Issuu

indigo

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Justina Crabtree & Robin Marshall - indigo@palatinate.org.uk

INDIGO 3 F I L M & TV

Is there a line when it comes to sexplicit content in films?

4 & 5 BOOK S

Indigo’s picks from this year’s Durham Book Festival

6 FASHI ON

A look at racism in the industry

7 V I SUAL ARTS

From front cover to Grey: Ezra Rachlin’s photos

8 & 9 M USI C

The best of our interviews, gig reviews and the shows to come

1 0 & 1 1 FE ATU R E S

From behind closed doors: the life of a Malaysian maid

1 2 TR AV E L

Iceland: an exchange perspective

1 3 FOOD Spicy Thai recipes to keep you warm

1 4 & 15 STAGE Our interview with DST extraordinaire

For many, Freshersʼ Week and the excitement of starting the new academic year is a bit like a Guy Fawkesʼ firework – exciting to begin with and before you know it, all glittering fun and games – but then youʼre left, a mere shadow of your former self, falling back to reality with gathering pace. With the clocks now turned back, firmly dark skies as you leave your 5 oʼclock lecture and sales of all things wooly rising everywhere, itʼs official – the cold season is upon us. But when your bobble hat isnʼt to hand and itʼs looking nothing but gloomy out, why not curl up with Indigo? And weʼll tell you exactly why this glorious magazine shouldnʼt be relegated to kindling for the bonfire. Hot tickets are a theme for several of Indigoʼs sections, as our prudent editors showcase highlights from the Durham Book Festival, interview one of DSTʼs most prominent directors and of course, let you know whatʼs in store gig and productionwise this winter. Meanwhile, our perennially cool Fashion section address the heated debate of racism in the modelling industry. But if youʼre craving fire of a different kind, ditch your usual pasta bake in favour of a wok, coconut milk and plenty of spice with some of the delectable Thai recipes detailed on our Food page. And for those who canʼt stand the heat of the kitchen, our Travel section is on hand to direct you to a destination that makes Durham appear positively tropical – Iceland. We think all this great reading will give you sufficient excuse to stay cosy indoors for a good while, at least until Christmas and end of term festivities justify the padding out of our alcohol jackets. And if you havenʼt yet kicked your way through a pile of leaves, please do. Trust us, at this rate, it wonʼt be too long before theyʼre covered in snow. JC & RM

Cover photograph by Ezra Rachlin Illustration by Harriet-Jade Harrow

For more arts and lifestyle articles please visit www.palatinate.org.uk

INDIGO EDITORS Justina Crabtree Robin Marshall BOOKS EDITOR Kate Wilkinson FASHION EDITORS Isobel Buckingham Katie Shuff FEATURES EDITOR Rohan Banerjee Deputy: Francesca Jaworska FILM & TV EDITOR Aalok Vera FOOD & DRINK EDITOR Diana Grant-Davie MUSIC EDITORS Larry Bartleet Sophia Smith Galer Jack Collins (deputy) STAGE EDITOR Emma Dawson TRAVEL EDITOR Philip Whitehead VISUAL ARTS EDITOR Lucy Edwardes Jones

WRITERS Larry Bartleet Freya Bromley Oliver Collard Jack Collins Matt Dann Andy Earnshaw Rachel Gill Lyndsay Harrod Ciaran Lee Megan Magee Rory McInness-Gibbons Sam Nicholls Ellen Orange Lucy Picton-Turbervill Abi Tavener Hannah Talbot Freddie Thomson Beth Tulley

PHOTOGRAPHERS Eric Calonius Rose Innes Akshay Mahajan Abi Tavener Sam Nicholls Ezra Rachlin

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Aalok Vora - film@palatinate.org.uk

F I L M &TV

better left to the imagination?

The lustful gaze of intrepid love. Photograph courtesy of Artificial Eye

he announcement that the Palme d’Or has this year been awarded to the Abdellatif Kechiche-directed Blue is the Warmest Colour has caused controversy in some circles due to the explicit nature of the film’s sex scenes. Julie Maroh, the author of the graphic novel on which it is based, has weighed in, describing the film as “a brutal and surgical display...[of] porn.” Opinions are divided on the sexual content of the film, but it is clear that there is enough of it to stir controversy. The film depicts the burgeoning sexuality of Adèle, a young French girl from Lille who is engaged in an unsatisfying heterosexual relationship until she meets the older, blue-haired, and elusive Emma, who gradually seduces her. The film is ultimately a testament to any romantic love, and the sex scenes are a physical manifestation of their pas-

sions. But does the film cross the line between artistic and pornographic? Sexual content in cinema is much like violence; it can serve a necessary purpose the plot, but used as a means of shocking the audience. These two features of cinema are unique in that they must undergo the gratuity test that other elements do not. How much violence or sex is too much? Do such scenes aid plot, theme, or character development? In Blue, one can argue that it does. The nature of the film’s exploratory sexuality demands an intimate revelation that comes in the form of the sex scenes. Adèle is breaks taboo and undergoes a sexual journey. But does Kechiche exploit this? Certainly, the sexual content could have been would be difficult to tone down its physicality without any serious damage to the film. However, the ero

-tic nature of the film layers the intimacy of Adèle and Emma with an authenticity that could not otherwise be achieved. The promise of sexual activity falters in the face of the act itself. In general terms, it is often more tasteful to leave sexual content to the imagination as directors otherwise risk blurring the boundaries between pornography and art. However, one must not forget the vast history of erotic art from the classical marble statues of Ancient Greece to Renoir. Such a history is, in fact, referenced in the film: Emma studies fine art and takes Adèle to various art galleries. This meta-fictional nod seems to suggest that the film is itself simply part of a lineage of feminine eroticism in art. Blue is the Warmest Colour brings us not just to the question of censorship, but the nature of art. If its aim is to represent life, then surely the sexual must be included as an integral part of our lives. Yet if art is required to serve a higher purpose perhaps it should remain within the boundaries of ‘good taste’. A sexual encounter on screen can have a profound resonance within a particular context. Yet the heavy-breathing close ups in Blue’s sex scenes, though important to the thematic heart of the film, often add little to the plot and could perhaps have been edited more mercilessly. Only at certain moments do they serve as an engaging climactic (forgive the pun) catharsis due to the character’s emotional journeys. By comparison, sex scenes in films like American Pie can be seen as an example of gratuitous shock sex that are entirely unneeded and often vulgar. Sex in cinema must be treated with care; it is a risky subject to tackle, but when handled delicately can be truly poignant. We can only wonder on what side of the line Fifty Shades of Grey will fall.

the great british mouth off Perhaps The Great British Bake Off is so popular because it taps into something quintessentially British. The clips evoking rural bliss, smart country houses and tables set for tea which frame the scenes of the baking tent hark back to early twentieth-century Britain, tempting nostalgia in British viewers. Its American cousin survived only briefly, as Paul Hollywood’s attempt to enter into the lucrative American TV business fell flat. The American Baking Competition transformed what fans would recognise as our Bake Off into a gossip fest - gaining infamy from Hollywood’s alleged affair with the attractive co-host, Marcela Valladolid. Clearly, the show’s inherent Britishness was incompatible with American visions of ‘reality TV’. Many viewers are tired of reality shows endlessly losing sight of their subject and shifting focus to the personalities, scandals and misbehaviours of the contestants, feeding the media with crowd-pleasing gossip. The Bake Off offers a show which does not escape the label of ‘reality TV’, but keeps the bitchiness to a minimum. And, arguably, therein lies the root to

its success - a refreshing change from other gossipridden programmes. This year, however, has seen a change. The media tried hard to unearth scandal which might mar Bake Off’s polite and cheery veneer. Some contestants struggled against aspersions cast on their characters and motives. Ruby Tandoh was described as a ‘headline-hogger’ and received much personal vitriol on the Web, as did Kimberly Wilson. Frances Quinn said, “It really knocked my confidence. It started to affect the way I was thinking about baking and design.” Can’t we have something on the TV that is simply about what it is about? Why this instinct to criticise personality, glory in failure and form unfounded ‘hatreds’ of characters on screen? The show risks being sucked into the pit of reality shows that have suffered from media speculation and rumour-mongering. The biggest real drama was one baker accidentally using another’s custard instead of her own. This is how it should be. Keep dramatics to a minimum.

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Story by Ciaran Lee

Story by Lucy Picton-Turbervill Photograph courtesy of the BBC

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Kate Wilkinson - books@palatinate.org.uk

BOOKS

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what indigo saw at the is great science great science fiction? our maths, while alien values would be alien, was evidently a persuasive argument. The audience chortled along as he joked about aliens snacking on their own offspring. The premise of this dualistic view is that art offers a solely evaluative vision of the world, while science offers a constative view of the universe, one that is ultimately true or untrue. The universe is expanding, science is constantly evolving, and we reinterpret accordingly. The proposers were keen to point out how fiction moves forward in a similar way, how fictions are epistemological frameworks discarded over time.

Science and English are widely viewed as uncomfortable bedfellows

he ever-shifting boundaries between art and science provide an inexhaustible source for discussion. The Durham Book Festival recently found itself hosting a lively debate along these lines in the rather grand setting of Castle’s Great Hall. Proposing the motion (‘this house believes that great science is great science fiction’), Professors Pat Waugh and Tom Macleish were intellectually invigorating, encouraging us to examine the dichotomy more closely. Equally forceful (as an audience poll of 49 percent vs. 51 percent would suggest) were Dr Andrew Crumey and Ken Macleod, who opposed, defending what is arguably the status quo. Science and English are widely viewed as uncomfortable bed fellows; on the one side we have a pursuit which is predicated on objectivity and truths, while the other requires subjectivity and value judgements.

What could be greater poetry than the task of re-imagining the universe? However, on closer examination we see how fiction involves scientific processes. Generally speaking, it is possible to see fiction as similar to a scientific model in the way that it breaks

up and reconstitutes the world around us. Pat Waugh was quick to discredit a monolithic view of Science with a capital S, instead offering a more pluralistic vision, in keeping with the broader etymology of the word which comes from the Latin scienta, meaning ‘knowledge’. In the act of reading we make inferences, deduce, use induction and investigate the world. The novel certainly shares a comparable intellectual climate of conception with science. Through fiction, writers like Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson were doing something similar to Isaac Newton (roughly their contemporary) when he experimentally poked a needle to the back of his skull to test whether colour was infused by pressure on the eye, probing human consciousness (and whose method seems more sophisticated now?) The scientist’s scepticism is matched by the sceptical observation of first-person narrators like Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones and Clarissa Harlowe. The logical extremity of the proposition came in the suggestion that you could be more engaged in science while reading a book, where you are making sense of data, than while actually examining the data provided by published science. Personally, I think this went a little too far; published science normally puts some kind of methodology before us to evaluate. Nevertheless, it is hard to deny that the parameters between the two disciplines are not as solid as we might initially suppose. In spite of a nominal victory, I felt that the opposing camp had little to offer in the way of conclusive arguments. Andrew Crumey’s humorous argument that alien maths would be the same as

One of the high points of the debate was Tom Macleish’s speech, beginning with a stinging rebuttal of the opponent and ending with a rhetorical question: ‘What could be greater poetry than the task of reimagining the universe?’ What distinguishes scientific innovation is not a fixation with answers, but with questions; its aim is not to be right, but to be constructively wrong. So fiction models the universe, while scientists provide us with its compelling narrative. Is there a danger in this inverted logic? Andrew Crumey didn’t finish his closing statement but began to assert that it was akin to floating in some kind of ‘homogeneous soup’, which I can only imagine to be some kind of alien cuisine. Perhaps the argument can be unpacked. Whatever the consequences, the extant taxonomy between art and science appears to be deeply problematic on closer examination. This does not prevent a mutually enriching dialogue between the two practices. When I first examined the question, it put me in mind of the late J.G. Ballard, whose oft-discussed amalgam of ‘fiction’ and ‘neurology’ seems to foreground the key ideas of the debate in equating writing with scientific investigation. In his oeuvre, we find short stories written as lab reports, footnotes and even one as an index. His books examine the human subject and the universe in a very detached, psychological, and ultimately scientific manner. Over the course of a dynamic debate, it became clear that all fictions do this to some extent. Story by Oliver Collard Photograph by Hora Varlan

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Kate Wilkinson - books@palatinate.org.uk

BOOKS

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durham book festival

an evening with famed Mark Watson Mark Watson is a well-established stand-up comedian, familiar to fans of Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo, memorable for his endearingly nervous disposition and his tendency to ‘gabble on’. Watson is also a celebrated author with five books under his belt, the first of which he wrote while studying English at Cambridge University. At that point in his life, he was sure that he would follow a career as an author, comedy being more a hobby as part of the Cambridge Footlights. However, his recognition in comedy has now far surpassed his renown as a novelist, and this has caused some level of conflict in his public persona and in his own mind. Although the public mostly thinks otherwise, Watson claims to still see himself foremost as a writer, accrediting his success as a comedian to luck and starting out at a time when standup was exploding on TV and in the public interest.

It is in no way a‘comic novel’ which suggests pages of jokes strung together - but it has its funny moments Much of the interview, led by journalist Peter Guttridge, concerned this dichotomy. Clearly, Watson finds it difficult to align his role as a serious writer of serious novels, with his slightly caricatured, amusing on-stage persona. Some comedians have managed to achieve this, and Watson references Stephen Fry, Sean Hughes and David Baddiel for starters. Nevertheless, it would seem that Watson’s audience struggles to regard him as interested in – or capable of – being both funny and serious, though he says that they need not be so distinct. In the UK, he says, we have separate departments for comedy and drama, whereas in the US it’s ‘almost a given’ that a comedy still has serious content and that the most serious drama will have its funny moments. There are obvi-

ously many British programmes which do cross these boundaries, but it is hard to think of many American sitcoms quite so detached from serious storylines as Citizen Khan, Father Figure, and Bad Education, the BBC’s current sitcom offerings. The divide continues in literature; bookshops often separate ‘Humour’ from ‘Fiction’, and reviewers tend to approach Watson’s novels from the viewpoint of comedy. Of course, many comedians do write ‘comic novels’, such as Danny Wallace, Jo Brand and Steve Coogan.

Life is a funny, silly exercise In contrast, Watson’s latest release, The Knot, touches a very serious subject but using a light tone. It is in no way a ‘comic novel’ – he hates the term, saying it suggests pages of jokes strung together – but it has its funny moments. Watson claims he enjoys book events more than comedy gigs, and asked in this interview that he be considered as an author rather than a standup. Yet he too clearly struggles with the conflict. His answers are almost always humorous, and if an answer doesn’t receive a laugh, he often rambles on in his distinctive style until achieving one. While reading an extract from his novel, he can’t help himself from breaking away from the

text into some amusing anecdote or digression. The Knot features a rather conflicted protagonist with a secret destructive desire, but the passage Watson chooses to read is a humorous episode of a bad wedding speech. It makes more sense to have chosen that excerpt, however, he notes that ‘life is a very funny, silly exercise’ and you cannot avoid acknowledging this if you are writing about lifelike characters. He is drawn to characters who are slightly outside the action looking in – the prime example being The Great Gatsby – and it is the outsider who can see the comical or the absurd in the daily actions of others. Watson also likens his protagonist’s position to the perspective an author has on his characters; through his disconnection, he is able to observe his characters just like the wedding photographer in The Knot or the Radio DJ protagonist of his 2011 novel Eleven, who reads people’s late night confessions on air. Ultimately, while it is apparent that Watson wants to be taken seriously as a novelist, he does not discount the advantages that his fame as a comedian brings. These include the added readership that may enjoy his books and his boosted reputation as an entertaining literary festival guest. Story by Lyndsay Harrod Photograph by Isabelle Adam Illustration by Harriet-Jade Harrow

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Katie Shuff & Isobel Buckingham - fashion@palatinate.org.uk

FASHION

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naomi campbell gives racism a dressing-down Will designers ever consider models of ethnic minorities to be the fairest of them all?

n a recent interview, Naomi Campbell suggested that the fashion industry holds an inherent prejudice against models of ethnic minorities, pointing to the lack of black and Asian models in current major campaigns and high-profile runway shows. 26 years ago, in 1987, Campbell herself marked a milestone in the modelling world, becoming the first black model to grace the cover of British Vogue. However, she recently commented that “it’s disappointing they [designers] still think before booking models of colour. It’s appalling. It shouldn’t be that way in this day and age.”

Corporate officials do not consider the psychological impact their limited casting can have upon both models and the consumer The statistics for varying ethnicities in the fashion industry does not make for comfortable reading. Just six per cent of catwalk models at this year’s New York Fashion Week were black and nine per cent were of Asian descent. Moreover, since Phoebe Philo took over the helm at Céline in 2009 not one black model has appeared in any of the house’s eight shows (which have featured a total of 259 looks). This is not to say that there are no well-established black and Asian models currently gracing the runways or securing big editorial campaigns; Alek Wek, Chanel Iman, Jourdan Dunn, Lui Wen and Joan Smalls all regularly feature for top designers. However, Dunn and Smalls have both publicly complained about their experience of not getting work solely on the grounds of their ethnicity. The reason for this lack of diversity is arguably the result of an established precedent to cast a certain type of girl, which people have become too scared to challenge. Perhaps the blame can be shifted towards corporation aficionados who have created their own very rigid view of what they deem to be both acceptable and beautiful - that is, extremely thin and extremely young Caucasian women. These corporate officials, solely driven by what sells a product, are not inclined to consider the psychological impact their limited casting can have upon both models and the consumer. To address the issue, Campbell has co-founded the Diversity Coalition campaign, alongside fellow model Iman and former model agent Bethann Hardison. The campaign aims to draw attention to and challenge those designers who only feature allwhite catwalks. Campbell recalled, “When I started modelling I did Yves Saint Laurent, I did Versace. There was a great balance of models and colour.” This would worryingly suggest that the problem has arisen more recently. Iman gave further weight

to Campbell’s argument, saying, “You would think things have changed, and then you realize that they have not. In fact, things have gone backward.” Encouragingly, Campbell in a recent interview with Vogue commented on the success of the Diversity Coalition campaign, which led to a greater number of ethnically diverse models at shows such as Giorgio Armani. “We don’t want this to be a trend, that designers begin using models of colour just because we are raising our voices,” she said. “We hope they will keep doing it and we’re going to keep raising our voices until they do. It’s a longterm plan.” Moreover, despite the lack of ethnic minorities on the runway being highlighted as a major issue, Forbes’s list of highest earning models reveals a different perspective. Although primarily featuring Caucasian models, the list does contain two models of ethnic minorities who placed extremely highly. Black Puerto Rican model Joan Smalls appeared at number eight, having last year earned $3.5 million and is currently the highest ranked model on models.com. Chinese model Liu Wen banked a total of $4.3 million in the same time period, making her the 5th highest earning model in the world. Both women have secured numerous campaigns and heavily appear in fashion magazines, suggesting that despite their ethnicity they are clearly marketable and profitable. As a result, the fashion industry cannot be deemed entirely racist. This obsession over the lack of ethnic minority models is nothing new. Five years ago, a similar stir was created after American Vogue’s July 2008 issue contained the article ‘Is Fashion Racist?’, reacting to the overwhelming number of all-white catwalks. This was, of course, the same year that Italian Vogue released their issue featuring only black models throughout, which led the President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Diane von Furstenberg, to urge its members to diversify their model casting.

Models of of all racial backgrounds feature on Forbes’s list of the highest earning in the industry However, since such buzz in 2008, no real long term change has occurred. Arguably, the Diversity Coalition’s existence only serves to highlight this lack of progress. Perhaps with the support of big names such as Naomi Campbell and Iman, alongside the promising early success of the campaign, the Diversity Coalition really can do something to alter the racist nature of model casting. Story by Megan Magee

Joan Smalls and Liu Wen prove popular with designers and consumers alike Photographs courtesy of Vogue Brasil (top) and Vogue China (bottom)

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Lucy Edwardes Jones - visual.arts@palatinate.org.uk

V I S UA L A RT S

the music of photography

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Rachel Gill reviews the exhibition of photographs by world famous conductor, Ezra Rachlin, currently showing at Grey College

iolent bullfights, Balinese dancers, Scottish fishing villages: not quite the expected subject matter for the photographs of a worldrenowned orchestra conductor. However, Ezra Rachlin had many more strings to his bow than his musical career, as I learned upon visiting the exhibition currently being held at Grey College. Instead of a collection of concert hall images, I stumbled upon an intimate record of a life rich with experience, passions and talent. The archive of Rachlin’s musical and artistic work has been donated to Durham University by his widow, Ann Rachlin, who is a Fellow of Grey College. She hopes that current and future students will benefit from the ‘exciting and valuable’ oeuvre of such a remarkable man. Born in 1915 to a concert pianist mother, Ezra Rachlin’s musical talent was soon spotted; he gave his first full-length piano recital at age five. His performance was lauded by critics and his family moved to Berlin, the centre for musical study at the time. Rachlin continued on his soaring trajectory, becoming the youngest ever student to enter the Curtis Institute of Music. His career as a pianist saw him tour Europe and play for President and Mrs. Roosevelt at the White House. However, it is for his work as a conductor that Rachlin is largely remembered. Throughout his life, Rachlin conducted some of the most prestigious orchestras in the United States, Australia and Europe, as well as being the personal conductor to Lauritz Melchior, the legendary Danish tenor. Yet it is Rachlin’s award-winning photography that is commemorated in this exhibition, revealing an eye for the beauty and humour of life. I was pleasantly surprised by the technical finesse of this composer-cum-photographer. A particular fascination with composition was evident; in one of my favourite photographs, entitled ‘Monhegan Island Window, Maine’, Rachlin had used the framing of a paned window to break up a New England scene, punctuated with brightly-coloured glass vases in the foreground. Many of Rachlin’s photographs contain dramatic lighting, from the linear reflection of the sunset on a Balinese coast to fawns with backlit halos. Reddish tones were a recurring feature in the colour prints and the hanging of the works was sensitive to this, with similar colours grouped together and a whole wall dedicated to his stunning black and white shots. The exhibition was curated thoughtfully, with half of the photos hanging pride of place in Grey College’s regal dining hall. There was no common theme to the photographs; instead, the collection read as a chronicle of Rachlin’s life. Spanning over 45 years and taking in locations as diverse as Texas, Queensland, and Guernsey, the photographs were inherently personal and revealed much about the man behind the f(r)ame. His wife wrote that Rachlin had a great sense of humour and this could be seen in his choice of subject matter: grinning giraffes and dolphins, a touching portrait of his wife and dog in identical poses. The exhibition brochure revealed that even in the sober world of classical music, Rachlin couldn’t resist being playful and conducted concerts at drivein cinemas where the orchestra wore jeans and the ushers were on horseback.

‘Ezra in his darkroom (self portrait)’ - Ezra developed and printed every image, both colour and monochrome, himself.

Photographs by Ezra Rachlin, courtesy of Ann Rachlin

What struck me the most, however, was the incredible humanity that shone through Rachlin’s work. No one was too lowly for his lens, and it was his portraits of ordinary people that really stood out. From a teenage Mexican mother to a window cleaner at Heathrow airport, his subjects were captured sympathetically and yet not patronisingly. This was most evident in my favourite print, entitled ‘Tramp Trilogy’. Through using a triptych format, Rachlin gave a ‘park-bench alcoholic’ an almost religious tranquillity and beauty. People were so important to Rachlin that he quit his successful career as a pianist for the more sociable pursuit of conducting, saying that when he was a solo performer, ‘there was just [him] and the monster’. Perhaps it was only because I knew of Rachlin’s musical nature in advance, but I couldn’t help drawing a parallel between the dynamism of his pho-

tography and the soaring orchestral scores that he was surrounded with. Several of his photographs of bull-fights were filled with so much movement and energy that it was hard not to hear the faint strains of Carmen. His sweeping shots of oceans and skies were as awe-inspiring as the work of his friend Rachmaninov. Certainly for Rachlin, photography and music were intrinsically linked; he found them to be a ‘marvellous combination of interests’ with both arts ‘demanding discipline and concentration,’ both being ‘creative and exciting,’ and both giving him ‘the greatest possible pleasure.’ Ezra Rachlin may always be most famous for his musical prowess, but this exhibition does not rest on his reputation. Rather, his photographs stand alone as artistic, historical, and, most of all, human.

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Larry Bartleet & Sophia Smith Galer (dept. Jack Collins) - music@palatinate.org.uk

MUSIC

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caught in the headlights with

frightened rabbit

rightened Rabbit released their fourth album, Pedestrian Verse, in February, and after widespread success summer festivals were elbowing each other in the nose to book the boys first. They are now on tour in the USA, where a dedicated fanbase is welcoming the rambunctious Scottish band to sold-out gigs in large New York clubs. Freddie Thomson managed to squeeze 15 minutes out of a very tired and very sleep-deprived Scott Hutchinson – lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter for the band from Selkirk. The band, who released their first album in 2006 on their own record label, seem to be taking their triumph in their stride. ‘It is definitely exhausting, and it can be boring... but the high point, eliminating any thought of that, is the pleasure to be playing every night. We are very lucky that we can call this a job.’ The band has been successful for many years now. Their earlier work such as Sings The Greys (2006) and Midnight Organ Fight (2008) were received by an eager audience mostly comprising of sullen Scottish teenagers; Sings The Greys gave them something more interesting to do than sniff glue and drink White Ace in the park. Midnight Organ Fight is a regular feature of any ‘Greatest Albums of the Year/Decade’ list in many music magazines and programmes. However, Scott does not dwell on past success: ‘I always think my most recent work is more representative of the development I’ve made as a songwriter, so our last album is the work that I’m most proud of up to now.’ It is also the first album Frightened Rabbit have released on Atlantic Records, having moved to the major label following the triumph of their third album, Winter of Mixed Drinks (2010). When the intrinsically alternative band made the deal, Hutchinson had minor reservations, which he later found to be misplaced: ‘The transition is more about time and resources to make the record. We had previously less money and we weren’t able to write in the same way that we are now... so it’s actually been not so much the negative aspects that I was expecting. I was afraid that the label would be very heavy-handed and ask for more singles, or make us produce a more poppy album, but I don’t think that’s happened. They’ve allowed us to get on with it and make the album that we wanted to make.’ With their distinctive but unclassifiable sound, one can only wonder where their creativity, ideas and mu-

Photograph by Atlantic Records UK

sicality all comes from. ‘I tend to listen to as much as I possibly can, and as much variation as I can. I guess that it kind of enriches the way that the album sounds, you know. You borrow and steal from other songwriters – and that’s part of the process, really, so I try to keep my influences as wide as possible and to be open to as many influences as possible from other artists. In my teens, I listened to the Stone Roses, Supergrass, and early Stereophonics. Those were my high school years, I wasn’t particularly cool at that point in time, but I grew out of it, and I moved on to Whiskeytown, and Wilco, and TV On The Radio, and The National.’

The days when Oasis were relevant are long gone As for content, there is a recurring theme in a lot of the ‘Frabbit’ material; ‘Modern Leper’, ‘Keep Yourself Warm’, ‘Holy’, and countless others deal with isolation, loneliness and turmoil. Hutchinson discusses his inspiration and songwriting: ‘For me it definitely comes from my mind; but then, that’s where everything comes from. I write about myself a lot of the time – that changed slightly with this new album. I decided that I would try and write about other people’s lives bit more. So some of it is bit more fictional than it used to be, but in the end everything has to come from experience, whether it’s your own or just by observing others. That’s how you get a great level of detail into your lyrics.’ In spite of content, when you create the image of the archetypal indie band today, there is a tendency to imagine a dark cellar transformed into a sardine can of insufferable hipsters bopping furiously, clutching Leica cameras and 3D glasses with the lenses popped out. Frightened Rabbit have managed to avoid this stereotype by maintaining their distinctive sound without boarding the pretence associated with other acts in the indie scene. Although they released their first album on an independent label, ‘indie’ now clas-

sifies their sound: ‘I think [the term ‘indie’] is really a sound. There are actually very few completely independent labels left. Loads of what appear to be indie labels are actually funded by bigger ones. So it’s actually a word which has come to represent a sound, and I think that we kind of, broadly, fit into that.’ Like many other rock and pop bands today, Frightened Rabbit can be satisfied with reasonable chart success, given the dominance in popular music possessed by dance and electronic. ‘Guitar music isn’t going to go away... but I think that there’s a lot more to be explored within it than perhaps has been explored within that in the past. The days when Oasis were relevant are long gone, and I think that it just requires bands like The National to reinvigorate guitar music. I think it’s a bit about making something a bit more relevant with it.’ As one of the few bands of their kind to break into mainstream British music at this time, Frightened Rabbit are now in the position many strive to achieve. After spending many years touring as support or guests with the likes of Death Cab For Cutie and Tegan and Sara, Frightened Rabbit are now the main act – but reaching that point has taken ten years of grit and determination. “I’d say just don’t stop. There will be lots of disheartening moments, and lots of obstacles – but if they cause you to question yourself, then you shouldn’t be doing it anyway. Work hard. It’s kind of a simple message, but it’s the only thing that works: you’re not going to get something handed on a plate to you for dicking about in smart clothes.’ Frightened Rabbit are at a point in their career where they have the security of an accomplished discography and a wide fanbase. The future has rarely looked brighter: ‘We have to write a new record, and hopefully I’ll be trying to do a solo album, something a bit different on my own. That will have to take place next year. I’m away on tour until the middle of December, and then there has to be a decompression time. I’ll have some time relaxing, and then next year, around March, we will get properly into it again, and see where we are. So there will be new music, but I’m not sure exactly when.’ Until then, Frightened Rabbit will be appearing around the globe, returning to the UK in early November. Story by Freddie Thomson

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Larry Bartleet & Sophia Smith Galer (dept. Jack Collins) - music@palatinate.org.uk

MUSIC

live: the n.m.e. dichotomy

gig listings

Tom Odell - O2 Academy Newcastle It is often said that for a recording artist to succeed, they need to be able to do more than just sing. But on October 20th, without gimmicks or routines, Tom Odell proved that if that rule is true, his talent as an expert pianist, vocalist, and lyricist will make him an extremely successful solo artist. As in any excellent live performance, there’s an element that cannot be found on a recording, and Tom brought a level of rawness to the stage that could never be captured on track. In interviews, Tom has said his songs are like his children and he has no favourites; this equivalent affection was evident at the O2 Academy Newcastle on Sunday, with every performance seeing his absolute attention from beginning to end. At times it felt as if the audience was intruding on an incredibly intimate moment between Tom and his emotions. Tom opened with ‘Grow Old With Me’, the title track to his debut album, and it wasn’t long before the audience were serenading him with his own lyrics to the triumphal tune. By the end of the night Tom had managed to sustain a subdued atmosphere for the entirety of his performance and captivate everyone’s attention without having to resort to cheap gimmicks or remixes. His voice, lyrics, and piano were enough to showcase his immense potential. The NME predicted that the 22-year-old singer would command commercial success but warned that Odell’s “offensively dull piano pop” was “destined for Brits ubiquity.” Record-buyers, however, appear not to have been influenced by the scathing

9th November – Chase & Status at Newcastle Metro Radio Arena British drum and bass stalwarts Chase & Status are currently touring their new album, Brand New Machine. The band’s live show is famously raucous, although the seating at the Metro Radio Arena is likely to prevent a repeat of their Reading set this year, when the crowd was so over capacity that they had to pause the show to prevent injuries. 10th November – Deap Vally at Warehouse 24 American rock duo Deap Vally play Newcastle on their UK Tour after the success of debut album Sistronix this summer. Their raw, explosive sound has earned them comparisons to American rock heroes

review as his debut album reached number 1 in the UK official chart. Lilly Allen, who discovered Tom and signed him to her label, tweeted to encourage her four million followers to buy his album, adding “for all the people asking who the NME is, it’s like this fanzine that people used to read in the 90s.” There is something extremely familiar in Tom’s work; he has the ability to say what most people would want to say to a loved one but don’t quite have the words. Odell’s songs are already being heralded as our generation’s soundtrack to proposals, first dances, and first kisses. Tom coupled his tracks with some covers and seamlessly blended his individual style with that of the Beatles to create a unique song that fit nicely in the midst of his set. His boot hits the floor for a jazzy deconstruction of ‘Get Back’ before he imitated a young Jagger with ‘I Just Want To Make Love To You’. With the media’s cries of ‘corporate puppet’, I hope that, having seen him in what will probably be his purest stages, he remains raw and intense as ever and is not driven in a more commercial direction. Story by Freya Bromley Photograph by Effervescing Elephant Arctic Monkeys - Metro Radio Arena The Metro Radio Arena, a graveyard of good music, a Pantheon to pants, proud to house Barlow, Bieber, and Boyzone. Upon this brand-sensitive, consumerist backdrop, three categories collide: Indie Intelligentsia, ‘LADS LADS LADS’, and Geordie Lasses, all present and correct. Without doubt, Arctic Monkeys command a broad appeal; from pocket heartthrob, bryl-creamed mummy’s boy, Alex Turner, through to desert-dwelling, tequila-swilling, Rock God collaborator Josh Homme, the Arctic Monkeys appeal across the indie/ mainstream rift. The gig is sandwiched by the now magisterial opener ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ and ends with ‘R U mine?’ providing a raucous conclusion to a strong performance. All five albums feature, but the heavier edge dominates on latest release AM, coupled with Favourite Worst Nightmare. The strength of the back catalogue is evident as ‘...Dancefloor’, still their iconic single, is casually thrown in amidst the usual mid-set lull to spark the biggest reaction of the night. The band are on great form; Jamie Cook, resplendent in his finest early 00’s Strokes-era cool black suit and tie, produces sickeningly swaggering guitar licks, while the pulsating drums of Matt Helders and melting bass of Nick O’Malley drive the songs. Their melodic falsettos provide the perBabes in Toyland and burning off the back of a string of sell out dates, the “unapologetic mayhem” which their live show brings is not one to be missed. 15th November – David Rodigan at World HQ Show some love! Rodigan is one of the most respected DJs that this country has ever produced. Fresh off the back of another successful festival circuit, Rodigan has still got his finger right on the pulse of what’s hot and knows exactly how to work any crowd. If you have any love for reggae, jungle or roots, this is simply unmissable. 15th November – Debra Milne at Empty Shop HQ Head down to Empty Shop for a night of chilled out jazz, latin and blues, performed by the Debra Milne Ensemble. Rapidly making a big name for themselves in the North East’s premier jazz scene, the ensemble play a collection of jazz classics, as well as some originals penned by Debra and lead guitarist Steve Glendinning.

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fect foil to Turner, best showcased in recent releases ‘Arabella’, ‘Snap Out of It’, and my personal highlight ‘Knee Socks. This song, complete with Humbug producer Josh Homme’s pre-recorded backing vocals, reveals a more intricate and diverse range musically as the song disintegrates and provides a murkier end to an otherwise polished, coiffeured main set. The only real lowlight of the evening was the tiny encore featuring ‘Mardy Bum’, ‘One For the Road’ and ‘R U Mine?’. The strength of a gig can often be seen in the quality of omissions; there was no room for the glorious ‘505’, though ‘Do Me A Favour’ almost filled the void and in a hits-heavy set, ‘When the Sun Goes Down’ was overlooked, which resulted in no rampant riff sing along, though all the singles out of Favourite Worst Nightmare received that accolade. The Arctics are free from any restraints or expectations; the thousands here tonight would leave satisfied whatever they played. Post-Glastonbury, they have become an institution, more of a brand than a band in the UK. There is no doubting their loyal fanbase; now we await expectantly to hear what comes next from a band riding high and surely set for only greater successes. First, Do Me a Favour and lose the bryl cream cheese. Story by Rory McInness-Gibbons Photograph by Sxanthony

22nd November – Durham University Choral Society at Elvet Methodist Church Prior to singing at the carol service in Durham Cathedral towards the end of the Michaelmas term, the Durham University Choral Society is performing a selection of highlights from Handel’s sprawling oratorio, Messiah, at the end of November, including the renowned ‘Hallelujah’ chorus. 23rd November – Durham Singers at The St. Matthew Passion The Durham Singers, accompanied by their professional period instrument ensemble and conducted by Julian Wright, perform J.S. Bach’s great retelling of Christ’s trial and crucifixion. The arias will be sung by ten exciting young soloists, including several Durham University undergraduates and recent graduates. Compiled by Jack Collins & Larry Bartleet

Rohan Banerjee (dept. Francesca Jaworska) - features@palatinate.org.uk

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F EAT U R E S

working nine ‘til life

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Hannah Talbot meets the ‘help’ and those who really need it ‘All I want is to be able to go to church every once in a while and to be paid my monthly salary.’ It seems like a reasonable request, yet for countless domestic workers in Malaysia, it is an unattainable dream. It was 8am on a Saturday in Penang, and the intense heat and humidity were already sapping my energy as I walked to meet my first interviewee, a 28-year-old domestic worker called Lenna. I had been warned that she wouldn’t be able to come outside the fence of the employer’s house, as she was always locked in. Despite working there for eighteen months, she’d only been allowed out on a handful of occasions. I needed to be cautious in case her employer returned without warning, but for the moment Lenna was alone. A sad looking young Filipino woman stepped out from beneath the shadows of the trees. Speaking quietly and nervously, glancing over her shoulder to check no one could hear, Lenna explained how her 16-hour working day involved caring for an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s whilst doing all of the cooking, cleaning, and washing. She wept as she told me that she had not been paid for three months and had two young children to support at home in the Philippines. She was supposed to get £175 every month, but her employer only paid her occasionally. She explained she wasn’t even allowed out of the house to buy herself a new t-shirt or underwear. Underfed, she was often driven to begging through the bars of the metal fence for food. She is too scared to insist upon her rights and lives in the hope that things will get bet-

ter. ‘Sometimes I want to enjoy myself once a week, or just once a month would be okay, but I’m not allowed,’ she tells me. Unfortunately, there are many more situations like Lenna’s. Whilst high numbers of illegal immigrants make exact numbers difficult to obtain, there are an estimated 300,000 migrant domestic workers in Malaysia. A large proportion are recruited from the Philippines and brought into Malaysia by agencies, usually charging a recruitment fee of approximately £1660. This fee is supposed to be paid for by the employer, but in practice varying ‘deductions’ are taken from the maid. Often a maid employed on a two-year contract will have to work the first six months for very little money. By the end of a month, I had spoken to fifteen maids. Some were very content with their lifestyle in Malaysia; their salary was far better than in the Phillippines and they were well treated. However, eleven of the women I spoke to were miserable and desperate. They also face humiliation and degradation; it is common practice for agencies to strip search workers. Lenna said, ‘The agent sees all of my body, they bend us over and they see my bottom. My breasts – they press my breasts and all of my body.’ This is primarily because agents want to take away their mobile phones; they are often banned from using their employer’s house phones, too. On top of the isolation from the outside world, some are forced to sleep in the kitchen or utility

room, while others have a room the size of a tiny cupboard. One woman who worked in a five-storey house was banned from using the lift and had to trek up and downstairs in intense heat and humidity. Her employer was concerned that she might ‘break the lift.’ Another maid I spoke to was not even allowed in the garden of her employer’s house; she was forced to walk through a metal grill on the door. Shouting across the courtyard, she explained how her bed was on the kitchen floor. She had not been allowed out of the house for anything since she’d arrived six months earlier. Yet when I asked her how being locked up made her feel, she said, ‘I am okay because I am being paid and I need money for my children.’ There are some major issues that need to be addressed, but there are already some people who dedicate their lives to helping these workers. They are expatriates who are quietly raising money and helping to get these women home. A number of NGOs work tirelessly for the rights of domestic workers and aim to give exploited women the support they need to stand up for their rights. Without doubt, this was the most harrowing and eye-opening experience of my life. Nothing could have prepared me for the terrible conditions many of the maids have to cope with and I’ve come away with utter respect for their stoicism and work ethic. Story by Hannah Talbot Photograph by Akshay Mahajan

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Rohan Banerjee (dept. Francesca Jaworska) - features@palatinate.org.uk

F EAT U R E S

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busking tips Abi Tavener talks to Durham’s busking community

at in Market Square on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, one of Durham’s most talented buskers, 21-year-old Corey Spence, attempts to endear the public with a raw and unique acoustic rendition of his favourite song ‘Juicy’ by Biggie Smalls. Spectators smile and sing to Corey’s stunning peformance, but they remain at a distance and do not otherwise express their appreciation. Here in Durham, our cobbled streets see an abundance of talented artists like Corey showcasing their work thanks to the council’s unusual policy of not requiring a licence or fee to busk. Yet despite the myriad of talent and the hundreds who visit Durham city centre, a mere ten to thirty people will directly show Corey any interest, either through donation or stopping to listen for longer than a few moments. Some people even criticise buskers. When considering the cultural highlights of Durham, buskers are often overlooked in favour of the cathedral or the history. But to many they are a valuable addition to the city. Performing in Durham two to four times a week, Corey agrees it is an integral part of Durham’s character. Corey’s busking will hopefully help him achieve his goal of having his own business in the music industry by earning money for the two essentials he requires: a sound system and driving lessons. Busking also provides Corey with an audience to practise in front of so that he can continue to develop his musical ability, and indeed, many famous artists, including James Arthur, started in the same way. Nevertheless, 21-year-old Bryn Haswell from Newcastle makes it clear that busking is not always easy and is by no means a quick fix financially. It requires talent, practice, perserverance and very

often performing in unforgiving weather conditions. Many people are unaware or unappreciative of the hard work that goes into busking: in Bryn’s five years of experience, he has on several occasions witnessed abuse from the public. In fact, during his rendition of Snow Patrol’s ‘Chasing Cars’ in Market Square last Thursday, one passer by rudely mocked his performance. Despite the drawbacks, Bryn thoroughly enjoys busking and has had a lot of success. Durham County Council has now hired him for the marketplace and cafe spots.

The occasional elderly person will tell her to be quiet as they walk by Another regular of Durham’s streets is 17-yearold Chloe, who recently performed a successful acoustic duet of Rihanna’s ‘Stay’ with similarly talented friend Leon. Chloe is relatively new to busking and has received mostly positive reviews from the public. Yet, similar to Bryn, Chloe’s wealth of talent does not render her immune to public criticism. She states that the occasional edlerly person will tell her to be quiet as they walk by. Still, when asked if they believed that buskers were a valuable addition to the culture of Durham, the pair were quick to agree that the city ‘would simply not be the

same without them.’ Despite occasional criticisms of buskers, most people are happy to hear them. Oxford University graduate and PhD student Tom Pullman thinks that ‘the buskers in Durham are great’ and that they ‘make walking around town a pleasant experience... you often get to hear kinds of music that you wouldn’t have heard otherwise.’ When asked if buskers deserve the criticism they sometimes receive, Tom disagrees. ‘If they’re occasionally imperfect, it just reminds you that you’re listening to real people perform!’ One busker who epitomises the beauty of live music is Danny, 22, who performs in Durham city centre most days. Danny combines improvised song lyrics with the skilful playing of his acoustic guitar. He directs his words at passers by to catch their atttention, giving his music a personal touch that is only possible in a life setting. Asked what provoked the line, Danny replied: ‘Just give me a smile as you pass me by. Some people just walk past stony-faced and need something to cheer them up.’ Having witnessed some of the difficulties that Durham’s local buskers face, it is disheartening to think that their persistent efforts and extensive talents are so often overlooked or criticised. Their unique performances provide the public with a welcome distraction from the stresses of daily life, and the distinctive cultural vibe of Durham’s bustling streets would be lost without them. Story by Abi Tavener Photographs by Abi Tavener & Erik Calonius

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Philip Whitehead - travel@palatinate.org.uk

T RAV E L

time to chill in iceland

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Sam Nicholls reports from a term abroad in a place even colder than Durham On the subject of iPhones, Icelanders are obsessed with technology. If you don’t have a MacBook, don’t even think about using your laptop outside the privacy of your own room: it would just be embarrassing. Along with obligatory Apple products, the true key to being Icelandic is in embracing the national obsession of sitting in hot tubs gossiping, which is seen as a respectable form of exercise.

Looking out over downtown Rekjavik from the top of Hallgrimskirkja

he first few weeks of studying abroad are a whirlwind; you spend hours before you leave sorting out paperwork for Erasmus grants, accommodation and flights, and then you arrive to find that your work has actually only just begun. However, everyone is in the same position and you’ll suddenly find that floundering through reams of paperwork becomes less of a nightmare and more of a bonding exercise. And then, even more suddenly, it’s all over, and you’re finally free to enjoy your time out there. Arriving at Keflavik Airport, I was somewhat taken aback to discover that despite all the beautiful sunny pictures I’d seen in my Lonely Planet Guide, Iceland seemed instead to resemble a wasteland. The only sign of life was the slightest tinge of moss clinging to the inhospitable rock while the apparently cosmopolitan Reykjavik seemed only marginally better, with corrugated metal sheeting on the outsides of the houses giving it the appearance of an overgrown shantytown. Then there’s the smell of sulphur, due to Iceland’s hot water being piped directly from volcanic springs. Icelanders seem surprised, and even somewhat offended, that the smell of rotten eggs is less than appealing to me, and they assure me that when I can no longer smell it, I’ll be a true local. Oh, joy.

and the unique Icelandic Phallalogical Museum. The population of Iceland is only 320,000 people. This makes it impossible not to feel instantly at home, given the certainty of meeting someone you know at least by sight whilst walking round Reykjavik. Walking down the main street on the first day, I must have met at least half of the people who had been on my plane. Even when I ventured out of Reykjavik, I managed to meet a Durham University dissertation research group in Vik, which has a population of around 400 people. The small population means that the potential for accidentally getting too intimate with a distant relative is a known issue here in Iceland. Fortunately, there is an app that Icelanders can download which, upon tapping it against a companion’s phone, may or may not give the all clear. Crisis averted.

Icelanders seemed surprised that the smell of rotten eggs was less than appealing to me Whereas in Durham a weekend might consist of going out and feeling hung-over, weekends in Iceland are not wasted. We went on road trips every weekend; we saw waterfalls, glacial lagoons, geysers, hot springs, volcanoes, magical sunsets, and – finally – the Northern Lights. Obviously, there is some work amongst the play, but this is also part of the adventure. I was able to study something I didn’t have the opportunity to do at home, and with four lectures a week, I wasn’t exactly pushed for time!

The true key to being Icelandic is to sit in hot tubs gossiping When the rain stops and the houses are restored to their beautiful colours in the light of the sunshine, I begin to understand why people live here. Reykjavik is an eclectic explosion of coffee shops, restaurants, and souvenir shops. Having been warned that Iceland was extortionately expensive, I was pleasantly surprised to find that some things are in fact very cheap, such as good quality coffee in the University’s main café, selling for roughly 75 pence. On the other hand, a visit to the government alcohol store left me wishing I’d brought a suitcase of vodka, the asking price for which is an eye-watering £50 per litre. Reykjavik is also home to must-see cultural highlights such as the Settlement Museum

The picturesque Hraunfosser Waterfalls

Photography by Sam Nicholls

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Diana Grant-Davie - food@palatinate.org.uk

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FOOD & DRINK

three takes on thai

Beth Tulley swaps her knife and fork for chopsticks and digs in to south-east Asian cuisine

n a last ditch attempt to have the ‘gap yah’ that never happened, this summer I headed to southeast Asia. My greatest souvenir from the trip was an appreciation of Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian cuisine. Cooking courses in Bangkok and Hoi An in Vietnam provided me with fantastic culinary inspiration I was keen to share with my family and friends back home. However, I quickly found that without the more obscure ingredients at my fingertips, recreating some of my favourite dishes would be much more difficult than I expected. Buying ingredients from an Oriental supermarket and working up a sweat pounding curry paste has a feel of authenticity, but can take a great deal of effort and time. In order to cater for all levels of prowess in the kitchen, here are a range of recipes I think you’ll really enjoy. For true authenticity: Kang Khiao Wan Moo (Thai green curry with pork) (serves 4) This recipe for Thai green curry is made entirely from scratch and will certainly impress guests far more than the Loyd Grossman equivalent. Pounding the spices releases the flavours more than blending them in a food processor, so don’t be tempted to take shortcuts. Vary the spiciness to your taste by adjusting the number of chillies and removing the seeds, which is where most of the heat is. For the paste, pound together in a pestle and mortar until fine: 1 chopped lemongrass 4 thai green chillies 4 shallots 10 garlic cloves a large piece of fresh galangal (or ginger) 2 tsp ground cumin 3 large green chillies a bunch of fresh coriander 1 kaffir lime rind 2 tsp shrimp paste • • • • •

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Heat 250ml of coconut cream in a wok until the oil is visible, before adding the curry paste and stirring until fragrant Next add 600g pork tenderloin, cut into strips, and stir for 1-2 minutes Add 1 litre of coconut milk until it begins to boil Add 8 kaffir lime leaves, 8 tbsp of pea eggplants and 8 Thai eggplants Cook over medium heat until the pork is cooked and the eggplants are tender. Season with fish sauce and palm sugar then add a handful of Thai sweet basil leaves and sliced red chillies Bring to a boil, remove from the heat and serve with steamed rice

Photograph above by Christine Olson Below by Matias Dutto

Vary the spiciness to your taste by adjusting the number of chillies and removing the seeds, which is where most of the heat is For aspiring foodies:

For those who want to be fed, and fast:

Gai Pad Med Mamuang Himaphan (stir fried cashew nut chicken) (serves 1)

Tom Yum Kung (sour and spicy prawn sour) (serves 4)

This recipe relies on ingredients you can find in a supermarket and is much tastier and healthier than anything you might pick up in Woksupp after a night out.

Unlike many Thai dishes which rely heavily on coconut milk or nuts, this is a relatively light dish that can be made quickly with a pre-made Tom Yum paste and a handful of other simple ingredients.

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First, roast a handful of cashew nuts in a dry pan until nicely fragrant (but not burnt) Heat some flavourless oil (e.g. sunflower or vegetable) in a wok over a medium heat and add a small chopped onion, and half a deseeded red chilli (depending on taste) and cook for a couple of minutes Next, add a sliced chicken breast, season with 1 tsp fish sauce, 2 tbsp oyster sauce and a pinch of sugar, and stir fry continuously until the chicken is cooked Add in the roasted cashews and a spring onion that has been trimmed and chopped into pieces Stir for a further minute before you serve with rice

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Stir 3 tbsp of Tom Yum paste into 500ml of boiling water in a pan Add 150g raw and shelled prawns, 12 sliced mushrooms, and 3 large quartered tomatoes Stir and simmer for 5-10 minutes until everything is fragrant Season to taste with fish sauce and lime juice and garnish with fresh coriander and red chilli

Emma Dawson - stage@palatinate.org.uk

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STA G E

broken legs

N D I G O

The name ‘Matt Dann’ strikes fear in the hearts of many a hopeful actor. Here, the highly respected, down to earth director of numerous DST productions reflects on his experiences in Durham

was never taught how to direct; I fell into it completely by accident. I came to university, like so many others, wanting to act. It took only one small part in a first term production of Hamlet to realise that I wasn’t very good. I was in awe of the talent of some of the people I was acting alongside, many of whom I am now very close to and have since directed in other plays. I quickly decided that, although I loved the theatre and wanted to be involved in it as much as possible, I did not belong on the stage.

I had found the thing that I wanted to dedicate myself to At the same time as I was involved in Hamlet, interviews were being held for the production team of the Freshers’ Play. They were looking for a director. I thought it couldn’t hurt to go along, even though I had no previous experience. That decision was probably the best I have made during my time at university. The Freshers’ Play was an invaluable experience because it allowed me to try my hand at directing with a strong support system and a cast and crew made up entirely of my peers. There was a real sense of being ‘in it together’, and many of the relationships I formed, both working and personal, have endured for the length of my time at Durham. After that production I never looked back. I had found the thing that I wanted to dedicate myself to. There are few things more satisfying than the process of reading a play for the first time, imagining how it could work on a stage, and then overseeing that process from casting to rehearsal and finally to performance. Inevitably, what you see on

Photograph by Rose Innes

Matt Dann rehearsing Thurst Stage’s ‘The Glass Menagerie’ Photograph by Rose Innes

the stage is different from that which you imagined when you first read the play, but this is largely a positive change. Once you start bringing actors, designers and technicians into the process, each leaves an indelible imprint on the final product. It is no longer just yours, it is theirs too. This process of collaboration is what I have found most enjoyable as a director. After directing seven plays in two years at Durham, the most valuable insight I have gained is that creating an environment in which people feel free to express themselves is more important than trying to control things all the time. The director should, rightly, be the hardest-working person in the whole creative process. But there are times when talent is best left to itself, and I have often found that the best results come – be it in an actor’s performance, a tech director’s lighting design, or a musician’s score – when I take a step back and allow them the freedom to experiment without constant direction. For all the multitudes of pleasures involved with creating theatre, there are of course unique pressures and difficulties that have to be overcome. Directing and managing people who are your close friends can be an unusual process, as it becomes hard to draw the line between a personal relationship and a working one. You can come in for a great deal of criticism, either from fellow students judging the quality of your work or from those you work alongside who might disagree with your ideas. Although in some respects these pressures are unique to the environment of student theatre, they have their equivalents in the real ‘theatre business’ and I view confronting them as an invaluable form of self-preparation. Any difficulties involved in the process of collab-

orating with fellow students are outweighed by the inspiring and enlightening relationships that I have fostered with aspiring actors.

Creating an enivroment in which people feel free to express themselves is more important than trying to control things all the time Working with actors is, for me, the highlight of the creative process. Actors are weird and wonderful people, boundlessly creative and exceptionally courageous. I have the utmost respect for what they do and how they do it (knowing from experience how difficult it is) and over the past two years I feel privileged to have witnessed some truly exceptional performances, both on the stage and in the privacy of the rehearsal room. Elia Kazan, one of the great American filmmakers and theatre directors, wrote that ‘it is true that a director is a privileged person. I don’t know of anything more pleasurable than working with a splendid group of people on a worthy project.’ I can empathise with that statement. Wholeheartedly.

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Emma Dawson - stage@palatinate.org.uk

STA G E

comedy vs tragedy

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Indigo debates the two pillars of theatre Andy Earnshaw on comedy The psychology of laughter is a fascinating thing. Indeed, if I could, I’d fill every word of this page with reasons why we need to laugh. However, I’m here to defend comedy, and that’s exactly what I’ll do. Wait, though, I’ve already presented an indefensible argument for the importance of comedy: we need to laugh. All laughs are built up of sounds that everybody can produce. A Frenchman’s laugh is imitable by a Nigerian lady; a group of Americans laughing can be copied by a Chinese group and so on. Laughing is one of the building blocks of inter-personal bonds. If you wish to build trust, laughing with people is how you do it. So, when you watch Spamalot, A Bit of Fry & Laurie or Michael Mcintyre, you are building bonds with everyone in that room (and specifically the performers) by laughing together. You will find that characters like Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream are the most popular characters. Their comedic presence means that we feel closest to them. An element of humour is one of the most reliable ways to allow people to enter the story properly. Tear-jerkers like Les Miserables use characters like the Thernadiers to provide relief and a way to relax around the play. By introducing comedy into very serious performances, people can step into the life and setting of the show, therefore opening themselves up to the true power of the play. All in all, comedy, is in its way the most potent of the artistic devices. By creating laughter in your audience, you are utilising a deep and inherent aspect of humanity. All art is about engaging with peoples’ emotions and deep psychology. When you use laughter, you allow the message of your performance to be communicated to people at a subconscious level. Comedy really isn’t as flippant as people think.

Ellen Orange on tragedy

Illustration by Emma-Kate Prout

Audiences love tragedy. We love the melodrama, the suffering, the tragic hero and the villainous plots. We enjoy it because it does not portray the ‘happyending’ of romances and comedies; it gives us an alternative – perhaps more realistic – view of human life. Consider Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth, which fascinate us because they show how easily a ‘tragic fall’ occurs, as well as a darker side to human nature.

In modern drama, the characters in Ibsen, Miller and Williams emphasise the idea that anyone can be a victim to tragedy, which becomes poignant as we can relate to these ‘everyman’ characters. Tragedies cause in us an array of emotions, pity, sympathy, sorrow, anger, even relief or gladness. It is because tragedy is so relatable that it touches us deeply and we take something from it that is applicable to our own lives. Though it may be sadistic, we enjoy the tragic fall as opposed to a clichéd happy-ending. We draw great entertainment from the suffering of ‘good’ but

coming up in durham

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Mikado “Full of well-known songs and set in the Castle Great Hall, The Mikado promises to deliver high calibre music, comedy, and acting. Don’t miss out on one of the greatest musical spectacles of this term!” DULOG’s The Mikado runs from 13th to 16th November.

“Ooook! Productions presents Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy and witty satire. First performed in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest has enjoyed continuing popularity and praise, and is considered by many to mark Wilde’s artistic career at its highest.” Ooook! Production’s The Importance of Being Earnest runs from 7th to 9th November.

flawed characters. We love tragedy because it simultaneously upsets and entertains us; the events are somewhat separate from our lives and yet, we can relate to them so easily. The complexity of tragedy allows it to be as enjoyable as comedy but it also penetrates our lives with deeper meaning. This is why tragedy will always intrigue us.

The Furies “One of the western world’s oldest plays set in one of its oldest chapels, The Furies brings to life the dramatic story of Orestes’ perils and horrors in this innovative interpretation, combining thrilling drama with haunting melodies that will transport you to legendary Greece.” DUCT’s The Furies runs from 9th to 12th November.

Sudoku courtesy of sudoku-puzzles.net Illustration by Harriet-Jade Harrow