{"id":27942,"date":"2017-11-18T20:13:41","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T20:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toyah.net\/?p=27942"},"modified":"2017-11-18T20:13:41","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T20:13:41","slug":"unrestricted-views-jubilee-royal-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/unrestricted-views-jubilee-royal-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"Unrestricted Views: Jubilee, Royal Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\u201cWe should all be angry. Why aren\u2019t we angry all the time?\u201d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\u201cWe should all be angry. Why aren\u2019t we angry all the time?\u201d\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27797 alignleft\" style=\"border: 6px solid white;\" alt=\"jubilee17f\" src=\"https:\/\/www.toyah.net\/ds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/jubilee17f.jpg\" width=\"220\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/jubilee17f.jpg 220w, https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/jubilee17f-144x144.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" \/><\/a><em>\u201cWe should all be angry. Why aren\u2019t we angry all the time?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Derek Jarman\u2019s classic punk film Jubilee was released in 1977. I hated it. Bewildered and repelled in equal measure, I just didn\u2019t \u2018get it\u2019. Forty years on, I find myself sitting in the Royal Exchange theatre to watch Chris Goode\u2019s stage adaptation. Although aware of a definite sense of trepidation, I am also excited at the prospect of a \u2018free-spirited, gloriously rude, take-no-prisoners blast of a show\u2019 (as the publicity describes it).<\/p>\n<p>The pre-set establishes an almost magical mood, and the dissonant elements signal that this production intends to be faithful to Jarman\u2019s original, bewildering vision; the theatre is adorned with graffiti and a strange, ghostly, wordless singing echoes around the space. \u2018Queen Elizabeth\u2019 (played by Torah Willcox) sits at a desk, peering into a vanity mirror while a shabby mattress lies stranded on the floor nearby.<\/p>\n<p>The first scene involves a Shakespearian exchange between the Queen and her advisor, in which the angel Ariel is invoked and appears on the stairs, dressed in true punk attire and hair-style. Then, as they withdraw to survey what follows from the First Gallery, some 1970s-type streetlights descend from the ceiling and the main characters explode onto the stage; \u2018Mad\u2019, toting her gun, \u2018Angel\u2019 and \u2018Sphinx\u2019 (two brothers) who immediately strip each other naked and roll around incestuously on the shabby mattress, and \u2018Crabs\u2019, revelling in a shopping trolley. It is loud and wild and angry and \u2018in-yer-face\u2019 \u2013 and dares us to be offended or shocked or amused or exhilarated (or all of the above.) So far, so Derek Jarman. But it is the introduction of Travis Alabanza\u2019s \u2018Amyl Nitrate\u2019 that brings Jarman\u2019s Jubilee into 2017. Throughout the show, Alabanza delivers some blistering political diatribes, reflecting on last forty years with icy panache and passion. Addressing the audience directly, it is also she who introduces self-awareness into the proceedings, fully acknowledging the irony of this celebration of punk anarchy and vitriol being unleashed on a polite, middle-class theatre audience.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Continue reading at <a href=\"\u201cWe should all be angry. Why aren\u2019t we angry all the time?\u201d\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Unrestricted Views<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWe should all be angry. Why aren\u2019t we angry all the time?\u201d Derek Jarman\u2019s classic punk film Jubilee was released in 1977. I hated it. Bewildered and repelled in equal measure, I just didn\u2019t \u2018get it\u2019. Forty years on, I find myself sitting in the Royal Exchange theatre to watch Chris Goode\u2019s stage adaptation. Although [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,27,110,50],"tags":[1754,1795],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27943,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27942\/revisions\/27943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}