Loose tongues and leaky bums...

...are just what the doctor ordered! As the television pundits repeatedly state, all the diplomats are already aware of this kind of behaviour happening on a daily basis. If at this point you have no idea what I'm banging on about, you'd best check out the story that's making the enthroned quake in their boots!

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/ (Actual source)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11858990 (Multiple analyses)

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State for the United States of America yesterday claimed that the unprecedented large-scale release of classified embassy material and communicae, acquired from a military leak...somehow...was "an attack on the international community." [BBC] I find it amazing that a country that has for decades championed democracy and free speech would react in such a fiery fashion. But then, this really has nothing to do with democracy or free speech. No, this feels much more like a window into a world that we as regular folk don't get to see or hear of all that often. And I think that fascinates us. That which which was once the reserve of the precious select few is now blown wide open. The aged oak doors of international diplomacy, in-jokes from shared educational experience and the colossal bitchiness of those who would profess to be the measured and rational versions of our most intelligent of elected selves have been opened. And I like it. We like it.

Yes, the coverage was fairly short I'll accept that. But it seems that only a day on, the battered reputation of Wikileaks and its founder has been allowed to recover. Instead, new diplomatic lines are being drawn, rules of verbal engagement rewritten and mouthy representatives chastised. Backstabbing comments, secret opinions and virtual How To guidebooks for the leaders of the world are not really the cause of the uproar or the subsequent political re-evaluations going on - it seems far more likely that the catalyst is us as people, as commonfolk getting hold of this information. The fact that the public now knows means there is no longer any mystique behind diplomacy - or at the very least it has been significantly reduced - and so it almost seems like anyone could do it! Those very same rational and measured individuals (only some of whom are elected of course) have been exposed as...drum roll please...people.

Plain people. People who like to hate, to gorge on gossip, to relish in the glow of schadenfreude. People who curse, who slander, who despise their opposite number for the most trivial of reasons. People who are "cocky" and "verging on the rude," who enjoy parties or even who occasionally, from time to time enjoy the company of a fair haired nurse with enormous breasts. Secretary Clinton, in charge of the body from which most of the leaked documents come, is in fact scared. The Republicans who want to put Wikileaks in the same bed as Al Q'aeda are in fact scared. The accusation that lives are put at risk is as fearful a comment as it is baseless. Diplomacy with China jeopardised? Malcolm Rifkind is shivering too - although that might just be from the cold snap in the UK.

No, what we have here in my humble opinion is a window into the world of diplomacy. Whilst this is not directly about free speech and democracy, it is incident enough to remind us how quick we are to seize upon the comments of our diplomats when really, they are just human and we cannot hold them in such high regard - it is unsustainable, even for the saintliest of them. Who amongst us can honestly say in dealing with some of the tyrants, thieves and fools that govern our nations that we wouldn't identify their worst qualities, giving us that social power that we all crave and exercise in our own daily lives. "That Deidre from accounting, what a jerk!"

In truth we can't do their job at all, and it is a little sad that the politicians and diplomats involved in this case as well as those outside of it feel threatened by us knowing what is little more than a colourful selection of profiles. But...in contrast to almost the entirety of this blog entry, I believe this to be little more than a thinly disguised planned leak. We're getting them more and more often now, especially in the UK. USB sticks left in cars, on the train and in public places; CDs just lying around for a disillusioned soldier to obtain and upload. Because it would be a soldier wouldn't it. Who believes a greedy hacker over a valiant soldier, hands up? I'm not saying Wikileaks is a government facade...but...this is too good to true...without actually being good at all. It's all personal, there's nothing new, it's big but empty, there's little substance and now...doesn't everybody feel just great about the power we have over our states using the digital tools.

Doesn't everybody just feel so...powerful? And what's even better is that the previously stagnant diplomatic landscape is getting a cute little makeover. Progress is nice when it takes us all along with it.

David

Keep Smiling Now....

Lovely things are happening:

My attempt to bring peace to the world...copy, paste yadayadayada.

Dave x

As a winged feather on the wild wind...

Our business is beginning to take shape - I can smell the concrete dust settling and the foundations of the company getting stronger by the day. Fiscally speaking we're feeling a lot more comfortable now - it is amazing how much a little financial stability goes a long way towards bolstering your creativity in the rehearsal room.

We're looking a lot at the work of early 20th Century German artist George Grosz, notable for his dalliances with abstract realities and strong socio-economic commentaries in the context of huge national, international and political upheavals.

As you can see, his works often have a multi-layered and cut/paste paper aesthetic that closely resembles our own. The colours too are vivid and serve to drape the action in this lusty, deep and dark, almost gory intensity

that makes you think, "bloody hell, what's going on in this is disgusting...but my eyes adore the colours." That juxtaposition between the aesthetically attractive and the morally abhorrent is exactly the way we want to explore the trying issues of our times. We reckon it's a really effective method for winning people's minds and dodging that nasty habit of political theatre - falling foul of the sermon on the mount impression. And just to stop the rumours - we're not Marxists! Left, right or centre it don't matter to us. Our pal Mr Grosz has been saying it all along (and doubtless others too), that politics is as convoluted, paradoxical and versatile a process as its main ingredient - people.

Some good news - our new website has gone live today, courtesy of the Mighty Drive lads. And here it be in all its tasty glory. Enjoy...but save some flesh for me.

Follow me...

Performance readers and theatre makers
Heart movers and earth shakers
Thanks for your time and attention
To our quest of political intervention!

DP

Nobody talks about the eighth day...

Because that was when Adam and Eve spent all day registering their self-employed status and writing their business plan. Yawn. So very little to tell you readers, but for the scant excitement that watching a duck crossing a busy road provided. I normally enjoy the more anal and tedious aspects of performance creativity. It would have been the same here but there are lots more forms to fill in when you're not just filing as an individual. Yikes. But back to the rehearsal room soon enough, armed with new ideas and practices. For instance, our latest idea was born out the need to reduce the cost of our stuff. Picture it...a massive imperial ball involving all our audience in the foyer with edible snacks and other delights to wow the folk into a...well...the rest is a secret for now! Ha, we'll tell you more after we play a bit. But for now; forms, funding, forms and invoices. YIPEE!!

DP

After The Beginning...

...God doubted the wisdom of his 6th day's creation. And with good cause, for several thousand years later The Black Propaganda Company was formed in a cavernous lounge in a Cantabrian house. South England did not what was in store and was surely unprepared for the artistic blight that had been imposed upon it by the birth of this grotty little beast.

We aren't that arrogant, but as with everything in life there is a middle-ground that we happily occupy, smug little grin on our piggy little faces. So, after 18 months since its inception, The Black Propaganda Company, consisting of myself, Katie and Dave transferred our other-worldy selves to the beautifully supported town of Eastleigh in Hampshire, near the Isle of Wight. To be as brief as possible, I really like it down here; the colours, the shapes and the shiny things that so occupy my every waking moment are in abundance here.

Anywhom, to business. We've had a three day stretch of intensive rehearsals working in stimulated parameter-based play - and the feral, unstructured kind too - culminating in the birth of loads of cool ideas for our upcoming project, Lidocaine. We know this so far about the project:

• It is set in a fictional dictatorship in England, under super-Capitalist rule (i.e. Exaggerated)
• There are many pigs involved - Pork and its many derivatives will be iconic
• It will be an immersive promenade show, where the audience will burn many a calorie
• It will attack the almighty -ism complex, begging for that holy grail of the middle-ground

Which sounds pretty neat to us. But this period of rehearsals from Monday to Wednesday with our delightful but currently county commuting partner, Katie, has thrown up a plethora of tasty theatrical morsels for us to feast upon. For instance;

• 60 second change - in between play exercises (after a debrief) we have no more than 60 seconds to transform the set we work with, governed by impulse and instinct, swift and constant motion but importantly, respect for others' own impulses. So we use periphery vision to create and watch creation so that we build on strong foundations without overlapping. This ensures that there is always somewhere in the space that is alien to you and that is home to you.
• Leon - our gas mask and black leather trenchcoat-clad figure has become an established regular in the play, taking on the role of this ethereal and dark omnipresence that we admire, fear and worship.
• Torches - a classic expression here; small sources of light. We've found that torchlight is a great way to ensure focus whilst highlighting physical elements of our playtime that would otherwise be lost in a sea of inadequate candescence. In short, the mundane is made magnificent in torchlight.
• Foreign Language use - very simple principle here; humans mostly fear what we don't know and the best example of that that we all share is in our different tongues. We can utilise linguistic idiosyncracies to highlight the alien in our closest neighbours.
• To maintain energy and ingenuity in play, a wide and varied playlist of music is required. Otherwise the plateau of music can easily govern a plateau of performance. Yawn.
• Finally, we love the idea of shepherding an audience through those moveable check-in barriers at the airport, towards a target of stereotypical comfort. Then using conductors we can deprive them of that solitary joy whilst keeping them tethered to the dream. Carrot and stick, the second oldest trick in the book next to filthy, filthy lies.

Well I'll leave it there because there is a heck of a lot to digest. But we're having a whale of a time here at The Point in Eastleigh under the associate artists scheme. There are some cool folks here with some nifty shows and local activities going on all the time. It feels really nice to work in a place that genuinely feels like the hub of the community. Be seeing you.

DP