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How Did in?Yer?Face Theatre Reflect the Social and Political Climate of Post Thatcher Britain?
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University of Portsmouth PORTSMOUTH Hants UNITED KINGDOM PO1 2UP This Dissertation Burdon, Chelsey (2009) How did in-yer-face theatre reflect the social and political climate of post Thatcher Britain? BA dissertation, University of Portsmouth. Has been retrieved from the University of Portsmouth's Research Repository: http:/eprints. port. ac. uk To contact the Research Repository Manager email: [email protected] ac. ukHow did In? Yer? Face theatre reflect the social and political climate of Post Thatcher Britain? Chelsey Burdon 362007 University of Portsmouth School of Creative Arts, Film and Media Studies April 2009
Dissertation submitted in part fulfilment for the requirements of the BA (Hons) Film and Drama 1 362007 Table of Contents AbstractPg3 IntroductionPg4 Chapter One "What Society? There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. "Pg11 Chapter Two "We had to fight an enemy in the Falklands…. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty"Pg19 Chapter Three "If you want something said? ask a man. If you want something done? ask a woman" Conclusion Bibliography Pg28
Pg38 Pg42 2 362007 Abstract This study uses critical reviews and textual analyses of 5 key In? Yer? Face plays, alongside contextual information regarding the political backdrop of 1990's Britain, in an attempt to establish a relationship between this provocative form of theatre and the social and political climate of Britain in the wake of Thatcherism. The dramatic texts within this study cover a range of themes and differ greatly in terms of content, yet they share an aesthetic of cruelty and confrontational flair that places them under an umbrella term known as In? Yer?
Face theatre, popularised in the mid 1990's and produced predominantly by young, emerging playwrights. Each chapter takes a well known quote from Margaret Thatcher as a starting point by which to deconstruct elements of British Ideology and culture, positing the dramatic texts alongside the attitudes of Thatcherism and analysing them in light of their contextual background. The first chapter looks at David Eldridge's Serving it Up and Judy Uptons Ashes and Sand with particular regards to unemployment, the class divide and British Nationalism looking specifically at the teenage generation.
The second chapter focuses on the infamous Sarah Kane play Blasted and attempts to establish what its writer is trying to convey about war and Britain's relation to and attitude towards it. Finally the 3rd chapter looks at the role of gender and sexuality in Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking and Martin Crimp's Attempts on her Life with particular reference to the crisis of masculinity and the fracturing of gender identities.
This breadth of thematic study is underpinned by a grounded understanding of the political and social issues surrounding the plays and the policies and ideals put into practice by the Thatcherite government that may have influenced the writers. 3 362007 How did In? Yer? Face theatre reflect the social and political climate of Post Thatcher Britain? Introduction "Theatre is not external force acting upon society, but a part of it. It's a reflection of the way people within that society view the world" Sarah Kane (Sierz, 2001a, p. 93)
The above quote came from the late Sarah Kane; arguably one of the most progressive British dramatists of the 20th century. My dissertation plans to be an exploration of that statement, with particular analysis of the mid 90's genre of theatre; which became most commonly known as In? Yer? Face Theatre, I intend to explore to what extent British Theatre of this period reflected the country's political and social climate. To what extent did plays like Blasted, Shopping and F**king and Serving it up really comment on the British ideology, if at all?
What was it about Britain in this post Thatcher era that encouraged and inspired so many new voices to challenge the status quo and create such shocking and confrontational theatre? Can theatre ever truly be reflective of a nation's populace at large, or simply of those who create it? I intend to answer all of these questions via close analysis of the play texts themselves and an investigation into the social and political circumstances out of which they arose. The overarching aim of this study is to consider theatre of the 1990's particularly the In?
Yer? Face theatre, within its context and try to determine 4 362007 what factors of the British ideology fed into them, and perhaps how they in turn fed into the culture of that period. Post Thatcher Britain saw an emergence of young playwrights who expressed a discontent at the state of the nation and whose writing was often provocative, controversial and dystopian; what ensued was an era of the playwrights theatre within which it was the writers that received notoriety and status on the back of productions rather than directors or actors.
These writers; "relish the oddball, the misfit, the bizarre; but they are troubled by the helplessness and unhappiness they see all around. They are vastly entertaining yet they radiate moral concern. They are Miss Thatcher's disorientated children. " (Saunders, 2002, p. 6) Within academia and theatre criticism many references have been made about these writers being Thatcher's children and a product of their society, which is going to form the backbone of my dissertation.
If I am to examine the way that British theatre reflected the country then it is integral that my investigation begins with the playwright, as it is they who shape the themes and the social significance that a piece of theatre can hold. I should begin by clarifying the terms used in the title and how I will be defining post? Thatcher in this study. Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister in Britain between 1979 and 1990, which in politics is a very substantial amount of time; as the leader of the conservative party she introduced New Right policies in Britain that 5 62007 were often radical. So unique was her approach to politics, particularly the economy, that the term Thatcherism is now considered a loose one that extends far beyond the 11 years that she held power, it is understood as 'a set of intellectual doctrines, as a popular political movement, as a style of leadership, as a bloc of interests and as a programme of policy' (Heffernan, 2000, p. 29). Although Thatcher was largely popular amongst the British public during the eighties, this time is now considered by many to be a bleak time in British politics.
Because her successor in 1990 was a fellow Tory, John Major, who in many respects continued to carry the torch of Thatcherism, the term post? Thatcher as it is used in this study implies only a break from a singular politician rather than a break from the New Right conservative rule that characterised the 1980's. Significantly In? Yer? Face theatre plays debuted on either side of the transition between Tory and New Labour rule in Britain, therefore Blairism and the notions of Cool Britannia will also be briefly covered. To apply the term post?
Thatcher era to any study of recent British history, it is vital to have an understanding, (and thus a point of comparison) of the Thatcher era, of the policies and ideas that defined Thatcherism and the effect that this had on society at large. Arguably, the most notable area of the Thatcher administration was its approach to economy; somewhat revolutionary in that it broke away from the Keynesian model that had been in place in Britain since the war and which involved intervention from the state and an aim to reach full employment.
In response to the mid 1970's, recession and in an effort to halt economic decline; 6 362007 "The new right economic policies adopted by Conservative governments since 1979 place great emphasis on the market and a correspondingly much reduced emphasis on the state in the economy. " (Duke & Edgell, 1991, p. 5) Arguably the drawbacks of such policies were that it relied too heavily on an acceptance of individualism over collectivism and that it ultimately led to a much starker class system.
For the purposes of this study I have looked more specifically at Thatcher's relationship with the arts, and particularly the state of theatre. For British theatre, following what was typically viewed as the 'high point of British Political drama' (Aston, 2008, p. 114) the 1980s was a dire time, funding was greatly reduced and most artists were treated with suspicion and distrust. Of Margaret Thatcher, Peter Hall (1991, para.) tells us that 'subsidy was an anathema to a monetarist, so the arts had to change', she did not believe in funding the arts as she deemed them to have no real value to the British society, or more importantly, the British economy. Many dramatists had to turn to corporate sponsors in order to stay afloat in the industry, and therefore anything that went against the status quo or encouraged non conformity struggled to find funding. In this sense funding, or the threat of losing it, acted as a form of censorship, ensuring anything that went against governmental policy would not be financially stable enough to be a success.
The 1970's had seen a decade of socially progressive and openly political plays but there was little chance of this surviving during the Thatcherite years "As this decade privatised rather than democratized, and introduced drastic cuts to public subsidy for the arts. " (Aston, 2008, pp. 114? 115) There are of course exceptions to this rule, and the plays of Caryl 7 362007 Churchill for example are a testament to this. The long conservative rule of Britain was sure to have long lasting effects, not only on theatre and the arts, but on the everyday people which it represents.
Many writers and commentators of 90's theatre have suggested that these groundbreaking writers had been: 'shaped by being brought up under a Tory government that lasted 18 years, and this in turn generates the feeling of anomie, alienation and aggression' (D'monte, 2001, p. 82) The conservative belief in selfish individualism rather than compassionate collectivism left many young people feeling disempowered and this shines through in the characters of some of the plays I shall be looking at.
Although at first glance you certainly cannot call these plays examples of 'political theatre' I still believe they carry a deeply political message. They present a world of people who may be seemingly apathetic, but undoubtedly are caught up in and attacked by the failings of the world around them. The term In? Yer? Face theatre was first coined by theatre critic Aleks Sierz, although other, less appropriate labels were used such as 'The New Brutalists', 'The Drama of Disenchantment' and 'The Theatre of Urban Ennui'.
Sierz succinctly summarises this new wave by telling us that "In? yer? face theatre is the best way of describing this type of drama, which uses explicit scenes of sex and violence to explore the depths of human emotion. Characterised by a rawness of tone, it is aggressive, confrontational and provocative. " (Sierz, 2001b, p. 1) 8 362007 These were plays that were extremely observant of our social conditions, yet rather than offer answers or solutions they imposed difficult questions upon their audience.
They often used personal stories of pain and disempowerment to illustrate wider issues and societal problems that existed in Britain at the time. A perfect example of which being Shopping and Fucking by Mark Ravenhill which shows us the empty and relatively claustrophobic lives of 3 twenty somethings and a teenage rent boy in order to critique our consumerist culture in the wake of conservative capitalism and the fairly modern notion of sex as an everyday commodity.
Following the hype and controversy that surrounded her 1995 debut of Blasted, Sarah Kane is often incorrectly heralded as the pioneer of this so called 'new wave' and similarly her untimely death in February of 1999 and the posthumous production of her final play 4. 48 Psychosis is said to mark the end of this short lived phenomenon. This of course is highly debateable, and indeed some texts that I make reference to within this study fall outside this 5 year bracket, most notably Judy Upton's Ashes and Sand and Phillip Ridleys Ghost From a perfect Place, both produced in 1994 and Anthony Neilsons Penetrator (1993).
This 5 year period however, could be considered a crucial time in recent British history, a time of Cool Britannia; when art and culture were at the forefront of British exports, yet, under the surface artists within all mediums were brooding and theatre became the perfect outlet to explore such nihilism and discontent. One of the things that make theatre so unique is that it can be utilised as an uncensored platform upon which dramatists have free reign to explore and critique anything 9 362007 that they choose. And yet theatre is ephemeral and therefore will always exist as a product of its time, undeniably influenced by a variety of unseen orces acting upon it. It can be seen as a representation of the attitudes and beliefs of not only those individuals that created it, but also of the society that produced it. 10 362007 Chapter One "What Society? There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. " Margaret Thatcher (Keay, 1987, p. 8) This infamous quote from Margaret Thatcher could be said to be a summation of her attitudes and policies, it is often described as the epitaph of the 80's, the aftermath of which echo through many plays of the mid 90's.
In this chapter I shall be analysing two such texts; David Eldridge's Serving it up and Judy Upton's Ashes and Sand, in order to evaluate to what extent Thatcher's denial of 'society' affected a generation born into conservative Britain and how contempary playwrights chose to represent this on stage. The Thatcherite government favoured the efforts of the individual and therefore diminished the responsibilities of the state; money was valued over relationships and wellbeing and most ideals were discarded in pursuit of the consumerist dream.
Of course, only a handful of the population benefited from this system; the class division became even more stark as the rich became richer and the poor, poorer. "Britain of the 1980's was two nations, a society divided not only geographically but also between the "haves" and "have? nots"" (Peacock, 1999, p. 22), To rub salt into the wounds of the poor, they were no longer seen as being disadvantaged, but instead victims of their own inadequacies. The plays that I will look at in this chapter 11 362007 ocus on characters that suffered as a result, those who could not cope when the dog eat dog world put too much pressure on them to succeed. These stories predominantly arise from the working classes and from the younger generations that struggle to find a place for themselves in the world. They are the unemployed drifters who have no dreams or ambitions, who drift from one lifestyle to another in the hope of finding themselves. A perfect example of a victim of this society is Sonny from David Eldridges' Serving it Up, a skin headed young man, raging with discontent and misplaced anger e is jobless and lacks any real dreams or ambition. Serving it up is based on an East London council estate, following the lives of Sonny and Nick, two directionless youths brought up on the looking after number one philosophy of the Thatcherite discourse. It premiered at the Bush theatre in 1996; a year when Britain was wearily approaching the end of its 18 yr Conservative rule, although Thatcher had resigned 6 years previously; much of her policies and ideals were still in place, her administration had such an impact on British politics that to this day, some argue that we still feel the effects of her policies. For good or ill, British politics and British society continue to bear the marks of eighteen years of radical Conservative government. Thatcherism's legacy remains profound. " (Driver & Martell, 2006, p. 194). This play is often pigeonholed by many as a boys play of the nineties but it also serves as a critique of the wider society; the problems of unemployment, racism and violence. The language is raw and brutal, its characters deeply prejudiced and its 12 362007 setting is a bleak and futureless world in which a lifetime of idle drug taking and alcoholism funded by the dole is not only acceptable, but to some, desirable.
Before Thatcher's rule the government considered it a responsibility of theirs to keep unemployment to a minimum, intervening in whatever ways possible to provide jobs and skills to those who were out of work. However, Thatcher believed, based on the theory of monetarism, that a natural level of unemployment was necessary in order to keep inflation at a minimum, her conservative administration 'was the first government since the 1944 White Paper on Employment Policy not to make full employment one of its objectives. (Duke & Edgell, 1991, p. 9) The number of unemployed people in the UK peaked in 1986 at just over 3 million people (Allen &Hicks, 1999, p. 25) This clearly affected the working classes the most and Serving it up is an example of how, ten years on, unemployment is still a huge problem, and the rhetoric of the Thatcherite government continues to disillusion the minds of those on every rung of the social ladder. This sentiment is expressed by Sonny's father Charlie, a rather detestable middle ged man, who has never held down a real job: "People from round here only go one way? down. It's all about keeping your head above water, getting one bastard before he gets you. ".? Act One Scene two (Eldridge, 1997, p. 12). If one thing can be said about the legacy that Margaret Thatcher left behind it is that the country became more selfish and more materialistic than they have ever been, individualism replaced any sense of community and you were solely responsible for your social and financial standing, whether that be at the head of a corporation or at 13 62007 the depths of poverty. Sonny represents the anomie of working class Britain who have no goals, no real ideals and most regrettably, no future. Another theme of this play that is impossible to ignore is the deep felt racism in both Sonny and his father that stems from a notion of British superiority and elitism; "Greatest country in the world, England. We won the fucking war didn't we? And the fucking Argies. And them fucking Arab cunts. "? Act One Scene 7 (Eldridge, 1997, p. 38).
It would be incredibly naive and reductionist to assume that racist believes held in this country can be explained by any government policy or ideology, it will always be something far more complex that causes people to think that way. Nor would I assert that Margaret Thatcher and her government condoned racism, however, she did encourage British pride, and her beliefs were notoriously traditionalist, one cannot ignore events like the Brixton riots and Operation Swamp 81 which were motivated and provoked by racial prejudice.
Operation Swamp 81 was given its name following comments that Thatcher made on a TV appearance: "People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture … The British character has done so much for democracy, for law, and done so much throughout the world, that if there is any fear that it might be swamped, people are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in. " (TV interview for Granada, 1978) Yet she refuted claims that the riots were related to racism. During the isturbances there were reports that the police were victimising innocent black or ethnic minority citizens and Operation swamp 81 involved 118 arrests, the majority of whom were black. On top of this the Nationality act of 1981 severely limited the rights of New 14 362007 Commonwealth citizens to enter or abode in the United Kingdom, causing many to speculate that Thatcher's motives were xenophobic. She tried to redefine 'Britishness' and in doing so alienated a proportion of UK citizens. The Thatcherite government was detrimental to race relations in the UK during the 80s and indeed racially motivated crime rose significantly.
It may be slightly contrived to suggest that 6 years on racial prejudice and British elitism is still rife because of Thatcher and her policies but a correlation can surely be drawn between her attitudes towards immigration and ethnic minorities and the beliefs held by the nation she governed. But Sonny wasn't the only example of a disaffected teen behaving badly. 2 years previously, predating Sarah Kane's landmark debut, Judy Upton's Ashes and Sand premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, on the 1st of December 1994.
The setting was not a gritty urban wasteland as in Serving it up, it was a sunny seaside resort, and the violence was not perpetrated by young men, oozing with bravado and machismo but by hormone ridden, lust fuelled 15 year old girls, and yet it as just as brutal, and certainly as ruthless, proving that women can be just as aggressive as men. The play focuses on a gang of 4 working class girls, who seduce and then attack and rob male tourists, in a desperate attempt to save up enough money to get out of "this crappy country"(Upton, 2002, p. 9). Amidst all of this is Daniel, a corrupt detective constable with a shoe fetish and the inability to smile, who Hayley, the leader of the gang has fallen for. 15 362007 In her review of the play for Whats On magazine, Carol Waddis (1994) described the central girl figures as a "product of a debilitating society in which hopes are constantly frustrated. " And perhaps the same is true of Sonny, in the culture of victimhood that was so rife in the nineties, perhaps even the victimisers are in their own way, victims of the society hat produced them. This play, along with Serving it up seems to speak volumes about the high level of unemployment and the lack of ambition and direction that characterized the youth of the early nineties, particularly those of the working class. Upton herself, when speaking of her influences for the play has said that; "I was angry for my friends, dragged kicking and screaming through a hell hole of a comprehensive school, to end up living lives that fell short of our dreams. " (Sierz, 2001a, p. 16) Because under Thatcher's rule dreams were so much harder to achieve if you didn't have the advantage of wealth and social standing. It is important to remember, that although Upton didn't live out her high school years under Thatcher as many other In? Yer? Face writers such as Kane and Eldridge did, she would have been 14 when Thatcher came into power, her transition into adulthood was tainted by the stigmatism attached to artists and intellectuals, and the attitude that one had to be a benefit to society before you could benefit yourself.
In her first 3 years in power, just as Upton was leaving school, Thatcher had cut the Capital spending on education by 10 per cent. (Wright, 1989, p. 22), so not only were provisions in schools for the young poor, but the prospects when they left it were even bleaker. The effects of Thatcherism created a generation that were both spiritually and politically apathetic. 16 362007 This certainly didn't change in the early nineties, even with Major in power, many of Thatcher's policies remained in place, and the outlook continued to be bleak for the youth.
The premiere of Ashes and Sand was timely in that it was in the midst of a wider media debate about the rise of female violence and gang crimes; just a week before its opening night, Elizabeth Hurley was mugged at knifepoint by a girl gang, all of them under 18. Yet despite this, Ashes and Sand did not receive nearly as much notoriety as Blasted did only weeks later. The girls have no provocation for the violence, and no reasoning for it either, yet they are characterised by despair and a sense of urgency, a deep felt need to escape the limitations of their existence in Brighton.
There is nothing there for them and they know this, perhaps it is this that stirs their anger; "The violence of the play is never explained, except in the most general way: the culture of unemployment has created an enraged youth"(Sierz, 2001a, p. 216) The characters in the play realise that there is no hope for them in Brighton, "Its no good starting somewhere that's going nowhere. There's nothing for people like us. Nothing. " (Upton, 2002, p. 3) So although Anna holds down a part time job at a shoe market and claims she has plans in case Bali doesn't work out, they are aware that a life of minimum wage and/or petty theft and robbery is all that the future really holds for them if they don't leave the shores. I have chosen Ashes and Sand and Serving it up as points of focus for this chapter, but they are certainly not the only examples that illustrate the alienated youth of nineties Britain or that focus their narrative around the 'demoralised working class'.
For example Phillip Ridleys Ghost From a Perfect Place (1994) also features a violent girl gang, and aggressive violence? regardless of who the perpetrators are? is one of 17 362007 the common themes that unite the plays of In? Yer? Face theatre. In some instances this violence, can be related back directly to Thatcher policies, as the writers; brought up on a diet of capitalism, individualism and greed, channel their anger and discontent into their frustrated and aggressive characters.
Other times the connection is more subtle and though the plays may not seem political or appear to be making a comment on the 'state? of? the nation' they are still valid for investigation as they portray a society that has been shaped by the policies and political ideologies that govern it. Rebecca D'monte (2008, p. 83) sums this idea up succinctly in her chapter 'Thatcher's children: alienation and anomie in the plays of Judy Upton': "Whilst the appearance of In? Yer? Face drama cannot be put down solely to a denunciation of all things Thatcherite? or example the so? called crisis of masculinity had, in part, been caused by the fracturing of gender roles in a post? feminist world? the concentration upon a mainly youthful underclass mirrors exactly the age group of those brought up under Tory rule. " (D'Monte, 2008, p. 83) In asserting that we are all just individuals doing the best we can for ourselves Thatcher created an alienated nation, a generation for whom trust was betrayed, hopes were destroyed and apathy turned into aggression.
This is expressed throughout In? Yer? Face theatre but it is at its most poignant when the characters are young; Thatcher's children that are disorientated and demoralised with little hope of moving past the Thatcherite era. 18 362007 Chapter 2 "We had to fight an enemy in the Falklands…. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty" Margaret Thatcher (Peacock, 1999, p. 1) I will use this quote, again from Margaret Thatcher, as a starting point to investigate the British attitude to war during the 80's and 90's and notions of the enemy and international relations, with particular emphasis on Sarah Kanes Blasted. The brutal and unforgiving soldier in Blasted contrasted with the overtly nationalistic prejudice of Ian can be interpreted to reveal a lot, not only about Kane's attitude towards the wilder world, but of the way Britain fitted in to the larger international picture.
The above quote was said in relation to the Miners Strike in 1984, of course Thatcher is implying that the enemies within the borders of the UK are no less of a threat to the principles of Britain, than those across the shores, the Argentineans. Though neither state officially declared war, the short lived Falklands conflict in 1982 was fought over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, long considered as part of British territory.
Despite claiming the lives of over 200 soldiers, the Falklands war garnered a lot of support for Thatcher and spurred on a notion of patriotism and British pride, something that is seen in several of the In? Yer Face characters. As well as the Falklands war, Thatcher has shown her support for war in many other occasions, encouraging president George H. W Bush to deploy troops to the middle 19 362007 East in the Gulf war and through her close relationship to previous president Ronald Reagan showing public support for the Cold War.
I have said previously that In? Yer Face theatre did not always strive to make a political point; in fact it has been described by some as being apolitical, so what, if anything does it have to say about the issues of war, or on a larger level, the idea of an enemy to liberty? Is it valid to suggest that, to some degree all theatre is political? Perhaps the very nature of the medium, whereby even the most seemingly trivial and light hearted performance presents to its audience a set of ideals, values and attitudes, makes it political.
The play that I have chosen to analyse in this chapter, as well as being heralded as the landmark production of In? Yer? Face theatre, is one of the few that makes direct references to war, and in doing so carries with it a political standpoint. But it is only when we dig under the surface of the dialogue, when we begin to deconstruct the form and the characters and we learn more about Kane as a writer and the context out of which the text arose, that we can uncover perhaps more subtle ideas and criticisms of Britain and its government.
Blasted was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre on the 12th of January 1995, creating uproar amongst the press and the critics unheard of since the notorious baby stoning scene in Edward Bonds highly contested 1965 play Saved. For many, it is seen as being the pioneer of In? Yer? Face theatre; the play/media event that made way for many other young writers to attempt work in a similar vein; confronting shocking and violent issues rather than shy away from them, however, as we have seen in the preceding chapter this certainly wasn't completely unheard of before 20 62007 Blasted. A summation of the characteristics of In? Yer? Face theatre can be found in Rebecca D'Monte's chapter in the pivotal book Cool Britannia: "high levels of physical, emotional and mental brutality, the dysfunction of the family unit, rebellion against authority figures (and authority figures seen as lacking in morals), consumerism, and an episodic, visually shocking style" (D'Monte, 2008, pg. 83) All of these things, although associated with the term In? Yer?
Face, could of course be found in plays proceeding Blasted; however I believe it was the sheer notoriety of Sarah Kane's debut, heightened by the media debate that it provoked that makes it one of the most important and certainly most controversial of the 90's. It is also significant, when contextualising Blasted that it was funded and staged by the Royal Court, a theatre that had built up a reputation for its preoccupation with working class realism and what became known as the 'kitchen sink drama', which had begun of course with John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956) and the Angry Young Men movement of the 1950's.
However, something must be said here, without much further digression, on the apparent hypocrisy and irony that existed throughout the In? Yer? Face movement and the Royal Courts' involvement with it. Many of the plays, including Blasted, but also Shopping and Fucking and Ashes and Sand, were lauded for their representation of not simply the working classes, but of a world that seemed to exist beneath the surface of a mediated Britain; the underbelly of our nation, yet the Royal Court theatre is positioned in one of the wealthiest areas of London. 1 362007 "And while those on the stage may be spending their benefit giros on drugs and super strength lager, those in the audience are mostly affluent achievers with a taste for a nicely chilled glass of Pinot Grigio. " (Spencer, 2007, para. 8) So does this highlight an element of hypocrisy within the theatre? Or were plays like Blasted, intended to give a voyeuristic glimpse into a world beneath its affluent audience?
I will discuss this further in my conclusion, but here this debate serves to contextualise Blasted and view the controversy it created in light of the demographic make? up of its audience. It was the brutality of Sarah Kane's Blasted that brought it widespread attention, kicking off the craze for violent and provocative theatre. The character of the nameless soldier that abruptly becomes part of the narrative, turning the whole world of the play into a dystopian nightmare, is arguably a vehicle for criticism of war and the atrocities and injustices that come with it.
In this landmark play Kane successfully draws a line between the seemingly isolated rape in a Leeds hotel room and the devastation of mass rape and murder happening throughout the world during times of war. Many critics overlooked Kane's talent for writing and depth of character choosing instead to focus on the brutality of the violence within the play reducing the play to a 'remorseless catalogue of atrocities' (Spencer, 2007 pg. 1). The play begins in a 'very expensive hotel room in Leeds'(stage direction?
Kane, 2001, p. 3) where we are introduced to a middle aged journalist and a young naive woman; Ian and Cate respectively. The relationship between them is complex and in many ways Ian acts as Cates abuser, as well as manipulating her verbally and psychologically we discover 22 362007 that he has raped her during the night. Towards the end of scene 2 a soldier arrives at the hotel room who taunts Ian and goes on to rape him before shooting himself.
The form of the play is disjointed and fragmented, the emergence of the soldier bringing with it a descent into a much crueller but less naturalistic world. For the purposes of this chapter I am going to focus upon the character of the Soldier, what he may be seen to represent and also the significance of his contrast to Ian. Though the soldier only appears in scene 3, and the end of scene 2, his role in the play is pivotal, he provides the link to the outside world, the depths of amorality that exist and make the previous incidents between Ian and Cate seem almost futile and insignificant. The atrocities the soldier relates to Ian in the final version of Blasted seem to make the latter's acts of cruelty to Cate seem petty in comparison" (Saunders, 2002, p. 47) Arguably, what the play achieves by introducing this character, a complacent and brutal 'soldier' is a means by which we may look at our own complacency; regardless of the emotional and physical abuse Ian has subjected Cate to, and whatever our reaction as an audience might be to that, perhaps we are all guilty of not acknowledging the greater scale of abuse and injustice that goes on beyond our shores.
Also it encourages the audience to re? assess their sympathies, where they once lay with Cate and a passionate dislike is built up towards Ian, by becoming the victim rather than the perpetrator of rape, we must question whether Ian deserves the same level of sympathy? and if not, why not? Without realising it the audience is asked to make a moral judgement about Ian as he becomes the subject of the atrocities seemingly carried over straight from the battlefield. 23 362007
Distance is perpetually created through the media between our relatively comfortable lives and those whose lives are ripped apart by war and face this level of suffering on a daily basis. The arrival of the soldier at the end of scene 2 and the blast that destroys the hotel room reminds us that the way Ian behaves towards Cate, his humiliating her, psychologically manipulating and eventually raping her isn't an isolated problem, it is a reaction to a much larger attitude to violence and rape that is perpetuated and in many cases trivialised in the face of war.
Sarah Kane herself said in an interview "The logical conclusion of the attitude that produces an isolated rape in England is the rape camps in Bosnia, and the logical conclusion to the way society expects men to behave is war" (Sierz, 2001a, p. 104) Mass rape was a huge problem during the Bosnian war (1992? 1995) and was a central weapon used against the Serbs in their mission to ethnically cleanse Bosnia of its Muslim population. Estimates predict that anything up to 50,000 Muslim women and girls were systematically raped and abused by Serbian forces during the war.
Although no direct references are made to either the Bosnian war or the nationality of the nameless soldier in the finished version of Blasted, it is indubitable that Kane was somehow influenced by these atrocious events going on at the time of writing. Indeed in earlier drafts of the play there was much more correlation, the soldier was given a Serbian name, Vladek and made reference to the Yugoslavian conflict informing Ian that, "This Is a Serbian town now" (Saunders,2002, p. 53) before spitting in his face.
I believe that Kane's decision to omit these references 24 362007 from the final draft of the play is significant because in doing so she is ensuring that a British audience does not feel too alienated from the story, and therefore emphasising her position that, in a metaphorical sense, the fundamental atrocities that happen in Blasted are not simply the occurrences of societies ravaged by war, but that they can be occurrences in Britain, within the domestic lifestyle and even within a 'very expensive hotel room in Leeds'.
A significant point when discussing the Soldier and his part in the play is his anecdotes he tells about war, and his distant uncaring attitude towards it; "Insides of people's heads came out of their eyes. Saw a child most of his face blown off, young girl I fucked hand up inside her trying to claw my liquid out, starving man eating his dead wife's leg. ". Scene 3 (Kane, 2001, p. 50) Sarah Kane; as seen more notably in her later plays, often favoured imagery over language, but in this instance both are incredibly brutal and unforgiving.
Yet despite this it would be wrong to assume that Kane expects no sympathy for the soldier, one might interpret that he is the way that he is because of rather than in spite of the conditions of war. His complexity as a character reminds us of his humanity to the point where one might question whether he too, for all his wrongdoings, is in fact a victim of war. We may deplore the soldiers in such unjust wars for their atrocious actions but Kane makes us question whether we too, if so deeply scarred by the violence and debasement that exists around us, would begin to lose touch with our humanity. 5 362007 So how can the character of The Soldier, and the events described in Blasted be used to explain the climate of Britain in the 90's? To what degree can it be said to be representative of the nation's attitude to war? The Falkland's war lingered in the not so distant memories of the British public, yet Kane herself, only eleven years old at the time, was perhaps too young for it to have had any real impact on her, and although the media may have become saturated with images from it, Britain had no official involvement in the Bosnian war.
But Sarah Kane, above all else was a very empathetic woman, she was sensitive to the troubles that faced, not just Britain, but the world, "She deeply felt the injustices of this world and wrote with great feeling and passion about the dispossessed" (Playwright Kane found Dead, 1999) perhaps it was this that encouraged her to face these injustices head on, rather than ignore them or brush them under the carpet as the majority of the British media seemed to be doing at the time.
I would argue, at this point, that Ian's profession as a journalist is significant when trying to contextualise Blasted and summarise its relation to the British public. Ian is an ignorant, racist and ultra? nationalistic character whose opinions feed into his profession; when the Soldier asks Ian to tell his story his reply is: "No joy in a story about blacks who gives a shit? Why bring you to light? " (Kane, 2001, p. 8)Perhaps it might be reductionist to suggest that Kane was against the media at large but it is reasonable to ascertain that once she understood that everything we had consumed about the Bosnian war had been heavily mediated, and that that media is comprised almost exclusively of white middle class males (possibly like Ian), she is questioning the validity of our knowledge, she is trying to represent the violence and the tragedy 26 362007 s it would be without the mediation and censorship of the news stories we are saturated by. If she considers Ian to be representative of those that control and manipulate the mainstream media then perhaps she is asserting that, everything that we consume regarding world events and politics is to be questioned and that we must be more honest with ourselves about the realities that exist beyond what we regularly see, such as on the news.
One might question whether all that can be revealed through analysing a play text is the opinions, hostilities and beliefs of its writer, that a deconstruction of Blasted can tell us many things about what Kane thought about war and her view on the world, but that it cannot possibly represent the consensus of the nation, after all Kane, who was brought up in a middle class devoutly Christian family can only be seen as being representative of a small portion of society? if at all. Sarah Kane has been quoted by the Independent as saying "My intention was to be absolutely truthful about abuse and violence.
All of the violence in the play has been carefully plotted and dramatically structured to say what I want about war. " (Ravenhill, 1999, Para. 5) So we can say with some certainty that the play is revelatory of her personal beliefs, and these beliefs are undoubtedly inspired by the nation she found herself growing up in. 27 362007 Chapter 3 "If you want something said? ask a man. If you want something done? ask a woman" Margaret Thatcher (They Said What?, n. d) In this chapter I will examine the shifting powers of gender balance and changing attitudes towards sexuality in post Thatcher Britain; interestingly within In?
Yer? Face theatre we see a subversion of typical gender roles, with an increasingly poignant crisis of masculinity and the rise of girl power and the 'ladette'. I aim to examine the impact that Margaret Thatcher, as the first female Prime Minister of not only the United Kingdom, but of the whole of Europe, had on sexual (and gender) politics and to what extent this was utilised and represented by the new theatre writers of the nineties. Although gender relations is a theme that could be examined in almost any of the In? Yer?
Face canon I have chosen specifically to look at Mark Ravenhill''s Shopping and Fucking and Martin Crimp's Attempts on her life. The so called 'Crisis of Masculinity' that has become increasingly prevalent in the last 3 decades, is a complex term adopted primarily by sociologists in relation to the shifting gender roles in contempary Britain and the problem that is faced by young men in fulfilling masculine identities. Arguably, the association with masculinity and employment. the men being the 'breadwinners'? has been in decline since the second world war when of course, gender roles were more defined.
Therefore the 28 362007 feminist movement and rise of gender equality, within the work and the domestic spheres has often been scapegoated as the root of masculinities problem. "It is feminism that currently does scapegoat duty for all the social evils that the free market has inflicted upon us. Unemployment, the underclass, the unmarried mother who has nothing to gain from marrying a ManBoy on the dole. capitalism did all this, but feminism carries the can" (Burchill, 2000, para. 5) With unemployment levels for young men being higher than in the early post war period (Charles, 2002, p. 12), the 1990s saw the crisis of masculinity hit a peak, which undoubtedly fed into the complex characters of In? Yer? Face theatre, as we have previously seen in chapter one with David Eldridge's Serving it up. In an article for the Sunday times David Edgar, a prominent British Playwright discusses the new wave in relation to the crisis of masculinity, asserting that the earlier movement of female writers in the late 1970's such as Caryl Churchill and Pam Gems was a response to the women's liberation, that Osbourne and Wesker were writing in light of the second world war and therefore the writers of 1990's were "another group of oung playwrights anatomising the fallout of a huge tectonic shift in the political, cultural and economic geology of our times. " (Edgar, 1997, p. features). In this chapter I focus more specifically on the characters of Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking in regards to the crisis of masculinity, but will also make reference to other characters within the canon that serve as illustrative examples. 29 362007 On the other side of the spectrum, feminism found itself in an era of revitalisation in the 1990's, after having survived the anti? eminist backlash from the new right and thereby diminishing in public profile and having its meanings and ideals blurred. With Socialism also on the decline this meant that, by the 1990's "there were serious questions to be asked about viable alternatives to a right wing political agenda" (Aston, 2008, p. 115) The decade needed something fresh and the success of 'New' Labour seemingly provided that, bringing with it Cool Britannia, and of course 'Girl Power'. But above all else, this too created a quandary for young women of the nineties, there still seemed to be very little to cling to in terms of feminism and female empowerment.
The girl power phenomenon and notions of a 'New Feminism' popularised by journalist Natasha Walter seemed to promote sexual empowerment and liberation much more than a democratizing of power and wealth? which were arguably the initial aims of feminism. So where did this leave gender and sexual identity in the 1990's, and how did it feed into the characters and attitudes of In? Yer? Face theatre? Is it significant that the majority of these plays were based around groups of young men often featuring homosexuality and blaze attitudes towards sex?
Aleks Sierz tells us that: "Shopping and Fucking was one of the first plays where the sexual orientation of the characters was rarely mentioned in reviews. 'A couple of years earlier, it would have been perceived much more as a gay play simply because it put gay sex on stage. '" (Sierz, 2001a, p. 151) 30 362007 Does this constitute evidence for a progressive attitude towards homosexuality on stage, or is it simply that sexuality in the play was overshadowed by its strong metaphorical approach to critiquing social consumerism?
Perhaps something significant should be said here however about the nature of anal sex that is depicted on stage in Shopping and Fucking and other In? Yer? Face plays such as Anthony Neilsons Penetrator and the previously mentioned Blasted, in that it is always violent and used to inflict pain rather than being an act of affection or love. In Penetrator a young soldier, Tadge speaks of his horrors of escaping anal rape, Blasted sees the soldier rape Ian whilst 'crying his heart out' (Kane, 2001, p. 9) and in Mark Ravenhill's debut, although it is somewhat consensual as the young rent boy Gary wants Robbie to fulfil his rape fantasy, the act is still horrific. Further atrocities ensue when Gary pleads with them to use a knife, although this is left open ended and not portrayed on stage. Mark Ravenhill offers some valuable insights into this theme of anal rape: "In a decade that saw a much? touted. but none the less genuine, I think. "crisis in masculinity", anal rape was an excellent metaphor for what men felt was happening to them.
That the active penetrator could become the passive penetratee was the ultimate projection of a world in which patriarchy. and maleness in general. seemed to be losing its grip. " (Ravenhill, 2001, p. 15) This serves as a perfect example of the metaphorical potential of theatre, and also demonstrates how the notorious prolificacy of sex and violence within some of the In? Yer? Face plays is not mindless and apathetic, but that it is used, on some level to represent an element of the external reality of Britain. Reducing these plays to simple sex or violence is an injustice as it renders them one dimensional, when in 31 62007 fact beneath the surface they do have something significant to say about humanity. The fact that these men, regardless of sexuality were repeatedly being penetrated could on some level be a reflection of the vulnerability of masculinity during this decade. On the issue of homosexuality however, the merging of anal sex with rape and torture becomes problematic; even though romance between two men was shown on British stages, such as the successful Jonathan Harvey play, A Beautiful Thing, acts of physical, homosexual love were still scarce in the 1990's. Mark Ravenhill has been criticized for the wo dimensionality of his characters in Shopping and Fucking; that they cannot be imagined living fully rounded lives outside the claustrophobic world of the play. There may be some truth in that, but perhaps what the characters represent is more significant, Ravenhill knowingly makes them products of our culture rather than characters in choosing to give them names of Take That stars, as Dan Rebellato tells us: "Their names reinforce the sense that these are characters without fully realised naturalistic parts. Further it suggests a life entirely colonised by commercial culture. (Ravenhill, 2005, p. xxvi) The play, with its cast of 4 men and 1 women, is a male dominated one therefore one might assume that it has more to say about masculinity? or the aforementioned crisis of masculinity? than femininity but I shall begin by arguing to the contrary. The character of Lulu is interesting in that she is the most pro? active of the cast, in a sense it is she that cleans up the mess that is left by the men in her life. She also 32 362007 encapsulates many of the facets of female identity, not only is she a friend to Mark and Robbie, but she fulfils a sexual role? lbeit an inappropriate one? when she masturbates Robbie, and also a maternal role, feeding and nurturing them. "And when boys won't grow up the only women in the cast is forced to play mummy. "(Sierz, 2001a, P. 130) If the 1990's saw a crisis in masculinity, then it would follow that conversely, femininity found its strength, the strong women role was becoming more predominant across all media and women were now not only overpowering men but also taking on roles that had previously been assigned exclusively to them.
Another play that I want to look at briefly in relation to gender and sexuality is Martin Crimps Attempts on Her Life, a mould breaking piece of theatre that looses the conventions of plot, character and dialogue, replacing them with 17 scenarios that aim to piece together the life of the mysterious and shifting persona of Anne. Like Shopping and Fucking this play also deals, perhaps more overtly, with issues of capitalism and consumerism, a strong and prevalent theme within In? Yer? Face theatre that may reflect the aftermath of 17years of monetarism and conservative rule. However, my focus here will be pon the plays various depictions of femininity and how this relates to the increasingly ambiguous female identities of the 1990s. This example stands apart from the other texts that I have looked at in this study for two reasons; firstly, it is not often associated with In? Yer? Face Theatre as it does not share the provocative and overtly confrontational characteristics of some of 33 362007 these other plays, instead it has a dark irony which is more subtle in tone. However, my justification for using the play within this study is that it undoubtedly shares the sensibility of In?
Yer? Face theatre; a left wing critique on British ideology, exposing flaws within our ways of thinking and urging the audience to readdress their own views. Also, as I will further detail in the conclusion, the use of In? Yer? Face as a genre; exclusively selecting some playwrights as part of a 'movement' and others as its antithesis, is problematic, I believe Martin Crimp? although much older and more experienced than the other playwrights in this study? taps in to the pulse of In? Yer Face theatre with Attempts on her Life.
Secondly, it is the only one to radically experiment with form, and therefore earn the label of post? dramatic theatre which I like to define as an evolving theatre aesthetic that moves away from drama as literature and from the previous notion that it must consist of a plot within a closed fictional world. Whereas the other plays that I have featured (although this is not inclusive of all the works by those playwrights, particularly Kane) are relatively traditional in form, by which I mean they utilise the dramatic techniques of characters, plot and a linear narrative.
As Tim Albery, the plays original director tells us; "Attempts is a template for the purest kind of play; it's just dialogue. There's nothing else: no character, no plot, no setting. " (Sierz, 2006, p. 193) which allows a great deal of freedom to the cast and director, but which also encourages many varied and perhaps even contradictory interpretations. Perhaps a central element of post dramatic theatre is that it asks of its audience not to attempt to interpret but rather to contemplate the messages being given in physicality, visuals and aesthetics. 34 362007
Significantly the play received two major productions in the decade, firstly directed by Tim Albery at the Royal Court on the 7th of March 1997 and then directed by pioneering British female director Katie Mitchell, at the Piccolo Theatre in Milan. As the first focused on capitalism and the imbedded self reflexivity within the text, Mitchell's production became more of a "powerful feminist study of the suicidal pressures on the identity? shifting modern woman" (Billington, 1999, p. 12) which significantly spoke more about the sexual objectification and identity manipulation of its heroine.
I think that this play embodies the ideas mentioned earlier in the chapter about a fractured femininity and the tendency that British society had to place everything in a gender binary, and perhaps the success of this play throughout Europe can speak volumes about the international relevance of new feminism and gender politics. Many have commented on how Martin Crimp critiques the male gaze in Attempts on Her Life and the perpetuation of women being objectified, sexualised and commoditized in contempary mass media.
This is epitomised in Scenario 7 entitled 'A New Anny' in which Anne is no longer even represented as a person but as a new model of car; "We see the new Anny snake along the red tiled Mediterranean rooftops. Fast. Sleek. Free. "(Crimp, 2007, p. 39), the language of the scenario is a parody of television advertisements for cars and thus could be seen as a comment on the eroticization of the female body in advertising. However, is it reductionist to assume from this that Crimp is taking a feminist viewpoint?
Heiner Zimmermann proposes that Scenario 11, Untitled (100 Words), in which art critics discuss how Anne chronicles her suicide attempts as a piece of installation art, is in fact a 35 362007 criticism of the feminist body art movement in which radical artists attempted to subvert the male gaze, transferring the image of the female body from that of object to subject. "Attempts ironically parodies not only the images of woman produced by the male perspective of the media in global capitalism but also feminist's attempts to disrupt these ways of seeing her" (Zimmerman, 2003, p. 2) Therefore I would conclude that Crimp's relationship with feminism as expressed in Attempts on Her Life, is a problematic one, however, what one can ascertain is that the play is undoubtedly significant for an understanding of female identity in 1990's Britain. The fact that this identity is so fractured and complex further highlights that feminism was losing its coherence, that the condition of the post modern woman was posing unanswerable questions to feminism and the result was a nation in which we are ceaselessly trying to define womanhood.
Although the complex and problematic gender relations in 1990s may not be a result of any political ideology or policy they were embedded into the fabric of British life. One might argue that despite the fact that Margaret Thatcher was dismissive of feminism she encouraged more women, particularly within the middle class, to aspire higher in the workplace and to feel confident about taking on the roles that were often assigned to men.
This empowerment of women may have led, albeit indirectly, to the crisis of masculinity, a social phenomenon that left men feeling redundant and unsure about gender identity. Both of the plays that I have looked at in this chapter carry strong implications about gender roles, whether it be naturalistically, as in Shopping and Fucking, whereby the dialogue and actions of the 36 362007 362007 character define who they are and what they represent, or stylistically, as in Attempts that has its meaning embedded into the abstract structure and poetic language. 37
Conclusion This study has aimed to draw a line between the effects of Thatcherism on British society and a particular theatre aesthetic popularised in the mid 90's and termed In? Yer? Face, by prominent theatre critic Aleks Sierz. In the introduction I posed various questions which I have sought to answer throughout this investigation, yet some, if not at all are essentially indeterminable. Because of the nature of this study, there is, in effect no binary by which to define the outcome, which is too complex to be given a concrete right or wrong conclusion.
Theatre, like any other art form, will usually be representative of its artist(s), and every artist is undoubtedly shaped and inspired by the world in which they have been brought up and the environments that they exist within. However, political ideology, society and the well being of a nation may not always function as large factors in this; often the various influences upon an artist are too complex to be reduced to a result of a political leadership.
What one must also remember is that theatre, to some extent, is also subjective, meaning that each play is open to individual interpretation; although many of the sources within this study offer interpretations that may support the theory that they have been inspired by the politics of post Thatcher Britain, other critics may argue otherwise, so we must be careful to avoid the assumption that any one reading is the correct one. When contextualising In? Yer? Face theatre it is important to remember that it didn't exist inside an artistic vacuum and that it was part of a larger creative revolution in 38 62007 which Britain, and particularly London, had become synonymous with the ideology of Cool Britannia, capitalised upon by New Labour and Blairism. "In the 1990s, Blair's public vision of England's return to glory was not rooted in economic or geographic expansion, but in the language of advertising and popular culture. " (Urban, 2008, p. 41) Theatre, particularly the In? Yer? Face breed that was cultivating so much hype and enticing younger audiences back to the stalls, found itself being sold as another element of this popular culture that was revitalising London as the 'coolest city in the world'.
In his insightful essay of the same name Ken Urban offers us a theory of 'Cruel Britannia; 'a youth based counter politics to the cynicism and opportunism of Cool Britannia' (Urban, 2008, p. 39) which is characterized by plays such as Shopping and Fucking and Blasted. In it he argues that rather than being apolitical or reactionary, as some critics have suggested, the In? Yer? Face plays use cruelty and active nihilism as a means of interpreting the world they have been brought up in, and challenging the dominant ideologies of the decade.
Active nihilism, as understood by the philosopher Nietzsche, is a process whereby recognising the despair and the cruelty of the world is the first step to creating new values, therefore having ethical potential to change things. Essentially then, the aesthetic of cruelty within In? Yer? Face theatre could be seen as a means by which to transform annihilation into affirmation, by recognising this cruelty writers such as Kane are demonstrating the ethical possibilities of nihilism. One could argue that they are offering a vision of the world at its most cruel in order to express a deep need for change. 9 362007 Another significant point that I would like to express here is the problematic use of the term 'genre' or 'wave' in regards to In? Yer Face plays, a label given by Aleks Sierz and used widely within the industry to refer to British new writing in the 1990s including the plays within this study and many more that carried similar themes and an aesthetic of cruelty. One must remember that this was not the only label used to describe this 'sensibility' of new writing, other critics, as I have previously mentioned, preferred the terms 'New Brutalists', 'Drama of Disenchantment', 'Neo?
Jacobean' and even the 'Theatre of Urban Ennui', all of which, on some level are valid descriptors of the plays, however they all seem to focus too specifically on one thematic element, whereas Sierz's coinage refers more directly to an attack on the audiences sens
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Die dritte Verleihung der Golden Globe Awards wurde für den 6. März 1946 angekündigt, fand jedoch erst am 30. März des gleichen Jahres im Hollywood Knickerbocker Club in Los Angeles, Kalifornien statt.

Preisträger

Bester Film
Das verlorene Wochenende (The Lost Weekend) – Regie: Billy Wilder

Bester Film zur Förderung der Völkerverständigung
The House I Live In – Regie: Mervyn LeRoy

Bester Regisseur
Billy Wilder – Das verlorene Wochenende (The Lost Weekend)

Bester Hauptdarsteller
Ray Milland – Das verlorene Wochenende (The Lost Weekend)

Beste Hauptdarstellerin
Ingrid Bergman – Die Glocken von St. Marien  (The Bells of St. Mary's)

Bester Nebendarsteller
J. Carrol Naish – A Medal for Benny

Beste Nebendarstellerin
Angela Lansbury – Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray (The Picture of Dorian Grey)

Weblinks
 Offizielle Webpräsenz der HFPA
 Golden Globe 1946

1946
Preisverleihung 1946
Filmjahr 1946
Film (Los Angeles)
Preisverleihung in Los Angeles

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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text:
This was 11 years, 3 months, 4 days ago
I had a wonderful party yesterday night, full of laughter and friends and warmth, and I felt very maternal, glad to have people in my space, full of awe and wonder. a buzzed wild happiness, "wet with a decent happiness", to quote a friend's frequent quote. all of a sudden it struck me (still strikes me) that this place has really changed me, altered my attitude, made me more open to change, relaxed, permissible, flexible, porous, permeable.
Hugh Ferriss. Manhattan zoning laws, visualized, from the 1920s.
I think it's entirely possible and often productive to think of architecture and cities and spaces in terms of s&m, sadism and masochism, that the structures and spaces and territories that we live in envelop us, form us, shape us, constrain us, and that there's a productive pleasure to be derived from that -- the pleasure of living, of enjoying a space, of having one's self be altered. I've thinking that there's nothing that has been so altering as a new space, myself in transit plopped down in a new country, or a new neighborhood, or a new house, and that's so valuable, that these forces that can render us malleable and then form us, derive from spaces, are spaces. And it's not just a spatial relationship to the world that changes but a cultural, habitual, phenomenological understanding of what-my-world-is, what-one's-world-is that changes, I think.
on the other hand of this all are the city planners, developers, architects, interior designers, who try to create these macroscopic zones of activity within which microscopic activity will grow and cross-breed and propagate. the double-loaded corridor that you make is then vandalized, skated on, spray-painted, sat in, benches created, trash placed there, gardens planted, bikes locked up. "if you see something, skate something". there seems to be always this push of usage against design, and I think maybe s&m is a better model than 'dictator & subject', simply because s&m is productive, or a co-dependent dynamic. it's not just one-way -- it's both the 'sadist' urge of the architect to form your life for you, or the 'masochistic' giving-way of the user who wanders the halls of your building in a benjaminian "state of distraction", and more importantly also the pushing of boundaries, the question of delineation. where is your safeword? at which point do you draw the line? and there's also question of meta-desire, A wanting to direct B to direct A on how to act, I want you to build my space, for me to live in and to be formed by.
moreover, what happens, what's really interesting about this s&m analogy, what's really valuable about the moment that is full of a rich loam of potential and is so very fertile is the moment of conflict. friction, frisson friction. new york is one of these places that manages to convince everybody that the submission to certain 'inconveniences' is an honorable thing: to generalize roughly (of course) it's a point of pride to be a new yorker, and a source of mild disdain to be a tourist. the image of 'to be' a New Yorker is to adapt, to be okay with lugging your laundry a few blocks to the laundromat, to know how to cross the street, to be appropriately confrontational and friendly. and it's this conviction of submission, the willingness to be malleable, and the corresponding transformation that everyone undertakes that feels like a very very precious and joyful experiment. central park used as public school gyms; sidewalks as living rooms, parks as terraces, and so on and so forth.
I want to reiterate: it's not simply the density that generates a palimpsestic overlay of usage; it's the aura and reputation of legacy and history, and the persuasive charm of the word n-e-w-y-o-r-k that carries a valence as strong as the potency of agar mixtures for e.coli, spilled gasoline about to be lit, heightened anger before a fistfight, the delirium of people and music at a party. the crackling electric air before a storm.
and this is so valuable, not only 'letting one's self be changed', but the knowledge of this change, and the being-complicit in this process, the willing participant of this dance. and I guess that's the reason I'm here, to study the forces of modification, to lend an ear and to dip my whiskers in the flow of space, to understand how to create spaces that will change me, use me, and to engage in reassertions on the level of these usages: for whom, by whom, in the name of what?
posted by provolot on September 26, 2010 4:46 pm
Other things written in the week of September 25th to October 1st in previous years >>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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No Fellows Programme This Year: Here's Why
By Centre Team
For the past four years, the Centre's Data Fellows Programme has allowed us to explore new ideas and work with highly-skilled individuals who bring a fresh perspective. Their work has contributed to the creation of new workstreams, improvements to our products and services, and compelling data stories. As we started to plan for this year's programme, we realized that our current priorities and projects require deeper engagement than a fellow typically has time for. We have therefore decided not to run the Data Fellows Programme in 2022. Below we explain our reasoning in more detail.
We are focused on long-term issues.
There are two areas in particular that we would like to explore in the coming period, both of which can't be neatly tackled in the two-month timeframe of the fellows programme. One area is related to the impact of the climate crisis on humanitarian operations. For this, we will be taking forward past research (from one of our fellows) on complex systems modeling and seeing how this technique might be applied in different contexts with different shocks. We are partnering with the University of Bergen and others on this research, which we expect will continue for some time.
Another focus area is around the Centre's strategy development. Our current business plan takes us through 2023 and we are on track to meet the targets in our results framework. As we begin to prepare for our next phase, we will be reflecting on our position within the UN and the humanitarian sector, the products and services we offer, and how we can best meet the challenges ahead. For this, we will be looking to hire a research and design firm that can provide expertise in business strategy development, design thinking, and futurecasting.
We are short on time.
The fellows require and deserve significant attention from our team. Whereas in past years we have been focused on generating new ideas, we are currently focused on implementing existing ones. We were concerned that we would not be able to dedicate enough time to each fellow to ensure their success. More recently, we have been working to support the humanitarian response in Ukraine, which will continue to be a priority along with the many other pressing crises in Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere.
We value the in-person experience.
For the last two years, the fellows programme has been held remotely due to pandemic travel restrictions. Although this has worked well given the circumstances, we missed having the fellows with us in the office. It is hard to replicate the collaborative and creative spark that comes from working in-person with a multi-disciplinary team.
The Data Fellows Programme will be back in one form or another. We trust that in 2023 we will be in a better position to recruit an amazing class of fellows to tackle new projects. And we certainly hope that we will be able to hold our next programme together in The Hague. If you have any questions, contact us at centrehumdata@un.org.
Designing a communications strategy for data responsibility
What is the role of trust in managing a growing data platform?
Developing a data story on the climate crisis in the Sahel
Complex systems modeling for humanitarian action


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CIVIC CHRONICLES BLOG: Racial equity confab successful
Dubbed "Governing for Racial Equity" the unique training session spanned all of last week, Nov. 17-21 and was considered a "good first start" and that the program had "healing qualities" for those that participated.
CIVIC CHRONICLES BLOG: Racial equity confab successful Dubbed "Governing for Racial Equity" the unique training session spanned all of last week, Nov. 17-21 and was considered a "good first start" and that the program had "healing qualities" for those that participated. Check out this story on thecalifornian.com: http://bit.ly/1vLFvJA
Civic Chronicles
Jeff Mitchell, The Salinas Californian Published 5:58 p.m. PT Nov. 25, 2014 | Updated 6:38 p.m. PT Nov. 25, 2014
It was done without a lot of fanfare -- in fact, it was almost below the radar -- but a recent initiative brought together members of the East Salinas community and members of the city staff to discuss issues surrounding racial equity.
(Photo: Juan Villa / Juan Villa/The Salinas Californian)
During a City Hall press conference on Tuesday led by Salinas Public Works Director Gary Petersen and Building Healthy Communities Hub Manager Carmen Gil, the consensus was that Salinas is town with two distinct communities -- the East Side which is mostly Spanish speaking and all the rest. Finally bridging that divide is a goal of the program that will roll out over the next six months.
"This was an opportunity for people to really engage for the first time" said Cesar Lara, executive director of the Monterey County Central Labor Council and a participant in the program.
Lara admitted that initially spurring the weeklong effort were the four officer-involved fatal shootings that have occurred this year.
"That may have been the reason that these trainings were organized, but certainly the issues (of racial equity and justice) in Salinas go beyond those tragic incidents," he said.
A key part of the training will be for Salinas city employees to look at at all aspect of municipal programs and services through a "lens of racial equity and understanding."
Petersen characterized the issue -- which seeks ultimately to recognize and eliminate subtle racial bias -- was both tough and "messy."
Hector Sanchez-Flores, executive director of the National Compadres Network and one of the week's discussion leaders and trainers, agreed.
"The issues before us are sophisticated and will be hard to untangle," he said.
In addition to Sanchez-Flores, Jerry Tello, a nationally recognized racial equity expert, along with Rinku Sen and Alfredo De Avila of Race Forward a program of the Center for Racial Justice Innovation, led the conferences and sessions.
Gil said that issues raised during the sessions were noted and that those notes will be publicly released soon.
The trainings themselves were divided into two main parts with about 50 invited community members meeting separately Monday and Tuesday and about 50 members of the city staff meeting separately Wednesday and Thursday. The week wrapped up with both contingents coming together for a general session Friday.
Specifically, the sessions included training on developing and understanding common language around racial justice, diversity and equity. Other elements of the program focused on theory and the development of pragmatic tools to combat bias as well as to achieve better understanding across all parts of the Salinas community.
So as to encourage complete candor during the meetings, members of the news media nor any elected officials were invited to participate in the sessions. However, organizers say separate training conferences will be offered to the City Council and to local media outlets at some point next year.
Present at Tuesday's press briefing was Petersen, Lara, Gil and Sanchez-Flores. Also present was Willow Array, executive director of the Alisal Center for the Fine Arts; Henry Gomez, commander, Salinas Police Department; and Dan Perez, deputy chief of police, Salinas Police Department and
City Manager Ray Corpuz Jr., Police Chief Kelly McMillin or Mayor Joe Gunter did not attend the briefing.
The conference and training effort was paid for by the California Endowment, the parent organization of the Building Healthy Communities initiative here in Salinas.
Civic Chronicles Columnist Jeff Mitchell covers politics and life in the Salinas Valley on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Reach him at (831) 754-4281. Email him at jemitchell@thecalifornian.com.
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Amid the din of warnings about modern technology's impact on the soul, Kevin Kelly sounds like the happy evangelist from Geekdom. "[W]e can see more of God in a cell phone than in a tree frog," the Wired magazine cofounder claims in his most recent book, What Technology Wants. A provocative title, to be sure, introducing a more provocative thesis: All human artifacts, from words to wheels to Wikipedia, together act like a living, breathing organism that reflects something of the Divine. "Technology has its roots in God's work through the universe," Kelly told CT associate editor Katelyn Beaty as she sat down with the San Francisco native at this year's Q conference, where Kelly was speaking. He believes that as participants in the technium—Kelly's word for this tech-ecosystem—"when we try to increase the options in the world, we are part of something godly."
Kelly came to Christ in 1979, when he got locked out of a Jerusalem hostel and ended up sleeping on a stone slab in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He talked with CT about the Amish, his vision of heaven, and why he doesn't own a smart phone.
You use the term the technium to discuss all artifacts that humans have made since the beginning. Why not just use the word "culture"?


Emergency services have scrambled to the nightclub in Prahran, southeast of Melbourne, near Little Chapel Street and Malvern Road. The victims have been rushed to hospital for treatment and surgery. It currently remains unclear how many people have been injured or how the violence unfolded.


The Government plans to press on with its widely criticised tax reporting changes for VAT-registered businesses, but has postponed introducing similar reforms for income tax.
From April 1, the vast majority of small businesses with a turnover over the £85,000 VAT threshold will be required to submit quarterly returns online using specialist software.
These changes are dubbed Making Tax Digital (MTD) and have been criticised by small business owners, trade bodies and MPs, who fear they are an excessive burden on the self-employed.


In a day when so many movies transition to TV and lose their identity in the process, it's refreshing to see "Dear White People" hew closely to the film that inspired it. The story has been carefully altered and expanded to allow for fresh developments, but rather than list all the ways Justin Simien's new Netflix series differs from his award-winning indie film, let's focus on their shared identity.
Identity is a prominent theme in the story of college kids struggling to discover who they are and what they stand for, and the series' first two episodes feel deeply unifying. The premiere episode is a streamlined effort with an impressively strong voice; the next half-hour is equally affecting and vocal, an ideal split between entertaining and illuminating.
Given it's written and directed by the same man who led the film from IndieWire Project of the Year to the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, there's no reason the show shouldn't be exactly what its creator wants. Netflix's involvement only furthers that idea of creative freedom, and after two compelling episodes, it appears Simien's main desire in turning his beloved film into an ongoing TV show was to use the best elements of the movie to further discussions still vital to American culture. By shifting perspectives each episode, Simien takes an expansive look at the complexities of modern-day race relations, societal pressures, and personal responsibility, all without losing specificity.
Now, that's a great reason to adapt your movie for television.
"Dear White People" opens on Winchester University, an Ivy League school torn asunder when writers of a collegiate humor magazine, Pastiche, throw a blackface party on campus. This party serves as the bedrock on which the series rests; as the narrator notes early on, each episode will unpack not only how the party came to be, but the role of each person in attendance — either as participants or protesters.
We start with Samantha White, a junior media studies major (Logan Browning, in the role originated by Tessa Thompson). White hosts the college radio show "Dear White People," which gives her the opportunity to challenge racial stereotypes at a predominantly white college. It also provides the series an opportunity to clarify the intent of its provocative title.
Browning's radio personality is distinct from her off-air portrayal of Samantha, and the authority she brings to a microphone is a wisely repeated strength. The first episode gives Samantha an impressive emotional arc: She goes from fight-picking rebel to an ousted, embarrassed kid, and back to a daring, honest, and insightful leader, getting behind the mic to comment on each development. So full is the episode, it actually runs three minutes over the half-hour run-time. That's a common practice for Netflix shows, but often one that's detrimental to comedies in need of a tight edit. This is not the case for "Dear White People," which feels light on its feet from start to finish.
The second episode clocks in at 29 minutes and covers nearly as much ground — this time, for Lionel Higgins (DeRon Horton, taking over for Tyler James Williams). A reporter for the school paper and socially shy, Lionel's episode tackles the party from a different viewpoint: Rather than learn how it came about, we see what the party meant to Lionel. More importantly, his perspective expands the conversations at play in the series overall.
"Dear White People" isn't strictly about race. It gives voice to all oppressed, misunderstood, and marginalized communities, and is very clear about its prerogative from the start. Samantha provides the advocate's perspective, carefully presenting her personal desires with the responsibility she feels as a leader — some of which she's asked for, and some she hasn't. With Lionel, the show represents the worldview of a gay black man, specifically one trying to accept his new identity without abandoning his values or being alienated from his friends.
Herein lies the strength of the initial two episodes, as well as the original film. By tracking characters confident enough to challenge the status quo but young enough to adapt when challenged, the series never feels self-righteous. Moreover, Simien's focus on the party as a game-changing event for everyone on campus grounds the characters' responses in immediacy: They have to act now, and they do. They all do, which gives "Dear White People" an inclusive voice even as it shouts harsh truths. Given the rise in nationwide protests and societal discourse, the series may be even more timely than the film.
Simien shows great situational awareness within his new serialized format. By thoroughly defining his characters, the show's messages come across without alienating anyone he hopes to address. As quick to back up its arguments as it is to acknowledge differing opinions, "Dear White People" always feels like a personal story first and intelligent satire second. Between the movie and the first two episodes, I've spent three hours at Winchester. And I only want more.
"Dear White People" premiered its first two episodes at SXSW. Netflix will release the full first season April 28.


Nancy Hightower's gonna win an award!
The Science Fiction Poetry Association has nominated Nancy Hightower's The Acolyte for an Elgin Award for best full-length book! A poem from The Acolyte, "The Forgetting (Bathsheba's Lament)," appeared in Issue 7 of Bop Dead City, and of course her story "However You Spin the Grin" appears in Issue 14.
To purchase your copy of the future award-winning book, click here. And to see her book and all the others, head over to the SFPA website.
A day late and usually a dollar short, that's me. So, while this is the official announcement of the new submission periods, lots of you have already sent your work in (which is awesome!) and if you haven't, do.
The contest theme this go-around is dreams. As always I'm excited to see what you kids do with the theme. Go nuts, please. Also as always, best poem gets $20, best story gets $20 unless there's no best poem or story, and then the sole winner gets $40.


Vote for your next Lecture Board speaker preference!
Brown Lecture Board has given us a very fun responsibility: to present our campus with their amazing options of speakers for them to bring next to Brown. For the next week, we'll be profiling one of the six options every day, in case you need a little help in deciding who to cast your vote for. Lecture Board will pursue speakers in the order of the results from this poll, which will be open via Google Form until November 29th. You need @brown.edu email to vote, and can only do so once, so pick carefully!
You can access the poll here, and find our first profile on the site tomorrow!
Note: Lecture Board may not be able to host the speakers on this poll, given potential scheduling conflicts and availability issues.
Image via Albie Brown '16.


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I fell asleep at the computer last night while composing my first JoeTourist blog entry, so I finish that entry this morning, finalize the photos for a new Lautoka album on my JoeTourist photo hosting service, and then log into the Internet service to use my allotted one hour connect time before I leave. Of course, once I upload all the photos and do the other online work, there is only a bit of time remaining to browse facebook, and send a couple of emails. Internet aboard the ship will be low speed and expensive, so I'm glad to take advantage of the shore-side connections this morning.
I will board the Paul Gauguin this afternoon in Lautoka, so I pack up this morning, and my porter Koso comes at 11AM to pick up my big bag, which he will store until I leave for the ship at 2PM. I have arranged with the front desk to take their shuttle for FJ$20. In the meantime, I find a table between the bar and restaurant under the shade trees, and settle in for a while. I have a Coca Cola to start, and then later have a delicious roasted chicken salad for lunch. It is garnished with strips of something preserved in soy sauce, which gives it a nice flavour. That takes me to 1PM, while I work on my travel journal off and on.
I talk with a group of Road Scholars who just disembarked the ship this morning. They are being shown around the area, doing village visits, and having lunch at the resort. Some of them stop to chat with me, and they seem to know all about the solar eclipse group boarding the ship this afternoon.
It is soon time for me to leave, so Koso pulls my bag from storage and I take the First Landing Resort shuttle to the Lautoka wharf. The driver is Indian, and once he knows I am going on a cruise to see a Total Solar Eclipse, he tells me Indian women who are pregnant have to stay indoors that day, and can't watch the event. I've heard of this before in other cultures, most notably the Arabs. It is a bit inconvenient when we arrive at the gates to the wharf, since security won't let any vehicles through without a clearance sticker. So I have to walk through the gate and pass security with my cruise ticket and passport, rolling my bag behind me. Once they check me off the list, I'm good to go. It is a short walk to the gangway, but I have no luggage tags once I get there, so a porter helps me lug my big bag up the gangway to the main lobby area. I'm about a half hour early, so they are still getting organized for boarding passengers. The cruise director ushers us into Le Grand Salon, where they are all setup to check in guests and take security photos. They also take our passports – to be returned when we disembark.
My cabin is very nicely appointed, despite being on one of the lower decks. The ship was refurbished a few months ago, so all the fittings look fresh and new. It is certainly a smaller ship than the Holland America ships I was on previously, and the decor is not as opulent as the HAL ships. The pool is tiny, but there is lots of space on the top two decks, so observing the eclipse should be no problem. The Promenade Deck below the lifeboats doesn't go all the way around the ship, and isn't used much. In fact, there aren't any deck chairs on this deck, which is kind of odd.
We are serenaded by a group of Fijian men with traditional songs on the dock as the ship leaves, but it isn't announced on board the ship, and so very few passengers go out on deck to enjoy the sendoff. I go for dinner to L'Etoile, the main dining room this evening, and I request to be seated at a large table. Since I'm traveling alone, this is a good way for me to socialize with people I might not otherwise meet. As it turns out, I know a couple seated at the same table this evening from a few years back when we both were on one of TravelQuest's Costa Rican Southern Sky Fiesta tours.
First Landing Resort is located quite close to where I will embark the Paul Gauguin in a couple of days. In the mean time, it is nice to have time to get that much-needed sleep in a seaside bure (cottage), and adjust to the time difference. My taxi driver assures me that First Landing is known for good food, and he is correct. All the meals I have at the resort are first rate, and all the staff are very friendly and helpful.
I arrive a bit after Noon, and my bure isn't ready, because check-in is normally after 1PM, so I need to kill some time. They serve me my welcome drink at the bar, which appears to be nothing more than some fruit juice and bar flavourings over ice. I also have some lunch in the restaurant: grilled Walu, which is a tasty white-fleshed fish served in a wonderful coconut crème sauce. At lunch I talk with several people who are also going on the Paul Gauguin Solar Eclipse cruise. They arrived early this morning (5AM), and are just now moving into their bures after having a temporary room assigned to them for most of the day.
After lunch, I am taken to my nice clean bure overlooking the water, where I settle in and get cleaned up. I take a quick walk around the resort, seeing all the facilities offered: pool, sports activities, cultural activities, spa (I have a free coupon), Wifi (modest charge), and the Vuda Marina is right next-door (where Craig & Barbara stayed while sailing on Sequoia back in 2004). After my walk, I sleep most of the afternoon, and wake up refreshed to explore the resort a bit further. There is this Left Foot Island, which you can see best from Google Earth if you search for First Landing Resort in Lautoka, Fiji. I'm not sure what the story is behind this large manmade water feature. The resort has a coral beach (typical for this side of Vanua Levu), which means it is not soft, white sand, so you need reef shoes to go walking and wading. The reef is very shallow and close to shore in this area, which means the modest one foot tide exposes the reef and sandy areas each day, limiting ocean swimming. Of course, the resort has a nice pool, so there is no problem finding a place to swim.
Before supper, I take some sunset photos from just outside my bure, and after supper, I take some wide-angle photos of the beautifully dark western sky. The whole of Scorpius is easily observed, and the Milky Way is surprisingly bright considering I am standing in a resort with their grounds lit up at night. Having a dark ocean westward makes the beautiful celestial show possible. I identify some of the constellations found in the southern sky using Starmap Pro on my iPad 2. Once I tell the software where I am located, it works really well. I can see Cygnus flying up from the Northern horizon. Mars is flickering in the atmospheric muck at only 6 degrees above the horizon. Altair, Terazad (red star), Peacock and Toucan constellations are all visible, and a nice globular cluster NGC 6752 pops out. I observe all these treasures using my Canon IS 12×36 binoculars while sitting on a lounge chair on the beach – pure bliss!
After the night sky observing, I'm ready for more sleep, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow in the tropics.
I am up fairly early in the morning, and take some time to have a couple of cups of coffee while looking out over the ocean at the soft colours of the morning. I'm finally ready for the Continental breakfast, which is part of the room tariff. The morning meal hits the spot with fresh Fijian fruit, homemade pastries, and other delights.
I stay at the resort today, with nothing more planned than to try out my solar eclipse photographic and observing gear while I am still on solid land. First though, there are fish to watch under the causeway, sailboats to spot through binoculars as they drift by on what seems the edge of the ocean, and I take time to contemplate the shadows of the palm trees as they caress the beach. This is a sublime place.
I walk over to Vuda Marina, where Craig and Barbara moored their sailboat Sequoia on their trans-Pacific journey. I was lucky enough to share passage with them when they sailed from Opua, New Zealand to Suva, Fiji. I also have my first Fiji Bitter beer today before lunch. It goes down well with a very tasty Fish Curry Hot Pot in coconut sauce with rice.
I get out my solar observing and photography gear this afternoon and have a trial run on the lawn in front of my bure. It is going to be a major challenge to keep the Sun in the field of view of my camera while on a ship's deck. Achieving sharp focus is another issue when your observing platform is moving under your feet. I'm sure we will be given lots of advice about solar observing and photography by the enrichment speakers onboard the ship, but I can already see the challenge. In any case, I take some useable photos of the Sun, which is all I can do for now.
Turning my attention to the 24 day old waning Crescent Moon proves rewarding this afternoon. The Moon has a rendezvous with the Sun on the 14th (the Total Solar Eclipse), so it will soon disappear from daytime view and keep its celestial appointment.
I have a Fiji Bitter beer and potato wedges (bar snack) for dinner, since I'm not interested in the beach BBQ and Meke show being staged by the resort staff this evening. There are too many clouds to try more astrophotography this evening, so I return to my bure. Time for more rest, since I board the cruise ship tomorrow afternoon.


Product prices and availability are accurate as of 2019-04-19 11:53:39 UTC and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on http://www.amazon.com/ at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
A unisex t-shirt with an elegant print throughout the front certain to make you stand apart as the classiest individual at the funeral service.


When you're stuck in the rain, there is nothing worse than having your clothes soaking wet. While this might be a small annoyance on a regular day, it can turn into a life threatening emergency if there is a disaster. You could be hiking and get lost with a rainstorm in sight. When the rain soaks your clothes, you could die from your body temperature being too low. While this would not happen if your clothes weren't wet, it could happen if they were. Because of this, everyone needs to carry a disposable poncho in their survival kit. While it might seem like a silly thing to carry around, it is actually much needed. These ponchos can help keep the water from soaking through your clothes, which is a dangerous occurrence.
When you're looking for a rain poncho, you want one that is going to be easy to carry. That's what is so great about these rain ponchos. They are intended for a one time use, so they are packaged conveniently for you to carry on whatever adventure you might find yourself on. They are breathable, easy to pack, and very lightweight. These ponchos can even fit in your backpack or pocket! The great thing is that they come in multiple colors, so you can choose whatever color would be easiest to see with your family in them. You don't only need these for an emergency, they can be used whenever you want! If you're going to an amusement park, use these for those water rides that are so much fun but you don't want to get wet on. Or if you're at a football game, keep the rain off of you so that you don't need to leave early.
When you purchase these disposable rain ponchos you'll get a package of 5, 10, or 200 depending on what you choose.
These ponchos are really lightweight, but they are heavy duty enough once opened to keep the rain off of you. They are much more breathable than you would guess, so you won't be sweating or feeling claustrophobic while wearing them. Since they are so small they can literally fit almost anywhere, making it the perfect travel companion. At just $15 for 10 ponchos, you won't find a better deal anywhere. With such a cheap price, everyone needs to purchase these to keep with them when rain catches you off guard.
The sleeves are a bit short. It would be better if they would extend longer for adults.
If you are looking for something to keep you dry when you're caught in the rain, this is a great option. The water runs off of it and they are cheap. Since they are disposable you'll never have to throw a wet jacket into your car. It's a great product for anyone who wants to stay out of the rain but doesn't have a choice. Highly recommend it.
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