Meeting the playwright and actor Robin Soans

It’s not often you get to meet the playwright of a play you’re acting in. Which is why we all felt pretty lucky to be a part of a student production of A State Affair (2000), Robin Soans’s play about life on the Buttershaw estate in Bradford. This is by no means an easy play – drug abuse, violence, sexual abuse, homelessness and teenage pregnancies form the main topics of this verbatim play, but there are touches of humour to the lives of the inhabitants of the Buttershaw estate, that Soans encouraged us to bring out. To put this all into perspective, Robin Soans is a playwright who specialises in verbatim and documentary plays, but is also an actor, who has performed with The Royal Court, the National Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare’s Globe. A State Affair is one of his plays. The preface reads: “All the words in this play are taken from conversations with the people in and around Bradford in July 2000. Some of the stories have been condensed and conflated but the words are theirs.” As such, it is made up of the narrative voices of seven different characters from a council estate in Bradford, each telling of their own experiences, their upbringing, and the difficulties of their everyday lives.

Meeting Robin Soans put the reality of the stories we are performing into context. Having met and interviewed these characters, Robin could tell us what had become of them- Natalie, for example, is now running a studio on the Buttershaw estate; Paul, we were shocked to discover, is dead. “Never forget, it’s someone’s life”- he tells us, quoting a line from one of his plays. For Soans, the key line in A State Affair came from Natalie: “But when it’s you. When it’s your family”.

Soans is, above all, political and one of his plays is the only play to have been performed at the House of Lords. Talking To Terrorists (2005) is a play about the importance of resolving terrorism with discussion rather than violent means. The relief worker in Soans’s play tells him, “A huge part of what we call terrorism arises from no-one listening.” This idea of giving a voice to the unheard goes to the heart of Soans’s work. “The playwright”, he tells us in the workshop, “is fulfilling the function that a politician used to, by pointing out the areas of society that aren’t working”. Artists and playwrights draw attention to the human condition by documenting and engaging with the voices of the marginalised or displaced. On A State Affair, Soans tells us that “This play is giving a voice to people whose voice would not normally be heard, and to be heard in places where it might make a difference”. Hearing him talk about the dynamic nature of theatre was, above all, exciting and inspiring to listen to.

Having the playwright help us with our performance wasn’t bad either! “Great acting” he told us, “is emotional engagement”. “This is a play about the fantastic, charismatic work of individuals who want to do something about it …You just can’t overgrim it, or the audience can feel emotionally blackmailed”. He made us eliminate acting and role-play, and made us read the lines as if we were telling a story, or an anecdote. All people, he told us, are brilliant story-tellers, and this play is asking us to tell a story. “In good documentaries, people, above all, are trying to intrigue and fascinate”.

Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage

People go on pilgrimages for many different reasons. Even in the 21st century, spiritual reasons probably dominate. The group I travelled with, known to themselves only as the Cofraternity of Repentant Hedge Fund managers, juggled the twin pillars of God and Bacchus adroitly. Arriving in Santiago after a week’s trekking, the sight of the Cathedral made the grown men weep, and head towards the nearest bar. As the waiter brought bottles of champagne and crayfish to the table, the group toasted each other and the large amounts of money raised for charity. This was not a pilgrimage for pilgrims, this was a pilgrimage for executive pilgrims.

The Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage is an ancient path that follows many routes. Our group was on the Camino Frances (The French way), which went over the Pyrenees and across the farmlands and forest tracks of Northern Spain into Santiago. This is where the remains of the apostle Saint James (San Tiago) now rest. It is said that James left Jerusalem after Christ’s death, with the intent of evangelising Spain. Having had little success, he returned to Jerusalem, only to be beheaded by Herod Agrippa. The remains of his body were carried away in the dead of night by James’s followers and placed in a boat, only to float off unguided to Iria Flavia in Northwest Spain. About 800 years later, strange happenings started to occur in the field where St. James’s body was buried. A mysterious star was observed and enchanting music was heard there. As news spread, pilgrims began to come to the Field of the Star of Campus Stellae.
For an executive pilgrimage, our journey was not without its challenges. The route was hilly, unsteady underfoot, and the weather changeable – it could change from very cold and foggy early in the morning to unpleasantly hot during the day. Our ranks were thinned by foot ailments, which resulted in a mildly amusing evening spent at a local Spanish hospital, where the author was the only Spanish-speaker among the group, and had to find Spanish words for, among other things: ganglia, deep-vein thrombosis, torn ligaments, blood clots and internal bruising. One of the team couldn’t go any further, which didn’t stop his partner from demanding the immediate use of a horse at the local hospital, in broken Spanish. Spanish medical healthcare is notoriously good, but even still…

The route we followed was really quite beautiful. Starting from Sarria, we walked to Portomarin, then Palas de Rei, then Melide in A Coruna, and finally Santiago. Though the daily distances were long (we walked approximately 20 miles most days, though the last day was much shorter), the landscapes and passing pilgrims were enough to ward off the boredom of the dusty path. The route traced across villages, sometimes into someone’s back garden or just outside the kitchen of an ancient crone whose cooking skills far exceeded anything I’d tasted before. Pigs ears, pardon peppers, octopus, local cheeses, stews and seafood dishes- these meals could be eaten along the route at any number of small kitchen inns or local bars. Indeed, the presence of the pilgrimage seemed to keep up an economy that was otherwise non-sustainable. This proliferation of bars also fulfilled the requirement that pilgrims have their certificate stamped at least twice a day, mainly (and conveniently) in bars and hostels. Once you have finished the route, the Pilgrimage Bureau (Oficina de Peregrinacion) in Santiago check your pass, ask you several questions and present you with a certificate. This certificate, which requires a minimum of 100 kilometres on foot or 200 on a horse, will redeem your past sins up to the time of arrival; if you complete this on a Holy Year (next year), the penance is even greater.

The Cofraternity made quite an impression along the route, particularly given the fact that one of the pilgrims was a Scotsman in a kilt and a bandaged leg, several of the members were wearing bright orange wigs, and one of the pilgrims (my father) was wearing a penance round his neck for extreme and unnecessary competitiveness. All of us wore the shells round our neck, the ornament adopted to symbolise the tomb of the apostle and identify fellow pilgrims along the route. Though the pilgrimage was an enjoyable and light-hearted (though still physically taxing) trip, it was clear that not everyone treated this trip quite as lightly. The majority of the pilgrims along the route are Spanish, and to them, as it is to me, the pilgrimage is an important cultural experience. Some of the pilgrims are Christians, and the sight of nuns and priests in habits and backpacks is immensely moving. It is hard for a modern pilgrims to understand the impact such a pilgrimage had on Western European culture. It practically created tourism, albeit in a superior spiritual form and was instrumental in the reintegration of Christian Spain into Europe. Notably, it also created a concept of ‘Europeanness’ among its participants. The popularity of the pilgrimage peaked in the 11th and 12th centuries, when as many as half a million pilgrims a year would make the journey. Though we were not travelling in the high season (which is July), there was always a pilgrim or two on the path with us for the entire week, and the density increased as we got nearer to Santiago. The pilgrimage fits into the 21st century because of the breadth of its appeal: it works for students, sports-enthusiasts, the rich and the poor, the religious and the godless. It clearly makes virtually everybody better –even an agnostic like myself can see the beauty and attraction of the religious experience, where I might not have seen it elsewhere.

Toilet Humour

Snaps I’ve taken of humourous, confusing or beautiful toilets in Edinburgh and London.

Locations: Forest Cafe in Edinburgh, and The Foundry Bar in Old Street.

DANIEL JOHNSTON’S ART

Daniel Johnston is a curious artist to fathom – his art, like his music, is deceptively simple, and yet the often disturbing imagery and symbolism behind his work betrays a greater meaning. Daniel Johnston is an American singer-songwriter and artist, whose battles with mental illness have often drawn attention away from, or, it is argued, towards his wealth of art. His art has grown in popularity since the 1990’s, partly due to t-shirt homage from Kurt Cobain, among other high profile fans, and he was featured in the 2006 Whitney Biennale.

Johnston’s art isn’t easy by any means. His imagery can be explicit and is often very grotesque. Eyeballs exploding out of bleeding sockets, multi-coloured skulls and bones, bodies being ritually trampled on by eyeless or headless creatures, and of course, the image of Satan abound in his art. This recurring trope of Satan in both Johnston’s art and music, seems to be partly informed by his conservative Christian upbringing in the rural American south. His artwork provides an alternative vision of America as a Dante-esque Inferno inhabited by Satanic monsters, where spirituality has been taken over by mass consumerism in a Faustian exchange of values. Much like the anti-folk musical movement that Johnston is often allied with, his artwork is drawn from the vernacular quality of everyday life. There is a childlike quality to his drawings, as there is to his music, that betrays the often rather powerful, adult themes. Most of his drawings are done with felt tips or biros, on paper or in notebooks.

His art is full of a wealth of recurring characters, nearly all of whom are united by an inability to socialise with the rest of the world. Characters from Johnston’s imagination, like Jeremiah the Frog (the Johnston alter-ego, all open-eyed innocence and youthful vitality), Sassy Fras the Cat (the girl-woman-superhero), meet with the superheroes of popular culture. His influences are frequently cited, both in interviews and by critics. Jack Kirby, the creator of the Hulk, Captain America and many other superheroes, is the most obvious influence; Captain America often crops up in his work, and he’s also written a song about him. Robert Crumb, Matt Groening, Disney’s Carl Barks (who created Donald Duck) and the New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber, are other important influences. However, looking at his work, we are reminded as much of artists like William Blake and Hieronymous Bosch than we are about the comic-book artists he cites as his influences. Like Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven And Hell, Johnston contrasts polar opposites such as innocence and sin, heaven and hell, as well as introducing aphorisms and straightforward statements. “I am a Liar that is the Truth”, “They say I am crazy, do they?” and “Some people have tongues like torture whips”, are notably Blakean phrases.

Daniel Johnston is an artist with a unique vision, who’s art is somewhat stifled by what’s come before it. An outsider artist in a long line of artist-musicians, from Captain Beefheart to Yoko Ono and Bob Dylan, Johnston will soon create a model of his own for others to stand on and emulate.

Performance and the East End gangster

Yey! I’ve been published in The Alligator! I’m a big fan of this online magazine, particularly because it allows the public to comment on the articles in under 300 words, creating a real online debate. It’s like a blog, but better, because the articles have been supervised and edited.

The Alligator describes itself as: “a new digital information network based in Oxford [which] provides high grade journalism, comment, essay and multimedia for those affiliated with Oxford University and a global audience. The Alligator is also a unique comment exchange forum that provides users with an interface to publish high quality articles, opinion pieces and essays and exchange debate”.

Here’s my article on Nicolas Roeg’s Performance and the role of the East End gangster in cinema.

Those gorgeous lips!!!

Wah Nails!

Sian’s leopard-print and zebra print purple nails

My Keith Haring ‘LOVE’ nails. Thanks for the pressie Lucy…

Lucy’s Mondrian nails

Wah Nails…a fashion-forward East End nail sailon/ second-hand shop. This place is totally addictive. They sell clothes, jewellery, magazines, zines, you get tea from a teapot on arrival, and the nail designs are beyond wicked. Even more addictive is scrolling through the crazy designs people get at the Wah Nails blog . My next set: the Rasta nails!

SGP

My article on SGP festival in Isis magazine, read here.

I had lost my mind

Just brilliant. Just because…

Our Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage

Dad and I are hiking an old pilgrims’ trek across north-west Spain in September, finishing at Santiago de Compostela, also known in English as The Way of St James. Santiago de Compostela is a collection of old pilgrimage routes which cover all Europe. Pilgrims have been walking along the Camino de Santiago for more than 1,000 years.

We will be leaving the UK on September 28th, trekking 120km with 16 other people, over the next 5 days along the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, raising money for Sense International. The details of the charity are presented further on in the blog. Please sponsor me here: http://www.justgiving.com/Sophia-Satchell-Baeza/

Here’s some interesting stuff I found on the pilgrimage from this website. The name Santiago goes back to the Apostle James (Santiago in Spanish) who went to this most north-western part of Spain, called by the Romans “Finis Terrae”, “end of the world”, to preach and convert people to Christianity.

After returning to Palestine in 44 a.C., he was taken prisoner by Herodes Agrippa and tortured to death. The king forbid to bury him, but in the night Jacob’s disciples stole the body and brought him, in a sarcophagus of marble, on board of a small boat. The current of the sea drove the boat to the Spanish coast, into the port of the Roman province’s capital, Iria Flavia. Here the Apostle was buried at a secret place in a wood.

Centuries later, in 813, the hermit Pelayo listened music in that wood and saw a shining. For this shining the place was called, in Latin, “Campus Stellae”, field of the star, name that was lateron turned into Compostela.

Bishop Teodomiro, who received notice of that event, instituted an investigation, and so the tomb of the Apostle was discovered. King Alphonse II declared Saint James the patron of his empire and had built a chapel at that place. It is reported that from then on Saint James did several miracles, even that he fought side to side with King Ramiro I in the decisive battle against the Moors.

More and more pilgrims followed the way of Santiago, the “Way of Saint James”, and the original chapel soon became the cathedral of the new settlement, Santiago de Compostela. In 12th and 13th century the town had its greatest importance, and Pope Alexander III declared it a Holy Town, like Rome and Jerusalem. Pope Calixto II declared that the pilgrims who went to Santiago in a Holy Year should be free of all their sins. El Año Santo (Holy Year) is celebrated each time when the Apostol’s day (July, 25) is a Sunday.

The internet is, as always, a great source for obscure historical information. This website, The Walking Pilgrim, has some great information on the trek. Otherwise, Wikipedia is phenomenal for information on Santiago de Compostela.

SPONSOR US! Part of the reason why we’re doing this (apart from adventure), is to raise much-needed funds for the charity Sense International.

Sense International is a charity for the provision of services for deafblind people, currently working in Bangladesh, East Africa, India, Latin America and Romania. Deafblind people face huge challenges in everyday life, and a lack of specialised healthcare in developing countries and no social welfare amplifies the problem. Children are frequently neglected, abandoned and institutionalised, left without any real support. My personal target is to raise £500, which is a task in itself as I’m mainly asking my empoverished student friends.

Here’s my sponsorship page, where you can donate with a card. Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Sense International gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

http://www.justgiving.com/Sophia-Satchell-Baeza/

All images from http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/

Franny B fur coats on the Portobello road

This isn’t a fashion blog in the slightest, but I had to post a photo of my new fur coat, designed by Franny B. Basically, since I’ve been a Portobello local (for about six years now), I’ve passed her stall of hand-painted fur coats, and zealously eyed them up, thinking of the day when I might be able to afford one. So using the opportunity of my imminent 20th birthday, Dad and I went to buy me one as a birthday gift. Everything at the stall happened to be half price! O dear.

Isn’t it beautiful? These fur coats, for some reason, feel synonymous with the Portobello road. Maybe it’s because quite a few women (and men) in the area wear fur, but also the actual paintings on them are similar in style to an artist we know who lives in the area. There’s also something particularly special about these coats. Yes, the fur may be real, but it’s recycled, stitched together from old fur coats and then painted into what is effectively, a wearable painting.

Franny B., a.k.a Selena Francis-Bryden, is clearly immensely involved with the idea of recyclable fashion, and in her blog The Clothing Adoption Agency, she talks about the future of vintage, and the danger of throwaway Primark fashion, or, as she sees it, material bulimia. In her words:

“The future of vintage looks grim. There is only a certain amount of times that retro clothing can be worn, resold and worn again before it falls apart. Charity shops and car boot fayres will be full of cheap tacky mass produced rubbish, and rip off designer bags that are flooding the market. Surely, it would be much more satisfying to save up for nicer pieces. When you do eventually buy them you will appreciate them more and quality will again reign.”

“I want to walk down a high street and be curious about where clothing has been bought or made. We are all becoming clones of each other and fashion has lost it’s way. We are so conditioned into this consumer market that we just buy. There is no need, just desire, but the desire is because it is cheap and accessible, not individual and special. Did your life change when you bought that £6 handbag? Did it reduce your insecurities? I will campaign (but probably in a very low key way) to get the woman of Britain to individualise their lives. Mix old with new and mend and make do with a twist of style and charm”.

Wise words. Akh, I can’t wait to wear it, but for now it’s hidden away in my parents cupboard until September.

I did buy this hand-painted gilet for £25 to keep me going til then!