Huddersfield writer Chloe Wade inrehearsal for her role as Girl Next Door in As SHE Likes It
AS SHE Likes It, Chloe Wade’s play inspired by the story of a #MeToo pioneer, plays the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, for one night only on January 31.
In 1937, 20-year-old Patricia Douglas was brutally attacked and sexually assaulted at an MGM party. Taking on Hollywood’s most powerful institution, the dancer filed charges that were swiftly dismissed and silenced.
Three generations later, through a fusion of live theatre and filmed footage, As SHE Likes It exposes the cultural legacy of sexism and exploitation that still haunts the industry today.
Join Damsel In Distress, or, as she prefers to be known, her own knight in shining armour, as she removes the rose-tinted filter to reveal the truth behind the romanticised facade.
That truth? She is a Leading Lady who is hiding her sexuality. A Sex Symbol, suppressing her appetite. A Comedy Queen, disguising her sadness with humour. A starry-eyed Girl Next Door, discovering what it really takes to make it in Hollywood.
Krupa Pattani (Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, Without Sin and Silent Witness) makes her touring debut as Damsel In Distress. Lucy Tuck (Sleeping Beauty, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Macbeth) plays Leading Lady, and Tanika Yearwood (Emilia, Love Reign, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), follows up a season at Shakespeare’s Globe by playing Sex Symbol.
Krupa Pattani, left, Stacey Evans, Chloe Wade, Tanika Yearwood and Lucy Tuck rehearsing As SHE Likes It
Stacey Evans (Macbeth, Cold Feet, Vera), fresh from her debut solo show, Hanging Around, is Screwball Comedy Queen and writer Chloe Wade (The Snow Queen, Three Sisters, Doctors) heads the production as Girl Next Door.
Created by Wade, As SHE Likes It is a darkly comedic, queer, contemporary Brechtian-style play that asks: how much has changed between the Hollywood of yesteryear and now?
Wade says it is time that the story of #MeToo pioneer Patricia Douglas and the stories of the many women whose voices have been silenced were told in all their intersectional complexity and fullness. Be prepared to kiss the Hollywood happy ending goodbye.
As SHE Likes It has been created with support from Olivier award-winning playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and is directed by Tilly Vosburgh and produced by Danica Corns.
Huddersfield theatre-maker and actress Wade has appeared in BBC’s Doctors, Honeycomb Lodge (Best Film winner at Delhi International Film Festival), The Fall, directed by Robert Bathurst, and The Secret Love Life Of Ophelia, where she played Ophelia alongside Helen Mirren.
Chloe Wade Productions presents As SHE Likes It, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, January 31, 7.45pm. Box office:01723 370541 or at www.sjt.uk.com
Writer-performer Rob Ward explores consent, coercion and grooming within the gay male community in The MP, Aunty Mandy And Me
THE MP, Aunty Mandy And Me’s bittersweet tale of political campaigns, sexual consent and steam trains plays out at York Theatre Royal Studio on Saturday night.
Written and performed by Manchester-based Rob Ward, who brought Gypsy Queen’s unconventional love story between two fighters to the Studio in 2019, this 2022 Edinburgh Fringe show relates the story of young gay Dom, who craves being an #instagay #influencer.
The problem is, no-one likes his posts, he cannot find a bloke who shares his love of steam trains and he lives with his MDMA-popping, Simply Red-loving mum in the small, sleepy northern village, where he grew up, five miles from the nearest gay.
“He’d love a fabulous life with the A-Gays in a swanky city-centre apartment, but his crippling social anxiety prevents this from being a reality. It’s all a bit of an effort,” says Rob.
“Then, one day, a chance encounter with his local MP, Peter Edwards, leads to a job, turning everything upside down, but in pursuit of the life he thinks he wants, just how much does Dom have to give up?
“There are many more conversations to be had,” says Rob Ward as he turns the spotlight on gay grooming
The MP, Aunty Mandy & Me – the “Aunty Mandy” refers to Dom’s mum’s MDMA habit – explores consent, coercion and grooming within the gay male community through Ward’s combination of jagged humour and contemporary social commentary.
Rob’s play should have been touring in 2020, but the pandemic put paid to that after only two performances at Curve, Leicester. Yet the 2022 summer run in Edinburgh and autumn tour could not be better timed. “At one point this year, there were 56 MPs facing allegations of sexual misconduct, and when there are 650 MPs, that’s a high proportion,” says Rob.
“The play started as a reflection of personal experiences. I saw a play by a friend of mine, Tom Ratcliffe, called Velvet [about a young actor with a #metoo-style story to tell], and I had a conversation with him about how this behaviour [of coercion] can manifest itself, and I drew on that for my play.
“It’s that very careful planning, almost plotting, that takes place where the abuser gets you in a situation where you’re vulnerable or feel in need of them and then they move on.”
Rob’s research involved reading articles to learn of people’s experiences and having conversations with Duncan Craig OBE, the chief executive officer of Survivors, a Manchester charity for male survivors of sexual abuse.
Rob Ward on the stage set for The MP, Aunty Mandy And Me
“The roots of the play probably go back to the #metoo movement in 2017, listening to those stories, thinking about those power dynamics, and then realising that there probably wasn’t a male gay voice being heard in that movement, though of course it was quite right that the focus was on women with #metoo.
“But then you start hearing about theatre and film directors exploiting gay men, and I started talking with other gay men about how this happens within their community.”
Rob felt driven to highlight how such coercive abuse can prevail. “It’s an issue in society, where we’re coming to terms with it, but there are many more conversations to be had. I thought, ‘let’s open it out beyond the world of theatre’, and as I’m interested in politics, I decided I’d look at gay grooming in that world.
“Frequently, the power imbalance is a key part of it; what you face when you first step on to the gay scene, who you meet.”
Rob does not write with a didactic or polemical tone. “I try to avoid that,” he says. “I’m much more keen on asking questions and seeing what answers the audiences come up with. I prefer to steer clear of polemic. Instead, I like people to say, ‘oh, I hadn’t thought about that before’.
Rob Ward in his publicity picture for “the play about a Labour MP with a fetish”
“It’s essentially an exploration of ideas, rather than coming down on one side or the other, and hopefully people will then want to reflect on it and look into it further.”
Rob writes of the social-media world of the #instagay #influencer in his play. “I’m not a social influencer on Instagram, but it’s important that theatre addresses these issues and keeps our voices being heard in the wider community. As increasingly right-wing governments start to form, you have to be wary that liberties that have been fought for, for so long, can be taken away very quickly.”
After 17 Pleasance Dome performances at the Edinburgh Fringe,” trying it out, seeing what works, what needs working on, like a comedian testing gags, or being in a laboratory”, Rob is on tour, taking in both York and Harrogate in October.
“It’s been going down really well,” he says of an 80-minute eye-opener quickly becoming known as “the play about a Labour MP with a fetish”.
Emmerson & Ward Productions and Curve, Leicester present Rob Ward in The MP, Auntie Mandy And Me, York Theatre Royal Studio, Saturday (October 1), 7.45pm; Harrogate Theatre Studio, October 20, 8pm. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk
Trout, by Dan Cimmermann, from his new Oy! Oy! collection at the Art Of Protest Gallery, York
POCKLINGTON School art master Dan Cimmermann will be painting live from 11am until darkness at tomorrow’s Art Of Protest Gallery launch of his Oy! Oy! solo show in York.
“Join us for a glass of festive fizz and check out this collection of originals based on the streets of York,” says gallery founder and owner Craig Humble, extending an invitation to a timely exhibition that merges York’s past and present.
Put bluntly, “St William’s Window versus Stags, Hens and Racecourse Revellers”. “This exhibition uses art’s first role – to make us look – as a means to encourage our thoughts about what’s important for the living vibrant reality of York today,” he contends.
“We can respect the layers of history that make our city so attractive, while embracing those who use our city for celebrating birthdays, hen dos and globally important sporting events.”
Woo! Woo!, by Dan Cimmermann, newly on show at the Art Of Protest Gallery
Craig, who has re-located his ever-provocative gallery to No. 11, Walmgate, this autumn, continues: “Dan’s show is another example of the Art Of Protest showing the contemporary side of this ancient city. Dan is a Yorkshire artist whose work is predominantly shown in London and Tokyo, so, as an art master at the 16th century Pocklington School, it’s nice to be able to show his work a little nearer home.”
Dan’s Oy! Oy! collection has emerged from his countless visits to York. Living nearby, he enjoys the city’s shops and restaurants, making cultural visits and a day at the races. As a keen photographer as well as a painter, he often takes snaps of scenes and events that catch his eye.
Over the years, he has come to ask himself, “What is it about a city with such a heritage that attracts such gatherings of hedonism and partying?”.
“When I was looking through my photos and sketches, I was struck with the contrast between the stoic architecture, layers of history and the revellers that drive the city’s economy today,” Dan says.
Dan Cimmermann’s studio with his works Woo! Woo! and Museum Gardens
“Whether they be the stags and hens meeting centrally from across the country, or the landed gentry celebrating a coup at the races, York is filled every weekend with drunken forms and faces finding their way around the streets and alleys.
“I kept imagining the Minster’s gargoyles looking down and wondering about how their world view had changed over the millennia”.
Reflecting on the exhibition’s timing in the shadow of the pestilent pandemic, Craig says: “To put on this show after York has seen the quietest year in its history, regarding visitor numbers at least, is the sort of juxtaposition that tweaks the interest of an artist and a gallery, now in a new location.
“Many a local has lamented the city being overrun every weekend, but this staccato year has reminded us all that the city has the restaurants, museums, pubs and cultural investment because of the people attracted to come for whatever reason.”
To mark tomorrow’s exhibition launch, Dan will paint a mural in the backyard of Art Of Protest’s new Walmgate home. Oy! Oy! will then run until January 16 2021.
Dan Cimmermann, pictured when exhibiting at The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle
LUCY CHURCHILL, TRANSFORMING THE SACRED WOUND, A CELEBRATION OF FEMALE SEXUALITY IN THE AGE OF #MeToo, ART OF PROTEST GALLERY, WALMGATE, YORK, SEPTEMBER 25 TO OCTOBER 16 2021
YORK sculptor Lucy Churchill celebrates female sexuality in the #MeToo age in her debut Art Of Protest exhibition in York.
“Lucy’s taboo-breaking, innovative latest work is a far leap from her background in creating bespoke memorials and historical reconstructions,” says gallery curator, owner and founder Craig Humble as he launches her Transforming The Sacred Wound sculptures.
A sculpture from Lucy Churchill’s Transforming The Sacred Wound exhibition
“She started her career in museums at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the Crafts Council, London, before taking a more hands-on approach via a diploma from the City & Guilds of London Art School, leading to traditional apprenticeships at fine-craft workshops at Dick Reid’s Workshop in York and Richard Kindersley’s in London.”
As a freelancer, Churchill has created numerous memorials and architectural features that are publicly but anonymously displayed across Britain. Her reconstruction work features on television and in books and her academic research into Tudor history has been published.
Now comes her first exhibition at the Art of Protest Gallery. “Lucy’s new body of work is a complete break with tradition, in style and subject; it addresses women’s sexuality with a frank female gaze,” says Craig.
“The sculptures are startlingly raw,” says Art Of Protest curator Craig Humble of Lucy Churchill’s work
“Created after a life-changing #MeToo experience, the sculptures are startlingly raw. Using a direct carving approach with technical mastery, she eschews a fully described, polished finish, leaving parts of the block uncarved, tool marks still clearly visible.
“Her goal is to imbue rejected shards with a holy reverence and a power that belies their size.”
Lucy has found an appreciative audience for her sculpture and wearable art through Instagram; images of her work have been showcased by The Vagina Museum, and she has become a spokesperson on recovery from sexual trauma through art on social media and at the University of York.
“The work stresses the importance of finding one’s sexual joy,” says Lucy Churchill
“My work changed when I found my voice on a personal and creative level,” says Lucy. “For the first time, I have told my own story, both verbally and in highly personal sculpture. Though prompted by confronting historical sexual abuse, my work is not angry. Instead, the work stresses the importance of finding one’s sexual joy and the healing empowerment of intimate self-knowledge”
Craig concludes: “At the Art of Protest Gallery, we’re very excited to host Lucy’s first gallery exhibition. We enjoy sharing artwork that can’t be ignored, that inspires conversation and reflection while displaying skill and beauty to have in your home”
