I currently do a three monthly all areas of my life “could do” list and a weekly “maybe i’ll” list, which eliminates the punishing parent tendency that lurks behind “where is your homework?”. I try and attend my writing group every tuesday evening (other work allowing) and sometimes it’s just the thought of others having done their work of writing during the week that embarrasses me into doing some work. Why when I love writing (when I do it) do I run from it with endless cups of coffee etc. etc. I recall being a student and my mate Jeremy Brock getting up in the wee small hours come rain or shine and filling the page. I presume the muse was trained into appearing whenever he sat down through the practice of just writing regularly. Some of us schoolchildren always left the weekends homework till Sunday night. Nothings changed for me and here we are 32 years after school. Maybe I need the discipline of one of your courses?
Back to the page, enough with the procrastination.

For me, Beckett’s work was revolutionary, because it challenged, provoked, and helped inspire the next/future generations. He played with all aspects of theatre – the words, the silences, the characterisation, the staging, which makes me respect him as a master of his own field. You can see a hundred and one different things in Vladmir and Estragon, Hamm and Clov, and you wouldn’t be right/wrong for your viewpoint, because stripped down, they are all human relationships – raw, funny, touching, tender. The fact I can be touched by something as ridiculously simple as ‘Come and Go’, as well as multifaceted as ‘Godot’, shows the immense power Beckett had as a playwright – same themes/ideas expressed in a multitude of ways.

Then again, what is a revolution? What is revolutionary art? I agree Beckett’s work would still be lauded today if it came out (something like What Where or Quad would still go down well in any avant garde theatrical repertoire) but can you compare it against Kane’s work? Pinter’s work? Bond’s work? They, and plenty of contemporary playwrights, have different styles/registers etc… but at the end of the day, it’s the human element to art – life, love, death and everything in-between – and how you portray it. And so, I think a reader/audience member can decide as to which method/register/style is more suitable for them, if all playwrights are aiming for the same thing – I love Yasmina Reza’s work, and personally, think she achieves more than Kane is able to in her portrayal of human relationships, but that’s my own personal taste, and not one I should impose on others.

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Happy writing!

Nadine

Would love to be added to the direct mailing list for these workshops if there is one!

I like having The Plan but I also give myself permission to throw it out if something better and brighter comes along. But I needed The Plan to get me there.

I had A Plan for the play I’m writing and I am not at all surprised that I am now going in a very different direction and loving it!

So here’s to planning and all it can lead us to!

When I am in touch with the love I have for my daughter I believe that anything is possible. When I carried her in my belly I knew exactly what to do for her even though I was criticised by doctors and strangers and “friends”. There was never any doubt. I just smiled at them even when they were quite hostile. Even when they called “selfish and egotistical”. Love protected me. Inside and out.

When love is absent or distorted it is difficult to believe that it is necessary. What if I am unlovable? What if there just is not enough for me? What if I just do not have the capacity to receive love even when it is there? Here comes Fear! And his friend Pain!