Hannah Eiseman-Renyard's Blog: A Cynical Hippy's Eye-View
July 8, 2010
Theatre Review: Hooray for Hollywood
Hooray for Hollywood
Review of an amazing piece of theatre I saw last night. It's on at the Rosemary Branch Theatre, 2 Shepperton Road, Islington, London N1 3DT. It runs only until this Sunday (11th July 2010) - if you're in London I urge you to catch it.
Hooray for Hollywood is an innovative and harrowing piece of theatre, which uses live actors and puppets to tell the story of one child’s experience of the child pornography industry. This is one of those rare pieces of art which really can and will stay with you, and has the power to change lives.
The small puppetry stage only shows the adults (live actors) from the hips down, an ingenious and powerful device, which puts the audience on the (puppet) child’s level – seeing the world, literally, from their perspective. The only dialogue is from the adults – the little glimpses and overheard parents’ phonecalls and conversations. Meanwhile, a live violin performance conveys all the emotion – from mournful melodies to scratching, screechy tension.
I was a little surprised the play started where it did – with the girl’s mother arranging for her daughter to “get her picture taken with this cute little boy” while she goes off for a coffee with the other child’s mother. I initially wanted to learn more about how and why even that was happening, but the play doesn’t dwell on that – just showing what the child sees. The play also portrays the slide very starkly: staged across a number of years, from the initial excuses that the child’s "too young to remember anything" to the chilling phonecall “how much? … bring her back in one piece … numb her up.”
In Hooray for Hollywood the vast majority of the abuse happens off-stage. In one scene, as one girl is led offstage, the protagonist stays crumpled on the ground. Watching this I was waiting for the next ‘thing’ to happen, but realised that this was it: the waiting. The dread and the powerlessness.
The discussion after the play (normally chaired by Childline) was harrowing in a whole new way. The writer and director Raven Kaliana explained that the play was based on her own life. She seemed so level-headed and often chirpy that the things she said almost jarred more: that she had witnessed snuff films being made, or that she had been deliberately blocked by (presumably bribed) police when she went to report it – it was extremely challenging to accept that these things actually happen – and here’s a survivor of it. In front of us.
There are no words, but almost wordlessly – this amazing piece of theatre conveys and sheds light on the world of abuse and trafficking, and opens the door for much more to be done about it.
It’s on until Sunday and believe me: theatre has never been so important.
http://vimeo.com/13155460
http://hoorayforhollywood.co.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid...
Review of an amazing piece of theatre I saw last night. It's on at the Rosemary Branch Theatre, 2 Shepperton Road, Islington, London N1 3DT. It runs only until this Sunday (11th July 2010) - if you're in London I urge you to catch it.
Hooray for Hollywood is an innovative and harrowing piece of theatre, which uses live actors and puppets to tell the story of one child’s experience of the child pornography industry. This is one of those rare pieces of art which really can and will stay with you, and has the power to change lives.
The small puppetry stage only shows the adults (live actors) from the hips down, an ingenious and powerful device, which puts the audience on the (puppet) child’s level – seeing the world, literally, from their perspective. The only dialogue is from the adults – the little glimpses and overheard parents’ phonecalls and conversations. Meanwhile, a live violin performance conveys all the emotion – from mournful melodies to scratching, screechy tension.
I was a little surprised the play started where it did – with the girl’s mother arranging for her daughter to “get her picture taken with this cute little boy” while she goes off for a coffee with the other child’s mother. I initially wanted to learn more about how and why even that was happening, but the play doesn’t dwell on that – just showing what the child sees. The play also portrays the slide very starkly: staged across a number of years, from the initial excuses that the child’s "too young to remember anything" to the chilling phonecall “how much? … bring her back in one piece … numb her up.”
In Hooray for Hollywood the vast majority of the abuse happens off-stage. In one scene, as one girl is led offstage, the protagonist stays crumpled on the ground. Watching this I was waiting for the next ‘thing’ to happen, but realised that this was it: the waiting. The dread and the powerlessness.
The discussion after the play (normally chaired by Childline) was harrowing in a whole new way. The writer and director Raven Kaliana explained that the play was based on her own life. She seemed so level-headed and often chirpy that the things she said almost jarred more: that she had witnessed snuff films being made, or that she had been deliberately blocked by (presumably bribed) police when she went to report it – it was extremely challenging to accept that these things actually happen – and here’s a survivor of it. In front of us.
There are no words, but almost wordlessly – this amazing piece of theatre conveys and sheds light on the world of abuse and trafficking, and opens the door for much more to be done about it.
It’s on until Sunday and believe me: theatre has never been so important.
http://vimeo.com/13155460
http://hoorayforhollywood.co.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid...
June 20, 2010
Warning to Poets Who Do Competitions
In a fit of vanity/nostalgia I googled the phrase "poetry competition" this morning. As you can imagine there are thousands upon thousands of competitions ("about 130,000" to be precise) and even websites dedicated to organising and cataloguing them. However, I was surprised at how many refused to consider works which had been previously published, "including online."
I'd just always considered Goodreads etc to be good places to get a little feedback/ego boost when I thought I'd just done something that might be good. Sound it out before an audience that wasn't an open mic one - so if it flops at least I'm not on stage and with bright lights pointing at me. Up until now the only real filter for what I put on Goodreads has been "nothing I wouldn't want my mother/a colleague to read" - but I guess from now on I'll have to be a little more careful what I put up from a writing-career perspective.
Pants. Especially since I wanted to put some of my more 'page poem' pieces (which I don't do so much at open mic nights) foreward for the odd competition.
Ah well. Live and learn. You have been warned.
Hannah
(The book review bile/ravings will continue as normal.)
I'd just always considered Goodreads etc to be good places to get a little feedback/ego boost when I thought I'd just done something that might be good. Sound it out before an audience that wasn't an open mic one - so if it flops at least I'm not on stage and with bright lights pointing at me. Up until now the only real filter for what I put on Goodreads has been "nothing I wouldn't want my mother/a colleague to read" - but I guess from now on I'll have to be a little more careful what I put up from a writing-career perspective.
Pants. Especially since I wanted to put some of my more 'page poem' pieces (which I don't do so much at open mic nights) foreward for the odd competition.
Ah well. Live and learn. You have been warned.
Hannah
(The book review bile/ravings will continue as normal.)
A Cynical Hippy's Eye-View
This is mostly the place where I put up poems and extracts of larger pieces of prose. Feel free to feedback, and as specifically as you like. If you think one couplet adds nothing and doesn't need to
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