blog 115

Dzień dobry

Well - I lasted out for a week on my blog holiday - quite an achievement I feel. I wasn't sure if I would have reliable internet connection whilst here in Wroclaw, and my mobile data bill from my April visit really did eat as much as it could! So I thought I might wait until I got home to resume blog communication. Not so.

In any event, wifi firmly re-established here I am waking up to the sound of the early morning trams outside the window of Maciej's flat and a few Polish birds - they do speak differently to the seagulls in Barking.

Its strange in some ways to be back so soon after my last visit, when before that it had been over 30 years. It doesn't take long for something to become 'usual', and I chuckled when Maciej asked me yesterday if I wanted my 'usual' breakfast. Struggling a little to work out what that was I just smiled in the hope that he obviously did know! And the smoked salmon, blue cheese, black bread and orange preserve (a little like marmalade) made an interesting and tasty combination. Must make it my usual.

Last week was full of lots of changes, new developments and surprises, some delightful and some more challenging, but all leading me to need to press the pause button for a while. 

On my way to Stansted to catch my plane on Thursday I stopped off at Hockerill Anglo-European College in Bishops Stortford where my daughters went to school and where I had the privilege of being Chair of Governors for 12 years. I stay in touch with a few good friends from the college and it was nice to pop in to see them and then to have a catch up lunch with Simon, the Principal. 

Every time I fly with Ryan Air I swear I won't do it again! How many of us say this and then keep repeating this pavlovian response? I certainly do. Its become worse than a trip to IKEA.

Michael O'Leary - Ah bless him

There must be something perfect in the negative strokes theory that makes us come back for more extra 'this and thats'  - making the whole bill potentially higher than if we were just done with it and went with BA! I guess it requires us to consider how uncomfortable, hungry etc we are prepared to be to get the no extras deal. It gets harder. I knew my case was just over the 10k for the cabin - and when I got to the check in desk, the woman just smiled benignly and suggested I take more clothes out of my bag and put layers on. I smiled benignly back at her - and paid the stupid extra! Next time.........

Arriving in Wroclaw, the now 'usual' look of the airport was welcoming, and Maciej was there to meet me with another trusty friend's car - English number plates this time. It was good to catch up and to hear Maciej's military like timetable for my short visit.

The journey back to his flat was tinged with deep sadness though. In the process of catching up I asked him about a young woman P******, who I had just met and invited to join the actors at Teatr Arka for my workshop in April. She wasn't an actor, but a keen appreciator of theatre, and she enthusiastically joined in with the professional actors. I have some lovely photos and video of her really engaging with the others and the exercises. Maciej sighed and paused before he answered - and he told me that she had taken her own life two weeks ago. I had picked up her deep sadness when we first met and talked, but its a fine line that some of us tread. It knocked me for six and Maciej and I travelled the rest of the journey in silence.

Maciej and Wanda

Yesterday there was much work to be done, starting in the morning with a visit to the Director of the Wroclaw European City of Culture 2016 to further discuss our ideas for a transnational project with Barking. It was very productive and we have a lot to do! I am pleased to have got the ball rolling with colleagues in Barking and Dagenham - so fingers crossed, it could be a very exciting project. Maciej's City Councillor contact is a wonderfully energetic and eccentric media personality Wanda Ziembicka  - and she swept me under her wing taking me off to meet the City President if she could find him! 


And then to Literatka again, where all the artists hang out, just across the square from Grotowski's mob. Maciej had gone off to meet his friend Krzysztof Pieczyński, and the two of them pitched up at Literatka just after we did. It was great to talk to Krzysztof about his experience as a Polish actor in the states and his view of the parlous state of the Polish film industry. And about acting and directing - we talked a lot about that. It was only after he left for Warsaw that Maciej told me his pedigree with films such as The Pianist. If I'm intense - he's in tents.

Maciej and Anna

The evening was perfectly completed by the performance of Macbeth at Arka, indeed my reason for this short visit. Their little space is a fraction of the size of Arc's studios at the Malthouse. The show was electric. Beautifully physical, dark and dare I say it - soulful! Renata, the artistic director has managed to find the key to the swampy darkness of the Macbeths and it resonates wonderfully. Her interpretation is sometimes peppered with Brechtian moments when the characters step out of the swamp and bring us a signed photograph of themselves - very funny. I just loved this production - and am so excited about bringing the company to the Malthouse in August when they come back from Edinburgh. This is authentic, electricfyingly physical and truthful work, and Renata Jasinska brings her team of professional actors, able bodied and dis-abled together to perform this seamless work. Serious respect. Can't wait to work together! 

Renata Jasinska

So 5.30 here - and nearly time for my 'usual' breakfast! 

Ok - Blog holiday over - too much to share!

Hi All

So I promised you  I would retreat quietly until Monday  - well I lied! admittedly I didn't mean to lie - but hey we don't know what we don't know - unless we do? Don't we? 

Its late - and I am not planning to change my time pattern of blogging - just wanted to give you the heads up that I will be posting tomorrow with some startling stuff from a day in Wroclaw - .......

So see you in the morning! Sleep well