Diaspora
The Diaspora festival brings international artists and drama students together in an unusual collaboration between the National Theatre of Scotland and RSAMD, creating a forum to debate Scotland's future as an artistic exponent.
| 15 Jul 2006
In its original incarnation as Play:Ground, Diaspora was intended as a way for the RSAMD's Acting students to get experience of working with international artists during intense rehearsal periods, producing pieces to be performed in the Tron. Come last March, the National Theatre of Scotland got involved and, with the organisational help of Glasgow University's Theatre, Film & Television Department, Diaspora was born. Its main function is still one of education, but no longer exclusively for the students.
Having caught the "insanely ambitious spirit of the National Theatre of Scotland", as event organiser and RSAMD's Head of Acting Hugh Hodgart puts it, Diaspora investigates the ways by which Scotland can be involved in successful cultural exchange, and the ways by which Scottish theatre can benefit from international artistic collaboration. These concerns were distilled in the Diaspora Symposium, a five-hour public dissection of the project so far, with every one of the international and national writers and directors present to comment on their experiences. Overwhelmingly positive, each of the foreign writers appreciates the opportunity afforded them by the project to revisit their works in a new environment.
Unfortunately, it seems the artists themselves are not so appreciated by our authorities; Bollywood star Shernaz Patel, the project's most high-profile participant and a former RSAMD student, was the exception to the Symposium's full attendance, having not been permitted to stay in the country a day longer than was strictly necessary for her to attend her workshop. If anything though, this highlighted the need for a project such as Diaspora to take the initiative in debating Scotland's future as an artistic exponent, and doing so in a careful, informed - and informing - way.
But what about the plays? The first, French Canadian François Letourneau's 'Cheech', co-directed by himself and Pamela Carter, is a time-shifting study of technology's bewildering effect on people's lives, revolving around an aspirational escort agency. Interesting for its script and how its universal themes survive translation, its non-linear wordiness does however mean that the play's student actors need scripts at hand.
Next is 'Faust's Dreams', by Egyptian Mahmoud Aboudoma. Doing exactly what it says on the tin, it is a surreal and sometimes bewildering piece, using every aspect of theatre for every purpose except narrative. It also requires extra effort from the students. "It was not an easy thing for the actors, using their body memory and not their brains," says Aboudoma. "I faced some resistance from the actors. When they moved, they did so with the chest and arms first, but you have to start from your base, from gravity."
'Jackie, or The Submission', an Ionescu play translated into Scots, seems to hit a middle ground between the two previous plays, being noteworthy both in its translation and for its highly choreographed physical performance. Fitting right into Scottish culture as some twisted version of the Broons, it shows moody teen Jackie being groomed for manhood by his bizarre family. The caricatured performances are enjoyable, as is the imaginative use of set, props and pyrotechnics.
The final play, Nadezha Ptushkina's 'Love and Money', is the most accomplished piece and the most hard-hitting, starting with rape and ending with death, as it follows the events of a botched kidnapping by the Russian Mafia of an MP's daughter. However, Ptushkina was clear to point out that her interests were not in political or social comment. "I'm not trying to solve national problems. I'm not trying to change cultural problems, or anything about myself or my work. I just want to apply myself to my work and my actors," she said. But it is clear that Diaspora, as a constant work-in-progress, aims to use international co-operation to experiment with new avenues of expression, and perhaps contribute to a new theatrical identity, or as Hugh Hodgart said in closing the Symposium; "We hope there's going to be lots of lovely accidents."
Having caught the "insanely ambitious spirit of the National Theatre of Scotland", as event organiser and RSAMD's Head of Acting Hugh Hodgart puts it, Diaspora investigates the ways by which Scotland can be involved in successful cultural exchange, and the ways by which Scottish theatre can benefit from international artistic collaboration. These concerns were distilled in the Diaspora Symposium, a five-hour public dissection of the project so far, with every one of the international and national writers and directors present to comment on their experiences. Overwhelmingly positive, each of the foreign writers appreciates the opportunity afforded them by the project to revisit their works in a new environment.
Unfortunately, it seems the artists themselves are not so appreciated by our authorities; Bollywood star Shernaz Patel, the project's most high-profile participant and a former RSAMD student, was the exception to the Symposium's full attendance, having not been permitted to stay in the country a day longer than was strictly necessary for her to attend her workshop. If anything though, this highlighted the need for a project such as Diaspora to take the initiative in debating Scotland's future as an artistic exponent, and doing so in a careful, informed - and informing - way.
But what about the plays? The first, French Canadian François Letourneau's 'Cheech', co-directed by himself and Pamela Carter, is a time-shifting study of technology's bewildering effect on people's lives, revolving around an aspirational escort agency. Interesting for its script and how its universal themes survive translation, its non-linear wordiness does however mean that the play's student actors need scripts at hand.
Next is 'Faust's Dreams', by Egyptian Mahmoud Aboudoma. Doing exactly what it says on the tin, it is a surreal and sometimes bewildering piece, using every aspect of theatre for every purpose except narrative. It also requires extra effort from the students. "It was not an easy thing for the actors, using their body memory and not their brains," says Aboudoma. "I faced some resistance from the actors. When they moved, they did so with the chest and arms first, but you have to start from your base, from gravity."
'Jackie, or The Submission', an Ionescu play translated into Scots, seems to hit a middle ground between the two previous plays, being noteworthy both in its translation and for its highly choreographed physical performance. Fitting right into Scottish culture as some twisted version of the Broons, it shows moody teen Jackie being groomed for manhood by his bizarre family. The caricatured performances are enjoyable, as is the imaginative use of set, props and pyrotechnics.
The final play, Nadezha Ptushkina's 'Love and Money', is the most accomplished piece and the most hard-hitting, starting with rape and ending with death, as it follows the events of a botched kidnapping by the Russian Mafia of an MP's daughter. However, Ptushkina was clear to point out that her interests were not in political or social comment. "I'm not trying to solve national problems. I'm not trying to change cultural problems, or anything about myself or my work. I just want to apply myself to my work and my actors," she said. But it is clear that Diaspora, as a constant work-in-progress, aims to use international co-operation to experiment with new avenues of expression, and perhaps contribute to a new theatrical identity, or as Hugh Hodgart said in closing the Symposium; "We hope there's going to be lots of lovely accidents."