De Profundis

29th April 2015

Powerhouse Visy Theatre
By Oscar Wilde

Brian as the now tragic Oscar is on stage when you enter standing naked in the corner of the set. Humbled, exposed and vulnerable to the audience, the penal system and society. It is an image so cruel. An image of injustice and an image of vile persecution.

 De Profundis is awesome. Brian Lucas is stunning. I would say rush along if you have not already been, but it is sold out. Just pray that it returns again soon and if you are interstate or overseas also pray that it packs up a bag and travels. Another masterful piece of theatre grown from amazing talents that grace our city David Raymond Fenton and Brian Lucas created this from the epic letter De Profundis of Oscar Wilde. Absent is the cynical, humorous and pointed exposition of social foibles, but instead we see a Wilde stripped down to the raw.

 A man uncomprehending of the injustice thrust upon him, affronted by societies lack of understanding of his artistic temperament, heaping blame upon himself for the depths to which he has fallen. On occasions he grasps at the wit for which he is renowned, but that becomes even more tragic in a man humiliated and destroyed, but still perhaps frantically or hopelessly he imagines the occasional glimmer of hope, remembrance of kindness and gratitude to the faithful. It can be harrowingly personal and this is how it affected me. I was stunned. For the second time this week I have seen a show so brilliantly lit by Jason Glenwright with expert beautiful and poignant video design by Raymond Pittman, images by superb photographer Dylan Evans and the beautiful, but dangerous face of Brandon Dowery that reminded me of the menace of Tadzio encapsulating the angel of temptation, indulgence and death in that Thomas Mann story Death in Venice. It was great to see Brandon in the audienve the night I was there.

These are my thoughts, but this tour de force performance is so layered and dense with emotion and dialogue it may say many things to different people. If you saw it count yourself lucky. Thanks Brian and of course Oscar.

Part of a review from The Brisbane Times

'De Profundis is a staged version of Wilde's legendary letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas, written while Wilde was in prison after being convicted of gross indecency.
Lucas brings Wilde's memories of a great love and spiritual awakening to life in a 70 minute bravura performance which includes full frontal nudity.
"No sane person wants to get up onstage in front of people and take their clothes off," Lucas said.
"You're not going to do it unless it's something that needs to be done, and is right to be done."
He said director and collaborator David Fenton had considered the move carefully, worried the nudity could be seen as a gimmick.
"But it plays around with the idea of when we're naked, we're more emotionally exposed than physically exposed," Lucas said.

My full Post on Oscar Wilde

Read De Profundis here if you wish.

My Page on The Importance of Being Ernest.

The Cyclops

On the evening of the fourteenth day he lay shivering and naked in his sealed room with only the unstable light of a single candle revealing the unwanted existence of the world about him. Foetal-like he sought security, wrapped in his moist bedclothes. He lay on his back. He lay on his stomach. He ground his groin into a pillow. He stretched his thigh along a mattress not quite covered by a torn sheet. Tears flowed through his lashes and droplets of fluid seeped pearl-like from the tip of his untouched, exploding and alien erection. The blood drained from the enemy and in the mirror of a half open cupboard door, he set his eyes upon that part of him that had nowhere to go; his friendless friend. The cyclops stared back uncaring. The eye would not shift its gaze as the shrivelled armour shrunk and expanded over and over again oblivious to the face contemplating its unfolding ugliness. Folds shrivelled and moved as it roamed through the forbidden forest, foraging for satisfaction like a mucous covered snail in search of a shell within which to hide. Thoughts of long past satisfaction strengthened its resolve to seek, but realisation of futility stilled the glistening point of its observation. Hatred for the monster sullied his brain. Yearning for renewed friendship pained his muscles. The arrogance of the challenge before him frightened the boy, as beyond his powers the foreign assault stood to confront the pathetic state of his securities. In an attempt to stare it into submission he summoned up visions of wasted potential to throw in its face, but still it faced him with determined vengeance. Against his will, the untouchable spectacle stood its ground in challenge to the weakness exposed. Primordial reserves were brought into play as his pores opened in a final attempt to pour control over the situation and sweat oozed into the field of battle. Monster faced monster; demons all, until with a primal cry he clasped it with his hands and throttled the enemy until from the crimson eye burst the white shreds of submission. Falling asleep with the lifeblood of the monster setting like flaked serpent’s skin across his stomach, the boy dreamed of hell. From the inferno he sought an escape for himself and his friend the monster.

A small paragraph from my unpublished novel 'Dance With The Sun'. It follows the death of his lover. I have an idea that it could be turned into a stylish short film. The whole book is on a link to the right. 

Frankenstein

Brisbane Arts Theatre Web Site

Fractal Theatre on Facebook

Last night I experienced a staged version of Frankenstein adapted and directed by the Artistic Director of Fractal Theatre - Brenna Lee-Cooney. This theatre group was formed by Brenna and her husband Eugene Gilfedder in 1989. I have coincidentally now seen Eugene Gilfedder in three productions in the last year: Elizabeth:Almost by Chance a Woman by the Queensland Theater Company and Holding The Man at La Boite Theatre. I also had the pleasure of meeting him at Benjamin Britten's War Requiem a few weeks ago.

Victor Frankenstein was played beautifully by Andrew Lowe and the Creature by the virile and impressive Cameron Hurry. The remainder of the cast played multiple roles:- Eugene Gilfedder, Thomas Yaxley who was particularly wonderful in some lovely and endearing roles, Johancee Theron, Zoe de Plevitz and the young Adam Florence.

It has been decades since I have been to The Arts Theatre when friends used to act there in great old classics like Charlie's Aunt. Arts Theater has been on the Brisbane scene since 1936 with the current building emerging and burning and re-emerging in the 60's. Many famous Australians like Garth Welch and John Batchelor put in their time there.

Never Grow Up

J M Barrie's 'Peter Pan' 

and the Five Llewelyn Davies Boys

There is an innate appeal of remaining a child and never growing up, a yearning to do as we please and to hell with the consequences, to have fun and ignore responsibilities. It was this childlike mischievous attitude J M Barrie saw in the young boys of the Llewelyn Davies family that made him feel the joy of being like a child and moved him to write the stories of the boy who never grew up. He said they were like sticks rubbed together that ignited the flame that was Peter Pan who was the essence of them all.

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet was born in Scotland on the 9th May 1860. Barrie was a mere 5ft 3 1/2 inches. Becoming an author and playwright, he first created Peter Pan in the collection 'The Little White Bird' in 1902. Peter was inspired by the Llewelyn boys whom he had met in 1897 and was about a baby boy who had magical adventures in Kensington Gardens. In 1904 came the play 'Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.' In it the character Wendy (a seldom used male name in Britain and virtually invented as a female name by Barrie) had been inspired by Margaret Henley the daughter of a friend who could not pronounce her R's and called him 'fwiendy wendy'. In 1894 he married Mary Ansell, but it was unconsumated and she eventually had an affair so they divorced in 1909. He died of pneumonia on the 19th June 1937 and had left the Peter Pan works to the Great Ormond Street Hospital or Hospital for Sick Children. His first work was in 1888 and his last was a film treatment in 1936 for 'As You Like It', the first Shakespearean film of Lawrence Olivier.

J M Barrie and favourite Michael Llewelyn Davies

Michael Llewelyn Davies dressed as Peter Pan

Arthur Llewelyn Davies married Sylvia du Maurier. The couple initially had had three sons: George, John, and Peter. When Peter was still a baby in 1897 they met the 37 year old Scottish writer James Matthew Barrie in Kensington Gardens. Barrie quickly created a strong bond with the little boys and was known to the Llewelyn Davies family as "Uncle Jim". In 1900, Michael Llewelyn Davies was born and Nicholas in 1903. Peter Pan was first introduced to the world in the 1902 novel The Little White Bird.

All the Peter Pan stories were inspired by the five Llewelyn Davies boys.

Llewelyn Davies boys photographed by J M Barrie

George Llewelyn Davies (1893-1915) killed age 22.

George was born on July 20, 1893. He was four years old when he met Barrie and he formed a strong bond with him that would last until his untimely death. Barrie, reportedly, named the character of George Darling after him and also modelled his early Peter Pan after the 10 year old boy.  George went to Eton, he began developing his acting talent but these were cut short by World War I. George joined the King's Royal Rifle Corps and died of a head wound on March 15, 1915.

John "Jack" Llewelyn Davies (1894-1959) died age 65

John or "Jack" Llewelyn Davies was never close to Barrie thinking that Barrie tried to replace his father who died in 1907. At the age of 16, John joined the Royal Navy. His mother died soon after and Barrie became guardian of the family. John married Geraldine Gibb without the approval of Barrie, but Barrie maintained a relationship with the couple and gave them the Llewelyn Davies home. John died on September 17, 1959 at the age of 65. The character John Darling was named after him.

Peter Llewelyn Davies (1897-1960) suicide age 63

Peter Llewelyn Davies is sometimes known as "The Original Peter Pan". Peter volunteered for the War with his brother George. He survived, but the trauma affected the rest of his life. In 1917, Peter got involved in a relationship with Hungarian artist Vera Willoughby 27 years his senior. The ‘scandal’  separated him from Barrie and his family for several years. After the war, Peter founded the Peter Davies Ltd. publishing house. He grew to hate the past and the association with the Peter Pan. He developed severe depression, probably aggravated by his drinking and on April 5, 1960, Peter threw himself in front of an oncoming train.

Michael Llewelyn Davies (1900-1921) drowned age 20

Michael was, supposedly, Barrie's favourite. Along with his brother George, he was able to get closer to Barrie than any of the other Llewelyn Davies boys. Michael was very wild and very bright. After he went away to Eton, he and Barrie wrote letters to each other every day. Michael later attended Christ Church, Oxford. It was there that he met the artistic Rupert Buxton (right). The two became inseparable friends at college and also on holidays and were presumed certain to have been lovers. On May 19, 1921, Michael (almost 21) and Rupert (just 21) were found drowned and clasped in each other’s arms in the notoriously dangerous Sandford Lock on the River Thames. It has never been determined whether or not their deaths were accidental or a suicide pact. Rupert was, reportedly, very suicidal and it was a well known that the Sandford Lock had claimed the lives of three young men during the 19th century.

According to Baron (Robert) Boothby, while at Oxford, Michael also had a short sexual relationship with Roger Senhouse (below) a member of the Bloomsbury group.

Nicholas "Nico" Llewelyn Davies(1903-1980) died age 77

Nicholas, the youngest, was the only Llewelyn Davies boy who had a thoroughly happy life. However, because he outlived all his brothers, he had to witness all the sorrows. Not much is known about Nicholas' relationship with Barrie. After he graduated from college, he settled down with his wife, Mary James. Nicholas did maintain a relationship with Barrie until the latter's death in 1937. Nicholas died in 1980 at the age of 77. (photo 1975 above) In his later life he had spoken about his brother Michael, describing him as "the cleverest of us, the most original, the potential genius"

Faces of Peter Pan

 My Peter Pan Films

2003                                    2011                                      1991

2004                                 2003                                  1978
Finally from a Rock Musical version of Peter Pan

The numerous statues around the world

Peter Pan Nudes by Vittorio Carvelli

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The Death of Peter Pan in Melbourne - an acclaimed Play by Barry Lowe directed by a friend, the sensational Robert Chuter.

The Queensland Ballet 'Peter Pan' 2015

http://pepisymposium.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/peter-pan.html

Goodbye Gore Vidal

I grew up with this man as a provocative hero.

Walt Whitman

1819 - 1892

 “This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

Portrait of Walt Whitman by Thomas Eakins 

and these photographs by Eakins are believed to also be Walt Whitman.

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
              For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."from Song of Myself

Of course he was not always an old man.

Notes for the performance below .

 Once described obscene for its overt sexuality, Walt Whitman’s collection of poems in Leaves of Grass takes on new life through a naked, dance-inspired adaptation. Conceived and directed by Jeremy Bloom, Leaves of Grass features a diverse, unclothed cast of over 20 performers rhythmically chanting Whitman’s most groundbreaking poems including “Song of Myself,” “I Sing the Body Electric,” and “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking.” Experience Walt Whitman’s epic text as chamber theater meets dance theater meets congregation meets celebration – and join Whitman in proclaiming, “If I worship one thing more than another, it shall be the spread of my own body.”

'Leaves of Grass' naked 2010

Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection written by Walt Whitman and although the first edition was published in 1855, Whitman spent his entire life writing Leaves of Grass, revising it in several editions until his death. Do buy yourself a copy and you will be the richer for having read it. Treasure it. As was with the case of the poems of Michelangelo in the work of Whitman the sex of some was changed from HIM to HER before publishing. Some was even self censorship. The discovery of early manuscripts have in both cases shown the original homoerotic intention.
Two Poems by Walt Whitman

ONCE I PASSED THROUGH A POPULOUS CITY

Once I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future
use with its shows, architecture, customs, traditions,
Yet now of all that city I remember only a man I casually met
there who detain'd me for love of me,
Day by day and night by night we were together--all else has long
been forgotten by me,
I remember I say only that man who passionately clung to me,
Again we wander, we love, we separate again,
Again he holds me by the hand, I must not go,
I see him close beside me with silent lips sad and tremulous.

WE TWO BOYS TOGETHER CLINGING
We two boys together clinging
One the other never leaving
Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions making,
Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,
Arm'd and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving,
No law less than ourselves owning, sailing, soldiering, thieving, threatening,
Misers, menials, priests alarming, air breathing, 

Water drinking, on the turf or the sea-beach dancing,
Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking, 

Feebleness chasing, Fulfilling our foray.

Beautiful Photos for the Poetry of Walt Whitman

 by Anthony Gayton

http://www.anthonygayton.blogspot.com.au/

The Lovers of Walt Whitman

Harry Stafford                              Bill Duckett                                     Peter Doyle

Walt Whitman, the father of modern American poetry, was the longtime lover of Peter Doyle, a tram conductor and son of a blacksmith. The couple first met on a Washington, DC streetcar in 1865, when Whitman was 45 and 6 ft. tall and Doyle was 21 and 5 ft. 8 in. Doyle had a lasting impact on Whitman’s work and as he was present at Lincoln’s assassination, he influenced Whitman’s writings about that event. Whitman was a friend of the President’s former secretary John Hay and had seen Lincoln in person many times. Pete also affected Whitman’s most popular and well known Lincoln poem “O Captain! My Captain!”  which unlike most of Whitman’s, is metered and rhymed. Doyle did, however, affect Whitman’s decision to excise three poems from the 1867 edition of “Leaves Of Grass” that expressed despair over Whitman’s earlier failed relationship with another Irishman, Fred Vaughan, who married after splitting from him. In a letter, Walt enthused, 

“I never dreamed that you made so much of having me with you, nor that you should feel so downcast at losing me.” 

Soon afterward, when Pete griped about his job, Walt wrote promising

“a good smacking kiss, many of them – taking in return many, many from my dear son – good loving ones too.” 

For  two decades, Pete and Walt continued to correspond, and Pete continued to visit regularly, but drifted apart and in 1876, Walt met another working class youth, an emotionally unstable young man of eighteen, Harry Stafford, an office clerk. Harry became Walt’s new “darling boy.”

 "Dear Harry, not a day or night passes but I think of you. . . . 

Dear son, how I wish you could come in now, even if but for an hour & take off your coat, & sit on my lap--"

Like Fred Vaughan before him, Harry would marry in 1884, but he and Walt would remain friends. Another possible lover was Bill Duckett (possibly the Thomas Eakin photo to the left) whom he met as a young teenage boy of 15 and lived in on the same street around 1880 and moved in with Whitman, living with him a number of years and serving him in various roles.

Walt had several strokes died of tuberculosis on March 26, 1892 aged 73.

I have looked for films of Walt Whitman and there is none. What neglect. 

Ryan Reed has the script!!!! See his pitch.