Creativity Theatre Director Patrick Sandford entertained the Conference with an unscripted talk, or rather, performance.
Here are two edited extracts.
So what is going on here, now, in this room? Somebody tell me. Well, I’m talking and you’re listening. Only, of course, it’s not that because you are pretending to listen, but actually you’re noticing the person who’s come in, and so am I. You’re thinking, ‘Oh dear, I had too much lunch, I’m a bit tired, I’m in the afternoon slump,’ or ‘I didn’t have enough lunch, I wish I had had some more biscuits at tea,’ or ‘Oh God, perhaps I won’t get a taxi tomorrow,’ or ‘I hope my wife’s all right,’ or ‘I hope my daughter’s all right,’ or ‘I hope my husband’s all right,’ ‘I hope the dog’s all right,’ or ‘how am I going to get home?’. All that is going on in your head. Or, ‘My God, my ankle hurts’ or ‘my brain hurts.’ All that is going on and I am trying to talk to you, but I am not just talking to you, am I? I’m watching you and I’m looking at you as well, you are not the nameless audience; I am noticing the people at the front, the keen ones, the ones who got here because they were interested in what I had to say, who have chosen to sit near enough and some of them have got notepads out already. I’m noticing the ones in the middle. And the ones at the back, the dangerous ones, the radicals – ‘come on then, Sandford, entertain us’ – or else they just want to go to sleep … and those are the interesting ones and, actually, when it comes to questions, the difficult questions will come from back there and there’s the people who’ve got a quick exit in case they get bored… and the man who came late. What has he been doing that is more interesting that listening to me? What has he been doing that is more interesting than listening to me? So all that is going on.
Now, I have invented all that. Is there any truth at all in my description of this audience or is it a created conceit to make you laugh, to give you something to latch on to? Or is it somewhere in the middle.
Somewhere in the middle. So we admit that even in something as basic as a lecture we are in between truth and creativity, we are in between truth and fiction all the time. And actually that is true for our entire lives.
So, oh, look – I don’t want to embarrass the person – but I have noticed that, up towards the back, there is a man who’s so clearly in lust with a lady two rows in front of us. He has been watching her much more than me and, look, you turned round, immediately, because you want to see … Our friend is looking at the back of this dear lady’s head and what happens. She turns, she looks at him, their eyes meet, he stands, he steps over the seat, he kisses her deeply, passionately… Everybody in the room has turned round by now; men and women sigh and over there somewhere Tennessee Williams looks on and says, ‘Oh God, I wish I was that women,’ or maybe it’s Gene Robinson, I don’t know. Or maybe she doesn’t. Maybe he steps down to her and she stands up and she gouges out his eyes and the blood pours from them and all the women in the room sing praises to the Lord and ninety percent of the men turn away in pity and fear and go home to their houses and the other ten percent take out their mobile phone and take photos and send them to The News of the World and make a lot of money.
And I invented all that and we are all inventing things like that. What if… We are swimming in creativity, we are all part of it. We are like a group of children in a swimming pool splashing around and until you acknowledge that you are splashing around in the water and enjoy it over you, you don't know what strokes… There is no point in trying to teach creativity on the side of the pool – you have to wait until you're in the water.
Our two volunteers are going to look at the picture, so you just talk among yourselves. Would you like to just hold it… Now this is not a fine art class, this is not a Monet, this is actually a painting by, I would say, an amateur artist and that’s all I want to say to you. Now, what I want you two volunteers to do is describe to the room this picture and what it says to you. And we’re not a fine art class, I don’t want to you to say it’s a postimpressionist, or it’s gouache or it’s got a bit of Odilon Redon or something. I want you to describe it as a picture. What do you see, maybe a sentence at a time?
V1:‘It’s a girl in profile.’ V2:‘With bare shoulders and red hair’ V1: ‘And some red and some yellow flowers’ V2: ‘And you’ll see also her hand at the bottom of the picture and apart from that it’s all kind of vague pink.’ OK, talk a little bit more about the girl.
V1: ‘She’s slightly smiling – lips turning up rather than down – it’s a line drawing with colour on it. She’s gazing out of the frame.’ What does the picture make you feel, if anything?
V2:‘It’s a strange expression. She looks a bit inquisitive, but you can’t tell really whether she’s happy or sad. You can’t tell.’ Anything more, ?
V1:‘I think she’s probably looking more thoughtful.’ Do you like it? No obligation.
V1: ‘I wouldn’t rave about it.’ V2:‘It’s acceptable, but I wouldn’t pay money for it.’ I’m not selling it. Actually it’s not mine to sell. [To the audience] Would you like to see it? Is it what you imagined? Do you prefer this picture or the picture that is in your head. Hand’s up those who prefer the one that’s in your head. Hands up the people who prefer this one. About half and half.
What is interesting is that some of you would prefer the picture that is in your own head. What does that show? It shows that your creative imagination is every bit as rich as this painting. Now you may say I don’t have the draughtsmanship skills, but these are fairly basic, this is not a highly skilled painter. It’s actually a portrait of Ellen Terry, the actress. You may not have those actual practical skills, but that’s a slightly separate matter, you have the creative ability. So, what are you going to do with it?
I want to say to you: your creativity has nothing whatsoever to do with successful art. Your art may be successful, it may not. Look at Van Gogh, it was only after his death wasn’t it. Look at Emily Dickinson, probably the greatest female poet ever. She published six poems in her lifetime and left how many thousand?
Athene Seyler, a great actress who lived to the age of 101; she published a book called On Comedy, which was actually a guide for actors on how to behave and she said in it: ‘The world grants you your success; only you know your achievements and which is the most important?’ As far as creativity is concerned it’s so crucial that we understand this. Success in the theatre is a four-star or a five-star review from Michael Billington.
It’s your name in lights in the West End, it’s, even more, your name above the title of a sitcom and you’re earning a fortune, it’s winning an Oscar. Achievement might be getting an audition, or getting the part, or remembering your lines, if you’re over 65. Of course, we all have extraordinary achievements in our lives, we are made of them. An achievement might be giving up smoking, an achievement might be getting divorced, an achievement might be staying married, an achievement might be recovering from rape or sexual abuse or a burglary. A great achievement just to get here, if you were caring for somebody or had a particularly difficult journey, that is a great achievement.
Now there are some artists who have it easy, people like Tennessee Williams, because, you know, he was the first out, gay writer in America and he couldn’t have done what he was told to do if he tried; he was sort of exposed before his day and therefore he became an extraordinarily creative person not only in creating his own work but also in creating his own life. And it’s interesting, I’ve got a quotation from him which I will finish with, this is from his memoir. He says: ‘A man must live through his life's duration with his own set of fears and angers, suspicions and vanities, and his appetites, spiritual and carnal. Life is built of them, and he is built of life. The umbilical cord is a long, long rope of blood that has swung him as an aerialist on an all but endless trapeze, oh such a long, long way from the first living organism that gave birth to another. Define it as the passion to create, which is all that we know of God.
Is that an agnostic thing to say? I think not, and perhaps you will accede to my claim of exceptional honesty both as a writer and a man.’ And very touchingly he adds, ‘and if you knew me, you would find me a man who values kindness and patience with others.’ Thank you very much.
A podcast of this recorded talk will be available online at www.sofn.org.uk Patrick Sandford isArtistic Director of the NuffieldTheatre, Southampton.He won theTheatrical Manager’sAssociation regional theatre award for Best Director,for productions of Shakespeare’s MuchAdoAbout Nothing and a new play about Katherine Mansfield,TheWinterWife,by ClaireTomalin.
Two edited extracts from Patrick Sandford's unscripted talk/performance at the Conference. Podcast available at www.sofn.org.uk.