Report from the Australia & New Zealand Festival of Literature and Arts
OK, I promised you all a report on the Australia and New Zealand Festival of Literature & Arts, or rather, the Ben Whishaw elements thereof. And here it is.
I had tickets with a friend to see the morning event, A Double Spring, with Juliet Darling, Ben, and Simon Bishop (a Jesuit priest). It was a reading and moderated discussion about the memoir Juliet wrote about her partner’s murder by his mentally ill son, and it turned into a discussion that got quite weighty, though without losing a sense of humor. Unfortunately, it seemed like the moderator had created her questions ahead of time, which meant they sometimes felt disjointed and only tangentially related to the conversation that was unfolding.
Regardless, all three panelists had some very insightful things to say. There was a lot of talk about the state of being open and receptive to take things in (inspired by one of Juliet’s late partner’s manifesto statements about being an empty vessel). Ben spoke about how important that is to him as an actor, and later referred to it when he talked about how on a good performance night on stage, he doesn’t feel like himself and he doesn’t really notice that he’s acting. He mentioned how during the run of Hamlet (it was weird… the moderator brought up Hamlet kind of out of nowhere) there were a few nights (“not many, but a few”, he said) where that happened. He talked about Jung’s idea of being in life’s flow and how that’s what it feels like “when it’s good” [his words]. Then my heart went pitter-pat at Ben Whishaw talking about Jungian theory.
There were a few minutes for questions at the end, and I asked about how each of the three of them see the balance between bringing their personal lives into their work (writing a memoir about such a traumatic personal event for public consumption, ministering to a congregation while maintaining your own independent identity, and performing for an audience with authenticity but keeping some boundaries up at the same time), to which each of them responded briefly. A few others in the room asked questions/made observations about what it’s like to go through trauma and come out the other side. And then the panel was done, and we had to leave the beautiful chapel of King’s College for the next set-up to begin.
I missed thanking Juliet and Simon, but did catch Ben’s eye to thank him on his way out the door. He was very clearly trying to get out of there without a lot of fan meet-and-greet (head down, walking quickly), but that didn’t stop a whole bunch of fans from mobbing him in the hallway. As I left with my friend, it sounded like a sign fell over in the crush, and I cringed in fangirl ambivalence (as I often do). There were an awful lot of people in that room (myself included) because Ben was on the ticket, but the conversation that transpired was a deep and serious one, and I caught more than one (mostly young, mostly appearing female) person in the room zooming cameras in on just him and not seeming to listen much to the content of the conversation at all. Ugh.
BTW, I did run into the lovely S, who I met back in November when we were both at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. Nice to see a familiar fan face again. Hi, S!
As for the Song of Solomon evening event, well, overall I have to say it didn’t work for me. I went with a few friends, and when we got there about 15 minutes before start time, the line was all the way down the hall (and probably 95% female). They didn’t let us in until 15 minutes after the event was due to start, which one of the staffers said was because they were rehearsing.
Mark’s musical composition was ambient, tonal, and minimalist. It succeeded at creating a meditative, trancelike atmosphere when it began, and I did manage to fall into that trancelike state again at a few moments throughout the performance. One of the issues I had, though, was that the music felt very cold, which didn’t match the warmth and love of the spoken word portion of the performance. The spoken bit was Ben and a woman (Cynthia Erivo) alternating passages from the Song of Solomon portion of the Bible. I’m no Biblical scholar, but a friend of mine who does know her scripture said it wasn’t the whole text, but that it was wording taken directly from the Bible. Props to whoever came up with the metaphor that compares a lover’s white teeth to evenly shorn sheep.
Like the musical element, the spoken part had moments that worked for me, especially when the two actors spoke in unison or alternated rapidly back and forth within one sentence. Only, that was a very small portion of the overall performance, which was mostly one actor reading a chunk of the text followed by the other actor reading a chunk of the text. And much as I love me some Ben, I have to say I think the woman did a better job of bringing the text to life while Ben’s reading felt a bit flat. The acoustics made it difficult to hear him, as well, partly due to overall volume and partly due to his lower pitch (the woman’s slightly higher voice was easier to hear).
Mainly, it felt like the music and the spoken word elements weren’t particularly well matched, and while each of them may have been interesting to listen to on their own, they didn’t make for a very cohesive experience when combined.
I headed out for a drink with friends afterwards, so I didn’t stick around to see if anyone came out to chat with fans, especially since the morning’s fan crowd experience was so distasteful. I did run into S a bit later, who said Ben didn’t come out, but Mark did, and she chatted with him a bit.
Phew… that was a lot. I’m glad I went, especially because I’m intrigued by all the one-off kinds of projects Ben gets involved in, and when I can take them in firsthand, I love doing it.
It‘s my great privilege to be in part of your masterpiece-report. Thank you! S















