BUBBLE SCHMEISIS // Nick Cassenbaum

Cultural identity is made out of little, everyday things, just as the character of a neighbourhood is made up of the everyday rather than the exceptional. The best sign of gentrification in London’s East End isn’t the Cereal Killer Café, but the slow closure of its greasy spoons and corner shops and their replacement with more Pret A Mangers. Nick Cassenbaum’s performance is about Jewish identity, and the self-care ritual of the Schvitz, an intergenerational steam bath that unfolds as a psychogeographic narrative of the Jewish East End. It has orbiting interests of personal, urban and cultural history, and through them questions the identities of individuals, groups and cities.

Biographic detail is specific and explored, but the historical sweep of Cassenbaum’s journey intersects with many other stories. Even some 400 miles from London, Edinburgh audiences recognise the narrative of old rituals falling away, as cities change and traditions atrophy. Although the schvitz specifically may have a future; In other cities the steam rooms have opened to all, male and female, from whatever nationality, and had some success. Perhaps the key might be to let the tradition change, rather than hold on to something already slipping away.

In doing so though something specific and historic will be lost. The schvitz is an old-world thing, a wash that is as much about taking the time to relax as it is getting clean. In a constantly connected city, with few respites from modernity, the importance of a space for discussion and a location to be at ease with your own body in, is a rare and ancient luxury.

- LC

Bubble Schmeisis played at Summerhall through August 28 - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/bubble-schmeisis

Nick Cassenbaum - http://www.nickcassenbaum.com

Schvitz (from Yiddish) - http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/483

 Having A Schvitz (Jewish Chronicle) - http://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-features/143194/having-a-shvitz-working-a-nostalgic-head-steam

 New York Schvitz Resurgence - http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/nyregion/after-124-years-the-russian-and-turkish-baths-are-still-a-hot-spot.html

We Need to Talk About Gentrification (Lifehacker) - http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2015/10/02/the-battle-of-the-cereal-killer-cafe-and-why-we-need-to-talk-about-gentrification

TRIGGER // Christeene

Christeene comes riding in on an inner pony, an imaginary animal representing self-esteem and unapologetic sexuality. Each night, working whilst a shedload of explosives erupt from Edinburgh castle above her, Christeene is at work to create the ambience of the kind of sex disco that you always wished you were invited to but are not quite convinced you’d know what to do at if you were. The inner-pony is a my-little metaphor of freedom, a call to abandon proprieties and niceties in favour of a new kind of holistic sexual transcendence.

The music is really good, and the audience shuffle their feet if nothing else. But the sections of funkenstein’s monster hallucinations are also accompanied by quiet monologues on Christine’s surreal version of mindfulness training. That’s when she declaims like a motivational speaker that we accept ourselves and each other. Christeene’s sex-positive pro-dirty celebration reminds me of the work of other incredible artists creating similarly dishevelled celebrations of sexual politics. It shares a joyous aesthetic and enjoyable seriousness with Annie Sprinkle and Beth Steven’s work on ‘ecosexuality’, and a messianic zeal with David Hoyle’s recent activism around mental health and political engagement. Like The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein’s work, and Lucy McCormick’s, it is unflinching in the bodily nature of its political undertow.

Christeene’s aesthetic and language is uncompromising, but its generosity is apparent – if you found your way into the room then you’re part of the tribe. The irresistibly catchy rap is one part of it, but it comes with a call to self-care and self-pleasure.

- Lewis Church

Trigger played Underbelly, Cowgate through August 28 - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/christeene-trigger

Christeene - http://christeenemusic.com

Christeene ‘Tears from My Pussy’ Video - https://vimeo.com/32751567

What’s Sex got to do with Mindfulness? - http://www.mindful.org/whats-sex-got-to-do-with-mindfulness/

Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stevens’ Ecosexuality - http://www.feministtimes.com/feminism-has-not-happened-yet-an-interview-with-annie-sprinkle/

David Hoyle Interview with Chelsea Theatre - http://www.chelseatheatre.org.uk/interview-david-hoyle/

The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein - http://www.thefamousomg.com

Lucy McCormick ‘Fringe Messiah’ - https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/01/lucy-mccormick-triple-threat-comedy-autumn-arts-preview

CAMILLE // Kamila Klamut

History has painted Camille Claudin as 'Rodin's tragic lover' - a muse-turned-artist-turned-asylum patient, desperate and alone. But although her 10 year love affair with the master of French sculpture has defined her, she's increasingly recognised as an artist in her own right: the 70th anniversary of her death was marked with asignificant retrospective of her work at the Rodin Museum.

Polish artist Kamila Klamut isn't the first to bring Claudin's story to the stage. But her physical solo performance draws attention to the bodily indignities and torments she suffered after her brother committed her to an asylum. She adopts a low voice to explain his rationale, that she's bringing shame on their wealthy family's reputation. It's a frightening insight into a time when asylums were a form of social control, designed to keep people who threatened the social order out of sight - and mental health treatment within their walls was all but non-existent.

Flashes into Claudel's past reveal an unconventional, fierce woman: one who stepped out of a life of privilege to live as an artist making then-shocking nude sculptures, and who sought an abortion at a time where doing so was both dangerous, and seen as an unforgivable sin. But she was held back by a patriarchal art world: where her lover Rodin presided over a large workshop that could make over 300 bronze casts of The Kiss, her struggle to win wealthy backers meant she was restricted to cheaper materials, and her behaviour became increasingly erratic. Over 100 years on, it's impossible to interpret her true mental state. Was she too far outside of social norms to be allowed to live unchallenged? Or was she genuinely mentally ill, suffering from delusions of persecution by Rodin and the art world?

Klamut shrinks in on herself as Claudel's years in imprisonment pass, her letters ignored. She changes her from an expansive, wild artist into a petty, child-like being who quibbles over butter and greasy soup. But even in the asylum, her class buys her a kind of comfort: she is sent wine, and chocolate, and alcohol-soaked cherries.

The text of Camille is culled from Claudel's letters, meaning that the personalities of Rodin and her family are only visible from her own, increasingly desperate perspective. It is difficult to truly understand how she felt when her words are isolated from the context of the social world that lionised and destroyed her. But her physical suffering is intensely visible, as Klamut's contorted body becomes a visual representation of the oppression visited on Camille by both society, and the asylum that she was imprisoned in.

- Alice Saville

Camille was on at Summerhall, Edinburgh Fringe http://festival16.summerhall.co.uk/event/camille/

Kamila Klamut’s website http://www.kamilaklamut.pl/

An overview of Camille Claudel’s life and work http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/exhibition/camille-claudel

Asylums as a form of social control, rather than sites for medical treatment http://www.academia.edu/894595/Getting_Out_of_the_Asylum_Understanding_the_Confinement_of_the_Insane_in_the_Nineteenth_Century

Rodin’s workshop, and the expense involved in being a sculptor http://festival16.summerhall.co.uk/event/camille/

THE INTERFERENCE // Pepperdine University (USA)

A series of high-profile cases has drawn attention to the idea that a ‘rape culture’ exists in American colleges - a micro-climate where sexually predatory behaviour is both normalised, and enabled by social codes around masculinity. And one, too, where victims are either disbelieved or blamed. Cork-based playwright Lynda Radley’s latest play is a 360 degree view of a female student Karen’s experience of reporting a campus rape, and seeking justice. But unlike most reporting on campus rapes, it takes her perspective, showing the serious mental health impact of her experiences while her college football star rapist Smith emerges unscathed.

There’s a culture of doubting rape victims, one that’s made worse both by right-wing observers who pounce on the very rare incidents of false reports. In particular, the 2014 Rolling Stone article ‘A Rape On Campus’ received widespread criticism for the way in which it trusted and relied on the testimony of victim ‘Jackie’ - the magazine retracted the article in the wake of multiple lawsuits. In Radley’s play, media commentators use the discredited Rolling Stone article as a reason to disbelieve Karen’s story.

But there are other, more pragmatic reasons for doubting Karen. Smith is a star quarterback, who has huge symbolic and monetary value to the college: the administration rallies round their sporting cash cow. Meanwhile, hostile college students point to Smith’s social cachet to suggest that Karen must have been attracted to him, then regretted the incident later.

Radley’s play is densely researched, giving it a verbatim feel. It offers an insight into the huge range of strategies used to discredit women who report rapes: including the notorious 1999 case where a judge ruled that a woman wearing jeans could not have be raped, as they were difficult to remove without her consent. But her comprehensive approach is given immediacy and urgency by its use of a cast of 12 performers from Peppardine University. They’ve got a stereotypically all-American preppiness and wholesomeness that evokes a culture that’s very different from British universities - one where sports stars are idolised, and fraternities give a social elite of male students added control over the wider student body.

Karen’s experience transforms her from being a confident member of this social elite into a hated outcast, depressed and failing her classes. It’s a multi-layered insight into how the mental health repercussions of rape are multiplied by a system that works to silence survivors by systematic gaslighting, bullying, and intimidation.

- Alice Saville

The Interference was on at C Venues from 9-16 August - more information here: http://www.cthefestival.com/press/2016/the-interference

Rolling Stone’s retraction of its article ‘A Rape On Campus’: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/a-note-to-our-readers-20141205

A survey of the three lawsuits in progress as part of the fallout from the Rolling Stone article ‘A Rape On Campus’: http://www.npr.org/2016/04/10/473702981/revisiting-rolling-stone-s-discredited-campus-rape-story

Judge’s ruling in 1999 rape case: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/277263.stm

Lynda Radley’s website: http://www.lyndaradley.com/

ELEPHANT OF MY HEART // Prospero Theatre

There’s a long and rich interplay between meditation and the arts, including music and artworks including the ancient Indian tradition of mandalas. 

But bringing meditation into conventional theatre is a little more unusual. Elephant of my Heart is a stage adaptation of Jessica Clements’ book of the same name: Clements herself even performs in the show’s chorus. It’s a memoir of her time in hospital recovering from a brain haemorrhage as a nine year old child. She believes that the inner travels she went on, guided by an elephant, triggered her healing process. 

Prospero Theatre adapt her story using familiar techniques of children’s theatre: puppets, songs, games, and audience participation. But there’s an emphasis on the body, and on creating a new language to talk about illness and recovery. Jess is taught that the scars covering her head are sewn up by a black panther’s whisker, and kept safe by invisible dragonflies. Medicalised terms are demystified by being paired with analogies from the natural world, in a holistic approach designed to lead Jess towards a new comfort with her recovering body.

At the close of the performance, Clements leads us on a simple visualisation, designed to help the audience find their own inner animals. It highlights the closeness between mindfulness exercises and the kind of imaginative games that children often play - their careful focus during  the visualisation suggests that perhaps children’s comfort with their own imaginations makes them more receptive to techniques that adults feel too inhibited to try.

Little is known about whether healing can be accelerated by meditation, but recent studies tentatively suggest that the stress-reducing properties of meditation can strengthen the immune system. Certainly, there are clear links between meditation and the state of mental wellbeing needed for a full recovery. But perhaps the strongest message of Elephant of My Heart is the importance of developing a language and story that enables people in recovery to understand their illness, whether or not that means cultivating an inner jungle.

- Alice Saville

Elephant of My Heart was on at the Edinburgh Fringe, Greenside, from 5-16th August. More information: http://prosperotheatre.com/prospero-community-company/elephant-of-my-heart/

The role of mandalas in meditation: http://www.chopra.com/mandalas-sri-yantras

More information on Jessica Clements’ book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elephant-My-Heart-Jessica-Clements/dp/1452585725

Studies which tentatively suggest the positive impact of meditation on the immune system: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26799456

FASLANE // Jenna Watt in Association with Showroom and Contact

Nuclear weaponry is a family business, for Jenna Watt. It’s an unlikely one, admittedly, that irradiates its members as well as enriching them. But they’re mostly contented employees of Faslane naval base (officially known as HMNB Clyde), the Scottish home of Operation Trident.

Watt’s solo performance starts with her description of a visit to the Faslane base itself, where she’s awed by the pride that workers, her uncle included, take in ensuring that its nuclear warhead-carrying submarines are immaculately maintained -- even while they hope they’re never used.

So when she breaks ranks to explore anti-nuclear arguments, she’s asking a lot of the protestors she meets. She wants an argument that's stronger than anything anyone's got. Strong enough to withstand a direct hit from a nuclear missile. Strong enough to break family bonds. Strong enough to overcome a lifetime of prejudice.

What she finds is a vulnerable outpost in a field -- the Faslane Peace Camp. Its inhabitants may have been there for over 30 years, but they don't have permanent buildings, electricity - even council rubbish collections. And their number has dwindled to only four people, one of whom explains he’s there for ‘personal reasons’.

Watt radiates intelligence and frustration, checking and recognising her own prejudices against hippies and protestors. On closer inspection, she realises that her uncle has experienced radiation exposure at Faslane, which is implicated in an increased risk of cancer. Recent figures show that safety breaches are on the rise, with the MoD admitting to over a hundred so-called ‘safety incidents’ in 2013-4, leaking radiation into the environment. And even the meagre handful of peace protestors were able to infiltrate the the base’s boundaries on multiple occasions, demonstrating how vulnerable it could be to outside attack.

Watt’s aim isn’t to reveal new information, and she makes it clear that the facts she sets out are all well known to generations of anti-nuclear campaigners. But each fresh discovery is new to her, as a twenty-something woman who’s grown up in an age where there’s very little debate about the rights and wrongs of nuclear weaponry. Scrapping Operation Trident was raised by the ‘Yes’ campaign in the Scottish Referendum, but it’s only ever a background hum in mainstream political dialogues. Her performance heightens a need for raised awareness of the nuclear weapons on Scottish soil - and of the dangers to both Faslane’s workers, and those who live far beyond its boundaries. (AS)

Faslane was on at Summerhall from 6-28th August.

The Faslane Peace Camp website https://faslanepeacecamp.wordpress.com/

Faslane workers exposed to radiation http://tinyurl.com/jqqn8zj

Faslane’s role in the Scottish Independence referendum http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2014/05/28/questions-about-faslane/

Early on in Jenna Watt’s dramatic investigation Faslane, she illustrates a gaping cultural chasm dividing the audience. Born before 1982? You know that the peace sign - the circular symbol rather than the hand signal - represents the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Any younger than that, and like Watt, you probably think it's just a peace sign. You may even know it best from Gerri Halliwell's Spice Girls dress. 

As Watt told us, CND was something she didn’t know she didn’t know about. To her, nuclear war was sci-fi. She had never known the psychological impact of the Cold War threat. Her sensibilities told her nuclear weapons were wrong. But like it or not, to live free of a tangible fear of nuclear conflict was at least in part due to Britain’s nuclear deterrent, Trident.

Two years ago, Watt began looking for compelling evidence on either side of the debate over whether to renew Trident. But who should she allow to influence her thoughts and beliefs? At the start of her show, others held all the strong views - beginning with Einstein and Russell’s famous 1955 manifesto against nuclear conflict.

Watt described her visit to Faslane to see the Trident nuclear subs with her own eyes. Her relatives who work at the base facilitated her access – but made it no easier to make up her mind. ‘It’s my job’ they said. They explained that they worked, not to send out weapons to war, but to make the nuclear submarines safe for their friends and colleagues who sailed aboard. They appeared not to fear the risks of working with nuclear material, despite recent reports by whistleblower William McNeilly into security lapses.

So Watt visited the Faslane Peace Camp in the hope that those living there would recruit her to where she wanted to be - safe and justified on the side of the liberal left. But they turned out to be a disappointment. Only a woman who became an accidental life-long anti-nuclear protestor managed to show the colours Watt was seeking, revealing that there is a spectrum of campaigning, but no easy answers in a nuclear world. (RM)

Faslane ran at Summerhall until August 28th - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/faslane 

Text of the Russell-Einstein manifesto: http://www.umich.edu/~pugwash/Manifesto.html

Images of Faslane Peace Camp with placard 'David Cameron is a pure fanny’: http://tinyurl.com/hesclpm

BBC coverage of whistleblower William McNeilly’s report into safety lapses at Faslane: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-33161226

Fear of nuclear war increases the risk of common mental disorders among young adults: a five-year follow-up study: http://tinyurl.com/jqoutqh

Former chief of British Nuclear Fuels' memoir revives nuclear safety fears: http://tinyurl.com/hr3mch9

I WAS A TEENAGE CHRISTIAN // Katy Brand

You Lost Me is the title of a 2011 book by David Kinnaman, who runs a large market research company in North America. In it, he describes the widespread phenomenon of young people disconnecting from churches, and explores the reasons for their departure.

Comedian Katy Brand is pretty clear why she left the Buckinghamshire church she so strongly identified with from the age of 13. In I Was A Teenage Christian, she talks about her gradual disillusionment with leaders who banned Harry Potter, and who flatly disapproved of her choosing to take a degree in theology.

Hostility to debate is a clear problem identified in Kinnaman’s research among churches – particularly in the area of science. In Britain and America alike, there is often little choice for a young person faced with an apparent conflict between a fundamentalist, literal interpretation of the creation story, and the evolutionary science they need to pass their exams.

Yet in the early days of her church-going, Katy Brand reports feeling a delight that she was part of something that seemed important – delighted enough that she would attend church three or four times a week. She has said in interviews that she can see how fundamentalism can seem attractive and "exactly why" young people are being radicalised at the moment.

To understand why some do become radicalised is proving controversial for the UK government, however. Criticisms of a parliamentary report included a failure to define terms like radical and extreme, or to recognise the complex social factors that might cause anyone – not just Muslims – to radicalise.

But research with people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin living in the UK has revealed a mental health perspective to the debate. In his work with 600 people in Muslim communities, Professor Kamaldeep Bhui of at Queen Mary University of London found a positive correlation between extremist sympathies and being young, in full-time education, relative social isolation, and having a tendency towards depressive symptoms.

While radicalisation doubtless has many causes, this is important information for all looking to understand young people grappling with a sense that they are lost.

- Rebecca Mileham

I Was A Teenage Christian ran at Pleasance Courtyard until August 26th - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/katy-brand-i-was-a-teenage-christian-2

David Kinnaman’s research company: https://www.barna.com/research/

Interview with Katy Brand: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jul/04/katy-brand-teenage-christian-comedy-interview

Home Affairs Select Committee report into Radicalisation: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmhaff/135/13509.htm

Mental health aspect to radicalisation: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630160-200-radicalisation-a-mental-health-issue-not-a-religious-one/

Depression a factor in radicalisation: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11164182/British-jihadis-are-depressed-lonely-and-need-help-says-Prof.html

5 OUT OF 10 MEN // Deep Diving Ensemble

Male suicide is at epidemic proportions, the leading cause of death for men between 20 and 34 in England and Wales, an undiscussed wave of futile waste. Like mental health provisions across the UK, support for young men has been eroded, and the new societies of the 21st century have less use for the strong, silent and stoic men still lionised by those who advocate ‘traditional values’ and roles. The idea of a man is changing, whilst the ideal takes time to catch up.
 
Sometimes it seems the most common place to see these statistics are when they are needlessly weaponised, used by clueless men’s rights advocates as evidence of feminist blind spots, without acknowledging the potential of gender equality to fix the underlying causes of the pain and suffering. Men who are told not to cry, not to express emotions, to sublimate their desires into unhealthy outlets and to never show weakness. Boys who grow up with stilted relationships to their own feelings, and shame with their inability to fix it. Remember how normal it is that boys are told to not act ‘like a girl’, to ‘man up’ or to be strong. That is a symptom of patriarchy too, an archaic set of rigid gender roles that fail to map on to the modern world.
 
In the physical theatre workout of 5 Out of 10 Men, these arguments are rehearsed through the story of a young man’s suicide. Its issues are raised simply and without special nuance, its central character a broad cypher for societal concern. It sits within a move towards cultural interrogations of maleness alongside gender in general, whether Grayson Perry’s All Man series for Channel 4 or the Southbank Centre’s BEING A MAN festival. 5 Out of 10 Men’s dancers take on the physicality of the ideal, the swagger of the masculine as well as the exhaustion of pressure. Like its character, it flags as it goes on, tiredness and sweat streaking the performers and wracking their bodies. At its end, the narrative has led only to the death of the young man, his fate set by the pressures placed upon him.

- Lewis Church

5 Out of 10 Men ran at theSpace on Niddry Street until August 27th - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/5-out-of-10-men

Deep Diving Ensemble: http://www.deepdivingmen.com
 
Samaritans Sucide Statistics Report 2016: http://www.samaritans.org/about-us/our-research/facts-and-figures-about-suicide/suicide-statistics-report-2016
 
Tony Porter: A Call to Men (TED):  http://www.ted.com/talks/tony_porter_a_call_to_men?language=en
 
Grayson Perry – Whither Big Balls?: http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv-radio/2016/05/whither-big-balls-grayson-perry-investigates-masculinity-better-anyone-else
 
Southbank Centre BAM Festival: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/being-a-man
 
Get Help with Suicide (CALM): https://www.thecalmzone.net/help/get-help/suicide/

MONOLOGUES OF A TIRED NURSE // Theatre for Thought

Stress-related mental health problems affect one in five primary care workers. Four in five have trouble sleeping. These are the realities of working in today’s NHS, according to mental health research by Mind, and they form the backdrop to Monologues of a Tired Nurse.

Two nurses step onto the stage, one an optimistic new recruit, Emily, and the other a battle-hardened and exhausted nurse-in-charge called Sally. Among the paraphernalia and body fluids of a normal day, a harrowing story unfolds, the characters’ interconnecting soliloquies showing how the most compassionate individuals can become casualties of an undoable job.

Sally says she came into nursing with a Superman complex, but soon realised there was no time to care. She feels broken – that she isn’t good or worthy, and is angry with people who say nurses are saints.

Emily is hopeful, almost angelic, but struggles to gain professional confidence. Sally’s attempts to toughen her up only seems to make things worse. Emily blames herself for the mistakes she makes under pressure, and sees the coping mechanisms she develops as inevitable.

Monologues is written by Stephanie Silver, who worked for eight years as a paediatric nurse and plays the hardbitten Sally. Her insider’s perspective shows a health service in which shortages have a direct impact on both patients and carers, and where the scrutiny of box-ticking bosses takes priority over the humanity of staff.

It's the issue of putting a brave face on things, and continuing under grinding levels of stress, that this play really addresses. Emily, lost in issues of her past and present, eventually leaves a note for Sally and takes her own life.

Mind’s research shows that one in three healthcare workers would never talk about their stress for fear of being seen as less capable - less able to take the heat of an NHS essentially on fire. Monologues starkly shows us the future we are facing if we are not prepared to care for those who work on the frontline of caring for us.

- Rebecca Mileham

Monologues of a Tired Nurse ran at theSpace @ Surgeon's Hall until August 27th - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/monologues-of-a-tired-nurse

Mind’s 2016 survey into mental health in caring professions: http://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/mind-finds-worrying-levels-of-stress-among-primary-care-staff/#.V8b8vqI9p8o

NHS staff cuts and reduction in care quality ‘inevitable’, say King’s Fund: https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/health/kings-fund-nhs-staffing-cuts-care-quality/

Student bursary cut 'may worsen NHS staff shortages': http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36336830

Nursing Times article on a nurse's suicide being linked to work pressures: https://www.nursingtimes.net/walsall-nurses-suicide-linked-to-work-pressures-rules-coroner/1/5076937.article?sm=5076937

AND THE ROPE STILL TUGGING HER FEET // Caroline Burns Cooke

Abortion is still illegal in Ireland, as it was during 1984 when the Kerry Babies scandal raged forth from the intertwined powers of church and state. It was a cruel culmination of a logic that imposes shame on women’s bodies, on their sexual activity whilst excusing men, and on their ability to choose to not follow through with an unwanted pregnancy. For all the difference between then and now, on the day that I saw And the Rope Still Tugging Her Feet, #TwoWomenTravel was trending. As Caroline Burns Cooke (the writer and performer of the monologue) recounted the story of the young woman at the centre of the 1984 scandal, two other young women were, in 2016, sharing their story of having to travel from Ireland to the UK in order to secure a safe and legal abortion.
 
Organisations in Ireland and elsewhere are still struggling to reverse the regressive policies that force women from their home countries in search of help, or into back-alley alternatives. Art and performance can have a powerful impact on public conversation, and the direct action of groups like Speaking of I.M.E.L.D.A (Ireland Making England the Legal Destination for Abortion) contributes to a gathering clamour around the repeal of the 8th amendment to the Irish constitution, which prohibits safe options for women. Even the UN has ruled that Ireland must provide “accessible procedures for pregnancy termination” in order to avoid impinging on the human rights of its citizens. Even the Irish Minister for Health thanked the two women who tweeted their journey for highlighting the debate, although time will tell what difference it might make. In a worrying sign of the global polarity of the argument, the vile American blogger Courtney Kirchoff has already decried their documentation of the journey.
 
As a piece of theatre, the performance is a dissection of a historical abuse of power and victimisation of a young woman devoid of options. But it has resonance now, as a precursor to the ongoing battle to secure safe choices for women, in Ireland and around the world.

- Lewis Church

And The Rope Still Tugging Her Feet ran at Gilded Balloon Teviot until August 29th - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/and-the-rope-still-tugging-her-feet

The Kerry Babies Case: http://www.thejournal.ie/kerry-babies-case-30-years-on-1413918-Apr2014/
 
#TwoWomenTravel: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-37156673
 
Speaking of I.M.E.L.D.A (Direct Action Group): https://twitter.com/speakofIMELDA
 
UN Ruling on Irish Human Rights Violations: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/09/ireland-abortion-laws-violated-human-rights-says-un
 
Courtney KirchoffSends Open Letter: http://irishpost.co.uk/american-novelist-slams-pro-choice-campaigners-two-women-travel-scathing-blog-post/

THE ME // Sun Apparatus Theatre Company

On Saturday the 27th of August 2016, it was confirmed that Mbah Gotho was the oldest person in the world, after he produced documentation that proved he was born on the 31st of December 1870. When Gotho was born (145 years ago) Ulysses S. Grant was the President of the United States, Italy was being unified, and Charles Dickens had just died. Indonesia, the country of his birth, was a Dutch colony. He would have been 74 when World War 2 ended, and is still living now.
 
The ME is about ageing, and the quest for longevity. It’s about the very human desire to resist death and the value of the one life you’ll get to lead before it’s snuffed out. Its protagonists are chasing immortality and the promise of experiencing the span of history Gotho has. It’s a gentle satire of wellness and pseudo-science, of new-age fixation and hollow self-improvement. Melody, the insufferable character at the centre of the story abuses her maid Lita as she joylessly swigs kombucha, seaweed health drinks or whatever else, before an absurd sequence of events introduces her to an unhinged researcher of how-to-cheat-death. This scientist of dubious ethics makes vague references to planarian worms, a sci-fi trope found in everything from Star Trek to Swamp Thing to denote unknowable potential for regeneration. Her crazed experiments are vaguely reminiscent of Serge Voronoff’s monkey-testicle grafts, the Russian scientist whose placebo experiments later inspired the vicious revolutionary critique of Mikhail Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog. Like many other plays, films and books, The ME suggests a denial of mortality is the dark underside of medical science.
 
The world will change and leave us behind. By the time death comes it might be greeted without fear, as the world we find ourselves in has changed beyond all recognition. A long life is not the same as a good one, as the characters in The ME discover. Who knows how the world will develop as we age? Might it end, or continue to change? During the still continuing life of Mbah Gotho the telephone went from a new invention to a ubiquitous tool. He was alive before the first petrol engine was created. None of us know how long we have, or what we might see.

- Lewis Church

The ME ran at ZOO until August 28th - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/me

The Sun Apparatus Theatre Company: http://www.thesunapparatus.com
 
Oldest Person in the World - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/worlds-oldest-person-man-mbah-gotho-indonesia-145-years-old-a7213191.html
 
Planarian Worms: https://www.exploratorium.edu/imaging_station/research/planaria/story_planaria.pdf
 
Regrowing Heads and Keeping Memories: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/16/decapitated-worms-regrow-heads-keep-old-memories/
 
Serge Voronoff: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-true-story-of-dr-voronoffs-plan-to-use-monkey-testicles-to-make-us-immortal
 
What the World Might Look Like in 100 Years: http://www.realclearlife.com/2016/09/01/this-is-what-the-world-might-look-like-in-100-years/

LIFTED // Triad Pictures

The recent terror attacks in France and Belgium, have assured that Islamophobia is on the rise but it’s Fife that proves the culture battleground for Lifted. Ikram Gilani plays drug dealing secular Scottish Muslim Anwar with humor and intensity and the small hot stage at theSpace @ Surgeons Hall makes the audience genuinely feel part of Anwar's interrogation by invisible forces at Glenrothes Police Station.

Anwar is being interrogated about his acquaintance Moody. Originally from Kuwait, Moody had come to Scotland to study but flunked out. Now Anwar suspects Moody has been hauled in for questioning due to his suspect heritage. Through a series of flashbacks we revisit their relationship bonded over magic mushrooms and shared distaste for Scottish weather, while joining the current discourse on Islamohobia, drug dealing, homophobia within Islamic communities and the war against terrorism. Even with Obama’s best intentions, Guantanamo Bay is still open and while society continues to see stereotypes as a security threat, the kind of persecution Anwar and Moody face will be firmly entrenched.

Lifted explores current discourses such as personal, religious, cultural and national identity, as well as the harassment of stereotypes. As Anwar describes Moody’s disillusionment with both western and eastern societies we are given an insight as to how these two friends found a solution to their difficulties, though ultimately falling foul of both cultures. This lose/lose cultural paradigm is most present in the continuing harassment and scolding of women seen to be wearing too little and the violent disrobing of woman wearing too much (burkinis).

- Lucy Orr

Lifted is on at 11.05 at theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53) - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/lifted

Dalia Mogahed: What do you think when you look at me?: https://www.ted.com/talks/dalia_mogahed_what_do_you_think_when_you_look_at_me?language=en

Scots Muslims speak out over racist abuse after terror attacks: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14653092.Verbal_abuse__violence_and_suspicion__prominent_Scots_Muslims_speak_out_as_racism_ramps_up_amid_summer_of_terror/

Surge in racist attacks on Scots Muslims: http://www.thenational.scot/news/surge-in-racist-attacks-on-scots-muslims.10287

Can We Finally Talk About Muslim Homophobia in Britain?: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/can-we-finally-talk-about_b_828037.html

INFINITY POOL // Bea Roberts

“Poor little woman – she is gaping after love like a carp on a kitchen table.”

Emma Barnicott’s life bares many parallels to Emma Bovary’s. Gustave Flaubert’s enduring narrative on adultery, Madame Bovary, is here revisited as an exploration of the role of social media in modern relationships. Bea Roberts' performance has no actors but with the use of a TV, a soundboard, several projectors, an animated PowerPoint Presentation and a variety of physical props, she draws us into an immersive performance.

Emma Barnicott’s life is banal and empty; the daily commute, the microwave dinners and sexless marriage are a painful routine. Emma works in a bathroom fitting company and when asked to man the company’s online help desk, an exchange of emails and a complaint about pipes leads to a virtual romance.

With the ongoing Anthony Weiner sexting scandals leading the news going into the upcoming US elections, it’s easy to see how even those in influential political positions can succumb to the exhilaration and seduction of a simulated relationship. The ability to develop an online augmented alter ego, as Emma does, can become totally absorbing and be a welcome distraction from the trivialities of daily life. Emma’s affair never transcends cyberspace and unlike Sharon Osborne, who recently threatened Ozzy with divorce on finding a slew of amorous emails, her real life relationships are thankfully never affected.

Bea Roberts' show considers the ease with which sexting and technology lubricate virtual betrayal. The loss of sexual intimacy seems inherent in the progression of technology. Bea Roberts addresses how even the most humdrum life can be affected by the evolution of online relationships. In a world of ghosting and negging with no chance for the brain to assess body language or any other sensory information, any perception of tenderness and affection in an online relationship may be distorted or imaginary. (LO)

Infinity Pool: A Modern Retelling of Madame Bovary ran at 16.45 at Bedlam Theatre (Venue 49) - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/infinity-pool-a-modern-retelling-of-madame-bovary

Is Texting or Sexting Cheating?: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/getting-back-out-there/201511/is-texting-or-sexting-cheating

A Look Inside The Insidious And Adulterous World Of Sexting: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/02/sexting-cheating_n_6185288.html

The Toll Sexting Takes on Marriage - Divorce Help: http://divorcehelp360.com/the-toll-sexting-takes-on-marriage/