The Kingmaker's Daughter

Although I frequently complain about it my daily commute regularly affords me a little luxury; two hours daily to indulge in a little entertainment.

As usual I've had several books on the go but have just finished 'The Kingmaker's Daughter' by Philippa Gregory. Gregory writes historical fiction and TKD is her latest offering in the Cousin's War series. I encountered her totally by accident during a visit to Hampton Court last Easter when I accidentally picked up a copy of 'The Other Boleyn Girl'.

TKD is the story of Anne Neville, daughter of Richard Earl of Warwick and wife of that Richard with the supposedly hunched back (you know the one that was 'found' in the car park!). I didn't know that when I started reading, not wanting to know the ending I refused the offer of a family tree. History is famously without 'herstory' and so I have enjoyed Gregory's stories learning more about English history, secure in the knowledge that she is both a good storyteller and also an accurate historian.


'I thought it was all about beautiful dresses and handsome knights. Now I see that it is pitiless. It is a game of chess and Father has me as one of his pieces'. 
Gregory echoes this commitment to 'herstory' by always presenting the female perspective and this time it is Anne Neville's. When we first meet Anne she's just a girl, not yet a teenager but already her father's pawn; In awe of court and her big sister, but also with a wise head on her shoulders. As she grows she becomes more calculating, delivers her sister's baby in a gory birth at sea, marries an enemy or two and tries to work out whether she can ever be at home beyond the shores of Calais.


'We have lost so much but we are still sisters. Let's be friends again. I want to live in sisterhood with you'
Two themes came across really strongly to me whilst reading TKD, sisterhood and the circle of life. And so to sisterhood. Sisters are really important. I knew that already but this book really brought that home. Anne looks up to her big sister Isabel as she sees all of life first; even when Isabel is cruel Anne is adoring. The strength of their bond is contrasted by the relationships between the three brothers of the House of York who can be quick to turn on oneanother. Other women in the book also show really strong sisterly bonds, Elizabeth Woodville's daughters look after oneanother and their brothers when they are orphaned; Margaret of Anjou and Jaquetta of Luxembourg, though their husbands were bitter enemies are portrayed here as friends. Although mothers display great strength especially when guarding their son's kingship women are generally portrayed as the peace makers, able to avoid the politics of court.


'fresh princes spring up like weeds on a crop'
Throughout the book there is reference to the turn of the wheel as a sign passed between generations of women. Throughout time women (and men!) may rise to power but with one turn of the wheel she may also decline to the humble roots she came from. Gregory was writing about a time of great turmoil in what she calls 'The Cousins War' and what would become known as the Wars of the Roses there was much instability at the top of the royal tree. There were plenty of young Plantagenet men and there were ceaseless battles for pole position. Such turmoil eventually led to the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower and the vilification of Richard III. (On that point, interesting the timing of this book, with a kind gentle Richard, and the 'discovery')


The book really interested me because I've never really thought about royal houses between William (whom some call 'Conqueror') and Henry VIII. Gregory offers a gateway to history with a human face; making dusty historical figures come alive with interest. I'm keen to see what she will do with Anne Neville's rival, Lady Elizabeth Grey, 'The White Princess'.

Tanzverbot: No dancing, its Friday

Welcome to Good Friday everyone!

 Today is an opportunity to celebrate; at base you've probably had the day off work and Spring is just about springing (through the clouds and the cold). Those of you with religious convictions might be celebrating your freedom and the salvation of Christ. Whether you fit either or neither of these welcome to a truly Good Friday.

Did you know that in most German states it is illegal to dance today? Yeah, you heard me right. It is illegal to dance; because Good Friday is a sober occasion and one for reflection. In previous centuries Germany was joined by most of Europe in this observation; and whilst some Irish pubs shut for the night, they're on their own in the main, on this one.

I think that times for reflection and seasons are good. I think its interesting that most German states also observe the ban on Memorial Day as part of their contemplation on the tragedy of war and conflict. Sometimes we can get so caught up in our own busy lives we can forget to be grateful, or remember that the way we spend our money and time, that our lifestyles have an impact on the world around us.

As for me I went out last night, until it was a fair way into this morning and I feel no guilt about it. Whatever your reasons for marking the day I feel like you should be able to do that freely. When I am happy and grateful I dance, for joy giving it all I've got - with the sincerest of reverence. I will also be up on Sunday morning to see the sun rise.

Space should be made for people to think and to pray.

But space should also be made for people to dance; for joy, in gratitude, to forgive or forget, to let go.

Welcome to Good Friday.

(Maundy Thursday Zumba session. Photo Credit: Steve Ground Coy, Attitude Credit: 3 wonderful women <3 )

Good things come in threes

It seems I am doing everything in threes at the moment from ideas to hobbies. After watching People I watched two more live shows in 24 hours this week. Herewith an introduction to Cardboard Citizens Forum Theatre Piece, Glasshouse.

Cardboard Citizens are a travelling theatre troupe, set up in the early 1990’s as a proactive response to homelessness in London. The troupe are primarily made up of people with experience of homelessness and that focuses the content of their work. The shows they run tours both in schools and hostels, and also in mainstream theatres. Despite serving social aims this troupe does not run on pity, but on excellence and professionalism.

Glasshouse - Copyright: Cardboard Citizens

Cardboard Citizens are pioneers of forum theatre. A style Shakespeare would have recognised. During Glasshouse the players present one story through the eyes of three different characters and it doesn’t end well. The audience’s job is first to watch and listen and then to suggest how different decisions and actions could change the outcome for the character of their choice. Your words of course are not enough; to change it for the character you literally step into their shoes, taking their place and experiencing what the scenario  feels like from their perspective. Some of the tactics work, and some of them just seem to make it worse.

This forum-style was really effective for me as an audience member. It made me reflect on the way that I respond to conflict and to difficult life circumstances more generally. It was a style I remembered from Sex-Ed and Crime-Stoppers at school; but that doesn’t stop it being an effective way to challenge people and make them think. More than that, it didn’t feel like school because these guys were professionals, they were highly polished entertainers as well as educators. And the work of Cardboard Citizens clearly goes beyond teaching drama, to getting people back on their feet in really practical, humanising ways!

Glasshouse is touring, its in Southend tomorrow and then in East London, at Richmix on Saturday, as well as numerous venues in between. See it if you get the chance!

People: Alan Bennet's Play

One of the first plays I saw at the National Theatre was an Alan Bennett play, The History Boys featuring the original cast; Corden, Cooper, Griffiths and in my opinion the best, Parker.  Having also performed in Talking Heads and seen other Bennett material staged, when People was announced I was excited. My well-worn Entry Pass got another airing for Bennett’s new play.

People, is the story of a country house and its destiny as lived by an elderly dowager, called Dorothy. It questions the immutability of time and the necessity of organisations like the National Trust. It was a particularly interesting play for someone with an interest in heritage because it always comes back to ‘what is worth preserving? And why?’.

The play opens with two old ladies in a big country house and the entrance of a young man wearing only a military jacket. From that point on Bennet both amuses and informs; especially when his play was furnished by such a stellar cast, De La Tour (who knows about timely delivery of a line), Jupp (playing a stereotypically dower and slightly slimy salesman) & Cadell as the Deacon of Huddersfield. He marries church and state, humour and a very serious agenda, porn and country houses.

(De La Tour & Linda Bassett in a light hearted moment)

National Trust as auctioneer & little England

In People Alan Bennet is evidently very critical of the mercenary attitude he considers the Trust to have taken on. As a reflection of changes in society, anything is for sale; Bevan claims his group even ‘bought Anglesey recently’. When asked about his evident objections in interview Bennet said, ‘‘Less and less are we a nation and more and more just a captive market to be exploited…That a Methodist church in Bournemouth has been bought and re-opened as a Tesco is hardly worth mentioning…My objections to this level of marketing are not to do with morals but to do with taste’. And this attitude comes out time and time again in his play. These objections often find their voice in the character of Dorothy who would rather have an ensuite bathroom and a porn film filmed in her lounge than leave her house to the National Trust. The reaction from the National Trust as voiced by Ivo Dawnay is as follows, ‘It’s sad that the world is very commercial but we need money to do our conservation work and if we are going to save beautiful places, we need to have the funds to do that.’

What is worth preserving?

The key question this play seeks to ask is, ‘What is worth preserving? And at what cost?’. Is the shell of a well-loved house in a state of disrepair really worth saving, when all Dorothy wants is a ‘non-arctic bathroom’, when the house is anything but unique, when it doesn’t really have a narrative to ‘sell’ it, when Dorothy must pay in order to donate her house to the Trust. As Dorothy notes ‘not caring is what has preserved them’. The young man representing the Trust raises a question even of what is worthy of saving, regarding Mazer prison he asks, ‘Do we…save them? Do we restore the patina? I think we do. I think we must’. It seems that for Bennet there is too much interference with the passage of time and decay which according to one character in the play ‘is a kind of progress’.

National Trust as church

During my Masters I was obsessed with the issue of how space becomes place. What imbues a location with meaning? What might be too sacred to touch or interfere with?

This is a question Bennet asks quite deliberately by staging a porn film in the house and running it up against the visit of a bishop and the more savoury clientèle of the Anglican church/ National Trust. The metaphor of church and National Trust is made explicit ‘The Trust is a church too and in the piety and devotion of its members one that would rival the Anglicans…the cars boast their pilgrim badge, the stickers the holy houses where they have paid homage and the sacrament they have received of coffee and walnut cake’. Not only is this hilarious, and true, it is also not a new metaphor, see Burch 

The sacred items in this secular church are also a little bit odd. He highlights the way in which National Trust properties land on anything that will create a story, even pot-pans used in the Billiard room by famous people in this case. Along with the servants quarters and the old croquet set, even Dorothy is coerced into being part of the visiting experience, she ruminates on the way people process museums now, ‘And not even looking. Snapping it. Ticking it off. I don’t want to be ticked off’. The National Trust man responds saying, ‘there is nowhere that is not visitable. That at least the Holocaust has taught us’. The horror implied in Bennet’s narrative of the fact that everything must be sacrificed to the mass consumer on the altar of ‘The Past as Experience becomes truly evident’.

Whilst Bennet is flippant and occasionally represents his subjects in a way that is truly farcical he has a point to make. What is really worth sacrificing for the good of ‘England’ if there really is such a thing? Is it worth the unhappiness of two women in their dying days, the sacrifice of ‘reality’ for some imported story, ‘Country houses are window dressing. They mitigate nothing’. His point is that they mean, nothing. Access to country houses for the masses changes very little. ‘The Trust wants to get people in, we want to keep them out. Either way the house is preserved.’

PST (people spoil things)

Early in the play Bevan, the auctioneer introduces us to his little saying, ‘PST: people spoil things’; he advocates not the democratisation of heritage but its siphoning off. Dorothy makes the point that whether people are included or excluded, ‘either way the house is preserved.’ The great irony of this play is the title, ‘People’ and the ostensible plot-focus, ‘a house’. Maybe the play isn’t about the house after all!

See this play at the NT, and if that’s too far to go see it in your local cinema, where its being streamed live on 21^st March.

Sewing round a problem?

Today, I've taken a break from the film watching, I've got a bit a creative - sewing round a problem.

Recently I bought a Hugmeister pillow. Its great and really supportive while I'm sleeping (I'm one of those 'how many knots can I tie myself in' sorts of sleepers). Its 110 cms long and only comes with one pillowcase. You can buy new pillowcases, but they cost £6 each and only come in 6 colours. I decided I would rather 'save the money'. Funny thing is, making the cases myself only actually saved me £1...So what shaped my decision not to buy off the internet? I think it comes down to patience and choice.

Patience
To be honest, its not a strong suit of mine. I hate waiting. I am not very patient for well, anything. Having waited the couple of days for my pillow to arrive I didn't want to wait any longer. Making my own meant I now have two more cases in less than a day after I first desired a few more. It eliminated my need for patience. I reckon I am learning patience in enough areas of my life to choose speed on this occasion.

Choice
To be fair to them, they did give me the opportunity to choose between 6 colours. But whilst I like block colours none of them really fitted in with my creamy yellow walls. So I went to my local haberdashers and bought these two patterns. The peacock is really striking, its a statement piece in an otherwise very grown-up space, the flowery one on the other hand is a happy on-trend blend with my room. I liked the freedom to choose between some 22 prints of varying brightness and patterns.

I think as a woman today living in the UK I have got really rather used to my own freedom of choice and access to my desires right here right now.

1984
Whilst working on my giant pillowcases I was listening to a radio play of 1984. This too made me think about patience and choice. The Big Brother society denies people a choice, to the extent that it even tells people what to think. The people who are really free are the Proles who can sing and think, and dance outside of Big Brother. What even is choice anyway? Surely more than choosing my own pillowcases!

Deutsch-Kino-Love 2

OK, I admit you have waited a long time for this blog post. I have been exploring some real life big issues, like why are all the poor people in the Les Mis film Northern? And is the body under the car park King Richard III? (no!), and what about the Gay Marriage bill or Women Bishops?! So herewith part two of my German cinema series; today featuring Das Wunder von Bern (HMV buy) and Barfuss (Birthday/Christmas gift) both good, quite different films.

Das Wunder von Bern (2003)

This Wortmann film is set in 1950’s Essen and is the story of a football-mad boy (Matthias) and his trip to the 1950’s World Cup in Bern, Switzerland. When we first meet Matthias he is growing up a world without male role-models. His dad is still in a Soviet prisoner of war camp and his brother dreams of revolution; Matthias turns to footballers for inspiration. This film, whilst ostensibly being about the downright miraculous victory of the Germans in the 1954 World Cup at Bern is also about family. About the adjustments of Matthias’ family with and without his dad, the loyalties of a husband when greeted by fame and fortune, the duties of a father and a son to the family and making it work. And it is also about the experience of war and recovery through the eyes of a child; thoroughly reminiscent of the photos I saw on my Archaeology of Modern Conflict course.

Das Wunder von Bern was a beautiful story to watch. The set design and the location shooting take you back in time, not a simpler time, but a different world to ours; where women wore pretty dresses and the men called the shots (intentional pun!). Like Goodbye Lenin! some of the footage is interspersed with real historic footage which adds an extra glorious dimension. And my own father, who isn’t generally that interested in Foreign Language Cinema lapped it up too!

If you like football, World War II or beautifully crafted films you will love this! I’d give it a secure 4/5.

Barfuss (2005)

Nick is a bachelor who has trouble holding down a job. On one such job, working as a cleaner in an asylum he meets Leila who he interrupts trying to commit suicide. Leila becomes Nick’s shadow following him all the way from Munich to Hamburg, seeing the world through the naïve eyes of a child and emboldening Nick to make good life decisions. This rom-com is apparently loved by people who also loved 500 days of summer and Love Actually; I can see the resemblances with an extra psychological twist. There was the occasional painfully slapstick scene but I liked the fact that even Leila was treated like a complex  character despite her fragility. And I think I recognised the party location as Benrath Castle but I could be wrong…

Great rom-com, a little long in places, but feel-good and a great sofa comfort… 7/10.

Deutsch-Kino-Love 1

Dear Blogosphere,

Happy New Year! You know I really love German cinema. My obsession really peaked over the Christmas holidays when I packed 4 classics in (I've legally downloaded number 5). Herewith Review 1 of 2 featuring the famous Berlin films, Das Leben der Anderen (2006) and Goodbye Lenin (2003)

Das Leben der Anderen (2006)

This film was given to me as a birthday present and is the most poetic cinematically of the German films I’ve seen to date. Watching it encouraged a conversation as to the definition of ‘Arthouse Cinema’ – the conclusions: ‘Arthouse’ often has negative connotations of plotlessness but beauty in the form & cinematography.

DLDA, however, had plenty of plot. It is the story of a young writer/ director in Berlin in the 1980’s and the man who spies on him for the government, their interrelationship and how it changes them both. Both characters go through a gentle but eventually radical development shaped by their circumstances and experiences. I was impressed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's handling of such a recent political issue, avoiding overdramatisation or too bold a line between 'goody' and 'bady'. The story made me think about identity, the role of art in subversion, love and the strength of an individual. Cinematically Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, was quite radical in his casting decisions; choosing Ulrich Mühe to play a Stasi informant when he himself had been monitored in the 1980’s. Life since 1980 has obviously moved on in Berlin, the producers commented that finding a place to film in Berlin, without cars was really difficult. 

The brilliance of DLDA was recognised by several awarding bodies, and not kooky ones either! The film made €814,337 in its opening weekend in Germany alone. It secured 7 Lolas (German film awards), was nominated for a Golden Globe and won an Oscar in 2006. Plus did I mention it is beautifully shot.

 See it.

The English subtitles are plenty good enough.

Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

When I mentioned I was surveying German cinema one comment was recurrent, ‘Watch Good Bye Lenin!’. So I did. I ordered it online and dutifully waited for the disk. It’s a comedy about a young guy, Alex, whose mother is very sensitive to shocks (it seems to send her into a coma) and very devoted to socialism. When Alex gets into political trouble his Mum goes into a coma, whilst she's out of the picture the Berlin wall and all that she stands for falls. When she recovers Alex tries to recreate socialist East Berlin in her bedroom, believing it will save her from death, with hilarious consequences.

Compared to the intricate beauty of DLDA, Good Bye Lenin! is a heavy-footed romp of hilarity. It did make me laugh and I enjoyed the developing romance between the male lead and his mother’s nurse. I thought adding actual footage from the collapse of the wall was also a nice touch and it did bring home what a world changing year 1990 must have been. My ears also pricked up when I heard an identical music sample to that from French film Amelie (turns out the soundtracks share a composer). 

Other than that it left me fairly unmoved. Sorry. Luckily for those who do love it I’ve been outvoted; it won 8 Lolas, a César and a Goya, and was even nominated for a BAFTA. Maybe I just let my funny bone at home…

So in conclusion, 2 deservedly good films, for 2 different moods, set in 2 different decades. Take your pick! I'll be back with a review of Miracle of Bern and Barefoot next time!