Jottings and fragments from #IETMHull
There is something disorientating about being in Hull at an International theatre Meeting (#IETMHull – my first) on the day we should have enacted Brexit, in a City which voted heavily to leave and would almost certainly vote the same again today if given the chance. And to be here on the day Theresa May’s meaningful vote crashed for the third (or is it 2.5th) time. And the very fact I’m here is that my place has been part funded by Start East, a European funded scheme. This is a strange time for you Brits said ITEMs Secretary General Asa Richardsdottir as she threw open the doors to the conference. Strange time or no the sun shone over Hull’s “spires and cranes” , its “ships up streets” and delegates from across the world. ***** ***** ‘They laughed a lot’ (said Stephen Brady, leader of Hull City Council in his opening comments) when we won Capital of Culture. They aren’t laughing now’ Later plastered all over an empty shop window I see Richard Morrison’s quote from The Times ‘The philistines were wrong: culture can bring a city back to life’ (If anything symbolises the impact of Capital of Culture it’s the army of smiling, enthusiastic, ever helpful volunteers who pop up quite literally everywhere.) ****** ‘We can catch each other right Man Nadzieje I fuckin hope we will’ Ends Middlechilds Us Against Whatever, which in its striking second half brilliantly captured that underlying feeling of disempowerment. Of finally we are given …
