Marking Time

Mike Pearson

Description

Marking Time: Performance, archaeology and the city charts a genealogy of alternative practices of theatre-making since the 1960s in one particular city – Cardiff. In a series of five itineraries, it visits fifty sites where significant events occurred, setting performances within local topographical and social contexts, and in relation to a specific architecture and polity. These sites – from disused factories to scenes of crime, from auditoria to film sets – it regards as landmarks in the conception of a history of performance.


Marking Time uses performance and places as a means to reflect on the character of the city itself – its history, its fabric and make-up, its cultural ecology and its changing nature. Weaving together personal recollections, dramatic scripts, archival records and documentary photographs, it suggests a new model for studying and for making performance…for other artistic practices…for other cities.


Marking Time is an urban companion to the rural themes and fieldwork approaches considered in ‘In Comes I’: Performance, Memory and Landscape (University of Exeter Press, 2006).

Preface


Map of the book


Introduction: Cardiff, Performance, Premise, City, Archaeology


NORTH


University Arts Building; University Main Building; University Assembly Hall; 47 Park Place; Sherman Theatre; Sherman Arena Theatre; Cathays Park; National Museum Wales; Park House, 20 Park Place; University Engineering Building


EAST


Bridgend Street; Topaz Street; Ruby Street; Metal Street; Sanquahar Street; Moira Terrace; Adamsdown Cemetery; Howard Gardens; ‘The Vulcan’; ‘The Big Sleep’


SOUTH


Windsor Esplanade; 44/46 James Street; Mount Stuart Square; 7 James Street; Wales Millennium Centre; Senedd/Welsh Assembly Government; 126 Bute Street; Butetown; St Mary’s Church; Callaghan Square


WEST


House; Street; School; Llanover Hall; Chapter; Chapter yard; Chapter Theatre; The Gym; Cowbridge Road; ‘Llwyn yr Eos’


CENTRAL


Queen Street East; Queen Street West; Hayes Island; Morgan Arcade; Caroline Street; Central Station; St Mary’s Street; Westgate Street; Cardiff Castle; Parks


Postscripts: Theatre, Archaeology, City, Cardiff

Sujets

• Human Geography
• Theater
• urban planning
• landscape
• Theatre
• Archaeology
• Sociology
• Street theatre
• General officer
• General
• History
• Urban
• Wales
• Performance
• Cardiff
• Architecture

Informations

• Publié par: University of Exeter Press
• Date de parution: 02 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780859899710
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 23 Mo

Extrait

Marking Ti

me

Marking Time MIKE PEARSON Performance, archaeology and the city

Marking Time

Marking Timecarts a genealogy of alternative practices of teatre-making since te 1960s in one particular city – Cardiff. In a series of five itineraries, it visits fifty sites were significant events occurred, setting performances witin local topograpical and social contexts, and in relation to a specific arcitecture and polity. hese sites – from disused factories to scenes of crime, from auditoria to film sets – it regards as landmarks in te conception of a istory of performance. And it uses performance and its places as a means to reflect on te caracter of te city itself – its istory, its fabric and make-up, its cultural ecology and its canging nature. Weaving togeter personal recollections, dramatic scripts, arcival records and documentary potograps, it suggests a new model for studying and for making performance . . . for oter artistic practices . . . for oter cities.

Marking Time is an urban companion to te rural temes and fieldwork approaces considered in‘In Comes I’: Performance, Memory and Landscape (University of Exeter Press, 2006).

Mike Pearson is Leverulme Researc Fellow and Professor of Performance Studies at Aberystwyt University. He is co-autor wit Mical Sanks of heatre/Arcaeology (2001) and autor of‘In Comes I’: Performance, Memory and Landscape(2006); Site-Specific Performance(2010); andMickery heater: An Imperfect Arcaeology(2011). He as made teatre professionally for over forty years, notably wit Brit Gof (1981–97) and Pearson/Brookes (1997–present). Wit Mike Brookes, e co-conceived and co-directedhe Persians(2010) and Coriolan/usfor National heatre Wales, te latter in collaboration wit te Royal Sakespeare Company as a contribution to te World Sakespeare Festival/ London 2012.

Exeter Performance Studies

Series editors:Peter homson, Professor of Drama at te University of Exeter; GraHam Ley, Professor of Drama and heory at te University of Exeter; Steve NicHolson, Professor of Twentiet-Century and Contemporary heatre at te University of Seffield.

From Mimesis to Interculturalism: Readings of heatrical heory Before and After ‘Modernism’ Graam Ley (1999)

Britis heatre and te Red Peril: he Portrayal of Communism 1917–1945 Steve Nicolson (1999)

On Actors and Acting Peter homson (2000)

Grand-Guignol: he Frenc heatre of Horror Ricard J. Hand and Micael Wilson (2002)

he Censorsip of Britis Drama 1900–1968: Volume One 1900–1932 Steve Nicolson (2003)

he Censorsip of Britis Drama 1900–1968: Volume Two 1933–1952 Steve Nicolson (2005)

Freedom’s Pioneer: Jon McGrat’s Work in heatre, Film and Television edited by David Bradby and Susanna Capon (2005)

Jon McGrat: Plays for England selected and introduced by Nadine Holdswort (2005)

heatre Worksop: Joan Littlewood and te Making of Modern Britis heatre Robert Leac (2006)

Making heatre in Nortern Ireland: hroug and Beyond te Troubles Tom Maguire (2006)

“In Comes I”: Performance, Memory and Landscape Mike Pearson (2006) London’s Grand Guignol and te heatre of Horror Ricard J. Hand and Micael Wilson (2007) heatres of te Troubles: heatre, Resistance and Liberation in Ireland, 1980-2000 Bill McDonnell (2008) he Censorsip of Britis Drama 1900–1968: Volume hree, he Fifties Steve Nicolson (2011) Britis Sout Asian heatres: A Documented History edited by Graam Ley and Sara Dadswell (2011)

Critical Essays on Britis Sout Asian heatre edited by Graam Ley and Sara Dadswell (2012)

Victory over te Sun: he World’s First Futurist Opera edited by Rosamund Bartlett and Sara Dadswell (2012)

Marking Time

Performance, arcHaeology and tHe city

Mike Pearson

First publised in 2013 by University of Exeter Press Reed Hall, Streatam Drive Exeter EX4 4QR UK www.exeterpress.co.uk

© Mike Pearson 2013

he rigt of Mike Pearson to be identified as autor of tis work as been asserted by im in accordance wit te Copyrigt, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

BritisH Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for tis book is available from te Britis Library.

Hardback Paperback

ISBN 978 0 85989 875 1 ISBN 978 0 85989 876 8

Designed by Steve Allison, he Design Stage Typeset in Adobe Systems Warnock Pro and Amet Altun’s Halis Rounded.

Printed in Great Britain by Sort Run Press Ltd, Exeter.

M A R K I N G T I M E

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations  …………………………………………………………………………………………… viii Acknowledgements  ………………………………………………………………………………………………  x

INTRODUCTION  ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1  City  …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3  Performance ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7  Premise ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11  he Map of te Book ………………………………………………………………………………………… 15

ITINERARIES ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 21 ANortH ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 23  1. University Arts Building  …………………………………………………………………………… 25  2. University Main Building ……………………………………………………………………………… 29  3. University Assembly Hall ……………………………………………………………………………… 33  4. 47 Park Place  ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 37  5. Serman heatre …………………………………………………………………………………………… 41  6. Serman Arena heatre ………………………………………………………………………………… 45  7. Catays Park  ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 49  8. National Museum Wales  ……………………………………………………………………………… 53  9. Park House, 20 Park Place  …………………………………………………………………………… 57 10. University Engineering Building …………………………………………………………………… 61

DEast ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 65  1. Bridgend Street  ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 67 2. Topaz Street …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 71  3. Ruby Street  …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 75  4. Metal Street  …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 79  5. Sanquar Street ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 83  6. Moira Place  …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 87  7. Adamsdown Cemetery  ………………………………………………………………………………… 91  8. Howard Gardens  …………………………………………………………………………………………… 95  9. ‘he Vulcan’  …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 99 10. ‘he Big Sleep’ ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 103

CSoutH …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 107  1. Windsor Esplanade  …………………………………………………………………………………… 109  2. 44-46 James Street ……………………………………………………………………………………… 113  3. Mount Stuart Square  ………………………………………………………………………………… 117  4. 7 James Street ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 121  5. Wales Millennium Centre  …………………………………………………………………………… 125

vi

C O N T E N T S

Assembly Government6. Senedd/Wels  ………………………………………………………… 129  7. 126 Bute Street  ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 133  8. Butetown ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 137  9. St Mary’s Curc …………………………………………………………………………………………… 141 10. Callagan Square …………………………………………………………………………………………… 145

BWest  ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 149  1. House ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 151  2. Street  ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 155  3. Scool  …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 159  4. Llanover Hall Yout Arts Centre  ………………………………………………………………… 163  5. Capter Arts Centre ……………………………………………………………………………………… 167  6. Capter yard  ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 171  7. Capter heatre  …………………………………………………………………………………………… 175  8. he Gym, Capter  ………………………………………………………………………………………… 179  9. Cowbridge Road  …………………………………………………………………………………………… 183 10. ‘Llwyn yr Eos’  ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 187

ECentral …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 191  1. Queen Street East …………………………………………………………………… 193  2. Queen Street West ………………………………………………………………… 197  3. Hayes Island ………………………………………………………………………… 201  4. Morgan Arcade ……………………………………………………………………… 205  5. Caroline Street ……………………………………………………………………… 209  6. Central Station ……………………………………………………………………… 213  7. St Mary Street ……………………………………………………………………… 217  8. Westgate Street ……………………………………………………………………… 221  9. Cardiff Castle ………………………………………………………………………… 225 10. Parks …………………………………………………………………………………… 229

REFLECTIONS AFTER WALKING …………………………………………………  City ……………………………………………………………………………………  Arcaeology …………………………………………………………………………  Coda and Postscript …………………………………………………………………

REFERENCE ………………………………………………………………………………  List of Performances …………………………………………………………………  Bibliograpy …………………………………………………………………………  Index ……………………………………………………………………………………

vii

233 235 241 251

253 254 257 269

M A R K I N G T I M E

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Cover:Cardiff Laboratory heatre,Hunt te Wren, December 1978 (Steve Allison)

Map of Cardiff 19 ………………………………………………………………………………………… ANortH Map of Nort itinerary  ……………………………………………………………………… 23  1. heatre in Transit,he Odyssey, February 1970 (unknown)  …………………… 24  2. University Main Building, 2013 (courtesy of Cardiff University)  …………… 28  3. RAT heatre,Huncback, Mickery heatre, Amsterdam, December 1973 (Maria Austria, courtesy of heater Instituut Nederland)  ……………………… 32  4. Biomecanic training, October 1972 (unknown) …………………………………… 36  5. Brit Gof,Patagonia, 1992 (Andy Freeman)  ………………………………………… 40  6. Cardiff Laboratory for heatrical Researc,he Lesson of Anatomy, July 1974 (Steve Allison)  ……………………………………………………………………… 44  7. Albert Hodge, ‘Mining’ (1908-12), February 2013 (Mike Pearson) …………… 48  8. Paul Brewer, ‘A Section of My Studio Floor’ (detail), 1981 (Pete Telfer)  …… 52  9. Park House, 20 Park Place, February 2013 (Mike Pearson) ……………………… 56 10. RAT heatre,Blindfold, January 1973 (Steve Allison)  …………………………… 60 DEast Map of East itinerary …………………………………………………………………………… 65  1. Transitions,Captain Confusius, December 1971 (unknown)  ………………… 66  2. Transitions, announcingDracula’s Castle, August 1972 (unknown)  ……… 70  3. proto-Cardiff Laboratory for heatrical Researc,Image, June 1973 (Steve Allison)  …………………………………………………………………………………… 74  4. Transitions, reearsingDracula’s Castle, August 1972 (unknown)  ………… 78  5. East Moors Yout Centre, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson)  ………………………… 82  6. Julie Andree-Trembley ,Unexpected hougt, Trace, February 2002 (Trace Arcive)  ………………………………………………………………………………… 86  7. Transitions, buildingDracula’s Castle, August 1972 (unknown)  …………… 90  8. Keit Wood Group,he Pilosoper’s Stone, May 1974 (Steve Allison)  …… 94  9. Window detail ‘he Golden Cross’, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson)  …………… 98 10. ‘he Big Sleep’, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson)  ………………………………………… 102 CSoutH  Map of Sout itinerary ………………………………………………………………………… 107  1. Mike Pearson inDark Sounds for a City, 2004 (Jon Rowley; video grab)108  2. 44 James Street, early 1990s (Mike Pearson)  ………………………………………… 112  3. Former National Westminster Bank, January 2013 (Mike Pearson) ………… 116  4. 7 James Street, early 2000s (Micael Sanks) ………………………………………… 120

viii

L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S

Millennium Centre, February 2013 (Mike Pearson)5. Wales  …………………… 124  6. Brit Gof reearingPAX, Cannel Dry Dock, 1990 (Cliff McLucas)  ……… 128  7. Scott Memorial, Cardiff Bay, February 2013 (Mike Pearson) …………………… 132  8. Pavement detail, Bute Street, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson) ……………………… 136  9. National heatre WalesDe Gabay, in front of St Mary’s Curc, 12 Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson)  …………………………………………………………… 140 10. Site of ‘he Custom House’, Callagan Square, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson) …………………………………………………………………………………… 144 BWest  Map of West itinerary  ………………………………………………………………………… 149  1. Tiled entrance porc, Canton, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson)  …………………… 150  2. Pavement detail, street, Canton, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson)  ………………… 154  3. Street marking, scool, Canton, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson)  ………………… 158  4. Llanover Hall heatre Worksop,he Ancient Mariner, ‘Summerting’, August 1973 (Steve Allison)  ………………………………………………………………… 162  5. André Stitt,he Institution, May 2005 (Pil Babot)  ……………………………… 166  6. IOU,he House, May 1982 (David Weeler)  ………………………………………… 170  7. Brit Gof,In Black and Wite, 1992 (unknown)  …………………………………… 174  8. Mike Pearson,Fuji Musume, August 1980 (unknown) …………………………… 178  9. Arcitectural detail, ‘he Corporation’, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson)  ……… 182 10. ‘he Ivor Davies’, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson)  ……………………………………… 186 ECentral Map of Central itinerary ……………………………………………………………………… 191  1. Cardiff Laboratory heatre,Hunt te Wren, December 1978 (Steve Allison)192  2. Pearson/Brookes,Raindogs, November 2002 (video grab)  ……………………… 196  3. Pearson/Brookes,Raindogs, November 2002 (video grab)  ……………………… 200  4. Morgan Arcade, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson) ………………………………………… 204  5. Caroline Street, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson)  ………………………………………… 208  6. Pearson/Brookes,Carrying Lyn, June 2001 (Paul Jeff)  …………………………… 212  7.Solomon Andrews’s poenix, Central Market, St Mary Street, Marc 2013 (Mike Pearson)  ………………………………………………………………… 216  8. Aberystwyt University students,Lifting, 1999 (Keit Morris)  ……………… 220  9. Cardiff Castle Banqueting Hall, 2013 (courtesy of Cardiff City Council)  … 224 10. Souvenir postcard, National Pageant of Wales, July 1909  ……………………… 228

heatreinTransit,he Odyssey, February 1970 (unknown)  ………………………… 254 NationalheatreWalesCoriolan/us……………… 255, August 2012 (Marc Douet)

ix