Big Brum

The central metaphor of the raging storm at the heart of this programme was inspired by Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. It was an artistic expression of our collective anxiety about, and opposition to, the onset of war in Iraq which was unfolding throughout the devising period. Shakespeare provides us with a world of contradictions, an exploration of society and the psyche and images that mirror other images and refract ever-deeper meaning. Through this we were able to explore our world. At the heart of our concerns of course was Caliban. He embodied our learning area for young people to explore: what makes us human? And, in particular, the role of social class in determining what is humanising and dehumanising in the storm. It was because of our preoccupation with Caliban however that we were left unsatisfied with Shakespeare’s resolution. Prospero forgives his betrayers and returns to Milan with them, leaving Caliban forsaken - for us this was an unspeakable act of cruelty. We wanted to bring this unresolved contradiction back into the heart of Milan. An image. The programme begins with an image of an aging Prospero in Milan. He clings on to a manuscript, a drawing of the social structure of Milan, a feudal pyramid depicting the ‘natural order’ from the nobility down to the common people. Noted down as being outside of society are vagabonds, criminals, and rogues. In reference to the pyramid the Duke has scrawled- 'how can this be improved upon?' The class is asked by the actor/teacher facilitating “What do you see?” To the children he looks “paralysed...” he’s “trying to fix Milan”. We hear the sounds of the city floating into the Duke’s chamber: people bustling, crying, hawkers selling wares, a scuffle, people begging. The children are invited to speak his thoughts. What begins to emerge is a picture of a man who is at the end of his life and re-evaluating his life’s work, looking at himself and the society he embodies. From image to action. We are witnesses to Prospero’s torment about the storm in his mind. “How do people fit in?” Then his realisation. He will send for the Scholars, he will beg them for their help with this puzzle. The young people reflect on what they have just seen. Socially the group establishes the meaning of ‘scholar’. At first there is hesitancy, too often an unfamiliar word to school children, but eventually each group begins to define scholar, the uses they can have: “They know how the mind works and use their knowledge to help others”. The Scholars Prospero is seeking assistance from have rules of debate to help themselves help others: A good scholar is a good listener to others; A good scholar waits his turn to speak; A good scholar thinks before he or she speaks; A good scholar is not quick to judge others; A good scholar wishing to speak must stand; A good scholar addresses others in the debate as ‘fellow scholars’. Stepping into role. The young people discuss the importance of these rules and as they discuss the last rule of debate they are suddenly addressed by an actor/teacher as ‘fellow scholars’, and invited to take up their scholarships, a medallion of learning on a ribbon which is ceremoniously placed around their necks. In half an hour the young people have completed a journey from Birmingham back arriving in Renaissance Milan as the finest scholars of Europe and experts to a grateful Duke Prospero. The rules of debate were critical from the point of view of our teaching objectives for the young people we were working with, particularly the following: To give them authority and responsibility in role as Scholars. To enable them to engage in a structured debate over something that matters to them. To enable them to empathise with the situation of others. It was never a matter of managing behaviour, but creating the conditions for debate. To provide a space for the young people to hear themselves and each other. To transcend the notion of debate as simply adversarial but also dialogical, where one can develop the ideas and contributions of each other in pursuit of solutions to our problems. To do this through the role of Scholars provided the young people with a vibrant use of the imagination, providing freedom from the every day constraints imposed by reality and the ability to image the possible rather than the actual. Insisting upon observing the rules of debate re-enforced the role at every turn. Such a mode of enquiry felt very relevant to the lives of the young people and the times through which we are living. A change of scenery. The scholars are invited into Prospero’s garden of knowledge, built along classical renaissance lines, beautifully crafted, the geometry mirroring nature’s patterns. Where the Island of his exile was wild, this space, the centre of his realm, is ordered, awash with vibrantly coloured marble, formal arches bearing plants, a bee hive (a natural order) and a caged bird (a man made structure for a natural being). The set brilliantly embodies the learning areas of the programme. Here the Scholars take their seats and begin their deliberations on the state of Milan. The garden is calm but the storm, the chaos of the struggle to live in Milan, is never far from its walls. The Scholars are in the eye of the storm. They never forget it. At this point an adventurer intervenes. This rogue has a man-monster in their charge, captured on an island and toured as a cheap circus act around the houses of the nobility. Prospero is amused by this stranger, one of those who lives outside of society, an illustration of the problem that the Scholars can draw upon. Prospero’s curiosity cannot resist the temptation to see the burlesque the adventurer offers. After an exchange of coin, the beast is hauled before the assembled scholars wrapped in sacking and bound by chains…..and so is revealed Caliban; bitter, vengeful, frightened Caliban, his wits clouded by the drink used to pacify him by his captor. The problem of how people fit in to society was made concrete. The Scholars were confronted by distorted humanity and the inquiry into the state of Caliban allowed them to explore the aims of the programme. Prospero's story. In the face of the aging Duke the Scholars see someone who is confronted with the ghosts of his past, and his unresolved present. Unable to avoid what crouches before him, this “Caliban, a devil, a born devil whose nature, nurture cannot heal”, Prospero consents to share with them how this creature has come to be before them. The programme moves in two time frames between the present, the Scholars meeting Prospero and his nemesis, and a retelling of the story of Propsero's life, from his usurpation at the hands of his brother to his exile on the island and his triumphant return to Milan. The Scholars’ task is to interpret the past in order to address what needs to be done in the present. Our telling of ‘the Tempest’, recreated in the garden through Prospero’s eyes, focuses on the relationships in the play that shed light on our learning areas: nature and nurture, freedom and bondage, knowledge and ignorance. The narrative is pared down to a careful use of dramatic action and objects. Thus the Scholars can follow the use of a cup to shed light on how knowledge can be sued to keep another in bondage: Prospero teaching Caliban to drink from a cup which he then uses to poison him with as punishment for his attempted rape of Miranda. This is then mirrored by the adventurer's poisoning of Caliban with alcohol to control him when he is reduced to a performing beast. The interaction between the Scholars and the actor/teachers, utilising direct exchange, depiction and the manipulation of objects, revealed an incredible drive within the young people to meet the problem Caliban presented with justice and integrity. They had to deal with how Caliban can fit in to Milan. The final task of the Scholars was to produce a decree addressing Caliban’s needs and what needed to change in Milan to accommodate all of those outside society. These were forthright assertions about what makes us human. Prospero was bound by their knowledge. At times we struggled as a Company to meet the challenge posed to the working as actors in role. We underestimated the ability of the young people to read images and dramatic action which at times found the complexity of the theatre on offer wanting. But, we truly learned that the more we were able to trust the young people as Scholars (note as Scholars here) and allow all of us, Company and young people, to be active from within the drama, the more the children were able to be active, the more they invested absolute belief in the importance of what they were doing. It was an invaluable lesson. The investment was extraordinarily serious playfulness. And furthermore, it demonstrated that the young people had a consciousness of what they were learning while engaging in the drama as Scholars. This is how one child articulated his experience of being Scholars in interviews to us afterwards: How did it feel to be a Scholar? “Strange in a pleased way. Inside my blood was like bubbles popping [in my blood], as they popped they were kind of telling me this is good. I had a good and a very good feeling. The good feeling was being asked to help, the very good feeling was being asked to help by Prospero. But also there was a bad feeling because I also had a feeling of not wanting to help Prospero. It was like my veins squeezing my blood, but I was so excited it felt like my bones were getting flat, as flat as they could. It was like two sides were fighting, one side wanting to help, the other didn’t.” How did this make you feel? “It was like my bones were fighting about which side they would really go. I could feel it but it didn’t hurt. Like my blood was bone and the blood pouring out, still popping in my arms, in my legs and where my ribs were. It was trying to force me to go up and say something, but the other side stopped me, not to prove Prospero wrong, it was stopping me.” This boy is statemented, he has learning and behavioural difficulties. Working as a Scholar unlocked a different form of perception for him. It was a different kind of schooling. By giving him something that mattered to resolve, something that made human sense, he found a new language for himself. He was able to feel, and then beautifully express, being physically torn in two by the dramatic situation. He was experiencing what we call felt understanding, a unity of thought and feeling. And through his empathy for Caliban's situation he was exploring his own situation. This child was meeting his human need for justice and exploring head on what makes us human. This was the response of another boy we interviewed. When we asked him about being a Scholar he replied: “Good. Learned more things from it. If you do a play you can do more things. If you do a Tudor play and if you where Henry VIII you could learn more things than were just in the script. You get better at learning, because you are in a smaller space.” How did it feel like to talk to the other people in the story? “Interesting. That it’s a part of the play. I liked it I don’t know why. It was fun. Me and Jamie did a play yesterday to Reception, The Secret Garden, we let them talk to us, they asked Mary why did her parents die? Because of the earthquake. Took us about a week to do it.” What did you enjoy the most? “Being the Scholars, because you can learn, tell people what to do, could tell the actors, the people in the play what to do. Could have a stretch. So they can listen and be listened to.” Have you spoken to anybody else about Eye of the Storm? “Family” What did you tell them? “We had a play with Big Brum that work in our school, we were Scholars that could listen, could tell them and answer, you could stand up so everyone could see who was speaking and wait their turn.” What is really striking from these excerpts is how the child has understood the form of his own learning and then applied it for himself in his own production of the Secret Garden. He recognised and enjoyed his freedom to “stretch”. He enjoyed the space that the set provide him. He appreciated the importance of being seen, respected, listened to, and of waiting his turn. It was fun and playful, and therefore essential because a child cannot create him or her self without play. This TIE programme was both searching and inspiring because above of all the things it offered, The Eye of the Storm made Scholars of us all.