what to do next
...so now we have decided on our story, what actually goes on...
well so far, nothing. I went home and watched Extras and Arrested Development last night [brilliant joke about a business card]. Not for inspiration but purely because i wanted to forgot about everything we had talked about that evening and come at it fresh in the morning.
Anyway...i told the fantastic Lucy Kerbill who is directing my piece, that i really dont like guns on stage and being a very white middle class boy who isnt from London i felt that i am likely to write about how this sort of attack affects me, rather than from the point of view of the communities in which the crimes are being committed.
But this is what's confusing me i dont actually know how i feel about these sort of crimes. Since i have been in London somebody has been stabbed to death outside my block of flats, a major gang battle has erupted in the childrens playground which i watched from my balcony, armed poilce have not let me into my flat because somebody in a house opposite was supposedly holding someone hostage and a man was axed to death outside in a school three hundred yards away. And each time something like this has happened all i've thought is i hope they get this cleaned up quickly so it doesnt inconvience me. Not at any point i have personally felt in danger. Despite the immediacy and closeness of these horrific crimes to me. However, i know that if i still lived in the small village i came from and just one random attack on a resident took place [ even a happy slapping, which is ten a penny in London] i would be scared. I honestly believe that there's something about this city, which allows us to disten ourselves from the immediacy of such acts. For example my response to the Brixton shooting was this:
I would have not been in McDonalds as i hate the food. So i couldnt have been caught up in the medly.
I spend a lot of time in Brixton and personally i find it so less intimidating than places like Wakefield, Barnsley, Hull and Chesterfield where the threat of drunken violence is only a pint of stella away. But maybe that's because i am a much more likely target in those places. A tall white male, who wears loud shirts.
One thing that does scare me about this whole gun crime 'respect' shootings is the trivial things that trigger theviolence. I cant get my head round the fact that somebody would shoot someone over something as petty as 'you've got shit shoes'. But then again i'm able to distance myself from these things as i've had a comfortable upbringing and dont have to fight for my survival in the same way that these [predominatly] young men do.
That's a lot of talk, really about nothing.
Anyway, i spoke to Joel this morning who as always was coming up with wild and brilliant ideas. We did talk briefly about doing a House and Garden style play [ Ackbourn's classic- two plays running into seperate spaces and then meeting in the middle] but we dont really have time to collaborate as he's going to Leeds. I aslo told him my rubbish idea based on a short film i once saw but cant remember its name, where in the play a male would be stood holding a gun aimed at a man, we all assume it doesnt go off and the guy who was going to be shot goes and has the rest of his normal day as if nothignhad happened, reunited with his mum and all that emotional rubbish only to be pulled back in at the last second by the fact that the gun did go off and we realise he was imagining the last day of his life. But i hate guns on stage and it's rubbish that idea. Joel said it was interesting though. He's so kind that boy.
I also kept having a line coming into my head: "today was the last day that i breathed" but i think i'll save it for something else.
However, after i spoke to Joel i read the articles that James posted and found myself drawn to the Daily Mail comment page. Brilliant. That's all i'll ever need.
Some tosser from Coventry came up with the brilliant line " we need to teach these people some old fashioned manners". What a twat. Don't most people who buy that paper support the war and hark back to our days of empire when we used to butcher anyone that got in out way. Couldnt the fucking pompous cock end realise that there's probably worst thing to start teaching these kids...
ah. That's where i'm going. That's the direction i will be taking this play in. As Nick Hytner said not long we need some nice little right wing plays.
Bye...
I wasnt going to think about it until this morning but after watching those two brilliant programmes i did start to think about possible ideas.
And
well so far, nothing. I went home and watched Extras and Arrested Development last night [brilliant joke about a business card]. Not for inspiration but purely because i wanted to forgot about everything we had talked about that evening and come at it fresh in the morning.
Anyway...i told the fantastic Lucy Kerbill who is directing my piece, that i really dont like guns on stage and being a very white middle class boy who isnt from London i felt that i am likely to write about how this sort of attack affects me, rather than from the point of view of the communities in which the crimes are being committed.
But this is what's confusing me i dont actually know how i feel about these sort of crimes. Since i have been in London somebody has been stabbed to death outside my block of flats, a major gang battle has erupted in the childrens playground which i watched from my balcony, armed poilce have not let me into my flat because somebody in a house opposite was supposedly holding someone hostage and a man was axed to death outside in a school three hundred yards away. And each time something like this has happened all i've thought is i hope they get this cleaned up quickly so it doesnt inconvience me. Not at any point i have personally felt in danger. Despite the immediacy and closeness of these horrific crimes to me. However, i know that if i still lived in the small village i came from and just one random attack on a resident took place [ even a happy slapping, which is ten a penny in London] i would be scared. I honestly believe that there's something about this city, which allows us to disten ourselves from the immediacy of such acts. For example my response to the Brixton shooting was this:
I would have not been in McDonalds as i hate the food. So i couldnt have been caught up in the medly.
I spend a lot of time in Brixton and personally i find it so less intimidating than places like Wakefield, Barnsley, Hull and Chesterfield where the threat of drunken violence is only a pint of stella away. But maybe that's because i am a much more likely target in those places. A tall white male, who wears loud shirts.
One thing that does scare me about this whole gun crime 'respect' shootings is the trivial things that trigger theviolence. I cant get my head round the fact that somebody would shoot someone over something as petty as 'you've got shit shoes'. But then again i'm able to distance myself from these things as i've had a comfortable upbringing and dont have to fight for my survival in the same way that these [predominatly] young men do.
That's a lot of talk, really about nothing.
Anyway, i spoke to Joel this morning who as always was coming up with wild and brilliant ideas. We did talk briefly about doing a House and Garden style play [ Ackbourn's classic- two plays running into seperate spaces and then meeting in the middle] but we dont really have time to collaborate as he's going to Leeds. I aslo told him my rubbish idea based on a short film i once saw but cant remember its name, where in the play a male would be stood holding a gun aimed at a man, we all assume it doesnt go off and the guy who was going to be shot goes and has the rest of his normal day as if nothignhad happened, reunited with his mum and all that emotional rubbish only to be pulled back in at the last second by the fact that the gun did go off and we realise he was imagining the last day of his life. But i hate guns on stage and it's rubbish that idea. Joel said it was interesting though. He's so kind that boy.
I also kept having a line coming into my head: "today was the last day that i breathed" but i think i'll save it for something else.
However, after i spoke to Joel i read the articles that James posted and found myself drawn to the Daily Mail comment page. Brilliant. That's all i'll ever need.
Some tosser from Coventry came up with the brilliant line " we need to teach these people some old fashioned manners". What a twat. Don't most people who buy that paper support the war and hark back to our days of empire when we used to butcher anyone that got in out way. Couldnt the fucking pompous cock end realise that there's probably worst thing to start teaching these kids...
ah. That's where i'm going. That's the direction i will be taking this play in. As Nick Hytner said not long we need some nice little right wing plays.
Bye...
I wasnt going to think about it until this morning but after watching those two brilliant programmes i did start to think about possible ideas.
And
posted by Anonymous at 10/02/2006 12:34:00 pm
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