Tony Earnshaw's Blog, page 17

Celebrating the Arts!

It’s been quite a week! Uplifting, amusing, challenging, participative and fun. Most of my attention this week has been on preparing for or attending events which are part of our local arts festival, Arts Alive although the first event I attended was not related – a play just outside the area written by fellow scriptwriter Margaret Graham which had the audience rolling in the aisles.

The following day was National Poetry Day and Dorking is Talking held a special event featuring poetry, food and wine. An evening which featured several local writers and some favourite poems from the poetry canon as well. National Poetry Day was focussed on the theme of Truth which is either appropriate or ironic in the current climate.

Next up, thanks to Brockham Choral Society, was an inspiring workshop and concert with Voces8, probably the UK’s best a cappella group, followed by an evening with Stewart and Carol Henderson organised by Mole Valley Poets and held in Narnia, a pub room entered through a wardrobe – worth visiting https://stewart-henderson.com/shop/ . More inspiration, and some poetry written and shared.

The week was rounded off by a special dinner theatre evening at the White Horse hotel, based on my novel ‘Blessed Assurance’ . Dramatised readings, music, food, wine, discussions; all in all a great evening. We had a good team of actors and musicians, a director with vision in Darren Cheek, and an audience who couldn’t have been more encouraging. Sold a few books too!

All of these events, apart from the first, were put on as part of Arts Alive, our local arts festival – which means there were many other events in the week which I couldn’t get to – and more to come. At a time when the world seems to have gone mad, and when funding for the arts is under threat, it’s good to be able to celebrate a vibrant local arts scene. Let’s make the most of it!

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Inspiration

A towering figure- Seamus Heaney

I spent a couple of hours last week at Seamus Heaney’s Homeplace. I was passing and could not pass up the opportunity. And it was inspirational. Heaney was a towering figure in poetry and the exhibition does him justice. Photos, video clips, the opportunity to hear him read many of his poems and so much about his life.

Those of us who are familiar with his work know that his farming background, his family, his surroundings all played a huge part in his poetry and his poetic development but the exhibition brought it to life. His brother Hugh is on video talking about his boyhood ambition to be a piper. The poem about this is on the wall, and by pressing a button you can hear Heaney read it. You can also hear about the sofa which became a train to the 9 Heaney siblings, the joy of love and family, the detail of a working life in the north of Ireland and about the troubles. The requirement to douse the headlamps at checkpoints for example – particularly chilling as our host had described that very experience as we passed a former checkpoint only minutes before.

What struck me though was not just the groundedness, or the skill he possessed but how much he was loved and esteemed – by family and friends, by colleagues and by the world at large. A man with a rare talent, and a man who used it wisely and diligently. He has always been an inspiration. Even more so now.

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What the Peacock Replied

Artwork by Janice Windle

I spent a very interesting and enjoyable evening in The Keep, one of Guildford’s friendliest pubs, at the launch of Dempsey and Windle’s latest anthology – What the Peacock Replied. The anthology features the winners and shortlisted poets from the Brian Dempsey Memorial Competition and a fine mix of poems. styles and voices it was. I was there because I was one of the number, and very honoured to be so – the second time for me.

All the poets had four minutes to read so we were able to get a feel for their styles, the variety of approaches in their writing, their favoured themes and their backgrounds. We had poems about daughters, grandmothers. Lee Miller, the environmental crisis, love, loss and – perhaps most importantly – about the bright lights in our dark times. A fine evening, the only downside being the difficulty of getting to sleep afterwards with everything buzzing round my head.

My own featured poem was a very short one. and one which is relevant for Blessed Assurance as one of the characters, Tom, could well have written it if he’d been poetically inclined. Here it is:

Beyond

As soon as we argue about your God or mine

We’ve managed to limit, to restrict the divine.

And if we assign gender, or say God is tender

Or vengeful or loving. Or weeping, or odd

We’ve made him a human, she’s no longer God.

The most that we can know

Is to know what we don’t know

To think beyond thought

To speak beyond words

To search the unsearchable

To grapple with God.

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Cathedrals – why?

I was in Sweden a week or so ago and visited Uppsala cathedral. I tend to head for the nearest cathedral when I’m somewhere new. I’m not sure why.

On the one hand, the art and architecture tends to be something special, and there are many treats in the side chapels, like the reredos pictured here. There is majesty here, a sense of awe and wonder, and an abundance of history. On the other hand, they were built at tremendous cost when the people round about were probably struggling to survive – and are maintained at great cost too. They represent a reaching out to the divine and an attempt to glorify God but also there’s an element of building up brownie points for the hereafter, reducing time spent in Purgatory and the like.

For me, brought up in a Yorkshire Baptist tradition, with churches made as plain as possible to avoid idolatry, there’s a jarring of my sense of propriety. Exactly who, or what, is being worshipped here? But strangely, as I move further away from the certainties of nonconformism and closer to feeling comfortable with mystery, a cathedral strikes a chord. I feel it shouldn’t, but it does. I sit or stand, or wander around, and feel a sense of peace, of reassurance – much needed right now – and of permanence.

Uppsala Cathedral has its own special feeling, a different atmosphere. Lutheran, with amazing wall hangings and art, and a beautiful organ, it lacks the reminders of war which tug at the heart strings in many UK cathedrals, but there is plenty of history. Like many cathedrals it is also, in effect, an art gallery and a museum but one with soul. So, while it still feels like a guilty pleasure, I’ll go on spending time in cathedrals whenever I can.

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Interview

Last weekend I spent some time in Leatherhead at the new independent bookshop, Book Potato. While there, co owner Tom recorded an interview with me. Here it is – https://youtu.be/q-n8cfz4PC4

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Teamwork

What does a writer do when he’s not writing? Marketing, obviously. Thinking. Procrastinating. Social media. But also, if he’s a playwright, he or she probably gets involved with a production company. In my case I was a founder director of Damn Cheek Productions around four years ago and this week we met to discuss the future.

Over our short existence we have established an identity as a company involved in new writing, storytelling, and performing in pubs, restaurants and village halls. We’ve had some success, produced some quality theatre, met our objective of staging shows in non traditional venues. Our productions have gone down well and travelled well. Now we’re looking to consolidate, change constitution, move to more regular performances, hone our social media. Exciting, if time consuming stuff.

So, what are the plans? First, we’re still on our sporadic rolling tour of my play The Door with performances in Malvern in November and at the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford in February. We’re looking to add a one man play to that rolling tour and to run workshops in parallel. We’re continuing to develop Faction, Rob Swinton’s incisive exploration of the world of education. We’re rolling out the Mystery Play which was such a success in Malvern this year. And we’re presenting a show based on Blessed Assurance – a return to my current obsession!

The Blessed Assuranceshow will be on in The Dozen, the restaurant at The White Horse in Dorking, on 10th October and will feature music as well as a talented cast, a three course meal, and a chance to talk and raise questions. This will be part of Mole Valley Arts Alive festival. Bookings via the White Horse – https://www.whitehorsedorking.com/events/view/118/theatre-dinner-10th-october

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Yorkshire Day

Image by Faye Mozingo. Flickr.com Creative Commons

Yesterday was Yorkshire Day. Always special for an exiled tyke, but of special relevance to Blessed Assurance with two of the main protagonists growing up there and a bolt hole for one of them in Nidderdale. So the image of a White Rose is the right one for this week’s blog.

It’s also a timely reminder of the importance of the regions. I was reading today about the cuts in local authority spending over the last few years. Some frightening statistics, if hardly surprising ones. The last 30 years have seen local government progressively sidelined and the centre grabbing more and more power. The results are disaffection, loss of services, social deprivation, alienation. I could go on – and I’m trying not to mention the B word. So, to be positive, I’d want to celebrate Yorkshire in all its beauty, character and history; its people, pride and friendliness. And I’d extend that to counties and regions around the UK.

There is also much to celebrate in the artistic life of the country. I spent time in Weston Super Mare recently, where Terrestrial are doing a great job of involving local groups with visiting artists, co creating projects. In the Surrey Hills, a project has just been launched to open up an overgrown part of the North Downs Way with an art project that will be accessible to people who do not normally access the countryside with an interactive sculpture seat (https://www.surreyhills.org/product/i... ). Crowd funding rewards will include a collection of poems to which I have contributed. At Leith Hill Place, on the North Downs, a project on autumn will combine local visual artists with local writers, myself included. There is a lot going on.

So, a positive message this afternoon. Celebration. Much needed.

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Talking, reading and broadcasting

And, yes, the launches include food!

Another week of introducing Blessed Assurance to a waiting world. My second Dorking launch attracted 60 people who made an appreciative audience, and a participative one when the Q&A session started. This was followed by a smaller group in the bar of the Phoenix Arts Club in London. Smaller but no less engaged, and a high proportion of books signed and sold.

The weekend saw me taking a break in order to play sax with one of the latest iterations of the Greensand band before returning to the writing life. I’ve been planning the dramatic version we’ll be performing as dinner theatre at The White Horse in Dorking on October 10th. Planning the extracts, working out which music to play, talking to potential attendees.

And then I spent an hour in Weybridge being interviewed by Patricia Jones for Brooklands Radio. Another enjoyable experience and one which involved talking about good summer reads. She had a range of suggestions which included Barbara Kingsolver, Victoria Hislop and David Nicholls. I was able to add Anne Patchett (‘Bel Canto’ – hostages and freedom fighters, relationships and tension), Dov Alfon (‘A Long Night In Paris’ – a classy thriller) and Andrew Miller (‘Now we shall be entirely free’ – a historical exploration of the horrors and aftermath of war, and a romance).

This week’s score of reviews is 3, all 5*, and the next outing is at Leatherhead’s Book Potato on 17th August, at noon. In the meantime, it’s back to preparing the October show, and looking to finish the play I’m halfway through.

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More launches…

An appreciative audience at the first launch

Another week and more launch events approach. Following the success of June’s event (pictured) I am holding a similar one on 17th July, also at the Community Buildings attached to St Johns church in North Holmwood, starting at 7.30. All welcome. It’s going to be a good crowd.

I also have the London Launch on Thursday 18th at Phoenix Arts Club (WC2H 8BU) at 6pm – early start so people can come from their desks.

In the meantime, I have my first review on Amazon. Five stars, which is a very encouraging start. Progress on other fronts has been a little slow due to pressure of other work but I will be sorting out the scripts for our Damn Cheek dinner theatre event shortly, getting down to finishing the play I’m halfway through, and thinking about the next book. Demand is already building!

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Books, bookmarks and more books

A break between book launches but the signing continues. And the distribution of bookmarks. When I remember. The next two launch events will be on the 18th and 19th July, now to be followed by an event at Leatherhead’s new independent bookshop, Book Potato on August 11th, a lunchtime event. It’s great to have an enthusiastic independent in the area, doubly so since we thought we’d lost our independent when Peter Snell retired.

Blessed Assurance is also now available on Book Potato on line, a nice alternative to Amazon – https://bookpotato.org/product/blesse....

Meanwhile some people have now actually read the book – and the initial reactions are very encouraging. A good start. I’m hoping some of them will post reviews – on Amazon, Book Potato, Goodreads, Book Bub, wherever. Meanwhile, I keep spreading the word. And the bookmarks.

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