ArtScape: A very big man with a familiar face stood out amid the crowd flocking out of London's Royal Court Theatre. It was Terry Waite, perhaps the most famous hostage of the 1980s, writes Bernard Adams in London.
He had just seen himself represented on stage by an actor roughly two-thirds his size in Talking to Terrorists, a new "verbatim theatre" play which, with horribly prescient timing, opened this week.
Waite thought the piece "very good", and so did the audience, which managed half a standing ovation (rare for straight plays in London). As a piece of hard-hitting factual theatre, Talking to Terrorists is at least as remarkable as David Hare's National Theatre offering, Stuff Happens, which featured memorable and often savage portraits of Donald Rumsfeld, Tony Blair and George Bush.
In Talking to Terrorists, the characters are lower down the pecking order. True, there are two secretaries of state, Mo Mowlam and Norman Tebbit, but the key players are mostly the foot-soldiers of terrorism: former members of the IRA, the UVF and the Kurdish Workers Party and a very young volunteer in Uganda's National Resistance Army. And there is space for the victims: Waite, Tebbit and his disabled wife, whose main problem is getting carers to take on the job for more than six months at a time.
All the characters use the precise words they spoke when interviewed by director Max Stafford Clark's Out of Joint team. The end product was written - or perhaps "put together" would be a better term - by Robin Soans. The success of the piece lies in the brilliant cumulative splicing of stories of terrorism which take place all over the world but have sickening similarities. Belfast 16-year-olds (from both sides) wield lethal weapons while even younger "freedom fighters" drill and shoot in Uganda. The message that talking is the key to ending any conflict comes through powerfully.
There are some startling statements, such as the claim by Mo Mowlam (played by June Watson) that it was her class rather than her gender that helped her most in talking to the terrorists: "I shook their hands . . . none of my predecessors shook their hands. I didn't have a voice like WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU."
There is an alarming yet comical story from a UVF man (Jonathan Cullen) who blew himself up placing a bomb in Belfast, then staggered into a Republican mob, which was on the point of taking him to a bridge to hang him "when the military police arrived. I've never been so happy to see a policeman in my life". And then there is this epiphany from a British army colonel (Alexander Hanson): "I was 28. I was in Northern Ireland. Actually it was Christmas time. I realised that if I had been born in Crossmaglen or south Armagh, I would have been a terrorist. And that's an understanding every soldier should have. None of this is personal."
Belfast build-up
The Belfast Festival at Queen's may be about to lose its director, but Stella Hall is determined to see out her last year with panache, writes Jane Coyle. At a summer party in the city's trendy Northern Whig Bar, Hall was at pains to underline that although she officially takes up her new post as creative director with the Newcastle-Gateshead Initiative on September 1st, she will remain director of the 2005 festival (starting on October 21st) until the last fat lady has sung.
The theme for 2005 is Families and Communities, though it was stretching the point to introduce the star of the opening concert as "the UK and Ireland's most glamorous granny". Marianne Faithfull's appeal could scarcely be described as "family", which is why tickets are already flying out of the box office for her appearance with the Ulster Orchestra on October 21st, when she will perform songs from her latest album, Before the Poison.
Oskaras Korsunovas Theatre, the Lithuanian company which brought a thrilling Midsummer Night's Dream to the 2001 festival, returns with its UK premiere of Romeo and Juliet. Skate, meanwhile, is a bitter-sweet play about the thrills and spills of skateboarding, from the Australia Young People's Theatre. Bristol Old Vic will perform Private Peaceful, former children's laureate Michael Morpurgo's portrait of a soldier awaiting a firing squad.
In the BT Talks line-up, war correspondent Robert Fisk and Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat, are confirmed speakers. Harry Hill and Stewart Lee (creator of Jerry Springer: The Opera) head the comedy bill, while Sligo traditional band Dervish and jazz piano maestro Geri Allen take part in an eclectic music programme. And speaking of fat ladies, sculptor David Mach will construct one of his famous giant installations - the 50ft Big Woman - in the hallowed grounds of City Hall.
www.belfastfestival.com
Ó Conchúir leads the way
Choreographer and dancer Fearghus Ó Conchúir has received a Clore Leadership Fellowship, becoming the first Irish artist to receive the award in its two-year existence, writes Christine Madden.
The Clore Leadership Programme, an initiative of the Clore Duffield Foundation, seeks to train a new generation of leaders within the arts community. Each year, participants are chosen for a year of research, training and secondment within their fields (as well as an additional art form) to develop their leadership skills and experience. This year, 27 fellows from across the arts community in England, Wales and Ireland have been selected for the award.
The Irish Arts Council has supported the work of the Clore Foundation in order to make Irish participation possible. For Ó Conchúir, this means an award of €62,000 (£15,000 from Clore and €40,000 from the Arts Council).
Ó Conchúir has worked with many leading companies and choreographers in the UK and internationally, such as Arc Dance Company, as well as doing residencies and teaching dance.
"I'm very pleased about the opportunity given to artists by this foundation," he says. "Although many people think of artists as children, the Arts Council and Clore both regard artists as able to shape policy and economic issues." He plans to use the award to "study cultural policy, particularly the formation of cultural policy in Ireland and in other parts of Europe".
The award also includes a secondment in a discipline unrelated to the recipient's own, and Ó Conchúir hopes to be able to spend this in an institution "something like the National Theatre in London. Nick Hytner is a practising artist - he still directs - but at the same time his ethos informs a whole organisation. There is a need within the arts in Ireland for the experience of management of a big artistic institution such as the NT."
Ó Conchúir has just completed a run of his most recent work, Cosán Dearg, at Project. The piece featured dancer Bernadette Iglich and musician Julie Feeney as well as Ó Conchúir, and was developed with director Jason Byrne. Ó Conchúir developed the piece around the idea of survival despite the burdens of unpreparedness, hostile environment and guilt. The production called for viewers' seats to be removed, so the dancefloor was on a level with members of the audience, which compelled them to take part, at least in spirit, in the performance. Although somewhat lacking in focus, the piece broke down the expectation barriers of traditional performance.
Poets, musicians, architects, folklorists and others will ponder our collective relationship with the land at this year's Douglas Hyde Conference. Talamh na hÉireann: A Land Inherited is the title of the three-day conference, which starts next Friday. The conference, conducted in Irish and English, is now in its 18th year, writes Gerry Smyth. Programme director Theo Dorgan has assembled a cross-section from the different genres, including include poets Colm Breathnach and Louis de Paor.
Both will be involved in a discussion on the future of the Irish language. Folklorist Gearóid Ó Crualaoich will give a lecture and Prof Brian Farrell will chair a panel discussion. Being in Co Roscommon, traditional music will feature, with Altan performing in a concert in Strokestown's Percy French Hotel. The Arts Council's traditional arts specialist, Liz Doherty, as well as performing, will speak on the future of traditional arts in the county.
Information: 0906-637259/285 or www.roscommonarts.com/hyde
Award-winning South African director Yael Farber will do an actors' workshop next Friday in Letterkenny, Co Donegal. Her production of Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise, a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and at London's Barbican, has its Irish premiere in Letterkenny's An Grianán on Tuesday. The show relives the trauma of apartheid through five actors portraying their own life stories through song, dance and physical theatre. Farber's workshop is at An Grianán on Friday at 2pm. The fee is €50, including admission to Amajuba (booking: 074-9120777).