Peoples Republic of South Devon

Shady Ladies (theatre preview)

- Shady Ladies by Mary Halpin. Theatre Upstairs at the Globe, Clifton Road, Exeter. Friday May 30 at 7.30pm, Saturday May 31 at 7pm, Sunday June 1 at 3.30pm
posted by Cptn

You get the feeling that Mary Halpin is playing with prejudice with her Shady Ladies, which is on at the Theatre Upstairs, at the Globe, Exeter on Friday, Saturday, Sunday May 30, and 31 and June 1.

The play was first performed at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin in 1988 and Halpin herself has been a lead writer for Ireland’s premiere soap Fair City

And there are elements of soap (sans froth) in the all-female Shady Ladies story, actress Niamh is put in a psychiatric hospital by her husband after the collapse of their marriage, where she’s visited by a gaggle of historic figures.

“The women came, I suppose, from a sense that history was always very much ‘his’ story rather than hers, and from a frustration I’d have when reading Irish history at the lack of female representation in the history books,” says Mary. “I had to search to find stories about women – they were there, just not very prominently and I dramatised the women I found interesting or relevant to Niamh.”

It’s an all-women cast, with a rare outing for the Theatre Upstairs’ artistic director Madeleine Vose taking on six roles, and she’s joined on stage by Rebecca Crookshank. The team, including Natasha Buckley, have been working with the playwright and you can catch the progress on the theatre’s website.

For box office call 01392 461623

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We cannot live on love alone

May 27th, 2008

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Reclaiming Beauty (art review)

The art world has long been the champion of recycling and reuse and the issues of sustainability and the environment are on the agenda in a diverse exhibition Reclaiming Beauty, which is showing at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen. They got in touch in the form of Anna Trussler

- Reclaiming Beauty, Sustainable Craft exhibition at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey, Devon, to Sunday 15 June
by Anna Trussler
The unseen beauty in everyday, throwaway objects is the theme of the current exhibition at the Devon Guild Gallery (Bovey Tracey). The objects and pieces displayed throw into relief the material used to make the ‘art piece’ itself. Similar to the shadows cast by Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s shadow sculptures, the recycled waste and found items used here, are undisguised in the newly-formed art work, or functional object on display.

Michelle Brand, one of the collective of exhibitors, uses recycled materials as a deliberate statement of her environmental concerns. She makes screens, lampshades and room dividers from the plastic bottoms cut from drinks bottles.

Lucy Casson is a pioneer of re-used materials. Much of her work utilises scrap metal, plastic and food tins. She creates modelled scenarios and strange cartoon-like creatures, sometimes in the act of discovering the recycled parts they are made out of. Lucy is to give a presentation on her current work at the gallery on Tuesday.

Textile artist Michael Brennand-Wood has created bright and giant circular wall-pieces, in a wonderful array of colourful, rhythmic structures mainly starting with textiles. But in these pieces, pop culture and the history of carnival resonate, as he integrates found objects and computerised machine embroidery with acrylic paint, buttons and crayons. Cleo Mussi’s ceramics use a method of fusing together disguarded ornamental parts, out of which she forms intricate, mutated figures, reincarnated into new ornamentation.

Other works feature wire sculptures by Celia Smith who uses disguarded electrical and telephone cabling to ‘draw’ lines in 3D. Hannah Lobley transforms old wet book pages back into wood-like material and lather turns it into sculptural, functional object. The work exhibited in Reclaiming Beauty us unique in terms of craft, and the Guild continues to explore challenging and innovative trends in this field.

The artists explore both the aesthetic and the uncanny by combining surprising and sometimes jarring materials and media. The gallery display itself echoes this aim by placing of some of the works on antique dressers and Victorian cabinets. Again, shadows as partial sections of old rooms and domestic spaces remind us of the how once beautiful things in history have been perceived and displayed.

(images from the top: Hannah Loveley; Michael Brennand-Wood; Cleo Mussi and Celia Smith)

• Talk by Lucy Casson. A pioneer in the use of recycled materials, Lucy will talk about her work discussing her inspirations and influences.
Tuesday 27 May 6.30pm in The Terrace, The Devon Guild of Craftsmen.
Advance booking on 01626 832223.

• Portfolio review masterclass with Michael Brennand-Wood at The Contemporary Craft Fair. Open to professional textile artists only. Join a group critique led by the award winning international artist. See the craft fair site for full details.

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Your republic needs you

May 26th, 2008

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Dance review (Phoenix Dance)

Today is a day of dance on the PRSD and we can catch up on some of the dance coverage provided by the Young Dance Reviewers, an opportunity made available by a collaboration between Dance in Devon and Exeter Northcott

Here are two takes on Phoenix Dance performance. Read the reviews of Kate Clarkson and Lucie Tullet

– Phoenix Dance Theatre, at the Exeter Northcott, 17/05/08
by Kate Clarkson

Javier De Frutos’ contemporary dance company Phoenix Dance Theatre were at the Northcott as part of this month’s dance festival. The dancers tantalized audiences with a spectacular trilogy of pieces taken from the company’s 2008 repertoire.De Frutos’ company pride themselves with their theatricality and this was evident from the opening of the first piece. Entitled The Moor’s Pavane, this choreography by José Limón had echoes of Shakepeare’s Othello, which grounded the work’s dramatic quality. Baroque music and lavish Renaissance costumes gave deportment and elegance to the dancers, but the female’s beautiful dresses sometimes hampered the effect of classical arabesque lines.

The dancers in the second piece were smothered in blood. The use of clinical, white flooring gave a raw edge to this performance as the blood splattered all over it once the dancers moved. Two female dancers stepped on stage midway through the piece to join the male dancers and this gave a suggestion of domestic violence and an uncomfortable atmosphere surrounded the audience. The extraordinary athleticism of the dancers gave an energetic display to this piece entitled Los Picadores.

The evening’s entertainment cumulated in a carnivalesque, circus-like performance choreographed by De Frutos himself entitled Nopalitos, which had a passionate and sensual touch. The use of costume, set and music combined to form a highly extravagant theatrical piece. The complex choreography of curtain changes contrasted the stark setting of the previous dances. The Mexican music by Lily Downs was beautiful, but its volume became over bearing and at times suffocated the focus of the dancers. Ornate Masks and scarves concealed the dancer’s faces throughout the performance but this left the audience questioning De Frutos’ motive for this.

– Phoenix Dance Theatre, at the Exeter Northcott, 16/05/08
by Lucie Tullet

The Exeter Northcott Dance Festival continued with Phoenix Dance Theatre taking to the stage. The Leeds-based company have a new artistic director, Javier De Frutos and are internationally reputed for performing inspiring and groundbreaking contemporary dance. The dancers are extremely highly trained, and are handpicked from all over the world.The mixed triple bill of the evening provided a diverse range of works from the company’s repertoire, past and present. De Frutos brings a passionate theatricality that is evocative and sensual. His two pieces of the evening, Los Picadores and Nopalitos, were both such contrasting experiences for the spectator. Los Picadores was “…a fight in the wide meaning of the word – how much to give and take, how much to love and hate; producing spontaneous reactions bringing excitement, pain and pleasure.” (Ana Lujan Sanchez, rehearsal director and dancer, Phoenix Dance Theatre programme 2008). Complete with fake blood and torn costumes the piece is cleverly executed, with realistic ‘fighting’ and heart-stopping contact work. The accompaniment, which inspired the piece, was Les Noces by Stravinsky, and made me feel as though I was being subjected to violence as it was so loud in a fairly intimate theatre setting.

On the other hand, Les Nopalitos’gave us a surreal insight into Mexican culture, portrayed as a tableaux of masked dancers in a wide array of miss-matched costumes. Having seen the piece for a second time, as the company toured with the piece in 2006, it somehow seemed even more surreal and awe-inspiring than the first time around.

The third piece which strongly contrasted to these was The Moor’s Pavane, a restaging of one of José Limón’s best known works. One of the most prominent American choreographers in modern dance, his powerful choreography focused on human drama.
The evening provided a range of works with broad appeal – another success in the Exeter Northcott’s Dance Festival season.
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The Young Dance Reviewer opportunity is made possible by a unique collaboration between Dance in Devon and Exeter Northcott. Contact Katherine@danceindevon.org.uk for further details.

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Pennies appreciated

May 25th, 2008

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Dance review (as the Mother of a Brown Boy)

Today is a day of dance on the PRSD and we can catch up on some of the dance coverage provided by the Young Dance Reviewers, an opportunity made available by a collaboration between Dance in Devon and Exeter Northcott

- As the Mother of a Brown boy – Chickenshed Dance Company at  Exeter Northcott, 10/05/2008
by Emma Pendle

The lights dimmed and the audience’s voices hushed. A figure walked onto the stage and began to speak. A police interview, how did her mixed-race son die? And why? All of these questions were to be answered throughout this dramatic and emotional piece.Another character joined her on the stage as a voice over of the mother reminiscing of her love for her child played. It was the father; they danced together in each other’s arms, soft and lovingly with gentle contact moments. The lighting was soft and warm, reflecting their love for one another.

A swarm of other dancers then entered the space with the boy, the main character; they began an upbeat unison phrase, with grounded movements and strong shapes. In the centre at the back of the stage there were a number of blocks, the dancers broke away from the unison and began to dance with them, lifting them above themselves, then placing and climbing on top of the props. It was fast and exciting, a world away from the soft and flowing movements of the duet before.

It was a breathtaking and heart-warming performance filled with moments of love, worry, confusion and sadness as the story followed the life of a mix-raced child through the eyes of his mother. We saw how the child grew up to be a young man and all of the trials and challenging situation that he faced along the way; the unfairness of the bullying in the playground, the excitement of skipping school with his friends and falling in love, the worry and concern from the mother as she watched her child grow.

This mournful and gilt ridden performance was based on a true story, and this fact provoked a strong feeling of sympathy from the audience, with some people even crying towards the end of the piece. It definitely deserved the amazing response and standing ovation that it received from the crowd.

• Read the another review of As the mother of a brown boy… on the PRSD

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The Young Dance Reviewer opportunity is made possible by a unique collaboration between Dance in Devon and Exeter Northcott. Contact Katherine@danceindevon.org.uk for further details.

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Pennies appreciated

May 25th, 2008

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Borne on the cob

Jackie Abey and Jill Smallcombe have made artworks out of earth works. To impart their knowledge and to show off their skills (which are considerable) they will be at the Appledore Arts Festival, and they will be teaching on the Dartmoor Arts Project in July (July 26 - August 2). Lee Morgan speaks to these cob specialist

What is cob?

Jackie Abey reaches into her bag to pull out two hunking squares of what could be marble. One’s honey coloured, the other is an earthy red.

‘That,’ she says, ‘˜is cob.’

Jackie Abey and Jill Smallcombe have been working together in the medium, which is a nice way of saying mud, since the two of them got together to make a cob sculpture for Chagford Arts Festival out of remixed 400-year-old cob. That was 12 years ago, and since then they’ve been experimenting with it for their sculptural structures and art works. And both of them live in cob houses.

Through the incarnation of Abey Smallcombe these cobbers (or cob experts or cob artists) have taken the versatility, strength and unique nature of cob along with their artistic vision and enthusiasm into a beautiful sculptural cob waiting room/toilets at the Eden Project, cob summer houses for the National Trust and SW Lakes Trust and shelters for Sustrans Cycle Routes. They are also working at Landscore, Hennock and Doddiscombleigh Primary Schools, and are fresh from their week at Eco Build at Earls Court.

Apparently one of the most popular questions throughout the exhibition was ‘what is cob?’ Undeterred they launch into an explanation, the smile still in place and with an undinting energy.

Cob is subsoil mixed with straw and water. It’s mixed with a lot of stamping, then built up in layers and shaped accordingly. It dries very hard in the air. The walls are thick and it’s incredibly strong, as long as water doesn’t get in the top of it. Traditionally, you only build with cob ‘between the swallows arriving and the swallows flying’ to ensure (as far as possible) good working conditions. You must give it ‘a good hat and a good pair of boots’ to stop the water getting in.

‘There are 40,000 cob buildings still in use,’ says Jackie, and plenty of them are in Devon – cob is a south west speciality. ‘Typically they are thatched and chocolate boxy.’ Like the houses that the pair themselves live in. But living in earth isn’t just a Devon phenomenon. One-third of the world’s population still live in earth-built homes and the variety and styles change throughout the world.

Earth building is incredibly sustainable.

‘Earth is pure with nothing added. It has been used for centuries and there is a place for it in the future,’ says Jill. But the Abey Smallcombe story starts 12 years ago when the two artists who live in cob houses embarked on their collaboration, creating a figurative cob sculpture.

‘The legs fell off, the arms fell off,’ says Jackie. ‘But we were learning all the time and we haven’t looked back. Our sculptures are integeral to our work. They allow us to play with the material and we have recently embarked on a new series of conceptual abstract pieces.’ However, it was the design and build and scale of the bus shelter at the Eden Project that was the watershed. They were able to demonstrate modern flowing design, exciting use of light and an ability to improvise that reflected their artistic standing.

Jackie says: ‘We spend a lot of our time educating people about the possiblities of cob, through workshops and lectures.’

During the courses and workshops they are able to get bricklayers and architects working alongside arts. ‘It creates a whole new buzz,’ says Jackie.

And there’s something universal and fundamental, about working with soil – it ties you to the past and is tied with human development. On one hand, it’s simple – children love playing with mud and creating their pies – and yet it can be incredibly sophisticated: Jackie and Jill have experimented with hair, hemp, flax and nettles instead of straw for a finer mix to create unusual earth plasters and other finishes.

And despite their eco build credentials and their commitment to education, not least through their 3 Little Pigs projects in primary schools or the work they do with Farms for City Children, or even their work on the Dartmoor Arts Project, the pair are artists at heart and are looking to further their arts practice. They have exhibited at the Spacex Gallery, Exeter Phoenix, the Architecture Centre, Chelsea Flower show, Broomhill, Delamore and Cotehele.

With the external sculptures, water damage can create a beautiful disintegration. They opted for gold leaf to protect the points of their Broomhill sculpture, which glinted in the sunlight. When Jackie and Jill talk of the future they have their own glint in their eyes – and why not, the earth’s their oyster.

For more on cob and the varied earth works of Jackie Abey and Jill Smallcombe visit their website.
they will also be part of the Dartmoor Arts Project

• Jill has written a book with Jane Schofield: Cob Buildings – A Practical Guide Published by Black Dog Press.
ISBN 0 9524341 5 6.

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May 24th, 2008

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Terrorised

posted by Jess Sains

‘Terrorism’ has come to Exeter this week. On Thursday May 22, 2008 (perhaps to be known in the future as 22/5) a small bomb exploded in the Giraffe restaurant in the new Princesshay shopping centre in Exeter city centre.
Since then there have been a lot of labels placed. The ’suspect’ (label one) is a ‘gentle giant’ (label two), who has been ‘radicalised’ (label three) to the Islamic faith and there is the biggest label of all (label four) that he ‘has a history of mental illness’.

So, already we have been told a good deal of loose information about a man whom I have only seen in a fuzzy photo with blood all over his face. Information. Or labels? Labels have so much connotation in them, they can effect how people are viewed by ourselves and others for their whole live. Yet, we – and particularly our media – slap them on people on a daily basis. David Cameron is a ‘Old Etonian toff”, others are ‘yummy mummies’, ‘hippies’, ‘addicts’, ’scroungers’ or ‘terrorists’. All these labels bare with them connotations; the yummies will be dressed up to the nines, driving a 4X4 and castigating any woman who works whilst her children are young; the scroungers will be on the dole, perhaps - another label here - a bit chavvy or having too many children for good tax-payers comfort. Most dripping with unspoken intuitions of all of these labels are the two ‘terrorist’ and ‘mental illness’.

‘Terrorist’ means, in this day and age, that you will kill anyone for a cause. A few years ago the unspoken connotations might have included things like ‘Irish Republican Army’ or even possibly something to do with anti-vivisection, now what hangs in the air is ‘Islamic fundamentalism’, ‘Bin Laden’, ‘September the 11th’. Sitting in the darkness at the very back of all these words are falling towers, smoky tube tunnels, blood soaked faces, death.

We live in an age where all media events are played out on our screens. I, like millions of others, was sat watching the television when the second plane hit the World Trade Centre, was enthralled to the news by the time the Tavistock Square bus was blown up. All this instantaneous action and reaction makes labels all the more pervasive. They are thrown out there, stuck on a person before we even know what’s happened. I remember when the first plane had hit in 2001 sitting there watching and the reporter telling us all that the attacks were suspected to be by ‘anarchists’. I knew that wasn’t so straight away. ‘Anarchist’ is a label I wear; my ‘anarchism’ is something to be proud of, an ideal, yet I know that for others my label is something quite different. I am likely to be ‘trouble’, ‘rebellious’, I have ‘issues with authority figures’ – I might even throw bombs… we all wear so many labels – ‘loud’, ‘fat’, ‘thin’, ‘rude’, ‘boring’ – that some almost seem to lose their meaning. But that’s just it, they are both meaningless and yet the connotations hang in the air around us, they are stamped on us, they make us “other” and “other” is scary.

That’s what labels are, ultimately; making someone unlike oneself. That makes oneself there person who is ‘OK’ and the other the one who is outside the circle, who is different. It is only when we peel off the labels that we can truly see the person:

I am an anarchist. I am a daughter. I am fat. I am loud. I am a sister. I am a politics geek. I am a partner. I was home educated.

I am Jess.

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May 24th, 2008

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Mutley Greenbanks

posted by Cptn

There’s even more action than usual in Mutley next week with the Mutley Greenbank Festival, kicking off on Monday with a party in a park which includes friends to the republic, Lemanis. But before you put your dancing shoes on have a gander at what else is going on in the weeklong events that focus on arts, the environment and the community.
The week of events launch on Monday May 26 at the Levinsky building, Plymouth Uni, and there’s stuff for old and young including activities and circus skill and animation and dance, films and a cafe. (starts at 11am)

Also on Monday is the Party in the (Moorview) Park, featuring the cool sounds of Drinking Peanuts,starting proceedings at 1pm. Followed by Duncan Thorne, “and singer/songwriter Jimmy Buddha Om, the man behind the Acoustic Café evenings at the Fortescue pub. Tim Page, legendary blues guitarist and singer, will be performing with Bekah Billington, and Lemanis will be bringing their complex and interesting mix of harmonies, backed by an orchestra of wind, brass and string instruments. The evening sounds commence with get-up-and-dance local band The Bernies, followed by The Wireless, just back from a festival in Nice, and are set to crescendo with the ever popular Mad Dog McCrea.”

But that’s just Monday, there’s stuff going on every day culminating in a two-day Big Days in the Park event in Freedom Fields Park on Saturday May 31 and Sunday June 1.

Combine this with craft fair, art events, environmental afternoons and workshops and courses and you’ve got one heck of a hip and happening week, cunningly planned to co-incide with half term, in everyone’s favourite bit of the city.

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We cannot live on love alone

May 24th, 2008

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Peter Randall-Page - studio

There’s a saying that if you keep chipping away at things long enough, you get some great sculpture, or something like that. We got in touch with supreme chipper, or renowned sculptor, Peter Randall-Page to find out about his workshop.

Why? Well, Peter will be giving a talk with Chris Chapman on May 31, at the Appledore Arts Festival, followed by a show Granite Song at the Burton Gallery (June 14 - July 16), Bideford. He will also be teaching on the Dartmoor Arts Project in July (July 26 - August 2).

“I have three very different areas to my studio: the office for all the paperwork, the maquette studio where I draw and make models and this, the barn, where the large scale work is done.

There is always sculpture in various stages of development, at the back are finished sculptures waiting for delivery to shows and clients. In the middle, works in progress and at the front, rough stone waiting to be dealt with.

I have a team of assistants who help me realise my sculpture. At the moment they are working away on a large commission for the Jerwood Foundation leaving me the luxury of solitude. I find the process of drawing and carving stimulates ideas and often leads on to the next piece.

Of course all kinds of commitments encroach on my studio time but this makes me value it all the more.”

• Peter Randall-Page is teaching on the Pattern & Structure course and visiting lecturer on the Stone Carving course at the 2008 Dartmoor Arts Project Summer School - Saturday July 26 to Saturday August 2. For details of courses and how to book visit the Dartmoor Arts Project website

• For further details about these and other projects visit Peter Randall-Page’s website

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We cannot live on love alone

May 23rd, 2008

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The Death of Booting

The weekly technology column from those good people at Plymouth’s Orange Crate

How great would it be if, like any other household appliance, you could switch on your pc and use it straight away? Although the times are gone where you could turn on your computer, go and make a cup of tea then come back to see it still booting up, an element of that seemingly endless wait still remains. But for how long…

Late last year software developer DeviceVM and hardware manufacturer Asus teamed up to release Splashtop – a Linux based operating system stored directly on a computer motherboard. For those of you with a slightly lower Geek Factor, let me explain what this combination implies.

Linux is a computer operating system (OS), similar to Microsoft Windows. However unlike Windows it is free and ‘open source’, meaning that programmers are allowed to take the underlying code and modify it to create new operating systems. A motherboard, on the other hand, is the core component in a pc or laptop to which all the other components, such as the processor, memory, and hard disks, are attached. Current operating systems are stored on the computers hard drive, and to boot up and access it takes time and system resources. But if the OS was embedded directly into the motherboard it would eliminate the need for this sequence, enabling you to use your pc almost instantly.

For around six months this option has been available on the higher end Asus motherboards, but the cost involved has made it unavailable to most users. Despite this the feedback has been very positive, resulting in Asus’ aim to incorporate Splashtop on 1,000,000 of their more accessible motherboards per month in the near future.

So is this the beginning of the end for Windows and computing as we know it? Well, possibly not quite yet. Although Splashtop incorporates some useful features such as web browsing, Skype, photo and file viewing, and chat programmes, it doesn’t quite cut the mustard. Think of it as an secondary option that you use for a quick fix of email viewing or web browsing, rather than a full blown alternative to the current system. But as the screen shots show, the idea has come a long way in a relatively short space of time so who knows where it might lead? In a couple of years time you may be able to switch on your pc and check your emails while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil to make your tea…

May 23rd, 2008

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Chagford’s footprint

posted by Cptn

Chagford is stepping into Change your Footprint week, May 27 to June 3 with both feet.
On May 31, at noon Mukti Mitchell, author of The Guide to Low Carbon Lifestyles will unveil solar panels from and composting from Proper Job.

Later in the day Mukti will be leading a free workshop on How to Live a Low Carbon Lifestyle between 2pm and 5.30pm at the Jubilee Hall Chagford, suppoted by CASE (Chagford Action for Sustainable Energy).

At 7.30pm the Jubliee Hall will show the films Power of the Community and Carbon Weevils, a Forkbeard Fantasy film, plus discussion.

Earlier in the week top selling author of The World Without Us Alan Weisman will be speaking at Chagford church on Tuesday May 27 at 7.30pm.

On Sunday June 1 between 10am and 3pm, there will be fun down at the Chagford Allotments including a composting workshop with Nicky Scott of Devon Community Composting Network at 11am. For more details, contact Chagford Allotments chair, Chris Licence on 01647 433802.

On June 3, Satish Kumar will be at Jubilee Hall at 7.30pm. Tickets from the Big Red Sofa on 01647 433883. Get in now, we hear the tickets are going fast.

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May 23rd, 2008

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