Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds, British Museum

The lost cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus once lay at the mouth of the Nile. They were  submerged over a thousand years ago in a similar fashion to the fate that threatens Venice. The British Museum’s latest major exhibition showcases items excavated by Franck Goddio and team from the site of their resting place in the depths of the Mediterranean. The museum’s vast exhibition space has been decorated in turquoise and blue to emulate the water that many of the items emerged from, a constant soundtrack attempts to add to the atmosphere. Vast statues stand proudly dominating the space, a quite remarkable sight, especially considering how well preserved they are after centuries in their watery grave.

Large sculptures highlight each room but there are many smaller, more every day items, which they attempt to use to reveal more about the culture and interlinking of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian custom. Barely ten percent of the remains have been excavated and a tinier proportion still are on display. The exhibition is padded with items from the museum’s own collections as well as some from further afield, a water symbol on the labels clearly identifying those from the excavation site. They attempt to bring to life the bustling cities that they were in their prime; Thonis-Heracleion holding a position of importance in the commercial world, and Canopus more focused on the worship of Egyptian gods. It becomes clear that their positioning on the Nile afforded many opportunities, but also that they tried to emulate civilisations that had come before in order to add legitimacy to their own.

The exhibition is genuinely breathtaking in its earlier stages and an introductory video details the amazing discovery of the lost cities, heightening the curiosity. Short videos and photographs are dotted around the space showing objects in situ and in the process of being recovered, giving them context beyond the walls of the museum. Attempts have been made to make Sunken Cities family friendly with separate exhibition notes and activities. There were a number of children visiting at the same time and their reactions suggest this was a welcome addition.

Coming to this exhibition with little to no knowledge of the cities and their discovery, and only a basic knowledge of the period covered, it is engaging and informative. If I had one gripe it would be that the labels in some sections were too repetitive – a fact that would doubtless have been more exasperating for a more knowledgeable visitor. Sunken Cities gets off to an impressive start but loses its way slightly by the end. Nonetheless, this is an exhibition which affects in a way I’ve not experienced before. If you can get beyond issues with the sponsor it’s definitely worth a visit.

Sunken Cities is at the British Museum until 27^th November 2016.

Fire! Fire!, Museum of London

The Museum of London's immersive new exhibition on the Great Fire of London opened last month to mark 350 years since the disastrous event took place. The exhibition space is darkly lit, a fake London street has been partly constructed, genuine artifacts adding to the authenticity. Fire! Fire! has been designed to appeal to all ages with plentiful activities throughout and simple questions to help children engage with the topic. They have the balance right - it may be accessible for young visitors but it does not feel like a children's exhibition, having plenty to offer adult guests. The layout is logical, taking you through how the fire started, what happened while attempts were made to put it out, and finally the aftermath. It leads the visitor to ask questions that are answered later in the exhibition, a solid technique.

The enormity of the fire is really brought home as you walk through the space. The timeline detailing the major events in the spread and curtailment of the fire and the map of London being consumed by (virtual) flames evokes the seriousness and horror of the inferno. The firefighting equipment on display highlights their ineffectiveness against such a blaze when all conditions aligned perfectly for its rapid spread. The section designed as a camp for the tens of thousands made homeless feels claustrophobic, the devastation it wrought on those who were in the most part without homes for eight years is palpable.

Overall a very well put together exhibition which successfully takes such a well known event and adds to it, dispelling many a myth along the way. There are items on display that were salvaged from the wreckage with x-rays to give a clearer view, but a highlight for me were the designs proposed for a new London. The rebuild was controversial for its dedication to the original road layout -  a topic that continues to be hotly debated by historians today.

Atmospheric, original, and informative, this is definitely worth a visit. Fire! Fire! will be at the Museum of London until 17th April 2017.

Wilderness Festival, 4th-7th August 2016

Sunset over the campsite on the first night

Over a long weekend in August Cornbury Park's ancient woodlands were transformed into a playground for adults and children alike. Thousands descended on this peaceful Cotswold estate for Wilderness Festival 2016. Revellers enjoyed the refreshing cold of the lake or stayed safely in the boats gliding along the surface if they did not wish to brave a bracing swim. Wandering the main festival site snippets of debates and talks escaped from marquees, latecomers lounged in the sun nearby, raucous laughter erupted, the strains of music could be heard, and the smells of a wide array of street food constantly tempted the tastebuds.

The Atrium

With talks ranging from Artificial Super Intelligence  to Brexit, the  Brontës to dinosaurs, it proved a hard job choosing where to spend the days. The Atrium became a hub for the arts - dancers from top companies gracing the stage that moments before had been inhabited by excited toddlers. It also played host to a Disney singalong, a pop-up cinema, and a Bowie tribute concert. Variety and quality are the hallmarks of this festival that celebrates all things culture.

Making good use of the natural beauty of the surroundings, the Oxford Shakespeare Company performed an excellent, concise version of Love's Labour's Lost. There’s something quite magical about being led into the woods for an afternoon in the sun watching talented actors perform without all the modern theatre technology we are accustomed to, bringing us closer to the way original audiences would have experienced the play.

The annual Wilderness cricket match

Sunday morning saw the annual Wilderness cricket match, an event in which almost anything goes. Amusing commentary, players casually drinking on the field, and twenty-two streakers (which was eight off the current Wilderness record), this was not your average cricket match. Play itself was not without its appeals however, the Remainers plucking victory from the Brexiteers’ grasp in a nail-biting conclusion.

The Valley

As the sun set there was plenty to distract from the evening chill. Nouvelle Vague, stepping in for Daft Punk on the Atrium stage were a definite highlight. Their high-energy performance had the whole crowd dancing. Sadly, the headliners on Sunday did not quite achieve similar. The staging of the Flaming Lips’ set was visually impressive – colourful and unusual (a curtain of lights obscuring the band for the most part). Wayne Coyne’s performance lacked the energy needed however, and he struggled to hit the high notes. There was plenty for night owls to enjoy beyond the main stage; from the Folk Barn to the Valley – an intense experience of pounding music, lasers, and a huge crowd partying deep within the trees. No piece about Wilderness would be complete without mention of the Saturday Night Spectacle which this year featured tightrope walkers performing feats that made my stomach churn just watching them, illuminated performers providing a soundtrack on the field below.

As the forest and lights fade the memories will not. Wilderness provides the opportunity for all to enjoy losing themselves in nature – to think, to dance, to be free, if only for a weekend. 

The boating lake

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

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Lee’s acclaimed novel is told through the eyes of young Scout Finch. The prevailing public perception of the novel is that of the trial of Tom Robinson for the rape of Mayella Ewell. This does form the centrepiece, and by far the most gripping section of the novel, but the majority of the book is devoted to constructing the environs that Scout and her brother Jem inhabit. This is more than mere scene setting, it is essentially the heart of the novel. In giving so much time to the every day Lee allows a deep understanding of the kind of society the events happen in, so constricted by a sense of the way things should be, blind to the potential benefits of allowing some deviation from the ‘norm’.

To Kill a Mockingbird is in many ways a coming of age novel. We see Scout wrestle with the expectations and unknowns of growing up – from her first day of school where she is told she must stop reading until she reaches the designated year to wondering at Jem’s change of behaviour as he reaches puberty. She is constantly being told how she should behave - Jem and their friend Dill laugh at her for acting like a girl and she also has to contend with the opposing pressure of Aunt Alexandra who is shocked at her perceived lack of appropriate female behaviour. The roles and expectations of people in society is a theme that arises throughout the novel whether it be the Finch’s reclusive neighbour Boo Radley, Scout as a young girl, Tom Robinson, or Atticus Finch, Scout’s father and of high regard, they are encouraged to conform to the roles and behaviours expected of them.

Atticus is painted as a moral figure, facing the backlash of his peers for taking on Tom’s case. The fact that he is doing so because the judge chose him to is somewhat brushed over but can leave the reader a touch disheartened. Be that as it may, he does a fine job, indicating that he is not as close minded as many of the others who would not necessarily have done their best in a similar situation. The trial itself is intense and incites outrage in the reader at the injustice. By setting the Ewells, a family shunned by the neighbourhood, against Tom, Lee skillfully emphasizes just how bad the prejudice is and how little hope there was.

Scout and Jem are witness to the trial and their reactions are an important indicator of the morals they will take on. This exposure to injustice strips them of their innocence and is a significant moment in their transition toward adulthood. It is telling that Scout can pick up on the hypocrisy of the adults condemning the prejudices of Hitler’s actions whilst happily sending an innocent man to his death for nothing more than the colour of his skin. The use of a child narrator adds to the poignancy of the tale.

It is always interesting encountering such a well-known story for the first time. Less of the book is given to what I’d always believed to be the main thrust of the novel, but it is in these other sections that the characters and settings are built, and the themes are dealt with more subtly. It also serves to show the characters who could easily be condemned for their prejudice as human, and as the norm. The world may have moved on (to an extent) but this story is still relevant, and Lee’s writing remains gripping.

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Unreachable, 13th July 2016, Royal Court Theatre

Anthony Neilson’s latest offering opens on a sparse stage. Tamara Lawrance walks to centre stage and delivers an emotive monologue as an audition for successful director Maxim’s (Matt Smith) epic film Child of Ashes. The intensity dissolves instantly as she reverts back to herself, an ability Maxim struggles to understand throughout, determined there must be some real life pain at the root of her moving performance.

The play quickly descends into humour, bordering on farce with the introduction of Ivan ‘The Brute’ later in the act. The audience are witness to the raw and unpleasant life inside the film business. Maxim is temperamental, self-centred, and outrageous in his demands. His child-like behaviour has only been heightened by his recent award of the Palme D’Or. He delays the filming almost endlessly, apparently over his concern for capturing the perfect light but in reality masking his anxiety over completing the film he has been working on for ten years. Director of Photography Carl (Richard Pyros) loses patience and can’t understand Anastasia’s (Amanda Drew) seemingly endless devotion to him.

Anastasia is manipulative, using Carl’s feelings for her in order to get what she wants, and casually offering sex when she needs to relax. Her commitment to Maxim’s films is evidenced when she reveals that she missed her mother’s funeral because she was on set with him. This should be a shocking revelation but the lack of emotional depth in the characters makes it almost a throwaway line.

As the play progresses we see the characters pushed to their limits in terms of what they are willing to sacrifice for their art and success. Despie the serious themes present the audience was in raptures, especially in response to Jonjo O’Neill’s hammy performance as Ivan. The star performance for me, however, was Lawrance whose versatility was apparent in Natasha’s ability to switch on any emotion thrown at her by Maxim.

There were some excellent performances but none of the characters were particularly likeable and I struggled to connect with any of their stories. The set design helped create the oppressive environment of the studio and the final scene was a credit to Chloe Lamford and Chahine Yavroyan’s set and lighting designs. Not quite to my taste but clearly very pleasing to other members of the audience, this unusual play runs until August 6^th at the Royal Court Theatre, London.

The Chemistry of Tears, Peter Carey

The novel opens with Catherine Gehrig having recently heard of the death of her long term lover, Matthew. Her disorientation and confusion at the world continuing as if nothing has happened is well drawn, and the reader is led to put aside curiosity over their thirteen year affair to contemplate the agony of having lost someone so dearly beloved and yet having to hide the depth of feeling. Her senior, Eric Croft, is aware of the situation and gives her a project to work on away from the Swinburne museum at which both she and Matthew worked.

Her task, to reconstruct a mechanical masterpiece from the nineteenth century, leads us neatly into the split narrative form Carey is known for. Alongside the numerous parts of the duck-cum-swan are the diaries of Henry Brandling who commissioned the piece in the desperate hope that it would save his ailing son. Brandling comes across as somewhat bumbling but well intentioned, enraging his wife with his endless optimism. His quest leads him to the Black Forest, renowned for its ingenious clockmakers, and to Herr Sumper, a curious, perhaps brilliant, mechanical worker who is not satisfied with merely creating the duck that Brandling so desires.

Catherine, in her grief-stricken, increasingly unreasonable state, steals the diaries and becomes obsessed with his story – grief and longing connecting them across the years. Her struggle with Matthew’s death is most explicitly portrayed in her reliance on alcohol and difficulty interacting courteously with those around her. Carey does not leave it on such a superficial level however, detailing her constant thoughts of Matthew’s decaying corpse and her anger at those who go on living when he is gone. Death and decay hang over the novel in the descriptions of every day life – the tube is described as having ‘committed suicide’, the sky said to be ‘bleeding’. The tone of the writing does not let you forget.

An intriguing premise for a story which leads you along two vastly different narratives that nonetheless fit together well enough. Carey explores the power of the object through Brandling’s obsession with his mechanical duck, as well as Catherine’s attachment to his diaries. The strength of this encounter at one remove is mirrored in her assistant Amanda’s fixation on the live footage of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In this way Carey attempts to explore universal human responses to disaster and pain.

There are some interesting ideas nestled within this book which at a cursory glance is not particularly enthralling. In saying this, however, there are mysteries to be revealed, not least the absent Matthew, whose character and feelings are revealed to us in a slow trickle.

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, Laurie Lee

In 1934, aged 19, Laurie Lee left his Gloucestershire village home for London, on foot, with only the sparsest of supplies, a thought that is likely to stir wanderlust in the heart of the reader. After having witnessed the sea for the first time (a deliberate detour on his way to London) his travels eventually lead to Spain. As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning is his recollection of this trip, a sequel to Cider With Rosie, but perfectly readable as a standalone.

His path is by no means easy as he is constantly having to find shelter, relying on the kindness of strangers and his busking with a violin to provide sustenance, a not infallible plan. This is not to mention the physical exertion required to travel by foot, although he does comment on the ease of this in youth that quickly diminishes with age. At times the terrain and weather create an intense challenge, particularly notable as he struggles across the Pyrenees in a snowstorm toward the end of the book. Hardships aside, his road is filled with wonderful characters, comradeship, and a fair few sexual liaisons. He describes the landscapes he passes through with poeticism and provides a vivid snapshot of the places he visits, oblivious to the fact they are on the cusp of the Spanish Civil War. The sudden shift is horrifying as corpses are found on the road. The reader is shocked into the realisation of the harsh realities of war in otherwise peaceful communities and we witness Lee struggle with the opportunity to escape to safety.

His journey is by no means a privileged Grand Tour, but rather the story of a young man enjoying the freedom of movement that would shortly be stripped away. He steps beyond the grand streets and experiences life as it is for the inhabitants of the time. A wonderful memoir of the wonder of exploration and the fierce loyalty that can spring from new encounters.

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