Arts: Arts and Culture

Mary Ann Evans: Heard of Her?

DANIEL PEPIN| CONTENT WRITER

Source: Wikimedia

You should have. Royal Holloway and Bedford New College is, at its very foundation, a college for women’s education and achievement. One of the first in the country, it has seen its share of awe-inspiring alumni such as Emily Wilding Davison or the physician couple Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray who deserve far more fame than they are credited with. This trailblazing feminist spirit should be reflected in the powerful naming of the university’s most modern accommodation, but it isn’t. George Eliot was not a pioneering master of English literature and author of Middlemarch – perhaps the greatest novel in English canon; Mary Ann Evans was. Many people upon hearing this name might question: ‘Sorry, who is that again?’ then arrogantly imply that of course they knew George Eliot was only a pen name… Yet, the fact holds that most people, irrespective of whether they know of George Eliot or not, are not aware of her true name. I will be honest and say that I did not know Evan’s actual name until last year. The reason behind writing under a pen name is, unfortunately, obvious: Evans wished to avoid being subjected to the prejudiced literary view of the 19th century that women were only capable of authoring cliché romance novels rather than the profound epics of their male counterparts. An ironic belief considering the universal phrase synonymous with poorly written, low brow works ‘It was a dark and stormy night’ was coined by the male Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1830.

Evans studied at Bedford College in 1850, taking classes in Ancient History, Mathematics, and Latin. Classes that left an indelible mark on her as reflected within her works – only one of Evans’ books can be correctly printed without the need of a Greek typeface. She and her work are intrinsically linked to the university and yet she has been betrayed by the very establishment that nurtured her intellect. It is absolutely paradoxical that Evans should be immortalised by a university that championed women’s right to education as George Eliot, the pseudonym she had to employ to escape the maltreatment and tyranny against female authors rather than her true, proper name. Progress already travels too leisurely; it was only last year that Evans had her work published under her own name for the first time as a part of the Reclaim Her Name publishing project which aimed to honour female writers of the past who never got their chance to be celebrated as they should have been. It has taken almost 150 years for Evans to get the recognition she wholly deserves in the literary world and it’s only just that she receives the same commemoration at her alma mater, 170 years after her enrolment. It is no longer that dark time for women’s rights and Evans’s name does not need to remain hidden behind the shadow of George Eliot, this only perpetuates the discrimination that has so fiercely been fought against. Royal Holloway ought to be at the forefront of this fight and renaming George Eliot accommodation would be a tremendous remedy to the grievance Mary Ann Evans has suffered at the hands of time and patriarchy. An improved accommodation with a name that can inspire hope, awe, and pride in many students to come.

Looking Back 20 years on From 9/11: Come From Away Review

ISABEL WEST| ARTS EDITOR

In the month of the 20th anniversary of one of the biggest tragedies in modern western culture, I sat in the Phoenix Theatre waiting for the lights to dim and the curtain to rise on Come From Away. From the first second of folksy music, Come From Away exceeded all my expectations.

Source: Come From Away Poster https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/ come-from-away/phoenix-theatre/

The musical, although shadowed by 9/11, may appear to be only a feelgood story about the kindness of strangers but it is also a show that deals with the complex and devastating effects of 9/11.

Thirty-eight planes with some 7,000 people on were stranded in the small Canadian town of Gander in the days following the attacks, all unaware of when they would be able to leave. The town’s population almost doubled overnight and all of the passengers were stranded far away from their loved ones.

The cast of 12 play an array of people, both locals and passengers, creating a community onstage. The writers Irene Sankoff and David Hein, after visiting Gander on the 10th anniversary and collecting stories, focus on a dozen or so characters’ stories; all based on real people. Whilst some characters provide comic relief, others represent the complex issues which arose as a result of 9/11 and of the sudden appearance of so many people on such a small island, all with different backgrounds, ethnicities, speaking different languages. The musical highlights these conflicts but also shows how the locals came together and found ways to communicate with these scared and confused passengers.

The two most heart-breaking characters reveal the worst consequences of 9/11: the prevalent racism that followed and the world-shattering grief. Hannah, who is played by Gemma Knight Jones, spends most of the play in a state of helplessness as she tries to find out what has happened to her firefighter son. Unable to do much except wait by the phone, Hannah’s story is one of desperate hope as she represents the many people who sat by the phone and waited to hear the fate of loved ones caught up in the attacks.

The other arguably more upsetting story is that of the Egyptian Chef Ali, played by Jonathan Andrew Hume. At first, all the passengers and locals are extremely weary of him and when he offers to help in the kitchen he is turned away for no reason other than his ethnicity, however later once he tells them he is a master chef they allow him to help. The song ‘On the Edge’ reveals the prejudice Muslims faced as when Ali speaks Arabic on the phone another passenger asks ‘You celebrating this? You praying for your friends? …. You telling your Muslim friends where to bomb next?’, to which Ali replies ‘This was not all Muslims! And I was not –’. Later, once it is time to board the plane he is strip searched in front of Beverley Bass. Ali, from the moment he is introduced, is treated as a criminal by the characters onstage only hinting at the prejudice and racism Muslims and South Asian people faced in the wake of 9/11. Although the musical is constantly shadowed by 9/11, the show says very little about the actual attacks in New York, instead choosing to focus on the way it changed people on an individual level and culturally around the world. Sankoff and Hein use the folksy, country music to bring to life vibrant characters like Beverley Bass, the first female American pilot and all the others stranded in Gander, Newfoundland. In songs such as ’10 years later’ they tell of how the stranded passengers and locals lives were changed forever. With such upbeat folk music and the quick wit of the lyrics it would be easy to make this musical simply a funny, inspiring story, however the brilliance of Come From Away lies in the sensitive but yet highly entertaining way that Sankoff and Hein deal with a story seeped in tragedy. This clever musical will have you laughing and crying at the same time as they fully immerse you in the town of Gander where everything changed for a few days.

Source: West End cast https://comefromawaylondon.co.uk/about-the-show/#lg=1&slide=15