Comedy at the Bath Literature Festival

Under the watchful eye of Artistic Director Viv Groskop, the Bath Literature Festival is embracing the elements of comedy that run through literature. Viv is a stand-up comedian as well as a prolific journalist and broadcaster, so she has a contacts book bulging with the very finest literary and comedy talents - and what better way to combine these than at a literature festival?

On the first Saturday of the 10-day event, the highlight of the afternoon was the mighty fine improv theatre group Austentatious, who packed out the Art Deco Forum with an improvised Jane Austen novel - which, this time, considered the impact of whether ‘that’ dress was white and gold or black and blue to hilarious and topical effect. By the time you read this review, ‘that’ dress is yesterday’s news, but it was wonderfully well drawn out of the hat on Saturday… and pulled off with aplomb by the skilled five-strong cast.

In the years since Austentatious formed, the cast has got tighter and tighter, cleverer and cleverer, and newcomers in the audience were apparently disbelieving as to the fact that the one-hour show was entirely improvised rather than previously scripted. Which is a true credit to the quick-thinking comedy of the cast. Having seen three separate Austentatious shows, I can confirm that every time feels like the first - this is a format that never gets tired.

Many of the Austentatious cast reappeared later in the evening in other guises in the Alternative Comedy line-up at the Old Masonic Lodge. This was a very mixed bag of comedy, centering around the appearance of veteran comic Helen Lederer, who came on to have a chat with Viv Groskop about her new novel Losing It and her experiences in general. This seemed to sit a bit strangely in a bill of comedy, but in the interests of supporting the ‘alternative’ part of the event title, let’s just roll with it.

The re-appearances of many of the Austentatious crew in their various solo or duo incarnations was the true highlight of the show. Between Rachel Parris’ sensational singing (her ode to hen parties on trains was something we could all identify with), and Joseph Morpurgo’s inspired teachings as an eccentric piano player, we were treated to genuinely brilliant alternative comedy. Although the comedy crown for the evening was taken by improvised sketch duo Folie a Deux (Andrew Hunter Murray and Charlotte Gittins) who with just one word uttered from the audience (“brick”) turned out an inspired and hilarious 20-minute set. I’m going to be going out of my way to see these two again. So should you.

'The Life and Times of Fanny Hill' at Bristol Old Vic

The hoopla around the Bristol Old Vic’s mega production of The Life And Times of Fanny Hill has been huge. Most of this centres on the titillating factors surrounding the play’s origins as the most sensational, and outrageous, pornographic novel of the 18th Century. But actually, April de Angelis’ recent reworking of John Cleland’s novel is much more feminist than you might imagine for a piece about prostitution.

I’ll make no bones of the fact that I’m a feminist who is strongly opposed to the sex industry (not to the women who work in the industry, but to the men who exploit those women and to a society which enables this to happen). But this post isn’t the place to wade into that debate. But with this in mind, I ventured out to see The Life And Times of Fanny Hill with my feminist principles firmly in my pocket. As it turns out, there was no need to worry.

In de Angelis’ recreation of the novel, Fanny (played wonderfully by a dishevelled Caroline Quentin) is in her middle years and approached by a noble statesman (Mawgan Gyles) who has inherited her gambling debt… and requests she pays her debt off by penning her salacious memoirs, which he will publish and make his fortune (in turn becoming a pornographer himself, despite his facade of distaste for the whole industry of sex). Fanny negotiates herself a 15% cut and promptly sets to work… yet realises she has no memory of her exploits as a woman of the night because they have all blurred into one since she worked so much “in the dark”.

So she enlists the help of two sister prostitutes, Louisa (Phoebe Thomas) and Swallow (Gwyneth Keyworth), who recreate their own stories for Fanny with the help of a panting Dingle (Nick Barber), and here the bawdy exploits unfurl. Scene after scene is literally re-enacted as Fanny scribbles feverishly on paper, delighted at how well the book is coming together. So much so that she has no intention of her debtor getting his hands on her hand work. We learn how teenage Fanny was duped into a life of prostitution, not knowing what she was doing and having no means to stop it once she found out.

The stream of realities of life working on the streets peels away. No more the glamour, decadence and ‘happy hooker’ sham that Cleland and a million others have willingly painted in an attempt to ease their own consciences (or bury their heads in the sand). Instead, Fanny, Louisa and Swallow recount tales of abuse, rape, violence, dead babies, murder and a stream of other miseries and indignities that they suffered at the hands of punters, and at the hands of a society that condemns them for no other reason than the fact they had a shitty start in life.

It’s all dealt with sensitively, shockingly and abruptly. Quentin and Keyworth in particular are outstanding in their roles in Fanny Hill, melding the younger and the older and the sadness and jadedness of their lives. There is the sense that the women are survivors of circumstances, not victims of privileged men. Fanny teaches her debtor a harsh lesson, while exposing his own hypocritical lasciviousness, and ultimately reclaims her own life story (which isn’t her own to start with) and control of her destiny.

It’s interesting that the destiny of Fanny in the play and Fanny in the novel is very different - with male novelist Cleland painting Fanny as going off to a happy life of contentment, while female playwright de Angelis shows a more realistic view of Fanny descending into a sad, alcoholic, lonely twilight, where her comrades have desperately abandoned her in the hope of being considered respectable by the critical society that caused their downfall in the first place.

The Life and Times of Fanny Hill is performed at Bristol Old Vic until March 7. Click here for more information and to book tickets.

International Women's Day 2015 - Bristol events

Last year, I wrote a post rounding up the many and varied events happening in the Bristol area for International Women’s Day (March 8). It was phenomenally popular so I’m doing another one for 2015. This post will be regularly updated as I hear about events. If your event is not mentioned here, please post info about it in the comment section and I will add it into the body of the post.

Monday, February 23

Writing For Women

The Yard, Baldwin Street, Bristol

£2 on the door

Who do you write for and what do you write about? In the theatre, there are proportionately far more male writers and directors than female, yet there are more female actors looking for work in the industry. For one evening, Hecate Theatre brings together five panellists from different backgrounds in the worlds of theatre and feminism to present and converse on what it means to write as a woman, for women, and about women.

Friday, February 27

What The Frock! Comedy

Riproar, Union Street, Bristol

£10/£9

One of the reasons for launching What The Frock! Comedy back in January 2012 was to celebrate and nurture new female comedians. So it produces a bi-monthly night showcasing new acts, as well as new material from more established comedians. Hosted by one of their two resident comperes, Cerys Nelmes (Fubar Radio host, Funny Women finalist 2012), New Kids On The Frock! is Bristol's very best new material / new talent night. In February, the line-up will feature Sooz Kempner, Harriet Dyer, Rachel Fairburn and Dotty Winters.

Friday, March 6

International Women’s Day Folk Concert

The Folk House, Park Street, Bristol

£14.50

Three of the British folk scene’s finest, most formidable and forthright female acts take to the stage to celebrate International Women’s Day. The exquisitely harmonic songwriting duo and BBC 6 Music favourites O’Hooley & Tidow will be joined by the enchanting BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Finalists Lady Maisery and the irrepressible Leicester songwriter, activist and performer Grace Petrie. A rare opportunity to experience these thought provoking, heartfelt, entertaining and enthralling women.

Saturday, March 7

International Women’s Day

M Shed, Wapping Wharf, Bristol

Free

This IWD all-day event is for women to come together to celebrate Bristol women’s achievements and to make new connections across our communities and networks. The day includes discussions and debates, spotlight speakers, performances, stalls, workshops and much more.

Saturday, March 7

International Women’s Day 2015 Celebration

Meanwhile Space, St Catherine’s Parade, Bedminster

£3

Join in with celebrating International Women's Day 2015 for a night of talks, music and great women! Speakers will include Angela Jarquín, a Nicaraguan Fairtrade cocoa producer, and local women's football team Easton Cowgirls presenting a short film on their recent visit to Palestine. There will also be performances from some of Bristol finest young singer-songwriters from the Gathering Voices pool of talent, and stalls from Fairtrade producers Zaytoun and Palestinian women's co-operatives.

Sunday, March 8

Radical Funnyism

Trinity Centre, Old Market, Bristol

£10-£20

Radical Funnyism is a benefit night raising funds for all four rape crisis centres across the South west from Gloucestershire to Cornwall. Compered by Cerys Nelmes, comedians tonight are Kate Smurthwaite, Sara Pascoe and Shazia Mirza.

Monday, March 9

WOTB IWD Breakfast

Radisson Blu, Broad Quay, Bristol

£3.50 and charity donation

IWD Big Brekkie has become a landmark Bristol event.  Around 100 women step away from their desks to celebrate with women across the world. As entrepreneurs and business women they collect donations for Deki – Bristol’s microloan and training charity helping women work their way out of poverty. Relaxed informal networking.

Saturday & Sunday, March 14 & 15

Bristol Women’s Literature Festival

Watershed, Bristol

Prices vary, check website

The two-day festival returns to the city on March 14-15 to celebrate the work of women writers. The programme features award-winning novelist and short story writer Michele Roberts, writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo, poet and filmmaker Annemarie Jacir, and activists and writers Beatrix Campbell and Caroline Criado-Perez: some of the most influential and vibrant writers working today.

Friday, March 27

What The Frock! Comedy

Riproar, Union Street, Bristol

£11/£9

Hosted by the irrepressibly popular Jayde Adams (Funny Women winner 2014, London Cabaret Awards winner 2014), who is one of What The Frock!'s two resident MCs, the night brings you the best in female comedy talent. In March the line-up features London Hughes, Gabby Best and Evelyn Mok.

'Love And Fallout' by Kathryn Simmonds

*This review contains spoilers*

I know we’re only part-way through February but Love And Fallout by Kathryn Simmonds is easily the most enjoyable book I’ve read this year. It’s not often you get to read a novel about a relatively unexplored area of contemporary feminism that is not only fascinating, vivid and illuminating, but which also spares next to no time pandering to the bores of populist theory that such a novel also needs a love story, a romantic twist and a man at its core.

Which is why I struggled with the packaging. I know, I know - never judge a book by its cover. And with Love And Fallout the point has never been more proven.

The title, for starters, is misleading. This is not a novel about love and barely a novel about (nuclear) fallout. It is a novel about an area of feminist history that is rarely broached in fiction (the women’s peace camps at Greenham Common), which has been meticulously and intricately researched by Kathryn Simmonds. It is a novel about female friendship, about the search for self-identity, and the desire to give meaning to one’s life. It is, blessedly, not a novel about love.

The cover (a pretty illo of a waif-like clothed woman reclining in a bath, reading a book) is very misleading. At first glance, the cover, font and title identify this book to the casual browser as (yuck) chick-lit, which is to do a phenomenal miss-service to the author. Kathryn Simmonds has clearly spent months, if not years, delving into the world of the Greenham Common peace camps - her reconstruction here is so convincing that I was truly surprised to learn that Kathryn herself had not spent any time living at the camp. So to package the book as conventional chick-lit is a shame and will deter many readers who would surely love the content.

Lastly, the blurb on the back cover is misdirected. It plays heavily on the instigating act of our shero Tessa being set up in the present day for a TV makeover by her well-meaning friend and husband. Although how these two people could so woefully misjudge someone they’ve known for so long is implausible. This TV appearance, the blurb says, leads a former campmate from Greenham to get in touch with Tessa and kickstart the memories that unfold in the novel. Yet that in itself is not quite accurate. Because Angela, the former campmate, does not get in touch until close to the end of the book, so is therefore not the instigator for resurfaced memories, and her reappearance seems to have little effect on Tessa other than to ease a burden of guilt.

Easily the most absorbing area of Love And Fallout is the time at Greenham: the friendships forged, the life created, the return to basics, and the quest to redefine what it means to be a woman in the 20th Century. The echoes to how Greenham has impacted on modern day Tessa could have been more relevant if it hadn’t been repeated many times near the start of the book that it was something she hadn’t thought about for years. Yet as the revelations appear, it is clear her time there had such an impression on her that it caused her to rethink her previous life (bored secretary, lovelorn girlfriend) and become an ardent campaigner and activist for life.

I struggled with the lack of depth given to key characters. Tessa herself seems like a drip - it took guts to pack in her cosy suburban life and move to the cold mud of Greenham, yet no other evidence of these guts is displayed in a character who seems to repeatedly lack backbone or strength of character (why doesn’t she leave her boring, cheating, selfish husband who misunderstands her? Why does she just forgive Maggie for secretly dating Tessa’s teenage boyfriend who left her heartbroken?). Tessa is a doormat!

And of the many characters we meet at Greenham, there are equally as many opportunities to explore female types who usually never make it into literature… yet time and again these opportunities pass without expansion. Particularly with regards to Rori - who is considered important enough to be the character depicted on the cover and the instigator for most of the novel. Rori is a fascinating character but when she dies unexpectedly, what shocks me is the almost non-existent amount of grief displayed and the scant amount of time spent to exploring this in the book. It doesn’t make sense given how pivotal she was!

But despite all this, I return to my original claim that Love And Fallout is the most enjoyable book I’ve read this year. Because despite the frustrating packaging, misleading blurb and lack of depth to most characters… it is refreshing to read a novel that explores a relatively recent yet untouched area of women’s history, and that doesn’t resort to pitching women against each other in a fight over a man. Sure, there are a lot of shortcomings in this book, but it is ultimately a page-turning read that I sped through in almost one day and I heartily recommend it.

More than anything, Love And Fallout reminds us not to judge a book by its cover. Because this is a novel that has much greater depth and value than its failed packaging implies.