Doing Things with Words: Directing Dario Fo in the UK

2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-233
Author(s):  
Marco Ghelardi
Keyword(s):  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Radical Politics ◽  
Accidental Death ◽  
Popular Theatre ◽  
Dario Fo ◽  
Theatre Company ◽  
Assistant Director ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

By the early 'eighties, Dario Fo seemed to have achieved a unique place in British theatre, with both Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can't Pay? Won't Pay! enjoying long West End runs, while he himself retained the respect of the alternative and fringe community for his radical politics and championship of popular theatre forms. Yet although he was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, interest in Fo's work seems to have gone into a steady decline in Britain. This is only in part attributable, argues Marco Ghelardi, to a less favourable political and theatrical climate: it has also to do with the topicality and adaptability which is integral to Fo's approach to playwriting, and more especially with an acting style apparently inimical to British traditions – a style based in the collective and the situational rather than the individual and the psychological. Marco Ghelardi is a young playwright, director, and producer whose career has involved him in both the British and Italian traditions. He has also been an assistant director in opera (notably at Covent Garden), and with his theatre company, Outlaw Theatre, he has recently managed to bring a Fo production, Johan Padan and the Discovery of America, back to the Riverside in London, where it opened in May of this year.

Some Aspects of Popular Theatre

1985 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-137
Author(s):  
Dario Fo
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Accidental Death ◽  
Popular Theatre ◽  
Political Comedy ◽  
Reference Guide ◽  
Full Reference ◽  
Dario Fo ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Unique Ability

It is a matter for pride that the old TQ was one of the first English-language journals to include material by and about the Italian dramatist Dario Fo. Our ‘Theatre Checklist’ on Fo in 1978 provided the first full reference guide to his plays (notably to his work since 1970 with the theatre collective La Comune), and Tony Mitchell contributed a documented study of Fo's one-man show Mistero Buffo to TQ 35 in 1979. In between, Belt and Braces had established Fo's British reputation with their long-running productions of Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can't Pay, Won't Pay – while in TQ40 Fo's leading American director, R. G. Davis, looked at some of the problems of presenting Fo in the USA. Now, Trumpets and Raspberries looks set to repeat the success of its predecessors at London's Phoenix Theatre. What sustains Dario Fo's unique ability to create political comedy which is at once hard-hitting yet widely accessible? As he suggests in the first of these articles (which originally appeared in Italian as an introduction to a volume of his plays), the answer lies in part in Fo's very rejection of the label ‘political’. Here, he analyzes some of the features by which he would rather distinguish his work as popular theatre, notably its traditional dependence on situation rather than character. In the second article, published in Italian in 1978, Fo examines the way in which this kind of theatre also fuses the elements of past culture with a critical examination of the present. Tony Mitchell, who translated both pieces, has just published a study of Fo. People's Court Jester, in the Methuen Theatrefiles series.

Sisterhood and After

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaretta Jolly
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Women's Liberation ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
Women’S Liberation ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Cultural Taste

This ground-breaking history of the UK Women’s Liberation Movement explores the individual and collective memories of women at its heart. Spanning at least two generations and four nations, and moving through the tumultuous decades from the 1970s to the present, the narrative is powered by feminist oral history, notably the British Library’s Sisterhood and After: The Women’s Liberation Oral History Project. The book mines these precious archives to bring fresh insight into the lives of activists and the campaigns and ideas they mobilised. It navigates still-contested questions of class, race, violence, and upbringing—as well as the intimacies, sexualities and passions that helped fire women’s liberation—and shows why many feminists still regard notions of ‘equality’ or even ‘equal rights’ as insufficient. It casts new light on iconic campaigns and actions in what is sometimes simplified as feminism’s ‘second wave’, and enlivens a narrative too easily framed by ideological abstraction with candid, insightful, sometimes painful personal accounts of national and less well-known women activists. They describe lives shaped not only by structures of race, class, gender, sexuality and physical ability, but by education, age, love and cultural taste. At the same time, they offer extraordinary insights into feminist lifestyles and domestic pleasures, and the crossovers and conflicts between feminists. The work draws on oral history’s strength as creative method, as seen with its conclusion, where readers are urged to enter the archives of feminist memory and use what they find there to shape their own political futures.

Punk as Folk: Continuities and Tensions in the UK and Beyond

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pete Dale
Keyword(s):  
Folk Music ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Collective Creativity ◽  
Living Tradition ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

Numerous claims have been made by a wide range of commentators that punk is somehow “a folk music” of some kind. Doubtless there are several continuities. Indeed, both tend to encourage amateur music-making, both often have affiliations with the Left, and both emerge at least partly from a collective/anti-competitive approach to music-making. However, there are also significant tensions between punk and folk as ideas/ideals and as applied in practice. Most obviously, punk makes claims to a “year zero” creativity (despite inevitably offering re-presentation of at least some existing elements in every instance), whereas folk music is supposed to carry forward a tradition (which, thankfully, is more recognized in recent decades as a subject-to-change “living tradition” than was the case in folk’s more purist periods). Politically, meanwhile, postwar folk has tended more toward a socialist and/or Marxist orientation, both in the US and UK, whereas punk has at least rhetorically claimed to be in favor of “anarchy” (in the UK, in particular). Collective creativity and competitive tendencies also differ between the two (perceived) genre areas. Although the folk scene’s “floor singer” tradition offers a dispersal of expressive opportunity comparable in some ways to the “anyone can do it” idea that gets associated with punk, the creative expectation of the individual within the group differs between the two. Punk has some similarities to folk, then, but there are tensions, too, and these are well worth examining if one is serious about testing out the common claim, in both folk and punk, that “anyone can do it.”

scholarly journals ‘Rising demand and decreasing resources’: Theorising the ‘cost of austerity’ as a barrier to social worker discretion

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
CIARÁN MURPHY
Keyword(s):  
Social Worker ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Child Protection Services ◽  
Radical Reform ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Effective System ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Cost

Abstract The Munro Review of Child Protection asserted that the English child protection system had become overly ‘defensive’, ‘bureaucratised’ and ‘standardised’, meaning that social workers were not employing their discretion in the interests of the individual child. This paper reports on the results of an ethnographic case study of one of England’s statutory child protection teams. The research sought to explore the extent of social worker discretion relative to Munro’s call for ‘radical reform’ and a move towards a more ‘child-centred’ system. Employing an iterative mixed methods design – encompassing documentary analysis, observation, focus group, questionnaire, interview and ‘Critical Realist Grounded Theory’ – the study positioned the UK Government’s prolonged policy of ‘austerity’ as a barrier to social worker discretion. This was because the policy was seen to be contributing to an increased demand for child protection services; and a related sense amongst practitioners that they were afforded insufficient time with the child to garner the requisite knowledge, necessary for discretionary behaviour. Ultimately, despite evidence of progress relative to assertions that social worker discretion had been eroded, the paper concludes that there may still be ‘more to do’ if we are to achieve the ‘child-centred’ and ‘effective’ system that Munro advocated.

Gender perspectives on extended working life policies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Áine Ní Léime ◽  
Wendy Loretto
Keyword(s):  
Working Life ◽  
Defined Contribution ◽  
Population Policies ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Working Set ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Pension Age ◽  
Pension Contribution ◽  
The Uk ◽  
State Pension

This chapter documents international policy developments and provides a gender critique of retirement, employment and pension policies in Australia, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, the UK, and the US. It assesses the degree to which the individual country's extended working life policies have adopted the agenda (increasing pension age and introducing flexible working) set out by the OECD and the EU. Policies include raising state pension age, changes in the duration of pension contribution requirements, the move from defined benefits to defined contribution pensions, policies on caring for vulnerable members of the population, policies enabling flexible working and anti-age discrimination measures. An expanded framework is used to assess the degree to which gender and other intersecting issues such as health, caring, class, type of occupation and/or membership of minority communities have (or have not) been taken into account in designing and implementing policies extending working life.

scholarly journals ‘'Sex Changes'? Paradigm Shifts in ‘Sex’ and ‘Gender’ following the Gender Recognition Act?’

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Whittle ◽  
Lewis Turner
Keyword(s):  
Sex Change ◽  
Gender Recognition ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Gender Variance ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Legal Understanding

Gender transformations are normatively understood as somatic, based on surgical reassignment, where the sexed body is aligned with the gender identity of the individual through genital surgery – hence the common lexicon ‘sex change surgery’. We suggest that the UK Gender Recognition Act 2004 challenges what constitutes a ‘sex change’ through the Act's definitions and also the conditions within which legal ‘recognition’ is permitted. The sex/gender distinction, (where sex normatively refers to the sexed body, and gender, to social identity) is demobilised both literally and legally. This paper discusses the history of medico-socio-legal definitions of sex have been developed through decision making processes when courts have been faced with people with gender variance and, in particular, the implications of the Gender Recognition Act for our contemporary legal understanding of sex. We ask, and attempt to answer, has ‘sex’ changed?

scholarly journals Myth of King Arthur as a Conceptual Matrix for Understanding Brexit

2020 ◽  
pp. 192-214
Author(s):  
A. A. Sharapkova
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
King Arthur ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
British Press ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

The article analyses media discourse characterized by appealing to the myth about King Arthur against the background of the political crisis in the UK (Brexit). The publications of the British press in 2016-2019, online polls and blogs served as a material. Applying both linguistic and conceptual analysis, we identify the stages the myth about King Arthur gets gradually actualized. Cognitive mechanisms that get profiled at each stage are considered. Three stages of myth actualization are distinguished: (1) from using the idiom about the search for the Holy Grail in politics to comparing Brexit with finding a magic artifact, (2) comparing crisis participants with other elements of the myth, (3) modeling the way out of the crisis through the description of the search for a new leader. Particular attention is paid to how the individual elements of the myth work in dynamics. For example, it is shown that the image of the Grail undergoes an axiological reassessment from positive to negative as attitudes toward political events and figures change. We conclude that in times of crisis, society turns to national mythology, reinterprets it within a new context.

scholarly journals Impact of Ownership Structure on Bank Profitability in Nigeria

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 170-183
Author(s):  
Uhomoibhi Aburime Toni
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Ownership Structure ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Bank Profitability ◽  
Limited Applicability ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Finance Theory ◽  
Political Economic

Ownership structure is considered an important factor that affects a firm’s health. If ownership structure affects a firm’s health, it is possible then to use the ownership structure to predict firm profitability. Against this backdrop, this paper analyzes the relationship between ownership structure and bank profitability in Nigeria. There are two motivations for this paper. Firstly, midway into the banks consolidation exercise in Nigeria, the CBN identified the need for a determination of the most appropriate composition of bank capitalization that would enhance the individual and systemic profitability and efficiency of banks in Nigeria post-consolidation. Hence, it decided to minimize state governments’ investment in banks during the exercise and also issued a December 2007 ultimatum to all tiers of governments that have stakes in banks to dilute their investments to a maximum of 10 per cent. Unfortunately, the CBN did not state any econometrically-based rationale giving credence to its directives. Secondly, the effect of ownership structure and concentration on a firm’s performance is an important issue in the literature of finance theory. However, no researcher has studied this important aspect of finance theory in the Nigerian context. It is worth noting that most research on ownership structure and firm performance has been dominated by studies conducted in developed countries. However, there is an increasing awareness that theories originating from developed countries such as the USA and the UK may have limited applicability to emerging markets. Emerging markets have different characteristics such as different political, economic and institutional conditions, which limit the application of developed markets’ empirical models.

scholarly journals Diet, risk of obesity and socioeconomic circumstances of individuals in the UK: A seemingly unrelated approach

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Damilola Olajide ◽  
Anne Ludbrook
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Factors ◽  
Healthy Eating ◽  
Seemingly Unrelated Regression ◽  
Health Production ◽  
Food Groups ◽  
Food History ◽  
Nutrition Survey ◽  
Private Households ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

Understanding the link between diet, risk of obesity and the underlying socioeconomic circumstances of the individual is useful for health promotion and improvement interventions. In this study, we examined the socioeconomic factors that jointly affect food consumption choices and risk of obesity. We analyse the National Dietary and Nutrition Survey (2000/01) of adults aged 19-64 years living in private households in the UK, using a health production framework. We used information on the complete food history on individuals in the previous week to create eight common food groups. We estimated a system of linear risk of obesity (as measured by Body Mass Index) and eight diet equations with error terms that are correlated across equations for a given individual, but are uncorrelated across individuals, using the seemingly unrelated regression method. Our findings indicate that the socioeconomic factors (e.g. income and education) associated with sources of healthy eating differ. While increasing household purchasing power may be more effective for increasing consumption of healthier foods such as fruit and vegetables, more knowledge and information about healthy eating may be more effective for cutting down on consumption of less healthy foods (e.g. preserves and savoury foods). An understanding of these different healthy eating contexts is essential for the development of effective targeted food based policies aimed at reducing the risk of obesity. Link to Appendix

scholarly journals Restoration of elective spine surgery during the first wave of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (12) ◽  
pp. 1096-1101
Author(s):  
Riaz Mohammed ◽  
Pranav Shah ◽  
Alexander Durst ◽  
Naveen J. Mathai ◽  
Alexandru Budu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spine Surgery ◽  
Collaborative Study ◽  
Length Of Hospital Stay ◽  
Recovery Phase ◽  
Primary Outcome Measure ◽  
Study Cohort ◽  
National Guidelines ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

Aims With resumption of elective spine surgery services in the UK following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a multicentre British Association of Spine Surgeons (BASS) collaborative study to examine the complications and deaths due to COVID-19 at the recovery phase of the pandemic. The aim was to analyze the safety of elective spinal surgery during the pandemic. Methods A prospective observational study was conducted from eight spinal centres for the first month of operating following restoration of elective spine surgery in each individual unit. Primary outcome measure was the 30-day postoperative COVID-19 infection rate. Secondary outcomes analyzed were the 30-day mortality rate, surgical adverse events, medical complications, and length of inpatient stay. Results In all, 257 patients (128 males) with a median age of 54 years (2 to 88) formed the study cohort. The mean number of procedures performed from each unit was 32 (16 to 101), with 118 procedures (46%) done as category three prioritization level. The majority of patients (87%) were low-medium “risk stratification” category and the mean length of hospital stay was 5.2 days. None of the patients were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, nor was there any mortality related to COVID-19 during the 30-day follow-up period, with 25 patients (10%) having been tested for symptoms. Overall, 32 patients (12%) developed a total of 34 complications, with the majority (19/34) being grade 1 to 2 Clavien-Dindo classification of surgical complications. No patient required postoperative care in an intensive care setting for any unexpected complication. Conclusion This study shows that safe and effective planned spinal surgical services can be restored avoiding viral transmission, with diligent adherence to national guidelines and COVID-19-secure pathways tailored according to the resources of the individual spinal units. Cite this article: Bone Jt Open 2021;2(12):1096–1101.

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