Monthly Archives: May 2024

But does it bollocks?

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Connor’s headteacher and two (more) staff members saw the play last week. Sally Withey, now retired, posted on facebook, remembering ‘that call’ in her office nearly eleven years ago. She commented “and of course […] love for our Connor – we shared lots of stories of him during our day together.”

‘Our Connor…’

Connor sprinkled more than his share of stories across his school years and beyond. I don’t think there was a ‘formal’ meeting which didn’t include a right old belly laugh relating to something he’d done or said. This blog became a mechanism for capturing some of this magic, his humour, his righteous, beautiful ‘outlandishness’. Tales of teaching staff and Connor chuckling at the latest mydaftlife blog post at lunchtime, the absorption of school diary entries and more.

On Saturday, Rich and I were tromping in the peaks with Sid when the matinee was about to start. We bumped into a couple (doubling the number of people we’d seen in two hours of walking) on Revidge hill and got chatting. A semi retired journalist and headteacher. With a 21 year old autistic son now in a supported living gig after an unspeakable spell of sectioning. Talked about against a backdrop of impossible beauty, space. And sadness.

I’ve developed a Laughing Boy ritual before each performance (when possible). I listen to songs from LB’s mixtape (played to the audience pre-show), watch the #107days intermezzo and look forward to the daily show report/post-show comments a couple of hours later. Descriptions of rapturous, warm and tearful applause in the report and more detailed personal accounts on social media…

Then there are the selfie opportunities. Last night, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC and Molly Osborne added to Michael Buchanan and Norman Lamb’s Daniel Rainford hall of selfie fame photos.

I don’t want to preempt a final London performance selfie with Lee Braithwaite and a certain silver fox… or Charlie Ives and George Julian at Bath. Let’s see what unfolds.

Tonight, listening to Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping from LB’s mix tape before the second performance of the day, I finally listened to the words spoken at the start of the song. Turns out it’s Pete Postlethwaite from Brassed Off:

“Truth is I thought it mattered, I thought that music mattered. But does it bollocks! Not compared to how people matter”.

Connor was clearly writing the script way back then.

Love him beyond words.

Laughing Boy, Crunchie the support dog and more…

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Extraordinary responses to Laughing Boy continue post performance by performance. Some of this captured by two kickass posts by George yesterday; Witnessing solidarity: the power of Laughing Boy and Evidencing Difference: beyond Laughing Boy. I’ve seen the play four times now and the moment when this beautifully crafted and devastating photo montage by Matt Powell (with London Transport font) and Holly Khan’s haunting melody is shown, is the stuff of pin drop silence.

The audience and cast share intense horror with respect too often brutally absent.

The juxtaposition of JusticeforLB magic alongside this horror continues. The London South Bank University Annual Lecture was organised to celebrate the play with Rosemary Garland Thompson as an extraordinary guest speaker alongside Peter Cronin, who generated more pin drop moments in a chilling exercise in understatement.

A coach trip organised by the Manchester Met Department of Social Care and Social Work ferried students, self-advocates and staff down to London in a mammoth 10 hour round trip. Feedback included “I had an absolutely brilliant time yesterday, aside from the river of tears that went along.”

Theatre attendees continue to be cheerfully photographed with cast members outside the theatre, while documenting their awe of the play. As Michael Buchanan tweeted;

The play is magnificent – funny, moving & infuriating. If you are in London or Bath, I thoroughly recommend seeing it. As for my fleeting appearance – what an honour. It’s not often you hear a Hebridean accent on a West End stage – well done

My mate Ulla flew over from Finland to see it with me and George. A Danish colleague who randomly sat next to her said (when I ‘properly’ met her at work yesterday), Ulla watched the play with such raw and audible emotions adding further authenticity to the performance. She began sobbing at Alfie Friedman’s opening line and continued between laughter exclamations that reverberated around the tiny space, almost flattening the indefatigable cast.

We fell into the nearest pub after joined by cast members and jabbered till closing time.

‘We need another drink’, Ulla, George and I chorused and moments later were transported to a basement club in Soho with Charlie Ives, Daniel Rainford, Alfie and Rose Quentin, the sweetest enabler. George’s suitcase stashed in a cupboard by the hoover.

People are tweeting their journey to the play, their position in the theatre and more.

I bumped into this bunch in Euston Underground hours after this photo was tweeted. And there, waving in the background is Lloyd Page who also spoke at the London South Bank event. A couple of spare tickets were shared on twitter and Lloyd attended with Steve Hardy (in the blue and green t-shirt).

The daily show rehearsal reports continue though we are on a countdown now with only a week left at Jermyn Street, and four days at the Bath Theatre Royal. [Sob] Apparently the cast, and I suspect theatre staff, are loving the relaxed performances.

Audience participation involved Crunchie the support dog wandering on stage at a matinee performance on Tuesday.

Life. As it should be.

Laughing Boy. The ‘around’ stuff…

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‘A technically tight performance, LX, SND and VIDEO. All cues fired correctly…’

Back to a Susi Petherick photo of the #JusticeforLB quilt to see some detail of the intricate artwork involved in the making of it. Layers of working around individual patches to create something more than the sum of its patches (as brilliant as each one is). People tend to concentrate on patches when they look at it. The around stuff becomes less visible despite being central. The better the around stuff is done the less visible it becomes…

I mean, what about the colours, intricate joining stitches, shapes, tufts, busy and invisible beauty?

Laughing Boy has an extraordinary ‘around’ cast of brilliance in Holly Kahn, Matt Powell, Simon Higlett and Ben Ormerod. Music, video, set design and lighting.

Matt has come round a couple of times to talk about and collect files, links and the quilt. To show how the tech stuff is developing. Home movie clips of Connor as a tot have been beautifully folded into new footage of school children recording Louis Armstrong’s Wonderful World at a school in London. Headphones, concentration and wondrousness (possibly never seen before on a London stage).

The careful arrangement of photos of children, young people and adults who have died since Connor presented with meticulously selected fonts and sizes.

The intermezzo countdown of the 107 days campaign to mark the time Connor spent in the unit is an extraordinary blend of the colour, reach and content of that phenomenon, accompanied by Holly’s haunting and visceral composition.

I’m only just recognising the power of set production and lighting, thank you Simon and Ben for this.

Realise I’m kind of going full on theatre critic now which may be hilarious or horribly grating. No apologies either way or anywhere in the middle. It’s been a blast and privilege to follow the workings and working outs of this production and see the love, care and attention paid throughout.

https://www.alexbrenner.com/

Post preview and tales of the unexpected

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Sorry, so blinking behind on these posts. Full on absorption during the course of the play wasn’t expected and is unexpectedly cool. Pre and post show tweets from audience members, daily show reports, messages, jibber jabber, awe and regular ‘what the actual fuck’ moments? I mean WTAF…?

I walked slowly round the block taking in Piccadilly Circus, St James’s Square, Haymarket before one performance. An unusually warmish evening with a slight breeze and constant flow of passing London buses. Thinking about Connor and what he would think of the extraordinary anchoring of him, his story in this way to his favourite place.

Laughing Boy at Jermyn Street Theatre… So beautifully, breathtakingly executed.

On Tuesday (April 30) afternoon, official Laughing Boy photos by Alex Brenner were unexpectedly released by Jermyn Street Theatre (though referenced in technical reports). Dazzling images to treasure alongside Charlie Ives‘ artwork of cast members sketched while tech (lights/audio/visual cues) were sorted a week or so ago.

(c) Alex Brenner.

Rich and I gave Press Night a swerve in the end. Attending the first preview night, late, late night drinking, chatter and laughter with the cast/creative team followed by a day with Rosie, Jack, Owen, Catherine, Tom and Katie walking the Walthamstow wetlands and nosh was enough. [Will and Kiyora much missed and watching from Japan.]

And then the critical reviews… I didn’t anticipate the anticipation of the publication of play reviews on Wednesday.

About 10am, Rich called upstairs “Guardian review is on the website… 3*.”

[Gulp]

A day peppered with reviews appearing and shared on social media. 3*, 4*, 5* reviews…

Peer review is an integral part of being an academic and here are theatre critics doing a kind of similar yet unfamiliar process. Sending their reviews directly out into the public domain.

‘This is what I think about this production…’

Boom.

[As an aside I love how the International Journal of Disability and Social Justice is asking for non-traditional contributions about the play. Boundary blurring and joyousness.]

There were so many reviews, links flying around messages and Whatsapp. I lost track in the end.

Comments from audience members have been unfailingly wondrous. Personal experiences, life, connections and meet ups between people – self-advocates, family members, allies, journalists, human rights experts, health, social care, education professionals, politicians – on a nightly (or afternoon and nightly) basis. Warmth, love and awe.

Annie Kershaw and the Jermyn Street Theatre team have designed and implemented a set of shifts and tweaks so that people can attend. [I wrote so many different versions of this sentence each of which had problematic words or associations. Could be a whole separate blog post…] Relaxed and captioned performances, audio and visual stories, and more. The lack of wheelchair access is grim and insurmountable, the commitment to ensuring people can come and feel comfortable and welcome is impressive. The JusticeforLB quilt at St James’s Church a minute or so up the road offers further grounding and a space to think and be.

Photo by Susi Petherick

There are more stories to tell though I’ll leave it here for now. It all starts again tomorrow.