Ignite Festival: Interview with the Director of Static

Emily-Elizabeth Pickthall interviewed Tom Nicholas, the director of Static, at the launch party of Exeter Ignite Festival. To read a review of Static click here. 

How did New Model Theatre start out?

In December 2012 I (Tom) teamed up with Exeter writer Emily Holyoake to put on a production of her play ‘April’.  Initially we took over the Coffee Cellar on Exeter’s Quayside for two nights, both of which sold out.  These performances led to the show being programmed as part of the Bike Shed Theatre’s ‘From Devon With Love’ festival of work by Devon-based practitioners.  I saw this as a prime opportunity to start a theatre company, something that I had wanted to do for a while.  Early in 2012 I then spoke to Hugh, who I’d worked with on a number of projects before, about being in a play, Static, that I’d written about six months previously; and that’s when we really hit the ground running.

What sort of challenges have you faced in building the company up to this level and where would you ultimately like to see it go in the future?

I feel as though we’ve been very lucky in the opportunities that have come our way.  A lot of this was due to previous working relationships with particular organisations but just as much has been due to the supportive atmosphere in the South West theatre scene.  Currently, a lot of roles seem to blur into one: I often find myself being Director, Producer, General Manager and Sound Technician all in one day.  As we’ve begun to build a reputation, more and more people have expressed an interest to get involved in what we’re doing.  As well as easing our workloads, this also brings fresh ideas into the company.

Image Credits: New Model Theatre

How did you get involved in working with Hugh McCann (Static performer) and are you close friends when not working?

Me and Hugh met through the Young Company at the Theatre Royal Plymouth and have been extremely good friends ever since.  Around 18 months ago we got together to write and direct a short film.  ‘Todd Fisher: The Man Behind The Melodies’ was a sort of musical comedy shot on a budget of nothing.  It wasn’t particularly original but extremely fun to make, and can still be found in the depths of YouTube.  Working on Static I wanted someone who was a warm, likeable performer and would also bring some comedy to the role; Hugh was the perfect choice.  In Edinburgh we’ll be spending three weeks in a tent together, so whether we’re still be friends after that is another story…

How much support/funding/training have you drawn from in order to get Static up and running?

 The Barbican Theatre in Plymouth has been really supportive of us as we’ve developed Static.  We approached them asking whether there were any opportunities of performing Static there, as we felt it would be a shame to not get to perform it in our home town. They provided us with the opportunity of a work-in-progress showing, which allowed us to receive feedback from an audience.  From there they’ve absorbed us into their Flourish programme and given us support in terms of rehearsal and desk space.  It has also been amazing to have the recognition of such a respected organisation and inspired us to create better work.

The show will have a more comprehensive tour next year and we’ll be applying for a small amount of funding to support that.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

What sort of experiences have you had in developing your art and ideas in Plymouth, a city which has undeniably been seriously neglected over the years in terms of arts funding?

Plymouth is particularly good at engaging young people in the arts, as me and Hugh found as we grew up.  Unfortunately, it fails to encourage those people to stay and practise their art within the city.  This has led to a point where there is currently no theatre scene at all within the city.  Part of this problem I believe is the dominance of large organisations when what is really needed for the city to become a viable place to practice the arts is a flourishing grass roots.  Hopefully the City of Culture bid (and potential success) will shed a light on the importance of culture with the local economy and lead to more artists and businesses working together.

Will you remain attached to Plymouth venues?

Personally, I feel a strong commitment to Plymouth.  I’ve seen many talented people grow up in the city and then leave to pursue their careers elsewhere.  I’m hoping that, by staying, I can encourage others to as well and begin to make things happen within the city.  Static is currently going really well and is giving us the opportunity to travel and perform all across the country.  I’d like to be able to pair this touring work with creating work to be performed within the city.

What sort of experiences have you had in building up an effective and forward moving social media and publicity base i.e. Facebook/YouTube/Twitter presence and how much work does it take to sustain it all?

Twitter has become brilliant for theatre, it’s made it really simple to connect with companies and audiences across the country.  We’ve also used YouTube to publish a trailer for Static and are hoping to put up some video diaries as we tour the show.  I still think that the best way to engage an audience is through putting a flyer in their hand, although that’s perhaps less environmentally friendly…

Follow New Model Theatre here on Twitter and check out their Facebook here.

How do the shows that New Model Theatre produce differ from other shows? What do you have that others cannot offer?

Theatre-makers are often very focused on the ‘form’ and style of their piece.  We try to look beyond that and just tell stories however they need to be told.  We’ve learnt to not take anything for granted and this has given us an extremely DIY ethos when making shows.  Often the challenge of making theatre within certain constraints leads to a better, more imaginative end product.  Our main focus is to create theatre that engages with the world around it and reflects societal issues back at an audience.  We certainly don’t look to preach at an audience, but we do like to start a good old debate.

Ignite Festival: "Any space can be a theatre, everyone can tell a story…"

Emily-Elizabeth Pickthall attends the launch party for Ignite and reflects on what the festival means for Exeter. 

It can only be a positive thing if more local councils and organisers promote events such as Exeter Ignite. By the same token, not only has the festival drawn participants into Exeter from all across the nation, but in opening up performance submissions to the general public as well as professionals Ignite promotes the message that we are not just passive consumers of the arts and culture: we are all capable of creating.

Image Credits: Exeter Ignite

Welcoming one and all is David Lockwood, the chief organiser of the festival, co-founder of the Bike Shed Theatre in Exeter, as well as actor and director in his own right. Lockwood has a way with words and an original vision for Exeter Ignite. I find it intriguing how he stresses how the festival doesn’t fall into the same category as ‘fringe’ theatre.

I wonder whether his tongue-in-cheek tone eludes the festival from being filed in prescriptive terms, in order that highlights and lowlights of the festival remain as diverse and dynamic as possible, both throughout the week and in the future.

Lockwood’s opening words for Ignite also reveal that the entire festival has been planned, produced and publicised within the minimal budget of £5,000. And I’m astounded. With such a volume of things to see and do, the duration of the festival and the diversity of its venues, Ignite just goes to show that with enthusiasm, early planning (the festival was in preparation for a year, submissions closed for performance entry on January 6^th 2013) and astute use of web design and social media marketing systems, more is possible in the arts and culture than the public might be lead to believe.

All the same, Lockwood’s words did launch into the register of a manifesto, telling of the team’s ambitious intention to transform Exeter into a city with an economy sustained almost entirely upon the arts and culture.

Lockwood raises an interesting issue: how far have we come to rely on the term ‘fringe’ for any work which takes places outside the conventional theatre environment? Are comedy and the arts on the ‘fringe’ becoming an exclusive genre, over marketed and over wrought in the same themes? Perhaps the big ones like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe will soon become elitist in publicity and access.

Before this happens, perhaps the time is right for us all to decentralise hubs like Edinburgh – ‘the largest arts festival in the world’ – as the exclusive host of ‘unknown’ and alternative artists. We must stop actively separating what is off the main stage from what is on.

Within Lockwood’s words was the suggestion of a return to this original DIY attitude which founded collectives such as the Festival Fringe Society back in 1958. We need to make the best of the life and art already on our doorstep and one of the ways in which this can succeed is in removing the prescriptive title of ‘fringe’ theatre, referring to it simply as ‘theatre’ – everywhere, open to one and all.

Something different about the environment of the Ignite launch party was the sensation that these were acts of real human beings: that the work had sprung out from the mind of everyman (or everywoman, of course) between families, full time jobs and all the distractions of domestic trivia.

These were projects originally rattled out in bedrooms, the reflections of bathroom mirrors, before audiences of house cats on the platform of a living room rug. Despite its reluctance to identify as ‘fringe’, Ignite is a festival which has succeeding in binding outsiders, the socially awkward, the introverted and talented individuals who had never before had the means to train professionally or the space in which to perform.

Here, ‘debut’ wasn’t a negative word. ‘Debut’ meant taking a dare, interacting with everyone and there was a collective energy thrumming throughout all those involved – young and old, amateur or professional – because if they weren’t prepared to do so, then the whole operation could be subject to collapse. The intact performances of highly acclaimed main stage companies seem positively exhausted in comparison, like factory packed ready-mades from the sealed door of a theatre backstage.

I was left with the impression that Ignite remains a festival currently in a formative stage of development: the instability of Exeter Ignite is, however, what made the environment so thrilling and volatile.

Attending the launch party left me with a sense of how anything could be about to happen. Exeter Ignite was set to be full of the unexpected, and certainly did not disappoint.

Emily-Elizabeth Pickthall

 

Ignite Festival: [WO]MEN

Punchy, playful and original as a piece of physical theatre, [WO]MEN exposes Blah de Blah Theatre Company as four Drama graduates from Bath Spa charged full of potential. Despite their late performance at the intimate Cygnet Theatre being their first off the streets from the Bath Fringe, the young women had the rare quality of engaging an audience beyond the intellect, right down into the nerve endings.

Image Credits: Blah de Blah Theatre Company

Although Blah de Blah described their piece as aiming ‘to break the boundaries of conforming to how society expects us to think and act’, I didn’t feel this – I felt wired into something much more explosive, because [WO]MEN played with material set loose in a society where boundaries had already been broken. As the title denotes, the piece didn’t play out a hackneyed ‘battle of the sexes’, but rather explored the inherency of each sex within the other, how subject to slippage gender conceptions are both on stage and throughout our day-to-day performativity of social behaviour.

Taking on a simple but fluid three part structure, [WO]MEN soared and giggled through an initial section immersed in ‘states of women’, before snapping into a loutish and ‘laddish’ parody of masculinity. Costumes and set were black and minimal. Props utilised throughout the performance – suits, handbags, clown wigs, rave glasses – were vibrant and as fetishized as the choice of soundtracks (spanning 19th century Russian ballet to pop chart sillies).

[WO]MEN was most successful as a piece of physical theatre when it thrived on pure energy: the crackle and chatter at points where identities become collective, emotional and physical ‘states’ tiptoeing the lines between jouissance and violence. The first section, for instance, portrayed an elegant climax between the female performer/s and four empty suit jackets. And in the audience, well – we tittered and squirmed. It was palpable – we knew exactly what these four women on stage were referencing in nuzzling their cheeks and tumbling their bodies in and out of their suit(ors), crying out ‘wheee!’ in time to a Strauss waltz (yes, that one.)

Making sparse use of vocabulary, the section was swept along alternatively by a sequence of rhythmic sighs, glottal stops and a physical poetry which even reminded me of Inuit throat singing (an ancient vocal custom traditionally sustained by women, whilst male members of a tribe were out hunting). The section was subtly interwoven, too, with the manual monotony of conventional female labour, repetitive gestures bound in seats. There was a mute between birdlike clicking, a maternal restraint – there was a disturbing lacuna in the final orgasmic laugh. Through it, the screams and slaps of domestic breakdown could be heard.

Image Credits: Blah de Blah Theatre Company

By contrast, Blah de Blah’s middle section representing ‘men’ felt interrogative rather than interactive, thrusting pelvises and chat up lines into the audience, relying on stereotype as opposed to archetype. Despite the precision of movement, the section seemed strategic and less embodied, lacking the empathy of the previous section. The final section rescued the piece in a multisensory carnival of costume.

Here, [WO]MEN seemed to debunk the mythology of its previous sections, the cast letting themselves loose like rabid New Year’s sales shoppers into a stash of fancy dress, as though to suggest social identity itself as disparate. With a light show, the familiarity of Basement Jaxx and a cartoonish street party atmosphere, the section delighted the audience. Rather than attempting to close the performance with a statement, Blah de Blah seemed to suggest that gender play – along with their own work – is after all, just good fun.

All in all, it would be a cop out to pick Blah de Blah up on slips in the synchronisation of their actions, or to criticise the piece as a commentary packed in passé feminist verbatim (it isn’t). The company were ready to admit themselves at the door that there is scope for technical improvement, but I believe that the scope of their future as performers is exciting – if they continue to take risks, make enquiries without bias, to thrive on open minds and pure energy.

 

Emily Pickthall 

Ignite Festival: Comedy Improvisation

 Performed by Improperly at the Coffee Cellar, on the 5th & 6th June.

When given the opportunity to watch an improvised comedy group as part of the Ignite Festival I jumped at the chance. Being a devoted fan of ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ and ‘Mock The Week’ I knew what I was getting myself in for.

Exeter’s improvisational comedy group ‘Improperly’ put on a superb rendition of the masterful and difficult art. Improperly’s performances are solely fixed on improvised sketches with characters, situations and locations all being spontaneously given to them by the audience on the night. As with all improvised comedy there is a huge risk: if it is funny, it can be absolutely hilarious, but if it wavers it can tragically fall into an uncomfortable few minutes on stage for both performers and the audience.

 It is hard to comment on just one evening with Improperly as their show inevitably changes every night, however the fixed structures that stabilize the show are inviting to watch and the variety of them retains the audience’s interest throughout.

 Improperly’s first sequence of improvised scenes revolved around including lines from pieces of paper handed to them by the audience before the show with the performers required to fit in theses lines or quotes into the improvised scene. This section was very comical and perhaps the highlight of the evening, although I personally felt they peaked too early with later sections not matching their opening act.

 Another section involved characters going to a bar and speaking (and later singing) to the barmen about a problem they had – their problem being given to them by the audience. One scene involved a character going in to the bar to complain about her piles; this was very comical and I felt this was due to the simplicity and comedic potential of the problem, plus the fact that the word ‘piles’ easily rhymes and is therefore perfect for singing about.

 An evening with Improperly is certainly enjoyable, but the audience’s participation is vital. The suggestions given by the audience can make the scenes much more entertaining and give the performers much more room to play around with. For instance, an audience member’s limited suggestion for a song about ‘legless French frogs’ ended up leaving the audience uneasy. Whereas a simple suggestion for a scene between ‘a pilot and an airhostess’, which is much more open and accessible, went on to be a highlight of the evening.

 I was however disappointed that many of the improvised songs throughout the night were accompanied by a rather uncomfortably syncopated electric guitar rhythm, which had amplifier effects added to it which drowned out some of the performers. I found myself diverting my attention away from the comedy and towards the ‘musician’ – and not for the right reason.

 There was a clear impromptu vibe on stage and the pace and wit of the performers allowed the performance to be upbeat, entertaining and comical throughout. There is no doubt that their genre is perhaps amongst the most difficult to perform, but Improperly certainly displayed unity as a company and diversity amongst the characters they portrayed. They are accomplished performers in their field, but are also blessed with being genuinely funny people. Having only been running for the 16 months, Improperly are certainly an up-and-coming comedy company to look out for in Exeter.

Ricky Freelove, Arts Editor

Ignite Festival: The Trilogy by The Improsarios

The Improsarios are at the front of a new theatre experience whereby audience contribution and involvement becomes an integral part of the act and the wits of the performers are tested as, without any scripted or rehearsed lines, they take to the stage under the brutal glare of a paying audience demanding to be entertained.

From the moment I walked through the door it was a totally different atmosphere to anything I’d experienced at the theatre. I was met and greeted by one of the cast members, Hatty, and we spoke at reasonable length about art festivals. Indeed, I quite forgot that I was meant to be watching a performance and felt rather like I’d walked into a friend’s house party and that I’d be offered a bottle of cider any moment. The audience was very small, filling only one row of the Phoenix’s auditorium, but this only added to the feeling that we were somehow inextricably connected to what was going to happen on stage.

Image Credits: igniteexeter.org.uk

Before they began, the three cast members did the usual spotlighting and mockery of audience members and asked us to shout out the first words to pop into our heads. A worrying smorgasbord of oddities appeared, including “knickers” and “hippopotamus”, until “anxiety” was randomly selected as the title of the performance. Three plays were then performed one after the other, all of a different genre but retaining the same title.

The first play was by far the most impressive because of the seriousness of the subject matter it drew from “anxiety”. Dealing with the issue of alcoholism and creating a deeply moving exploration of a father-son relationship, the actors intelligently managed to create and develop a storyline of such reality and empathy that it completely masked the impromptu nature of the act, it feeling like a legitimate and scripted performance.

This type of spontaneous theatre usually, and inevitably, creates humour and so it was brilliantly refreshing to see a more serious subject matter performed effectively without use of the get-out-of-jail-free-card of comedy.

The use of comedy and romance in the next two plays, while not quite as striking as the first piece, was a necessary part of the audience’s journey, as from being taken to a remarkably tense atmosphere we were immediately lifted into farcical comedy – the actors literally battling each other across the stage shouting “milk my udders” being something that particularly stuck in my mind – and then were returned to the more serious in the latter piece which dealt with a love story.

Obviously it is difficult to review an act which is utterly unique to every performance and so rather than dwelling on the content itself I would rather like to focus on praising the play’s use of different genres as this made The Improsarios stand apart from other improvisational theatre groups and showcased the true talents of each of the actors. To come away having been thoroughly entertained solely by three people and three chairs is quite remarkable and I have no doubt that the group will experience great success in their forthcoming appearance at the Edinburgh Festival.

 Bethany Stuart

 

Ignite Festival: Something's Gotta Give

Something’s Gotta Give, an exploration into the effect of the celebrity on normal everyday life, is performed by Handprint Theatre. Formed by Deaf and Hearing performers, the company strives to create inclusive theatrical pieces for all, able to “communicate across language, disability or culture”.

Image Credits: igniteexeter.org,uk

The show is performed without speech for its duration, and relies chiefly on an exquisite range of facial expressions to convey individual characters and to drive the action. Music, multimedia and accompanying British Sign Language to songs by Britney Spears also dominated – mostly with great effect. A projector was used to screen the lyrics of certain Spears songs, including Lucky and Gimme More, which added a great amount of emphasis for audience members such as myself who could read along in addition to listening – celebrity culture was therefore tentatively criticised in light of lyrics such as “’I’m miss bad media karma, another day another drama”, “They’re still gonna put pictures of my derriere in the magazine” and “She’s so lucky, she’s a star”.

Over the course of the show, the two cleaning, maid characters seem to become increasingly preoccupied with the fame and fortune that celebrity life seems to promise and promote. The cleaning garb and casual hoody and sweatpants are traded in for more revealing outfits, which conform to the idea that celebrity culture is image and money obsessed. Moreover, this is built upon by the two characters as they come to compete with each other on matters such as who looks the best.

Cleaning product props increasingly become used as signifiers for commodity culture – spray cans morph into perfume and face makeup, whilst toilet roll at one point brilliantly becomes a feather boa. The imaginative use of props in this way is sophisticated and clever, and probably my favourite aspect of the paced show. Unlike with the looped backing sequences of Britney Spears Gimme More, I didn’t get bored waiting for the next inspired use of a spray can and cloth in the same way I did of two women fighting it out in their bid to be the best.

I did find myself checking my watch towards the end of the performance – everything suddenly seemed a little bit clichéd and over thought as the characters, newly infected with the poison of celebrity culture, retreated away from the audience and regressed upstage into cowering and broken shapes of the former energised and genuine personas they had held as “real people”. A disappointing end to a mostly inspired piece.

Kitty Howie, Lifestyle Editor

Ignite Festival: Skin Deep

Part of the Exeter Ignite Festival of Theatre Skin Deep is directed by Sarah White and performed by the Substance & Shadow Theatre Company.

Skin Deep is so highly anticipated that I found myself waiting for the staff to grab me an extra chair in the sold out Bike Shed. This can only be a good sign for the exciting, new Exeter-based theatre company, Substance & Shadow.

Jem and Pearl on the train to Exeter
Image Credits: Substance & Shadow

As the characters began circling into position to music, holding their chairs, I found myself feeling slightly dubious. Whilst Jem, played by Midge Mullin, and Pearl (Rose Mullin) swayed on an imaginary train, I wondered what the story surrounding Jem’s return to Exeter could be, and, most importantly, whether the actors could convince me to believe it on the sparse stage.

‘Biro’
Image Credits: Substance & Shadow

Five minutes in I was convinced, and from then onwards there was not a moment of the play which didn’t grip me. The quality of the acting was extremely high and consistent throughout, apart from one minor stumble on lines towards the end. The energy of the actors, along with their use of mime and third person narration, transformed the stage into numerous settings. I particularly enjoyed Nathan Simpson, as Alex, creating an entire 80’s dance floor full of people through his hilarious renditions of the other dancers.

 What impresses me most is the play itself, written by Rose and Midge. The plot, which builds up to some shocking twists, is brilliantly intertwined with the changes occurring within the characters, characters who are so real due to their many complexities. The story is told interestingly; the characters themselves narrating moments of past and present action by switching to descriptive third person. Skin Deep really demonstrates the power of language to paint a space in our imaginations.

Substance & Shadow Theatre Company is very aptly named, as Skin Deep is full of both “substance” and “shadow” in so many senses. The play delves into the hugely substantial matters of sexuality, race and identity whilst also exploring the shadows on the surface; fashion, music and appearance. Comedic moments, mostly at the expense of Biro (Mike Gilpin), merge subtly with much darker instances. The darkest image for me was Jem’s casual rolling up of his sleeve to reveal a swastika tattoo during a game of pool at the Black Horse.  

‘Jem’
Image Credits: Substance & Shadow

Skin Deep goes further than merely revealing the sickening nature of prejudice, it delves beneath the imprint on the skin to explore how prejudice manifests and, in Pearl’s case, how prejudice is escaped. Skin Deep really holds true to the spirit of Exeter Ignite, fully embodying the festival’s motto that “any space can be a theatre, anyone can tell a story”.  Substance & Shadow’s experimental approach to storytelling really pays off, the end result being a gripping evening which is both entertaining and thought provoking.

Skin Deep will be performed again on Saturday 8th June, 1.30pm. Get your tickets here.

 Giverny Masso, Online Arts Editor

Exeter Ignite: Static

It’s a bizarre thing to sit and try and understand a play which ultimately revolves around the concepts of involvement and loneliness when you’re sitting there as part of a unified audience. Factor into the equation that you’re also there with your best friend and have spent the burning hot day at the beach, and the whole scenario gets a little stranger.

Static sound played in the background during the beginning of the play, forcing you to concentrate on the dramatic spectacle in front of you. It was difficult to immerse yourself fully into that theatrical half world, especially as the sounds of the ever splendid café seeped into the auditorium and theatrical space. Nevertheless, I thought this was great – it (perhaps accidently) served to reinforce the idea that life goes on around you, no matter if you’re a part of it or not.

Over the course of fifty minutes, this one man show moves across ten years, charting a developing obsession with the news and the BBC’s documentation of the surrounding world. The fact I could relate my own reactions to shocking experiences, such as 9/11 and more awkward experiences like the first ever house party I went to, meant that the saturation of contemporary references and the blurred line between national and personal reportage worked very well.

Nevertheless, I feel the sensitive handling of the media’s role in developing opinion could have been explored more thoroughly, perhaps by considering how it holds the power to form and sway opinion, to what extent it offers up a skewed perspective of “current affairs”, or indeed a consideration of what it is to be considered “current” or an “affair”. What was offered up instead was an intimate partnership between actor and audience which lent itself to the exploration of the protagonists mind – in this way, the exploration of the world viewed from another’s eyes seemed to trump any forays into the big blazing guns of the BBC.

The Bike Shed’s theatrical environment was used to the fullness of its capabilities –the use of the stained glass window as a bedroom window was particularly brilliant, and really carried the message of “drama” and “playing spaces everywhere” that Ignite seeks to projects. The movement of the actor’s zippered hoody into different positions to signify different characters was also very clever, though it’s a shame that the different accents that accompanied the various characters often wavered and morphed back into normal voice, thus ultimately failing to match the slickness of the zipper.

Overall, I thought the show was worth a watch – but considering I haven’t given much thought to the sensitive issues covered since seeing the show, I judge that the overall impact did not reach its full potential in any way.

Kitty Howie, Lifestyle Editor

 

Ignite Festival: Paper Secrets

Sat in the corner of the beautifully ramshackle Bikeshed theatre bar and café is an old fashioned bureau, decorated with floral fairy lights and a card which reads ‘Paper Secrets by Emily Williams.’ To a passer-by this may simply look like part of the Bikeshed’s bohemian aesthetic, but is in fact an installation piece which forms part of both Exeter’s Ignite Festival and a yearlong project which examines what happens when individuals possess secrets and choose to disclose them.

Image Credits: Bike Shed Theatre

Behind the bar is the key to the desk, which I was given by a cheerful barman as I entered. Upon unlocking the bureau I found a neat drawer containing an antique looking tin, some paper, pens in a jam jar, a book about the psychology of secrets and a red envelope on which was written the words ‘Open Me’. Inside are the instructions for Paper Secrets.

First you look around the room, think about the people you see there and the secrets they themselves may be hiding, next you take a piece of paper, a pen and an envelope and write down a secret of your choice, and finally, you seal the secret inside the envelope and choose whether to stamp it front or back, the latter meaning that it is a secret never to be opened.

As an individual who likes to think I have very few secrets, if any, in life, sitting down at the desk with a pen in hand, ready to write, caused me to delve deep into my thoughts and think about what I may have never have fully verbalised. The installation really makes you think about the things you may be hiding from others, or yourself, without even knowing it, and offers you the chance to unburden yourself of something you may never have felt you had the chance to previously disclose.

Image Credits: Flickr user cynicalview

For me, the most intriguing part of the experience was my decision about where I would stamp the sealed envelope. Before beginning Paper Secrets I was sure that I’d decide to hide whatever secret I wrote down, yet as I sat there, stamp in hand, I wondered why I was hovering over the front. In fact the biggest part of disclosing the secret was being brave enough to put pen to paper and not about whether anyone saw it.

Secrets are complex things. The book on the psychology of secrets, which is contained within the bureau, demonstrates what an interesting topic secrets can be. Whether it is to get a load off your mind or simply to see how you will feel at the pivotal moments of the experience, Paper Secrets is definitely worth a visit.

Emily Tanner, Deputy Editor

Arts Recommend: Arts Week, the 33 most beautiful abandoned places in the world and more …

Every week we bring you our special selection of all things arty. From interesting websites to highly anticipated performances for your diary, there is something to spark all kinds of creative interest.

1. Arts week @ Exeter University

Arts is a “free, entertaining and diverse week of performances and workshops”
Image credits: Exeter University

“Whether you prefer to sit back and relax to the musical concerts, get involved with making your own arts and crafts or being one of the first to watch what our Guild Societies are taking to Edinburgh Fringe this summer, then this is the week for you!”

Arts week runs from the 3rd to 8th of June, and is the perfect way to wind down after exams and enjoy the summer term.  There are over 60 performances and an amazing variety of activities to choose from, ranging from EUSO performing in Exeter Cathedral to a knot-making workshop with Ed Crumpton. Other events include an outdoor screening with the campus cinema, various dance workshops, a print-making workshop, multiple musical and theatrical performances, sports activities and even food stalls. This week is certainly not to be missed!

Find out more and read a full schedule here.

2. Ignite: Exeter’s Festival of Theatre 2013

“Any space can be a theatre, anyone can tell a story.”

“After Party Performance” is on Tuesday 4th June at 9.30 pm
Image credits: Rough Triangle

Running from the 3rd-9th of June, across a handful of the city’s venues, Exeter Ignite is set to be absolutely brilliant. Tickets are very reasonably priced; £6 for one show, £11 for two, £15 for three, £18 for four and £20 for five! Take a look at the diverse spectrum of performances here.

One “performance” which caught our eye was the interactive “Paper Secrets”, where you are instructed to go to the bar, ask for the key, and write down your deepest, darkest secret on a piece of paper. Paper Secrets invites you to explore what happens “in the moment you choose whether to let a stranger read you secret, or to seal it forever.”

For more information check out the official website.

3. The thirty three most beautiful abandoned places in the world

Namib Holland Island in the Chesapeake Bay
Image credits: Flickr user Baldeaglebluff

This collection of awe-inspiring photographs will leave you feeling breathless. Our particular favourites include the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, the overgrown “Tunnel of Love” in Ukraine and the sand filled house in the Namib desert.

The pictures are haunting in their depiction of the collision between nature and human construction. Call of duty fans will recognise the ghost town of Pripyat, Ukraine. Equally eerie are the photographs of forsaken theme parks, abandoned houses and an illuminated sunken yacht in the Antarctic.

Every single photograph on this list is fascinating and chillingly beautiful in its own way. Click here to see all thirty three images.

4. Romeo and Juliet (The Lemon Grove, 18.30 and 21.00, 23-24 May) 

Drama comes to the Lemmy: Romeo and Juliet as you’ve never seen it before.

In a preview for Exeposé, Georgina Posner stated that ‘one of the highlights of this year’s Term 3 drama festival is undoubtedly going to be R&J, a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, set in our very own Lemmy. Inspired by the ‘lad’ culture of Exeter Uni, a deadly mix of alcohol, hatred and lust will ensure this production will be anything but boring, especially not with the promise of a booze filled bar for the audience to enjoy!’

Book tickets here.

5. The Rain Room

Science and art combine in Random International’s creation of a “Rain Room”, which you can walk around in without getting wet. Although the Barbican exhibition is sadly over, check out the video below which combines dance with the digitally choreographed rain.

Giverny Masso and Bryony James, Online Arts Editors