Noises Off 2014 Friday by Chris Perkin

2014 Issue 6 Thursday 18th April

Noises OFF Photo (c) Aenne Pallasca

Today’s Contents 2 Editorial

4 Reviews - Enron 5 Reviews - Nothing 7

Tech Heroes

8 Reviews - Sprimg Awakening / Rent 10 Reviews -Rent 11 Reviews - Punk Rock 12 Why Bother? 14 Noises Off Alternative Awards 15 Management Team 16 A Total Culture Sectretary

NSDF is nearly over for 2014 but the discussion continues at...

noff.nsdf.org.uk 2 Noises OFF 18/04/14

Editorial #4: Goodbye! Andrew Haydon Christ. That was quick. Is it really (nearly) over already? I don’t remember an edition of NSDF ever whizzing by quite so fast. On one hand, there are sensible structural reasons for that. Up until last year Noises Off was an overnight, 24hour operation producing only a print issue. For reasons which now seem obscure this always seemed to take pretty much forever. As a result, in practical terms NSDF was essentially twice as long for anyone doing Noises Off. And we never really got more than four hours sleep, so the tiredness made it seem even longer. By contrast, this year has felt sane, civilised and even – incredibly – restorative. On the other hand, I think there are more important reasons that the week whizzed by. Firstly the quality of the work at this year’s Festival has been largely outstanding. It’s absurd, but I usually come to NSDF with the hope that at least one thing I see during the week will be one of the best things I see all year. And I think with both Road and Nothing I got that. And time really does fly when you’re having fun. Another element that has made Noises Off such a pleasure this year is the continued stepping up of investment in the magazine/website by the Festival and IdeasTap. This year, as well as generously continuing to support three IdeasTap-sponsored journalists/critics we also got two photographers. Granted, there are still questions about hard-copy versus online-mostly editions of the magazine, which hopefully we’ll manage to balance eventually, without bankrupting the Festival with demands for more colour toner. But institutions “aren’t just made of bricks they’re mostly made of people” as Crass wisely pointed out. And even though Noises Off has had less footfall/passing trade this year than ever before (partly a consequence of our ongoing location change from the Vitadome, partly the ever increasing modernisation meaning we can receive copy by email, and partly just because we didn’t *need* the army of volunteers that we used to), it

feels like it’s been a vintage year for contibutors. during the time I’ve been attending this Festival is Billy Barrett, Adam Foster and Georgia Snow appalling. have been marvellous, dedicated, brilliant writers And then, the world they’re entering when they and excellent value as company too, while our leave university is one which, according to most two photographers, Aenne Pallasca and Giulia assessments, offers an ever contracting pool of Delprato have pretty much single-handedly opportunities, completely unaffordable housing, (well, double-handedly) and working conditions ever transformed the aesthetic more weighted in favour of the It’s been brilliant to of the thing from scrappy employer against the interests and ad hoc to the glossy, meet students who, of the employee. professional thing you after the apathetic, currently behold, as well as It comes to something when it apolitical 2000s, are contributing both muchdoesn’t feel fanciful to suggest needed internationalism and properly switched-on, that a production of Jim a bit of a gender balance to angry and politicised. Cartwright’s Road resonated so the office. And for being a strongly with its mostly student total pleasure to work with. audience precisely because Editors, I can’t recommend five young people their future has been betrayed just as surely as the more highly. Take them on, give them jobs, and north of England was by Mrs Thatcher. pay them well. And yet, throughout the week what has been It’s also been great working again with our most inspiring has been the resistance and designer Chris Perkin, who has manfully not optimism of the students here. It’s been brilliant shouted at me once, despite my continual missing to meet students who, after the (largely) apathetic, of deadlines; and Richard Dennis, who as well apolitical 2000s, are properly switched-on, angry as editing, effortlessly slotted into the role of and politicised in the best possible way. resident humourist for the week. It was also rather Here’s hoping that next year’s Festival takes place lovely to welcome Festival first-timer Catherine in the run up to an election which, like the election Love onto the team and watch as she took to shortly after my first Festival in ’97, puts the Tories basically running the whole magazine with the out of power for well over another decade, and same warmth, rigiour and flair that she brings to ideally causes the party to fracture irreconcilably her writing. Here’s hoping she’s free for about the into the hundred separate pointless factions next ten/twenty easter holidays… putting them beyond use forever. Then maybe However, outside all this fluffiness and warmth, we could have a slightly better, more nuanced it’s also been a repeatedly sobering week. In discussion on the left about how the Labour all my time of being at the Festival (every year Party might work on actually turning back into the since 1997), I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much Labour Party and not just being The Nicer Tories. sympathy for students. When I started university, So, yeah. Great Festival, great week, and great to I was given a full grant of £1,500 a year (which meet you all. went a pretty long way in Leeds in the late 90s), and didn’t have to pay tuition fees. Students Let’s do it again soon, yes? starting today have to take out a £9000 loan *just to pay for the course*. They then have to take Andrew Haydon out a “maintenance loan” to live on, and probably @postcards_gods need to get a job as well, unless Bank of Mum http://postcardsgods.blogspot.co.uk/ and Dad can pay for them. That the principle of free education and student grants has been totally eradicated (and mostly by a Labour government) Send us your reviews, news and comments: noff@nsdf.org.uk

Reviews - Enron

Crash and Burn Adom Foster

NSDF’14’s third and final remount of a play from 2009 (also Jerusalem and Punk Rock) sees Sheffield University Theatre company tackle Lucy Prebble’s smash-hit ENRON.

I didn’t see the original production, but, like Jerusalem before it, ENRON has acquired modern classic status on account of its commercial and critical success. The general consensus was that it incorporated a morality tale for our times with a seductive blend of music, multi-media and movement – much of which has been immortalised in the published script. Some would have it that the published script doesn’t necessarily reflect the true intentions of Prebble’s play but, rather, an account of its first production. As NSDF selector Struan Leslie articulated in today’s discussion, this makes the notion of the published script redundant in this instance. This is a roundabout way of saying that SutCo’s ENRON is heavily indebted to Goold’s original Headlong production. And while most of the company, like me, hadn’t seen it, the document of the playtext was clearly central to its style and aesthetic. We get the same three blind mice, the red-eyed velociraptors and the Siamese, blazer-sharing Lehman Brothers. All of which, I should say, work quite well. But

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If you are going to use them, they need to be integrated much more thoroughly than they are here. The show’s two main “numbers”, one on the trading floor in the first act and the California power-cuts in the second, P should be big, brash and energetic. They’re not. They’re half-hearted sequences marked by flappy arms, quiet music and out-of-time movement. A movement director could have made an enormous difference here. But, again, if you don’t have one, just because it says there are movement sequences in the script, it doesn’t mean you have to do them. e Pallasca Aenn (c) to ho

The play elucidates one of the most infamous scandals in financial history, which saw the energy company go from posting revenue of $50 billion profit to filing for bankruptcy with debts of $23 billion – the largest in American corporate history. Rupert Goold’s original production transformed stocks and shares into a searing, ultra-theatrical epic, but Wolf of Wall Street this ain’t and Hamish Ellis’s lacklustre production is let down by an inconsistency of style.

while they may be in the published version of the script, these moments are not necessarily *in the play* and you’re under no obligation to incorporate them if they don’t fit in with your directorial vision.

The production was much more successful when it moved beyond the confines of the script and found an eccentricity of its own, with a witty scene on a treadmill and a brilliantly tongue-in-cheek selfie proving particularly memorable moments. The central performances were also impressive, with Will Taylor bringing a sparky energy to Andy Fastow and Alison Cryan excellent as Claudia Roe. The use of multi-media, with the exception of some poorly judged faux news reports, was consistently bold. ENRON is a massive, multi-location play and credit should go to AV designer Stevie Partington for creating such an impressive visual landscape. For all its problems, this is a re-mount that showed admirable ambition and often carried it off with enormous visual flare. It just lacked the intuition to move beyond the script and make something of its own. Showing, once again, the limitations of imitation. Get the latest news and revews: noff.nsdf.org.uk

Billy Barrett

Edward Bond once said he writes about violence as naturally as Jane Austen wrote about manners. Lucyna Raczka writes easily about both: in Barrel Organ’s Nothing, a woman describes trying to pull off a “sassy girl click”, then graphically imagines a prison rape. A stabbing on a bus bleeds into a rant about the popularity of cupcakes.

Nothing’s form is fascinating. Its fragmented monologues are narratively unrelated, but their cumulative effect is a searing reflection of individual and collective trauma in an atomised culture. Raczka’s idiosyncratic writing sounds totally natural and yet obsessively, passionately political. Her focus is the damage inflicted by various forms of estrangement: ironic detachment, self-suppression and economic alienation. We’re in a room with a hundred people, but eight lonely speakers look past each other, unable to conceptualise themselves as parts of a whole. One describes walking through the streets listening to music to feel “deep”, another’s friend says he doesn’t make weapons, just works for a company that does.

a Delprat Giuli (c) to ho

Eight people perform these intercut monologues of everyday violence in Nothing – a play that has no place, but has been staged in pubs, car parks, classrooms and dressing rooms. The piece is different whenever it happens – depending on the venue, the audience, and whatever games Raczka and director Ali Pidsley decide they want their cast to play. This was my second experience of Nothing, and the hundred-strong audience was around ten times that of the last time. In the Warwick Arts Centre’s small dressing room it felt like group therapy, this time round a kind of postmodern quaker meeting.

Yet this is a live event – a shared experience, and the company exploit that tension between the self and the collective to exhilarating effect. The actors pitched their delivery at varying registers in this performance; Joe Boylan’s booming soliloquy was stagily captivating, whilst Rosie Gray took a more intimate approach, at one point crouching down in front of someone and P speaking directly to them. The rules of our interactions with the cast are unclear and unfixed – they’re right in amongst us, sometimes asking us questions, yet each is single minded in telling their own story – the piece thrives off the tension in that boundary.

Reviews - Nothing

Alone Together

Nothing is hopeful. The lateral organisation of the company (their process blurred distinctions of director, writer and actors) comes through in the play’s malleable shape and the levelling of audience and cast. The contrast of this generous, egalitarian form and the isolation of the monologues cultivates a sense of theatrical communitas without having to hammer home the message of “only connect”. This performance in Scarborough is also a testament to the company’s ability to adapt to new environments and the text’s porousness to the instantness of live performance. The final monologue took us outside into the Spa Centre’s courtyard, perched on a jagged clifftop with the waves crashing behind Kieran Lucas as he spoke. It was just devastating and prophetic, inspiring and tragic. It’s difficult for me disinterestedly enthusiastic about this: I’m friends with Lulu and the rest of Barrel Organ, and also don’t want to overhype a company this early in their development. But let’s just say with Nothing, they’re onto something.

Send us your reviews, news and comments: noff@nsdf.org.uk

Reviews - Nothing

Nothing. Special Adam Foster

Barrel Organ’s first show, Nothing, is “siteout the actors. The actors aren’t actors per unspecific” – it’s happened in dressing rooms, se, they’re just like us. There’s no costumes pubs, car parks and, now, all over Scarborough. or stage make-up, just the familiar assortment Any account of it, though, is necessarily of denim, dresses and NSDF passes. In this specific. I can only tell you what it was like on way, and countless others, Nothing straddles Wednesday night, in the Promenade Lounge the boundaries of spectatorial engagement, at Scarborough Spa, when it played to a large challenging established paradigms of audience audience in a long room. It’s a and performer. piece that relies on an intimacy It sparks in the This nuanced set-up actually that, in a room of that size, I moments of begins long before we enter found wanting. genuine liveness, the performance space. The Written by Lucyna Raczka, the the moments in cast don’t hide in dressing piece takes the form of eight rooms, but, rather, stand which the cast are together with the audience, in monologues which can be performed anywhere, in any the bar or the foyer, waiting for made to negotiate order, by anyone. It’s a similar it to begin. There’s something subject, text, model to Ella Hickson’s 2008 oddly fascinating about what play Eight, which won an NSDF interaction and actors get up to before they Emerging Artist Award the go on stage. A couple of communication same year. Nothing, though, is hours before watching Simon quite a bit more daring. Stephens’s Birdland at the Royal Court last week, I watched Andrew Scott It’s a sequence of confessions about camera as he made his way across Sloane Square. I phones, cupcakes and collapsing ceilings. What don’t know what he was doing, probably getting emerges, through seemingly unrelated stories, a coffee or a bite to eat, but the knowledge that is an image of modern life as one of suppressed he’d soon be treading the boards infused the desires and unfulfilled impulses. There’s some experience with a curious voyeurism. I got the lovely writing, shot through with wry humour. same feeling here. What’s more is how admirably un-precious Raczka is about her work, affording her actors a The problem occurs when they start performing, generous freedom of variation in terms of form when it actually starts. It’s too clear cut. and, as I understand it, content. It’s one of those Too much like acting. Too far removed from pieces where your find yourself trying to work the nuanced set-up that has come before. out the rules. But, like a Forced Entertainment While Nothing consciously rejects many show, it sparks in the moments of genuine theatrical constraints, theatricality itself is very liveness, the moments in which the cast are much embraced – the actors are definitely made to negotiate subject, text, interaction and acting, definitely playing characters and, on the communication. night I saw it, it didn’t quite work. We’re ushered into a long room and left to our own devices. The democratisation of space organisation which follows is oddly compelling. Some dash for chairs, assuming the default spectatorial position, others lean against pillars, sit on the floor or try and scout

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It all comes down to the setting. On Wednesday the room was just too big. And while a constantly changing location is key to the concept, it mean that some performances will always be better than others. In a space that big, with that many audience members, Get the latest news and revews: noff.nsdf.org.uk

Tech Heroes the actors were made to project much more than they usually would . This engendered a strangely exaggerated register of acting which took it beyond the confessional and into the representational. For Nothing to work, the register of acting has to match the nuance of the set-up, which, on this occasion, it didn’t.

You know how posh theatre programmes have a bunch of lovely black and white rehearsal photos? Well, NSDF doesn’t have rehearsals, it has the tech team, and they are frankly awesome; so we sent Aenne Pallasca to shoot them dismantling the Wolfe Theatre and turning it back into some indoor tennis courts.

I would love to see it in a dressing room, or a bar, or a toilet; somewhere smaller, more intimate, where the stories are told as confessions not shouted across a long room. As it is, it was a piece with an intensity of thought, not feeling. That said, I do desperately want to see it again. There’s an interesting discussion bubbling away in the comments section under Georgia Snow’s review of Jerusalem online. An anonymous commenter has taken issue with the review, which tactfully suggests that Minotaur’s production didn’t, in Georgia’s eyes, succeed.

Photo (c) Giulia Delprato

Rent/Spring Awakening Georgia Snow

Spring Awakening and Rent lend themselves comparison, and are often considered in the same bracket of a rock opera musical. Having them both at the festival makes for an intriguing look at two shows that share senses of despair, love and rebellion, unavoidable in equal measure. Both musicals are drawn from 19th century texts. Spring Awakening is a musical adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s 1890 play of the same name, while Rent is a reimagining of Puccini’s opera La Bohème, written in 1896. While Jonathan Larson transposes the narrative onto a background of early nineties New York, Duncan Sheik ensures that Spring Awakening relies on a clash of eras and values by firmly anchoring it pre-turn-of-thecentury. Being rock opera musicals, they both have a similar musical style, which while entirely in keeping with Rent’s context is in stark contrast to the Victorian setting of Spring Awakening. From a production point of view, Music Theatre Warwick’s Rent boasts an impressive, naturalistic set while Shotgun Theatre keep theirs more abstract, relying on semi-period dress to convey a historical context. The recurring theme of Musetta’s Waltz from the original opera is used throughout Rent, which anchors it musically in its defining influence – withWings have done a similar thing with the main theme of Swan Lake in The Duck Pond. As a show Rent is certainly a game of two halves in terms of its tone. The more upbeat, animated songs of the first act are only thinly veiling a pervading sense of desperation at the wider situation, which is something that does not come through enough in MTW’s production. They deal far better with the more harrowing and musically more sombre, second act than with the first. In Spring Awakening the suppression and frustrations are attacked with a visceral energy that still supports the adolescent vitality that is intrinsic to the piece, but doesn’t detract from the despair of the stringent surroundings. There

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There is a tangible sense of innocence lost in both pieces. In Rent it is suggested that any innocence that inhabited the characters is lost by the time the show opens. Mimi is of course only 19 when the show starts and as a strip club dancer and heroin addict Spring Awakening’s creative it’s overwhelmingly apparent The suppression team make some bold that any semblance of virtue is and frustrations decisions in the show’s long gone. Spring Awakening’s scoring, which strip down are attacked with characters are defiled of their certain numbers by reducing innocence throughout the a visceral energy instrumentation and using course of the show however á cappella while building as they engage with sex and others with added ensemble. socialism, trying to shed the Occasionally, the added harmonies detract confines of their society in the process. from the rawness that characterises the smaller numbers, but it’s impossible to deny that it does Both shows deal with issues of death and add a certain individuality to the production. homosexuality in an equally brutal and honest way, despite being written almost 100 years Both shows use heavy choreography despite apart. It is a testament to Wedekind’s radical neither show necessitating it per se. On both expressionism that the themes that prevented occasions it is the area that seems to cause the his play from being staged for nearly 20 years most problems and often splits the focus during (it did not premiere until 1906 when it opened at moments when concentration really needs the Deutsches Theater, Berlin) predate Larson’s to be on music and lyrics. By contrast, the play by a century. choreography works especially well in Rent’s Act 1 closer “La Vie Bohème” which is impressively Spring Awakening and Rent both display such polished, and in Spring Awakening’s “All That’s an intrinsic feeling of desperation; Spring Known” where added movement really adds to Awakening’s is more of an adolescent howl the male students’ Latin recitation rhythms. for escapism whereas through Rent runs a deeper sense of helplessness, that underneath the jazz hands and catchy tunes, needs to be inescapable.

Reviews - Spring Awakening / Rent

are some stand out vocal performances in both shows, not least from Stuart Nunn (Tom Collins) and Lauren Clarke (Joanne Jefferson) in Rent and Hannah Bloom and Devon Amber as Spring Awakening’s Wendla and Ilse.

Photo (c) Aenne Pallasca

Send us your reviews, news and comments: noff@nsdf.org.uk

Reviews - Punk Rock

America ay the End of the Millenium Rachael Murray

There is an argument to be made that the fact that the issues discussed in Rent are no longer in the forefront of this generation’s mind is exactly why we should continue to perform it. From the mid 1980s to the late 1990s, a whole canon of AIDS fiction was built, and Rent is a part of this. Much of this literature has been forgotten over time, and to consciously step away from one of the few works that has remained popular would be detrimental to preserving the movement. These works should still be read, performed and talked about as that is how the social and personal impact of HIV/AIDS in America and Britain was captured. Of course, none of this really offers any insight into the Music Theatre Warwick’s production. The performances are generally strong, with

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Kitty Murdoch’s “Over The Moon” and Stuart Nunn’s “I’ll Cover You (Reprise)” standing out as incredibly powerful moments in a show that is just quite good. When performing Rent, it is so easy to fall into a trap of desperately making everything, from the blocking to costumes to set, as close to the Broadway possible as possible. Music Theatre Warwick have sidestepped this, and actually tried out things a bit different, which is brave and wonderful, if not always effective. The main P addition is physical theatre choreography throughout, which sometimes brought much needed energy (“La Vie Boheme”) but at other times was just a but awkward and distracting (“One Song Glory”).

e Pallasca Aenn (c) to ho

Rent is a musical deeply rooted in the time and place in which it was written. As an exploration of the effect of HIV/AIDS a community of bohemian artists in New York City in the 1990s; it does raise the question of relevance when performed by student musicals societies in the UK. The question of geography has proved a controversial area in the past few days, and I can’t be arsed wading into the “discussion” (I think we’ve all had enough?). The origins of Rent are more complex than simply an oceanic divide – whilst HIV/AIDS is still a problem affect young people, there hasn’t really been a health crisis comparable – at least not with the same social impact – in the living memories of current students, which leads to many people asking why exactly it’s such a popular choice for university performances – by 2014, is the story now irrelevant?

There were also a few moments of audience interaction scattered through – though too few to not be weird. Cast members joining the audience during “Over The Moon” would have been really exciting had it not been hammed up too much by the actors (“Hey, yeah, excuse me, I’m late for everything HAHAHA” x10). I also disagreed with the choice to have Mark hand his camera over to an audience in order to be “filmed” himself – it would have been fine, had they not kept the original dialogue that discusses him observing and not joining in (“You pretend to create and observe when, really, you detach from feeling alive”). Ultimately, it was an enjoyable show, and whilst some elements weren’t necessary as effective as they were meant to be; it was brilliant to see Rent have some original thought put into its direction.

Get the latest news and revews: noff.nsdf.org.uk

Billy Barrett

Photo (c) Giulia Delprato

Children lose their innocence in Spring Awakening, but in Punk Rock they hardly had any to begin with. Both oft-performed comingof-age plays are given high-octane, hormonepumped productions at this year’s NSDF, making imaginative use of scant set and limited tech. ArtsEd’s Punk Rock is thoughtfully staged in-the-round, implicating its audience in the inescapable violence of the play’s climax. The blocking is simple and considered, though occasionally leads to actual eyelineblocking – at one point, two characters were fixated on something invisible to large chunks of the audience. It’s also an efficient cut, shaving around twenty minutes off the original production’s runtime and giving the text a sharpshooting bang. The cast manage to maintain this quick-fire pace pretty well, although their scream-whimpering during the brutal denouement marks a slightly hammy turn to the proceedings; sinister silence would have been harder hitting. Shotgun Productions, meanwhile, stage a sensitive twist on Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s musical adaptation of Wedekind’s nineteenth Century play. Beautifully choreographed, the company exude a

Reviews - Rent

Teenage Kicks

passionate energy that makes me absolutely refuse to condemn their being slightly out of synch with one another. They feel like a real gaggle of gawky teenagers, rather than an overly polished musical theatre outfit, and it’s enormously refreshing. The musical arrangements are toned down slightly from the original production, striking an altogether more sensitive note. Spring’s pleasingly simple set – two low platforms of steel-deck and a couple of folding tables – brings a suitable German austerity to the aesthetic, while the stylised staging is a nice handling of the musical’s deliberate anachronism of contemporary rock music underscoring period drama. Punk Rock is similarly stripped back, with only a couple of desks and chairs representing the play’s Stockport grammar school library. Stephens’ text is perennially popular with A Level drama groups, and this is a particularly smart one, but there’s also almost something more tragic about the fact that with its few props and uniformed teenagers, this looks like one. Both are bold takes on old favourites, schooling us in the dramatic possibilities of making something out of nothing.

Send us your reviews, news and comments: noff@nsdf.org.uk

Why Bother? Andrew Haydon

I’ve written before about the futility of belowfestival goers and students, but by the general the-line comment boxes on reviews (the piece public and a wider theatrical audience – in trashing linked there is from January 2009, when such your own event you are quite probably doing the things were a relative rarity). I mean, God knows NSDF a great disservice.” I’ve commented on reviews (mostly by Michael While I agree that *part* of NSDF’s remit is Billington), and, yes, sure, it’s nice to be able to provide a platform for the n best student to vent a bit of spleen by productions entered for questioning any critic’s selection each year, it is not it’s nice to be able to judgment, sanity, attendance, just a showcase for performers level of experience, or vent a bit of spleen (and writers, and directors, humanity. Doing so doesn’t by questioning any and designers, etc.), it is also a make anyone more right, or training ground. And not only for critic’s judgment, the critic any more wrong, those I’ve just mentioned, but though. sanity, attendance, also for the enormous numbers “Silent Reviewer”, however, of the technical team, front of level of experience, moves on from his/her house staff, local organisers, and, or humanity. specific point to ask more closest to my heart, budding general questions about young writers and photographers. Noises Off’s place in relation to the Festival, and Just as student productions benefit from wider those questions are worth taking seriously and exposure and *really doing it* before their peers addressing. and professionals, so do student critics, who make up the majority of contributors to this magazine. The most striking paragraph reads: “The whole ethos of NSDF is to promote student drama and Beyond this, I would quibble about the word give our best young performers an opportunity “promote”. NSDF doesn’t exist merely to to show what they can do. With this in mind the “promote” work blandly and uncritically. The role of a Noises Off reviewer appears in total work exists in a number of contexts: in relation contradiction.” to the other selected shows, in relation to the wider world, and in relation to the rest of theatre It goes on to say: “NSDF chose to showcase these (not to mention the rest of culture, period). I think productions... I assume in representing the NSDF, a huge part of the value of this Festival, and the reviewers are aware that their sometimes Noises Off within it, is that it facilitates that critical outrageous comments are viewed not only by conversation around the work. Moreover, it helps

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Get the latest news and revews: noff.nsdf.org.uk

us all to learn to listen, absorb, and to appreciate different viewpoints (and to understand that there are, and always will be, different viewpoints).

critical thought at its heart demonstrates nothing but its willingness to constantly think, reassess, learn, and change. Rather than reading individual reviews as “trashings”, I think it is more useful to After all, people learn best from their mistakes, consider what a remarkable, and near-unique thing don’t they? And, well, if no one has even Noises Off actually is. And surely, beyond that, the suggested to whatever artist that they might want existence of negative reviews is to think about if what they’ve brilliant proof that, despite being done is maybe a mistake, then I honestly, and funded by the NSDF, it has a how will they ever improve? completely independent voice, passionately believe I would hate this Festival to rather than functioning as a kind that a “negative wrap-up and cosset students of puppet cheerleader. like Romanov princelings, review” is not immune from criticism, but I disagree that any review can evidence of us utterly incapable of survival in or should ever be: “an objective the real world. “trashing our event” critique which weighs up the balance of the company’s from the inside Beyond that, the critical actual efforts both positive conversation – both positive and negative but remains and negative – whether encouraging and within the positive ethos of the conducted by “actual critics” or simply between NSDF.” Primarily because no one is “objective”, fellow artists, is what keeps any artform fresh. nor can they be, nor should they try to be or Hence the discussions about choices of play, imagine they are being. Any view, let alone style of production, *ownership* of a project, review, is purely a statement of personal belief and whether it was interesting that a production and preference, no matter how deeply held, and had followed the text so closely that it had no matter how much experience or otherwise a unintentionally created a lacklustre facsimile of the person might have. Perhaps experience deepens original. taste, but equally, perhaps it calcifies a particular pre-existing taste. Perhaps inexperience leads As such, I honestly, and passionately believe that to rash judgements, but maybe it makes fresh a “negative review” is not evidence of us “trashing insights and opinions possible. Most likely, bits of our event” from the inside, but the strongest both are true. There is no such thing as the ideal imaginable sign of NSDF’s vitality and seriousness. critic, just a range of voices and a conversation. Surely an organisation that funds a school of Send us your reviews, news and comments: noff@nsdf.org.uk

Noises Off Alternative NSDF’14 Awards Written by Noises Off contributors

Most Difficult Show Title to Use in a Sentence Shortlist: Your Fragrant Phantom, Nothing Winner: Nothing Best Exposed Muscles Shortlist: Ben Parsons (Americana), the rabbit (In the Kingdom of the Blind) Winner: The rabbit (In the Kingdom of the Blind) Best Death Shortlist: hospital orgy disco (Jack Pusey Rent), hungry bitch (Ed Franklin, Road) Winner: Hungry bitch (Ed Franklin, Road) Best Bodily Function Shortlist: post massacre-piss (Punk Rock), musical masturbation (Spring Awakening), shit on a doorstep (Nothing) Winner: shit on a doorshep (Nothing) Best Year From Which To Revive a Play Shortlist: 2009, 1986. Winner: 1986 Best Phrase Used in a Comment on Noises Off’s Online Comment Function “When I saw this play the production rendered a female to tears.” Judy Brixham Most Wooden Thing Shortlist: a table (Rent), a chair (Spring

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Awakening), some sticks (In the Kingdom of the Blind), Jerusalem. Winner: Jerusalem. Classiest Drinks Shortlist: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s whisky glass (Your Fragrant Phantom), Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron’s pint of milk (Jerusalem), four bottles of wine (Road) Winner: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s whisky glass Best show for Punning Headlines Shortlist: Nothing, Road, Rent Winner: Nothing Best Number of Words to Have in a Show Title Shortlist: 3, 1, 6, 2 Winner: 2 Best Use of Hair Shortlist: Top-knots (The Duck Pond), Hot birdsnest (Your Fragrant Phantom), Hare (In the Kingdom of the Blind) Winner: Your Fragrant Phantom Best Question to ask in a Discussion “Have you been to America? Have you ever been to an American High School?” The Buzz Lightyear Award for Best Astronaut in a Performance will not be awarded this year, due to a lack of any performances excelling in this field

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10 Essentials for the Management Team (Or, how to make your week at NSDF considerably easier). Carolyn Doyle

N.B. Much of what follows is relevant to manager positions who spend a lot of the day manning desks. 1) An extension cable. Never underestimate how many devices you and all your roommates will need to charge all at once. And never underestimate how far away your bed can be from the nearest socket, making late night texting and Facebooking nigh on impossible. Whether a 2-way, 4-way or fancy extension on a spool, make sure you don’t have to sit up for hours on the first night working out who has to charge what and when amongst a group of relative strangers. 2) On a similar note, you are going to need your phone charger. Whilst essential at night time, it is worthwhile to carry it with you at all times. The struggle it will have to find the weakest Wifi signal it has ever encountered will take its toll on battery life, and ability to charge at any given moment will feel like a godsend. 3) A book. Even though you’re likely to have a friend to sit on box office or wait around in a venue with you, it’s worth popping a paperback in your bag, just in case. You could probably get through a hefty amount of George R. R. Martin throughout the week. (Disclaimer: if you’ve got loads of uni work to do, bring that). 4) Tea/coffee/UHT milk all in tiny sachets. £1.90 for a coffee every day is going to bleed you dry pretty quickly, and is impossible to do to consume to amount of coffee needed to get through a long day. Invest in your own sachets (or nick them from your B&B), and you’ll make a major saving. Which leads nicely onto the next point…. 5) A flask. Carrying a flask around all day might seem like a pain, but you have instant access to the hot drink of your choice without having to wander round the Spa complex trying to source hot water and a cup (it’s £1.10 from the café by the way). It also means you have the wherewithal to stay toasty warm if the weather is not at its optimum.

6) A diary or journal. After the 2 days of prep before the opening ceremony, I was struggling to remember what happened and all those little moments that bring a smile to your face. I realised a lot of the great memories I was going to have forgotten or misremembered. Luckily I brought a new notebook with me, and it’s become my journal of the week, that I can fill in every night and will be able to look back on in the future. 7) SNACKS. Since everyone this year has for some reason been forced onto a diet, snacks have become a very, very, very good idea to maintain happiness throughout the day. Cereal bars, chocolate, fruit, cake, anything you can afford/cook in a hotel kettle/ comes in a sealed packet you should bring in for sustenance. 8) Sturdy but comfy shoes. Be prepared for walking. Scarborough is made entirely of hills, and no matter where you’re walking you’re unaccountably always downhill of wherever you need to be in 10 minutes. Sturdy boots and thick socks are the way to go if you don’t want to bankrupt yourself buying blister plasters. 9) Speaking of bankruptcy, make sure you factor in tonnes of alcohol money. Hitting the bar is never kind to your wallet, but when the cheapest pint is £3.50 (I’m from Newcastle, I nearly fainted on the first night) you need to make sure your bank balance is healthy on Saturday, because it won’t be by Friday. 10) Endless patience and smiles. Even if you ignore the rest of this list (don’t, by the way), just remember that NSDF really is an awesome week, a chance to make fantastic new friends and see some really great theatre. It is exhausting, but absolutely worthwhile, and greeting everyone you pass with a smile keeps your own spirits up, even at the end of a really long day. Just remember, you’ve got a whole train journey home to recover.

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A Total Culture Secretary

In the last of his series, Sajid Javid, Culture Secretary, talks to Richard Dennis about his NSDF experiences. There has been a worrying tendency in recent years to demonise bankers and businessmen in the media. I used to think this was down to little more than jealousy on behalf of those too lazy to make their own fortunes. However, after seeing Enron, I now feel that the situation is slightly more complex than that. The problem, it seems to me, is that people in the arts simply don’t understand the world of finance. Don’t get me wrong, Lucy Prebble’s script is factually accurate when it comes to describing one view of the events surrounding Enron and the creative accounting they participated in, but it totally fails in appreciating all the good the company did, and the noble intentions of CEO Jeffrey Skilling and CFO Andy Fastow in their pursuit of money. What we got from Sheffield University Theatre Company’s production was a glimpse into the lives of two geniuses. Mavericks at the top of their fields, light years ahead of their peers in terms of intelligence, and not afraid to challenge the orthodoxies. Much like the students I’ve met this week at the NSDFs, which is why it’s such a shame that so many of you are considering a career in the arts. But when a play like Enron is the kind of “education” you have on the world of business, I’m not surprised. Let’s be clear, here. Making money and being rich is a good thing. Money is the mechanism by which we give things value, so if you have more money you are by definition more valuable and therefore better. It’s been brought to my attention that some selectors such as James Phillips, Alan Lane and Chris Thorpe have been spreading the dangerous and subversive idea that this is not the case, that success and value can be measured by alternative metrics. Firstly, let me reassure you that GCHQ have been informed of their views, and they will be properly monitored from now on. Secondly, they’re just wrong. The truth of the matter is that Skilling and Fastow were doing what any good businessmen would do, and what I keep trying to remind all of you to do: they identified a gap in the market and used it to their advantage. Was it their fault that these loopholes existed? Was it their fault that they were

trying to make a profit for their shareholders? Was it their fault they cared about their families and wanted to provide for them? Was it their fault that the California energy market was poorly regulated and people died as a result of the rolling blackouts that occurred when they started buying up the state’s electricity and selling it elsewhere? No, of course not. But that’s not the impression you’d get from this play. It had a perverse fixation with blaming these two, of suggesting that their actions were somehow unethical, or worthy of condemnation, when the real thing to blame for the collapse of Enron was terrorism. The play almost admitted as much when it showed a video of the 9/11 attacks, and acknowledged the disastrous effect this had on the markets, leading to Fastow’s scheme collapsing before it had had a chance to succeed. But instead of criticising Osama Bin Laden and praising the actions of the US and UK governments in bringing him to justice, it continued to judge Skilling and Fastow for doing what any sensible, intelligent person would’ve done in their place. I’ve heard the original production tanked when it transferred to the US, and I’m not surprised. No one appreciates the excellency of making money above all else like the Americans. To put this all into context, Jeffrey Skilling had a personal fortune of $100m when he retired. One. hundred. million. dollars. How incredible is that? Just think what the NSDFs could do with $100m. It could move to London for a start. Which is why, after my week at the NSDFs, I’ve drafted the following series of reforms, which I will be presenting to director Michael Brazier Board at the earliest opportunity... To read Sajid’s proposals and get all the rest of the festival fall-out visit noff.nsdf.org.uk

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