Cenatuari - to be eaten

Some very good dramaturgical research Nathan, regarding the meanings of the Latin that occurs in Scene 1. But I think that rather than 'Those who are hungry salute you' - which of course makes good and proper sense - the latin dedication they use for their toast could more closely resemble the famous Roman dedication that it mimics i.e. "..those who are about to die salute you..".

It's quite funny if they say "...those who are about to be eaten, salute you..." Or "...those who are about to eat salute you!

I can't see the Riot Club members describing themselves as 'hungry'.

About to eat...rather than .... about to die. Its such a tame version of the original, isn't it? All they can do is offer up their palates rather than their lives. It underscores the dilution of the Roman allusion to a group of men who were patriotic fighting machins - Centurions/Gladiators/ Heroes. They are now just petty consumers.

Latin in the play.

Latin plays a minor part in this play, and a major one in our character's lives, so I think that it's probably about right if we know what is said, don't you?

About a third of the way through the first scene we get our first snippet of Latin. Miles goes to Hugo "Assentio mentium" and that basically means ""Meeting of the minds". I personally think that when Miles says this, it is seeped in sarcasm. Miles' interaction with the club until this point hasn't been entirely intellectual. His pre-initiation was comprised of him downing a bottle of wine on threat his of forced public nudity; the room trash that has got Miles up in all agitated; constant crude homo-sexual references; unending ridicule; and right before quoting Latin, Harry talks about doing a huge poo.
Not really the intellectual meeting of the minds that Miles would have had in mind.

The second dosage of Latin is near the end of the first scene where everyone chants the presidents toast "Cenaturi Te Salutant". This one was harder for me to decipher, as it was as if the phrase (or at least one word) didn't exist. However, one phrase did keep appearing in the google search bar, and that was "Morituri Te Salutant" or "Those who are about to die, salute you". This phrase was used to greet the Roman Emperor by the fighters in the Roman games, and although it's a greeting fit for any president, the other members are hardly going to die for the Riot. So, in the wonderful way of the Oxford wit, (or at least only as far as I can tell) they took the word "Cenaturio" which basically means "To be hungry" and adjusted it, so that "Cenaturi Te Salutant" actually means "Those who are hungry, salute you".

March the 26th

And now for a break from our regularly scheduled programme.

As you are all aware, I am the resident political activist in our group, and if you remember, I have once before failed to get you all riled up.
What you may not all realise is that this Saturday our fair city is hosting the TUC march on the cuts and the Con-Dem coalition. By the way, TUC stands for the Trade Union Conference which is the body that organises ALL of the workers unions.
Some unions that will be attending, and that might also interest you, are the UCU, the University and College Union, which is the union for people like Karla, Lisa, John and what Tilly and Tom will hopefully be joining; Equity, which is the actors union, which most of you will join in your acting careers that will ensure you get treated the right way at work and will hold your stage name whilst at drama school; the WGGB, which is the Writers Guild of Great Britain for all the blossoming novelists, playwright and screenwriters; and also BECTU, which is the union for all those working in technical theatre, working in media (cameramen, editors) and even lowly ushers like myself.
I know many of you doubt the impact of public protest, but have you not seen the wonderful images of places like Egypt? and besides, it's all about showing what you think, about freedom of expression.

And if none of that convinces you, please watch this video about the cuts in the arts sector.

So if this convinces you please join me and thousand others in the biggest march since the anti-war protest of 2003.

Saturday 26th March

Meet at 11am-12pm on the Victoria Embankment

Will be ending at Hyde Park

Find out more here

When is 'Posh' set ? In the Autumn term.

Time of year is not that important in this play, other than the fact that the events between the prologue and the epilogue take place on one saturday night i.e begin and end in one evening - probably over a 3-4 hour period. The most important detail about time is that it is absolutely this present moment in time.

I reckon the prologue between uncle Jez & occurs in the late summer, August, before Guy returns to Oxford for his 2nd year i.e. Uncle Jez says " Besides, you'll only be a 2nd year' (note the 'you'll' as in you will...)

Guy says he's had ".. 3 dinners so far". We could take this to mean that he was recruited by a sponsor at the start of his first year at Oxford and had a dinner during each of the three terms of his first year.

The only thing that goes against this is: a) Guy says he's going on holiday to Spain with Lauren and her family - the assumption is that would be in the summer months, and if this conversation with Uncle Jez is in August, then when exactly is Guy going on holiday with Lauren and her family?? Maybe he's meeting JEz in July....This is a small point.

Throughout the play all references to 'a year' seem to refer to an academic year ie. sept through late May. Guy tells Jez that James - who we know is a 'finalist' i.e. final year student -'...wants to give it another year (as president) and then he'll stand down'. The assumption is that James served as president in his 3rd year and will be also serving as president in his 4th year when he takes his Msc.
Uncles Jez also says that Guy should wait a year to put himself 'forward..for president'. The suggestion is that the Riot Club President serves for one academic year...'...unless they are contested.'

But the main peice of evidence for the time of year comes from Toby in Scene One:
"..I'm a 3rd year...2 more dinners after tonight....Gone." This suggests that THIS Riot Club dinner is taking place in autumn term (October), and that Toby has another two dinners - one in winter/spring (February?) and then another in spring/summer (May?)- and then he graduates and is out in the real world.

So as far as facts goes, it looks to me like this Riot Club dinner takes place in the autumn term in a dining club in Oxford, 2010.

However this information will have little or no impact on the audience. What do they see? A group of young men in a private dining room. There is no indication of time of year and their clothes (tailcoats) would be the same if they met in Winter or summer. There is no indication from the menu of anything 'seasonal' i.e asparagus in May etc, although Gazpacho tends to be eaten in warm weather. There is also absolutely no reference to any current events which might date the play. Even the reference to Iceland does not mention anything about the banking crisis (Iceland was bankrupted by this in 2008).

Laura Wade went to great effort to make this play relatively timeless.

TIME: 2011
MONTH
Prologue is August.
Scene 1-4 takes place in October.
Epilogue is December.

Just to clarify

When is our edited version of Posh actually set? I have heard different things, it is essential for me to know the EXACT setting of the piece. As far as i know, the Riot Club go for an extravagant dinner once every term. I also know that their dinner outing in the play is the third from last of the year because of what Toby says to Eddy in the first scene, so according to these indications, I presume that the play is actually set earlier than May.

Posh

Posh
Published Friday 16 April 2010 at 11:15 by Aleks Sierz

Laura Wade’s new drama, with its vivid images of toffs at play, is certainly timely. In the run-up to the general election, it comes across as a show with a megaphone message - don’t vote Tory. But is her account of rich young men behaving badly, which is broadly based on the antics of the exclusive all-male Bullingdon Club, any good?


Leo Bill (Alistair Ryle), David Dawson (Hugo Fraser-Tyrwhitt) in Posh at the Royal Court Theatre
Yes, it is. As they gather for one of their blowouts, the ten Oxford undergraduate members of Wade’s Riot Club aim to get plastered and smash up the rural pub where the event takes place. From the start, however, things begin to go wrong and, by the end of the evening, a terrible crime has taken place.

Wade expertly pins down the attitudes of the privileged, and their mix of venomous contempt for modern life with a nostalgia for the past glories of the aristocracy. Their rage at social change is palpable, and so is the fact that these young bloods have never left the playground. Yet they aspire to be Britain’s ruling class.

Lyndsey Turner’s excellent production, on Anthony Ward’s colourful and claustrophobic set, fields a cast of 14, with Leo Bill particularly impressive as the impassioned Alistair and Joshua McGuire equally strong as the usurping Guy. David Dawson is enjoyable as the poetic Hugo and so is Daniel Ryan as the level-headed landlord.

Equally memorable are Henry Lloyd-Hughes as Dimitri and Simon Shepherd as a Tory MP whose presence underlines the politics of the play. And there is good work from Richard Goulding, Jolyon Coy, Kit Harington, Harry Hadden-Paton, James Norton and Tom Mison. With its excellent music, thanks to James Fortune, and sharply-drawn climaxes, this is a satirical, humorous and finally chilling view of the upper classes - and a really fine metaphor for our times.

Day Trip to Oxford

Well, after some mild excitement about visiting Oxford I did a little bit of research; to visit Oxford by Megabus on a weekday in April will cost each of us about £13 and that's a full day, leave for Oxford in morning and for London in evening.  It departs from London Victoria and takes just under 2 hours.
I'm sure everyone everyone can chip in £13 and bring their own packed lunch. Don't you?

Shock! Horror! David Dimblebly was Member of the Bullingdon Club

Dimbleby - a British TV institution, is 'outed' by Boris Johnson during very interesting panel discussion. Just who else was part of the Bullingdon club??? We also learn in this youtube clip- thanks to the brilliant and caustic Will Self, that George Osborne's nickname was (is) 'Oik'. That's our Treasurer of the National Exchequer - 'Oik'.

Studying at Oxford University - watch this youtube guide...

Gastropubs in and around Oxford

The Royal Oak looks like a good pub. Might be just the thing that The Riot Club might book. They'd sneer at its description, particularly the Quiz Night:

The Royal Oak: One of the cosiest pubs in Oxford

When it comes to Oxford pubs The Royal Oak is the genuine article. Much like our well-kept real ales and impressive range of world beers, wines and spirits, our interiors are drenched in class, character and a dash of urban cool, with lots of rooms and cosy little corners to kick back in. It's just the place to enjoy a plate of seriously good pub food.

* Wide range of cask beers & continental lagers
* Good selection of malt whiskies
* Wine Club - top wines for less
* Three beer gardens
* Quiz night

A Bit of Fry and Laurie - The Duel

What Actor's Do At Start of Rehearsal Process

1. Carefully read through script, scene by scene, making brief notes on everything you say about yourself e.g. Harry says 'I always win'

2. Carefully read thrugh script, scene by scene, making brief notes on everything people say about you e.g. everyone thinks its 'shabby' that James is late.

3. Finally, finish your accunt of how YOU SEE the situation in each scene e.g. in Scene 1, everytime Harry comes into the room there is an air of tension because members have been arguing etc...

YOU MUST DO THIS WORK NOW, AT THIS STAGE IN THE REHEARSAL, AND YOU'LL SEE HOW REHEARSALS WITH FLY BECAUSE YOU'LL ACTUALLY KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER AND THE PLAY.

Audition & Casting Process by Tommy

Today began by finishing reading the play. After reading the whole play as a group, I have managed to pick up a better understanding of it, and really enjoy the context and characters in the play. I think that to cast the play it will be very difficult because I can see a lot of people being able to play many different roles. However, there were a few people I could just see perfect casting for such as Nathan playing Alistair. I know this was not his first choice but he was one to shock me in the audition and die the speech really well. Also knew Aisling could of played this part really well but I just knew that a male part being that big had to be played by a male which does make sense. After Jack reading James i think that everyone apart from jack would agree that this is good casting i know he was not to pleased with this but i believe as rehearsals go on i believe he will enjoy playing James. Toby was a role i wanted from the beginning even when i read it at home, I really love his arrogance and i know this can be a stretch for me. To be honest all of the charters in this play are charters that would not only be a stretch but very enjoyable. Today was encouraging to see people in the class that you have known for a while and you think that you know there ablity but i was shocked to see pepole change my views on casting. The whole process of posh is going to have its ups and downs but as a group im sure we are going to produce some good work and im truley looking foward to it as the weeks go on.

Interesting blog, interesting parody.

viva-freemania.blogspot.com/ 2010/10/let-clegg...

'The photograph that defined the class divide'

In 1937 this picture was taken outside Lord's at the Eton vs Harrow annual cricket match. Many misconceptions about this picture have been published over the years... and its subjects haven't always been happy about representing a class war. This picture may not turn out to be a representation of the super rich and super poor, as both groups of boys turn out pretty normal, but it does identify the huge barrier between public and comprehensive education... and it's amazing to find out what happened to these boys... http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/mar/23/ian-jack-photograph

Brideshead Revisited

When hearing about this play, or the upper classes in general, I always here some sort of reference to Brideshead Revisited. Luckily, it was on recently on BBC, so that means you can watch it in the comfort of your own home.
I've caught a few minutes, and although it's about a bygone era, (the 20's (edit: and 40's)) it's still a way of living that is hard to shake loose, and also the accents are pretty amazing.
So catch it here to see it in all it's glory over the next 7 days

A 'Grand Tour' Reflection

Guess Who?

He is the heir to the baronet, Sir Peter.....
He dropped his first name, Gideon, to take his grandfather's first name when he was 13
He became shadown chancellor at 33
Lives in Nottinghill
Ex-member of the Bullingdon Club
Who is he???

Find out here:

Interview with the playwright, Laura Wade

Edited - read the whole interview on Guardian website.

Laura Wade: the girl in the Tories' soup
"I was the family alien. I was always putting on little shows."
Laura Wade likes research. She finds it helpful, up to a point. When she wrote her first play, Colder Than Here, which is about a dying woman who is planning her own funeral, she learned all about coffins, from paper to wicker to good old-fashioned oak. But on this score, her new play, Posh, was a trickier proposition: its subject is an all-male Oxbridge dining society of the kind to which David Cameron and George Osborne once so infamously belonged. "It wasn't as if I could gatecrash a dinner," she says. She had to fall back on interviews. "We talked to people who'd been in a club themselves or who'd had friends in one; we talked to older people who were still very much involved in the life of their old club and, I suspect, funding it. It was interesting.
"There is this cliched idea of poshness that crops up in television: you know, someone's posh cousin in a sitcom, Tim Nice But Dim. It's all a bit 'rah'. But as we went on, I realised it was important that the play's voices be modern, too. There are so many influences on the way people talk now." Her eyes widen. "Writing a tribe is fun. They have their own language, their own slang, they repeat it and it becomes part of the texture of the play. For a writer, that's thrilling. That's when my pen flies."
The award-winning Wade is known for the precision of her writing and you feel her deadly accuracy in every sentence, every phrase, of Posh….. as if … Brideshead Revisited meets Lord of the Flies: horrifying, compelling and yet blackly funny."They are quite entertaining," says Wade, in the manner of a fond zookeeper. "They're witty. They're clever. They have the verbal facility to follow an argument through to its end. This isn't a rugby-club dinner. The charge in the room is intellectual as well as physical."
Nor did she hold that photo – of Cameron and Osborne in their ridiculous Bullingdon Club suits – in her head as she wrote Posh. "I don't like writing with real people in mind. This is about a whole group of people. For me, it's a hypothesis: do these connections help you in later life? There's a sense [for the super privileged] of having to stick together in a world that doesn't want you or understand you any more."
Wade is not posh. She grew up in Sheffield, where her father worked for a computer company. "... I was rather a shy child, not a natural performer, but there was a performative edge to everything I did." Her school was discouraging when she suggested that drama might be her thing, so she arranged her own work experience at the Crucible theatre and it was there, at the age of 18, that her first play was staged, in its studio. After a drama degree at Bristol University, she began writing seriously, earning her keep with temp jobs during the day. "Temping was good. At the beginning of the week, I'd hate everyone. By the end of the week, there'd be all these characters; everyone had some sort of quirk." But she regards her move to London and her joining of the Royal Court's young writers programme as the real start of her career.. In 2005, when she was still only 27, her first and second plays ran simultaneously in London: her debut, Colder Than Here, at the Soho theatre, and her second, Breathing Corpses, at the Royal Court. They won her a Critics' Circle award for most promising playwright and an Olivier award nomination.

The Etiquette of Blogging

When you write something onto a computer screen without seeing the audience who its designed for i.e. the people who will read this material - you have no real understanding or appreciation of how your words may effect them.
You have no moderating influences - like people's facial expressions or body languages which inhibit what you say. Comment and opinion pieces Do upset people.
Professional journalism, by contrast, aims (or should aim) to capture a detached manner, to be entirely free from value judgements and personal opinion. Writing about the audition process for POSH was a good idea i.e. what works or doesn't work in an audition situation.

We're aiming for online group version of an Actor's logbook with this blog . An actor's logbook should be a reflection on your creative process i.e about YOU - your process, what you learn, how you learn, how you create a role, what you discover etc etc. So should you exercise restraint and judgement before you post your thoughts to this blog? Absolutely!

So.. what do you write on this blog? In the first instance: research that is useful to everyone is a good thing to write about. What else should go onto this blog? Well how about we do a group brainstorm and we discuss and decide what other material goes onto this blog. Thank you Nico, you have inadvertently raised a very interesting area for discussion in the realm of student blogging.

Observations and thoughts (Audition process) 01/03/2011

It was interesting to see different actor's strengths and weaknesses and how they differ from the cold reading to the audition readings.

Kemar encouraged me with his first robust endeavour of a characterisation when he read for Toby Maitland, unfortunately his efforts are inconsistent. Aisling is a very strong reader- alert, sharp and diligent, she could potentially play any of the male roles competently. Jack has a great ear for accents and dialects, but needs to be more gallant with his choices. Nathan and Daniel are a joy to watch due to their endearing dispositions, they are currently in their elements. Tommy has real potential, but he needs to release all his inhibitions otherwise he will always find it extremely difficult to embody any character he portrays. Dilect, Katie and Louisa all have truthful and interesting qualities, but also should be bolder; Dilect does take risks, but it is not persistent. Ibreehim has difficulties in cold readings, but when he gets up and plays with his ideas, regardless of how coherent or constructive his concepts may be, he demonstrates flair and ebullience.

Remember this is just what I think and I am just Nico, if you take offense or do not agree with any of my comments then challenge me. I am also learning!

This is the last production! Lets take ownership of the piece and become three dimensional egomaniacs