A laugh can be a very powerful thing. R.I.P. Bob Hoskins

After hearing the sad news about actor Bob Hoskins, I popped on my DVD of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and here are some initial thoughts

WFRR is one of my favourite films.  It came out the year I was born, and I’ve seen it a tonne of times over the many years.  What makes is great is a bizarre concept (it’s based on the novella Who Censored Roger Rabbit) of film noir with cartoons.  Maybe this is because Disney had yet to explode with its 1990s boom, and cartoons in general had become more action-orientated (He-Man, Thundercats, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, BraveStarr etc) so there is a whiff of nostalgia tied to the 1947 setting.  This strange combination works so well.

The plot is quite complicated for a young person, but breezes along so you’d tied into the action and suspense.  It’s a PG, despite being full of cartoons the film features sexual references, alcoholism and plenty of murder.

And finally, every time you watch it, you notice another little tiny piece of trivia, another little Easter egg.  The fact Goofy was accused of spying in a newspaper headline, that according to a plaque on the box, Yousemite Sam gave Valiant the Toon gun, the little grumbles that Benny The Cab makes, the little details of the Weasel Gang…it’s a full, colourful film with a straight simple plot that doesn’t make it overcrowded, except the final celebratory scene of cartoonary.

But it’s Bob Hoskins who pins it all together, crafting a bitter, lemon-faced old drunkard spitting and griping, before a charged and keen detective who evolves into a fun, hopeful and heroic clown.  All the time, Hoskins plays off puppeteers, inanimate objects and thin air.  He has chemistry with cartoons in a way modern actors struggle with CGI creations.  Hoskins commits to the role, treats it with all the seriousness of any crime thriller, and it’s that commitment to the drama and suspense alongside the zaniness which makes the whole thing work!

I love him in other films, his little daft cameo in Brazil and his working class mentor-character in Made In Dagenham.  But he’ll always be, to me, Eddie Valiant.  Flawed, grumbling, a serious miserable man in a world of madcap cartoons.

We’ve got to find humour to combat the Judges and freeway-buildings.

“A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have.”- Roger Rabbit

UP THE NERD PUNX

UP THE NERD PUNX

This is my new work-in-progress poem.  NERDS!  PUNKS!  I want your feedback and thoughts!

I love punk rock, I know you feel it

From the age of 16 I was bouncing to the ceiling

But from the age of 11, I was a master Trainer

And from the age of 8, I mastered Age of Empires

And since I was born I wanted to sail on a pirate ship

This is a tribute to the Nerds who don stud jackets

The gamers who also have Mohawks

And the hardcore readers into hardcore

The only time the fist stops pumping in the air is when it rolls the D&D dice:

We’re skanking with a skeksies

And moshing with Yoshi & the Mario brothers

Clash City Nerfherders

Cross-gender cosplayers make better lovers

We feel the same fury hearing

Hey-Ho- Let’s Go

As we do from a battlecry from Liono

Radio radio radio CB Radio

When I got the chiptune, I got a place to go

Beano comics and Punk fanzines sit on my shelf

I made myself a Horcrux, I’m going straight to hell

We’re Henry Rollins the D12

You come at us, you’re gonna hurt yourself

Punk rock is for Orcs, prog rock is for Elves

You racists better know the rules well

You’re playing with half a Magic The Gathering deck

I learnt about equality

From The Specials and watching Shrek

We embrace all cultures

Vulcan, Minbari and even Dalek

Rest assured, we meet a fascist in the street

We’re gonna do more than just a Jedi mind trick

Like The Ramones sang:  I don’t wanna grow up.  But I don’t want to stay a child, I want to stay savage & cause a fuss.  Don’t grow up, evolve, level up.

Singing Colour Me Wednesday in parseltounge whilst chewing out a rhythm on my bubblegum getting drunk at lunch with the Goonies and Chunk

Keep your steampunk and crustpunk Up The Nerd PUNX!

What gigs do Nerd Punx attend?

Last week I had a good mosh

This Riot Grrrl band had vocals from Laura Croft

Alongside Selena Kyle on guitar

Bass featuring Tank Girl

Girls To The Front!

There was Taranga Leela whacking those drums

“Shut up and take my money”

We shouted as we dropped coins into the bucket for donations

Touring bands gotta eat and buy action figures (all limited edition)

But when I got home and went online

An advert read:  Male Gamers Only next to a chained-up half-naked She-Goblin

I saw a meme which said:  Sexy Cosplayers:  If she doesn’t expect you to stare a bit, her naivety isn’t your problem

I’m sick of the male hero saving the day when the female characters have no agency

Seriously, Thou Shalt Never The Read The Comments if you want to keep faith in humanity.

Why are aliens always an allegory of non-white peoples

And as much as Groot is cool, I’m still waiting for a super-hero film with a female lead

Rather than a film featuring a talking tree

Now I’d love to fight in the Thunderdome or join the crew of The Smokers

(I’ve almost got the wardrobe already)

But the way we live, this planet might not have much longer

So let’s be green like the Hulk, and smash pollution

Call up the Ents, get planting those trees!

Captain Planet was the biggest eco-terrorist of the 1990s

The only thing that can stop us…are nosebleeds

(not the short-lived 70s punk band)

No War But The Secret Wars

Winter Is Coming, so probably not a good idea to tour

ACAB:  All Cyborgs Are Bugged

No Gods (except Khorne)

No Masters (expect Admiral Thrawn)

We are not a corner of the market to target

We are targeting you and we’re coming harder

Our bodies, our scenes, our identity, our dreams

A love for the complex, and love for the bizarre

We are not the same, we celebrate the difference

And did you think I could get through a nerdy poem without a Pokemon reference?

Either bolt to the door or take my Thunderbolt, you’re in for an electric shock, these Geodude’s are more rock than you, you’re like a Diglet beneath my shoe, if you were my last Pokémon I still wouldn’t choose you

I’ll send you to the grave, coast with the Ghost-types, We’re harder than a bulked-up Chansey, look into my eyes, like Articuno it’s icy, you think Porygon is pricey?  You couldn’t afford a potion, stop causing a commotion like a beached Dewgong I’m ten times tougher than the toughest Rhydon and here come the Egg Bomb:  I’m a master of all 718 Pokemon!

Ok…it’s time to be serious now:

Neo-liberalism has gone too far!

Time for an anti-capitalist revolution

Tear down REKAL Incorporated & the Umbrella Corporation!

Bring down Omni Consumer Products & the Soylent Corporation!

If you wanna don a V mask, fine by me

So long as it’s not made in a sweat shop factory 

We’ll reclaim the past starting with November 5^th 1955!

Anarchy mode!  Start9! 

So raise your fist, or hold your palm with three fingers in the air

For every nerd who spent hours alone

Pouring ideas in unseen tidal waves

For every punk who placed faith in rage and three chords

For every nerd who placed hope in stars and space

For every punk who customised their lives

For every nerd who refused to run their race

For everyone who didn’t quite fit in.

Don’t let them copyright the galaxy

Or give dreams a price structure

As Strummer sang:  “Turning rebellion into money”

(And this time I’m not talking about the Rebel Alliance)

It’s my job to keep Nerd Punk Elite 4

I say that feeling guilty

Nerd punk isn’t arguing about who shot first or which translation is worse, it’s about building a safe space for debating.

A place where the outsider kids and awkward adults can escape, if only briefly, the clutch of the mainstream, we will not be assimilated!

Let’s not forget if the sewers were good enough for the Turtles, they’re good enough for us

So let’s celebrate an underground whist infecting the world above.

Up The Nerd Punx!

Come at me bro, we’re coming out fighting

Make yourself as tall as the Colossus Titan

Be like Wolverine but twice as vicious

Make yourself as brave as Tommy Pickles

We’re looking for alternative worlds because the mechanics in this one are broken

We’re earth-shattering and world-builders, nerds and punk rockers

Roll the dice, we’re fighting.  Up The Nerd Punx!

I Love Youth Theatre (2014)

For those who follow my career, you might come to the conclusion I have an affinity for youth theatre.  You would be wrong.

I love youth theatre.

The fact is, I owe a lot to youth theatre and I don’t want to blither on about why youth theatre matters.  Just check out my poem.  See you in 7 minutes 17 seconds.

Watched it?  Back?  Cool.

This year, I have made it a personal challenge to see as much Youth Theatre as I possibly can.  I work for the National Association of Youth Theatres, as well as being a freelance workshop facilitator and play-wright.

I work with the Lawrence Batley Youth Theatre in Huddersfield each week, the older group are brilliantly sparky when it comes to unpacking texts and creating brilliant comedy moments from the 1960s absurd plays we’re exploring.  The younger group are looking at Shakespeare and they work so well as an ensemble, at times I assume they’re all psychic.  That must be it.

I saw loads of great shows at the Regional Youth Theatre Festival, but Nottingham Playhouse’s Frankenstein really stood not just as a piece of ensemble work tighter than steel bolts building images like a grand canvas, but it was also hauntingly atmospheric which left me gripped for the full edited 20ish mins of the dark tale.  I led a workshop at RYTF in the East Midlands, and it is an amazing event, sheer beauty of young people coming together to share work, take part in workshops.  Here is a video of them charging onto stage this year to dance!

Check out other RYTFs across the country here:  http://www.nayt.org.uk/events

Wakefield’s Yew Tree Youth Theatre delivered a well-paced version of the NT Connections script The Wardrobe which forces the young casts to throw everything into miniature snippet scenes.  But they rose to that challenge, and the production was cunningly set in the round for the voyeuristic audience to peer into the history of this wardrobe steeped in memories.

I caught both The West Yorkshire Playhouse Youth Theatre & Stephen Joseph Theatre Youth Theatre’s productions of Pronoun, a fantastic script by Evan Placey about a transgender teenager.  Their main character of Dean is making the transition from female to male.  Scarborough’s Dean was a right lad, the sort of bloke you’d love to share some tinnies armed with sharp swagger and sarcasm, making his speeches bold and resolute.  Leeds’ Dean was pained and scrawny, unsure what to do with his hands and looking like life keeps handing him blow after blow.  Proof of the diversity of youth theatre scripts and performances.

I went on a demo against the Lib Dem conference in York.  It was the most inoffensive, ineffective protest I’ve ever been on.  Thankfully, afterwards, I went to York Theatre Royal to see their 5-8s perform two plays about the plight of the dying bees through fun ensemble, great costumes, gags, puns and wicked dancing.  They were deliciously more relevant to modern issues than a load of Unions silently marching A to B.  “Hey cuz/what’s the buzz?”

I also spent the weekend seeing York Theatre Royal’s 14-16s adaptations of Macbeth, The Tempest and Julius Caesar.  Macbeth was everything the Scottish play should be: intense, visceral and gloriously gory, but with added scenes by the inventive Porter(s) and the creepiest witches EVER.  The Tempest is my fav Shakespeare play and the cast created a magical island full of sounds and a breezy charm only an Ariel ensemble can provide.  Finally, Julius Caesar’s cast managed to untangle their path through plot and intrigue, playing with their own take on power struggles and powerful struggle.

And finally, I went to see Harrogate Theatre’s Youth Theatre perform Hang On Just A Minute.  You see dear reader…I wrote it!  The show was a commission for their 15-17s, and was about 4 characters celebrating and acting out the strange wishes of their sadly deceased friend.  A collection of four short plays which all interconnect where characters, events and locations are referenced to encourage audiences to sit through and see the whole picture of a world of workplaces, authority figures and friendship all played out with traditional theatre farce.  The cast threw themselves into the characters and sold themselves to the overarching theme of friendship.

When I wrote Hang On Just A Minute, I wrote inspired by workshops with the cast, and chatting with them too.  I wanted it to be a play about friendship, either old firm bonds or making new acquaintances.  Moments when you help a stranger, or reignite old relationships.  Because it’s safe, special places like Youth Theatre sessions that we must always strive towards in the world of arts, as well as outside in our hospitals, homes workplaces and parks.

So, yeah.  My year of seeing As Much Youth Theatre As Possible is still ongoing and I hope to catch Stage65’s Bedlam at Salisbury Playhouse in May and hopefully Derby Theatre’s Chrysalides and Bolton Octagon’s Youth Theatre Twelfth Night if the dates work out for me.

My next challenge is to adapt A Midsummer Night’s Dream for 7-11s, again for Harrogate Youth Theatre.  Watch out for some blogs about that experience!

To see more of my work with youth theatres, check out my website here

A CONVERSATION WITH MY FATHER

A CONVERSATION WITH MY FATHER

Pay-what-you-decide play-in-a-pub

I’m putting on this wicked show at the Black Swan 4^th April 2004 in York.

HANNAH NICKLIN presents a solo theatre/spoken word show about activism, protest and family.

This is a story about them. This is a story about us. This is a story about Hannah’s Dad - a retired policeman - and her, a protestor. It’s about fear, bravery, what it feels like to be kettled, Super Ted, the Lone Ranger, policing the people in front of you and being sent out of class. It's about working out what matters and standing up to protect it.

Mostly, an earnest one person show that also includes the odd joke or two (because all serious things are worth laughing at).

Directed by Alex Kelly (Third Angel)

"Simple, effective and unexpectedly very moving." Andrew Haydon 

"“[…] as topical in these days of police ‘kettling’ and undercover provocateurs as it might be timeless in its questioning of the basis of a functioning civic society.” Wayne Burrows 

“The personal and the political sit side by side in Nicklin’s remarkably compelling performance, a show to stir forgotten memories and spark new debates.” A Younger Theatre

Featuring support from

AL BAKER – Intelligent and relevant folk-punk troubadour writing about love, politics & philosophy, for fans of Bruce Springsteen and Bertrand Russell.www.albaker.co.uk

JAIME BOLZERN - 20-yr old student with an ukelele, a few songs, and a mercurial attitude to the Oxford Comma. Her university course, Medicine, renders her simultaneously pleased to have sick rhymes and filled with a conflicting desire to alleviate their illness.

ABBY COOK – debuting her own unique brand of spoken word/poetry

Compared by York’s own Punk Poet HENRY RABY

Black Swan, doors 7.00pm, first act on 7.30pm, A Conversation With My Father 8.45-9.45pm

"Pay What You Decide” means you will pay AFTER the show.

What Does The Youth Theatre Say?

In the past 52 hours I have spent 6 1/2 hours travelling, seen two fantastic pieces of theatre at Derby Theatre with 'Reptilian Monstrosity' Anna-Siobhan Lewis, gone to one of the worst/best nightclubs Derby has to offer, Established Derby Grill Tradition with Lucy Doherty, gone to The Castle Theatre & Arts Centre for the Regional Youth Theatre Festival and caught one of the best pieces of YT I have ever seen, slept in a massive leisure centre and then led 4 hours of workshops.

But the highlight was 150 young people spontaneously storming the stage at the closing event and dancing to What Does The Fox Say?

Sleep now.

Our Arts Matter/Our Arts Resist

As I sit and type this, the streets of Nottingham are swelling.

From every home, school, hospital and shop, swathes of people are evacuating into the sunlight, moving as one long snake in the direction of West Bingford

From across the UK, the motorways are clogged with coaches ferrying people with gritted teeth and eyes ablaze.

By this afternoon, County Hall, home to Nottingham City Council, will be nothing but ash.

Ok…maybe that’s hyperbole.  But us artists are allowed to indulge in exaggeration.

The truth is, despite petitioning and consultation-ing, Nottingham’s Labour City Council are still proposing 100% funding cuts to Nottingham Playhouse.

In response, My Theatre Matters has called an emergency protest kicking off in 10 mins (10am 27/2/2014) at the base of the Council, County Hall.

Now, I don’t claim to understand the in-and-outs of the issue.  I have never seen a show at the Playhouse.  But I have seen their Youth Theatre perform, and know several people who work for them.  But a theatre is a theatre.

I’m also aware of the fact theatres across the UK have been cut, some by 80%, and as far as I’m aware no big demonstration has been called for each individual issue, cut and building.  100% is certainly an eye-catching headline.

I’m also very aware My Theatre Matters has a focus upon buildings and NPOs.  Emerging artists, unfunded organisations and groups who work with in the arts with community groups don’t always fall within it’s remit.  It feels like My Funded Theatre Building Matters.

I don’t want to knock My Theatre Matters though.  On it’s behalf Sam West gave an inspiring speech which will stay with me all my life.  I managed to record it on my Dictaphone (it’s online here https://soundcloud.com/henryrabypoetry/sam-west-at-york-theatre-royal)

So I prefer the term Our Arts Matter.  Because they do.  They matter so much.  Of course I’d say that, I work in the arts.  I could ramble on about the need for arts in our lives as nourishment, engagement and wellbeing.  But on the face of it…it’s about having fun.  Because the world we live in demands soullness 9-5 work.  Work steals from us.  The notion of work for capital is mathematic.  Input energy & time, output is money. 

Art requires time, energy, concentration, emotions, investment and from that…who knows?  The output is undetermined.  It could be nothing.  Some art is rubbish.  It could be life-changing.  Some art changes lives.  It could save lives.  Art should save lives.

But I want to unpack the tactics of defending the arts.  Because we’ve tried to defend the NHS, we’ve tried to stop workfare, stop the Bedroom Tax, stop the rise in tuition fees, privatisation of prisons, police and education.  We’re trying to stop Frakking.  But we’re failing.  We really are.

The My Theatre Matters call-out said the demonstration would be ‘friendly’.  I don’t feel very friendly.  I feel really really angry.

A lot of people have aversion to ‘violence’.  Official protests are patronisingly marketed as ‘peaceful’.  There are many forms of violence.  Sometimes to inanimate objects.  Sometimes violence means attitude, energy, language.  Sometimes protest needs to intimidate.  Protest needs to be spikey at the very least.  Protest is…protest!

The arts need to stop petitioning and requesting.  We even need to stop demanding.  The tactic of peacefully or friendly-ish-ly requesting councils and government to keep funding is not effective. 

“NOBODY IN THE WORLD, NOBODY IN HISTORY, HAS EVER GOTTEN THEIR FREEDOM BY APPEALING TO THE MORAL SENSE OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE OPPRESSING THEM” – Assata Shakur

I wish I could be there right now in Nottingham.  I don’t know how many people show up or how long it will last.  But I want to be physically there, talk with people, feel angry with people.  The arts is about connection, sharing a story or idea with actors and an audience.

This week, I attended No Boundaries conference run by Pilot Theatre, Watershed and the Arts Council about the state of the arts & culture.  While some of the speakers made great points, it was in little break-out sessions and open spaces people really got angry and intense, discussions about radicalism, activism and how we can make change.  Unfortunately, these chats never had chance to get very far with limited time and attendees.

The tactic of “march, strike occupy” is not working.  No matter how many (or how few) the TUC call, the ConDems are winning, and we cannot rely on Labour councils.  As much as I believe there are those in the Labour Party at the grassroots hoping for real change, I’m afraid I cannot place faith in the Labour Machine.

Can the arts help rewrite this narrative?  Can the arts create new forms of protest and civil disobedience?  Can the arts help unite people, communities and sweep away apathy where before Trade Unions and activist networks simply lack the resources or appeal? 

I don’t have any answers really.  Just throwing ideas around.

But come on everyone…at least let’s not be friendly about it.

PRACTISE PATIENCE @ The Black Swan 15th Feb

I have made a brand new show!  Come along to The Black Swan (York) 15^th Feb

PRACTISE PATIENCE

Poet Henry Raby & musician Travels by Telephone present a sweet and touching non-gender-specific love story, mixing heartfelt spoken word with delicate musical accompaniment. Featuring trees, teas and the timely thwacking of tambourines.
http://www.henryraby.com/
travelsbytelephone.bandcamp.com

Plus support from:

FLOATING BEAR: Tom from T-Shirt Weather plays beautifully melancholic folk musics with a luxuriously Durham accent. A treat.
Floatingbear.bandcamp.com

GENEVIEVE CARVER: Genevieve is an immensely marvellous poet and spoken word artist based in Sheffield, who writes about realities and mindful observations. Splendid. 
http://genevievecarver.wordpress.com/poems/#Writing

PESSIMISTER: the marvellous Will Tapply of Print Beast fame pings over from Leeds to play super uke folk songs. A magic.
http://pessimister.bandcamp.com/album/2013-demo

ALSO: Vegan cakes! Zine stall! Friendly humans! Pop down and eat flapjack with us on an enormous orange blanket.

£3 in, doors at 7.30 with the first act on at 8. It would be a large marvel to see you there with our actual owlish eyes.