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Oct. 14th, 2009 08:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71To Bristol to see the Sarah Kane material in the University Theatre Collection. Arrived at Temple Meads at quarter to one and had to extricate myself from a cosmetics saleswoman trying to sell me a £150 collection of cosmetics "for the lady in your life" for £30 before getting out of the station and onto the bus to the part of town where the university buildings stand.
Wove my way through hordes of students to the Drama Department, and down several flights of stairs to where the Collection is housed. I was expected - my name was on the board - but the two very nice ladies in the office didn't seem to remember my email a couple of months ago listing which articles I wanted to view. Fortunately I'd had the presence of mind to make a list of them all complete with their catalogue numbers.
The ladies asked me to wait in the main study area. It sounded like some of the items I wanted belonged to the Drama Department and that that might be a complication, but after about ten minutes another lady called Jo, who seemed to be in charge, came out and asked what the nature of my research was. I explained that I'm a devoted Sarah Kane enthusiast so had come to see this material that wasn't available anywhere else. She was fine with that, but warned me that the play scripts she wrote as a student could be read on the premises but not transcribed "or anything". I took it from that that photocopying was also out. That didn't surprise me as in 1995 Sarah withdrew these plays, forbidding them from being performed or published ever again.
Jo then brought me in the photos from the university Drama Society production of Howard Barker's Victory in which Sarah played Bradshaw. There was a box of stretchy white gloves on the table; visitors were required to put on a pair to handle photos. Of course I recognised her straight away; seeing quite a few pictures of the 19-year-old Sarah performing on stage was just incredible. The programme, alas, had no bios of the cast, but contained many quotes from Howard Barker including several sentiments that I knew would have struck a chord with Sarah. There was also a quote from a Blow Monkeys lyric; I wonder whether she had a hand in having that put in? Another principal member of the cast was a certain Simon Pegg.
Next were the pics of the production of Macbeth put on by the final year Drama students as part of the course. Sarah directed this one but didn't act in it, so she wasn't in the photos, but it was still interesting to look at them and think : these were Sarah's friends. I wondered whether they'd had the same kind of wild wrap parties that my own university's Drama society did.
Finally it was the jewels in the crown : the three play scripts that she wrote while a student, and performed at the Edinburgh Festivals in the summer vacations. They had been typed on a typewriter, with the as a little above the line; clearly Sarah, like many amateur typists, was unable to bring her left little finger down on the key with much force. Having been a student at the same time as her, in those days before everyone had PCs with printers, I remembered evenings typing my fanzine articles on my pal Rob's old office typewriter...
The title Comic Monologue was an example of Sarah's black humour at work : it's a deeply affecting piece narrated by a woman who's been raped by her boyfriend. Starved was about a girl with bulimia (and contained a line that she later used in Crave - it was fascinating to see the line in context). Both were fine examples of Sarah's raw expressive emotional writing style. What She Said was about a young woman experimenting with sex and learning about love and relationships in the process; it had plenty of warm humour and lines to make you smile, while also socking home some scalpel-sharp observations.
All in all the young Sarah was already showing that she was without doubt going to be something special.
I thanked Jo and handed her back the material; she said she hoped it had been helpful and to feel free to come again. I hope I will come back next summer, with my Polish Sarah Kane e-pal Kasia. She deserves to see this stuff. I put a generous donation in the box and bought a souvenir postcard.
Walked down the road to a Starbucks to refuel with a cake and a Frappucino and write the postcard to Ann. Then there was one more place to go.
I'd known which street Sarah lived in as a student but not what number, but I'd known the street was a short one so my original plan had been to look at every house, so then I'd at least know I'd seen her house. But Sarah had done me a favour : she typed her address on the title page of What She Said.
So I called at the Oxfam Bookshop to ask whether they had an A-Z of Bristol. They didn't, but there was a street map of the city on the wall. Looking at Clifton, the student quarter, I eventually found the street, which turned out to be just a mile away. I walked it.
It was a big house, as I'd guessed from Sarah having lived in 'Flat 10'; a quite old building, a typical student house really. I stood on the pavement looking at all the visible windows in turn, thinking how it was in one of those rooms that Sarah spent two of the best years of her life. This was where it happened; where she sat typing up her play scripts, watched comedy videos, rolled up a spliff, enjoyed her first lesbian affairs, listened to the Jesus and Mary Chain. Their Automatic album was a staple of my own university days which, as I said, coincided with hers; looking at the house I pictured Sarah singing along, smiling, to Here Comes Alice, and consoling herself after a break-up to Halfway To Crazy. Finally I tore myself away and wandered over to the bus stop.
Back at Temple Meads with half an hour before the Portsmouth train; moseyed into Bonaparte's cafe bar for a Bulmers.
Back in Gosport at 7.15; there was meant to be a bus in the station, but wasn't, so took a taxi to the take-away.
Wove my way through hordes of students to the Drama Department, and down several flights of stairs to where the Collection is housed. I was expected - my name was on the board - but the two very nice ladies in the office didn't seem to remember my email a couple of months ago listing which articles I wanted to view. Fortunately I'd had the presence of mind to make a list of them all complete with their catalogue numbers.
The ladies asked me to wait in the main study area. It sounded like some of the items I wanted belonged to the Drama Department and that that might be a complication, but after about ten minutes another lady called Jo, who seemed to be in charge, came out and asked what the nature of my research was. I explained that I'm a devoted Sarah Kane enthusiast so had come to see this material that wasn't available anywhere else. She was fine with that, but warned me that the play scripts she wrote as a student could be read on the premises but not transcribed "or anything". I took it from that that photocopying was also out. That didn't surprise me as in 1995 Sarah withdrew these plays, forbidding them from being performed or published ever again.
Jo then brought me in the photos from the university Drama Society production of Howard Barker's Victory in which Sarah played Bradshaw. There was a box of stretchy white gloves on the table; visitors were required to put on a pair to handle photos. Of course I recognised her straight away; seeing quite a few pictures of the 19-year-old Sarah performing on stage was just incredible. The programme, alas, had no bios of the cast, but contained many quotes from Howard Barker including several sentiments that I knew would have struck a chord with Sarah. There was also a quote from a Blow Monkeys lyric; I wonder whether she had a hand in having that put in? Another principal member of the cast was a certain Simon Pegg.
Next were the pics of the production of Macbeth put on by the final year Drama students as part of the course. Sarah directed this one but didn't act in it, so she wasn't in the photos, but it was still interesting to look at them and think : these were Sarah's friends. I wondered whether they'd had the same kind of wild wrap parties that my own university's Drama society did.
Finally it was the jewels in the crown : the three play scripts that she wrote while a student, and performed at the Edinburgh Festivals in the summer vacations. They had been typed on a typewriter, with the as a little above the line; clearly Sarah, like many amateur typists, was unable to bring her left little finger down on the key with much force. Having been a student at the same time as her, in those days before everyone had PCs with printers, I remembered evenings typing my fanzine articles on my pal Rob's old office typewriter...
The title Comic Monologue was an example of Sarah's black humour at work : it's a deeply affecting piece narrated by a woman who's been raped by her boyfriend. Starved was about a girl with bulimia (and contained a line that she later used in Crave - it was fascinating to see the line in context). Both were fine examples of Sarah's raw expressive emotional writing style. What She Said was about a young woman experimenting with sex and learning about love and relationships in the process; it had plenty of warm humour and lines to make you smile, while also socking home some scalpel-sharp observations.
All in all the young Sarah was already showing that she was without doubt going to be something special.
I thanked Jo and handed her back the material; she said she hoped it had been helpful and to feel free to come again. I hope I will come back next summer, with my Polish Sarah Kane e-pal Kasia. She deserves to see this stuff. I put a generous donation in the box and bought a souvenir postcard.
Walked down the road to a Starbucks to refuel with a cake and a Frappucino and write the postcard to Ann. Then there was one more place to go.
I'd known which street Sarah lived in as a student but not what number, but I'd known the street was a short one so my original plan had been to look at every house, so then I'd at least know I'd seen her house. But Sarah had done me a favour : she typed her address on the title page of What She Said.
So I called at the Oxfam Bookshop to ask whether they had an A-Z of Bristol. They didn't, but there was a street map of the city on the wall. Looking at Clifton, the student quarter, I eventually found the street, which turned out to be just a mile away. I walked it.
It was a big house, as I'd guessed from Sarah having lived in 'Flat 10'; a quite old building, a typical student house really. I stood on the pavement looking at all the visible windows in turn, thinking how it was in one of those rooms that Sarah spent two of the best years of her life. This was where it happened; where she sat typing up her play scripts, watched comedy videos, rolled up a spliff, enjoyed her first lesbian affairs, listened to the Jesus and Mary Chain. Their Automatic album was a staple of my own university days which, as I said, coincided with hers; looking at the house I pictured Sarah singing along, smiling, to Here Comes Alice, and consoling herself after a break-up to Halfway To Crazy. Finally I tore myself away and wandered over to the bus stop.
Back at Temple Meads with half an hour before the Portsmouth train; moseyed into Bonaparte's cafe bar for a Bulmers.
Back in Gosport at 7.15; there was meant to be a bus in the station, but wasn't, so took a taxi to the take-away.
