The importance of not talking about it

[smokingboot]

I have done something important today. I don't want to talk or think about it. So I pull out something else I care about, important, but not personal.

Those who know me know I am a bear of very little brain, but the occasional fixation, and that the fate of the 2004 play 'Behzti' has long rankled with me. Here's what it was about:

http://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/core_asp/showpage.asp?theid=161

The last part of the blurb asks if, in a community where public honour is everything, honesty has a place. The threats of violence that effectively blackmailed the Rep into abandoning the play give us the answer.

Now, lj dear, do you know what this foolish boot would like to do, given time, money and skill?

I would really like to put that play on as a puppet show.

Can you imagine it? just some old seaside punch and judy booth parked on a brum street. People would go by, some might stop, but many wouldn't; toys telling a terrible story to no-one. And if there is no audience, the empty air can hear the tale; and if it is abysmal to force a human tragedy into mere puppetry, it only foreshadows the greater crime of forcing people to be puppets themselves.

Yes. It's my idea and I demand an Arts Council Grant!

Only two minor problems: 1) I have no aptitude for puppetry whatsoever, and 2) I haven't read the play. For all I know it might be well meaning poo.

Another great nonsense chucked out onto lj and forgotten!

Comments

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

You want to talk to ashenkat about that idea...

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

*goes a bit shy*

I don't know her very well, I'm afraid. Is she into puppetry and drama?

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Does that mean I could get my fundamentalist glove puppets and threaten the outside of your Punch and Judy booth with molotov cocktails made out of minatures bottles?

:-)

[jfs.livejournal.com]

More seriously; the text of the play is available for purchase - see http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1840025220/qid%3D1127907192/026-0600442-5924413 for a copy.

I'm tempted to own a copy for the same reason I have a copy of the Satanic Verses - even if I don't particularly agree with the contents, it's a way of showing support for the right of the author to speak.

That's just brilliant

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Of course. it's a necessary part of the theatrical experience.

Someone stop me now, cos I really want to do it!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I don't have a copy of the Satanic Verses, because I just forgot; Rushdie never holds me as a writer. But I know I should have done, for precisely the reason you cite.

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

She's an arts coordinator for solihull council, loves puppets and is good (sometimes) at making things happen.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

re: Rushdie.

I tried reading Grimus, which is his first novel.

The most charitable thing I can say is that at least it's short.

[binidj.livejournal.com]

I'd strongly suggest reading the play before actually taking this any further. It is a thoroughly splendid idea though, you could even branch out and do puppet versions of "Romans in Britain" and "Hair".

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

that would be fab. Completely hatstand (espeically with the jfs addition), but fab nonetheless.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Yup. Try as I might to avoid it, I'm at that distressing point where it behoves me to know what I'm talking about. Behzti's going on my Crimbo list.

Puppet Productions of Forbidden Works...sounds like destiny calling!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

The jfs addition is perfect. We could end the run by setting fire to the booth throwing tomato sauce over the audience and running away, possibly quite far...

[oldnick.livejournal.com]

Party poppers sound just the right size for puppet molotovs.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I fear your ingenuity. The more ideas you give me, the more compelled I feel to make this happen!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

*grimaces* I can well imagine.

Out of interest, is The Satanic Verses actually a good read?

[jfs.livejournal.com]

*cough* ... well ... *shuffle* I'll let you know when I start it ... *blush*

[jfs.livejournal.com]

For Hair, surely a naked puppet is ... well ... a hand?

[yapman.livejournal.com]

no, it's rubbish.

The best bits were the rants pencilled in to the margin by the muslim I borrowed it from at school. I may have only managed a few chapters. The only thing I can remember is how bad it was and "Heed your own words, Mr. Rushdie!" scribbled into the text ...

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Which particular words?

[yapman.livejournal.com]

It was scrawled alongside some text about blasphemy in the book. I think Rushdie was pontificating about blasphemy and said chap had slightly missed the point ...

We'll have none of that here

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

*gasps, covers eyes* really Mr Scott!