'NORTHERNESS is an elusive thing to define' so says the playwrite Simon Stephens in the programme to his play 'Light Falls' at the Manchester Royal Exchange. He says this as the current
Artistic Director at the Royal Exchange is about to step down to go down the London and become Director of the prestigious drama school LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art).
Ms. Sarah Frankcom caused a bit of a stir in October 2013, when she said that she was ‘throwing down the gauntlet’ on the issue of female casting by choosing Maxine Peake to play Hamlet, and 'There is now a generation of women who are not going to put up with it anymore'.
She was reacting to research conducted by The Guardian in collaboration with Elizabeth Freestone, Artistic Director of Pentabus Theatre, Ludlow. It seems that in contrast to the situation on stage, figures from Ipsos Mori revealed that on average 68% of theatre audiences are women. But that when it comes to producing the works of Shakespeare there is an inherent gender imbalance due to the original male only casts, with 155 female characters compared to 826 male characters across the Bard’s plays.
Her experiment using Maxine as Hamlet worked a treat but her more recent production of a female dominated version of Macbeth bewilderingly confusion as did other who came with me and I saw it twice.
Maxine Peake is from Westhoughton, Bolton, and she has been pressed to drop her northern accent for some roles.
One comment responded to Ms. Frankcom's feminist 'Hamlet' thus:
'That is ridiculous man! How arrogant of Sarah Frankcom to feel qualified to re-write the work of a genius. Perhaps she should re-pen Beethoven's 9th while she's at it. It is such a rare treat and luxury to see a Shakespeare play, and I'm sick and tired of the likes of Frankcom trying to give herself a name at the expense of what is a truly genius piece of literature. Perhaps she'd like to paint the Mona Lisa as a man too. What a load of self indulgent pseudo-feminist crap. Just give us the art as it was intended. It really is that simple. If you don't like it, write your own bloody play!'
But I think the play's writer Simon Stephens is a man. When he asked people in his research for this play if they considered themselves northern, he said they all did. When asked how they defined 'northerness', they seemed to hestitate and then suggest it was their capacity to deal with the rain or cold and deal with it with humour: 'We don't like umbrellas, up here. We just put our hoods up.'
Mr. Stephens, who now lives in London, He claims: 'I think something has happened with kindness in this country. It seems that suspicion and mockery are the default position in this county. Kindness has, in a way that has taken me completely by suprise, become a politically default position.'
The current play shifts around the North from the high streets of Doncaster and Blackpool, and the farms of Ulverston and the shut-down shops and pubs of Warrington and Durham to Cheshire Plains and the foothills of the Lake Districts and the Yorkshire Dales. Warrington and Durham he writes: 'shops and bars heaving under the weight of half a decade of austerity.'
Bill Bryson commenting in 'The Road to Little Dribbling' wrote about a Council's lack of funds to afford it to maintain a shrub planter and made a curious comparison with Durham Cathedral: 'Now I'm no expert on the matter, but I am pretty sure that we are a lot richer today than we were in the eleventh century, and yet back then they could find the resources to build something as splendid and eternal as Durham Cathedral an today we can't afford to keep six shrubs in a planter.'
Today we are better at tearing things down than in maintaining things. As when during the time of the last Labour government he had a mad scheme to set up the Pathfinder Initiative to tear down 400,000 homes, mostly Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses, in the north of England - see Bryson.
Bill Bryson can see this decline acutely because he can view it in relief and observe the changes after coming in from the States after being abroad. Stephen Simon can come back to the North from London and spot 'the seen but unnoticed' features of what's going on in the North.
The play struggles with the hyper-aspects of everyday life: a middle aged woman has a stroke and dies reaching for a bottle of vodka in a supermarket; a married man attempts to accomplish a three-some; a insecure student tries to please hie older boyfriend; a single mum tussles with the father of her baby. The roundhouse stage struggles to fit-in these competing elements, and it just about manages to encompass the performances.
by Jarvis Cocker Artistic Director at the Royal Exchange is about to step down to go down the London and become Director of the prestigious drama school LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art).
Ms. Sarah Frankcom caused a bit of a stir in October 2013, when she said that she was ‘throwing down the gauntlet’ on the issue of female casting by choosing Maxine Peake to play Hamlet, and 'There is now a generation of women who are not going to put up with it anymore'.
She was reacting to research conducted by The Guardian in collaboration with Elizabeth Freestone, Artistic Director of Pentabus Theatre, Ludlow. It seems that in contrast to the situation on stage, figures from Ipsos Mori revealed that on average 68% of theatre audiences are women. But that when it comes to producing the works of Shakespeare there is an inherent gender imbalance due to the original male only casts, with 155 female characters compared to 826 male characters across the Bard’s plays.
Her experiment using Maxine as Hamlet worked a treat but her more recent production of a female dominated version of Macbeth bewilderingly confusion as did other who came with me and I saw it twice.
Maxine Peake is from Westhoughton, Bolton, and she has been pressed to drop her northern accent for some roles.
One comment responded to Ms. Frankcom's feminist 'Hamlet' thus:
'That is ridiculous man! How arrogant of Sarah Frankcom to feel qualified to re-write the work of a genius. Perhaps she should re-pen Beethoven's 9th while she's at it. It is such a rare treat and luxury to see a Shakespeare play, and I'm sick and tired of the likes of Frankcom trying to give herself a name at the expense of what is a truly genius piece of literature. Perhaps she'd like to paint the Mona Lisa as a man too. What a load of self indulgent pseudo-feminist crap. Just give us the art as it was intended. It really is that simple. If you don't like it, write your own bloody play!'
But I think the play's writer Simon Stephens is a man. When he asked people in his research for this play if they considered themselves northern, he said they all did. When asked how they defined 'northerness', they seemed to hestitate and then suggest it was their capacity to deal with the rain or cold and deal with it with humour: 'We don't like umbrellas, up here. We just put our hoods up.'
Mr. Stephens, who now lives in London, He claims: 'I think something has happened with kindness in this country. It seems that suspicion and mockery are the default position in this county. Kindness has, in a way that has taken me completely by suprise, become a politically default position.'
The current play shifts around the North from the high streets of Doncaster and Blackpool, and the farms of Ulverston and the shut-down shops and pubs of Warrington and Durham to Cheshire Plains and the foothills of the Lake Districts and the Yorkshire Dales. Warrington and Durham he writes: 'shops and bars heaving under the weight of half a decade of austerity.'
Bill Bryson commenting in 'The Road to Little Dribbling' wrote about a Council's lack of funds to afford it to maintain a shrub planter and made a curious comparison with Durham Cathedral: 'Now I'm no expert on the matter, but I am pretty sure that we are a lot richer today than we were in the eleventh century, and yet back then they could find the resources to build something as splendid and eternal as Durham Cathedral an today we can't afford to keep six shrubs in a planter.'
Today we are better at tearing things down than in maintaining things. As when during the time of the last Labour government he had a mad scheme to set up the Pathfinder Initiative to tear down 400,000 homes, mostly Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses, in the north of England - see Bryson.
Bill Bryson can see this decline acutely because he can view it in relief and observe the changes after coming in from the States after being abroad. Stephen Simon can come back to the North from London and spot 'the seen but unnoticed' features of what's going on in the North.
The play struggles with the hyper-aspects of everyday life: a middle aged woman has a stroke and dies reaching for a bottle of vodka in a supermarket; a married man attempts to accomplish a three-some; a insecure student tries to please hie older boyfriend; a single mum tussles with the father of her baby. The roundhouse stage struggles to fit-in these competing elements, and it just about manages to encompass the performances.
******************
HYMN to the NORTH
Our Father who art down in the pub
Our Mother doing the washing up
Well that was then, an this is now
So you better listen up
Factories lia empty
Manuafacting emptiness
Life still needs to be filled none the less
So go and find something to love
But just promise me this one thing, yes
Please stay in sight of the mainland
I always know you've got to go
I don't want you to go
So before you go, there's just one thing you ought to know, yeah
there's just one thing you ought to know
there's just one thing you ought to know
there's just one thing
just one thing
You can fill your life with love
You can fill your life with hope
You can fill you life with food and drink or whatever floats your boat
I'll be be singing you this song
There's a million things in store for you just beyond the horizon
But please stay in sight of the mainland
So stay in sight of the mainland
You're wiser than I'll ever be
You're beautiful smart, so funny
You fill my heart, you fill my dreams
And my only hope is you succeed
my only hope is you succeed
my only hope is you succeed
you're my only hope
you're my only hope
you're my only hope
So please
Please
Please
Please
Please
Please
Please
Please
Trust and believe
In you and me
Northern lights will guide you home
Northern lives just like you're own
Northern rain turning into a flood
But Don't forget your northern blood
Do never forget your northern blood
And please stay in sight of the mainland
Yeah please stay in sight of the mainland
Pease stay in touch with me
In this contactless society
Anywhere that you may be
The northern star leads back to me
Yeah the northern star leads back to me
Yeah the northern star leads back to me
Yeah the northern star leads back to me
Yeah the northern star leads back to me
You're my northern star
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