What Stuart Corbyn is attempting is not revolutionary and certainly not an "experiment", a suggestion he instantly rejects. In fact, he's insistent it's a return to business as usual in the property market, especially in London.
To observers who have grown up on property prices, mortgage spirals, nest-eggs and the cult of ownership, it may appear as verging on contrary.
Stuart Corbyn is the managing director of QDD, a partnership of Qatari Diar Real Estate Company and Delancey and, shortly after the Olympic Games, he will take control of the Athletes Village.
After a refit and a rebrand - to the East Village with its iconic E20 postcode - his company will begin to rent out apartments. Not sell. Rent. In the European mode - rental as a long-term, high quality deliberate option. Ownership of the community, ownership of a stake in the future but not ownership of the bricks and mortar.
He says people are ready for the change in mind-set and the joint venture he heads up is simply meeting pent-up demand in the market.
He told The Wharf: "If we were doing this 20 years ago it might have been a problem because the rental market was at such a low level but people have got very used to the concept now, particularly in London.
"Twenty-odd years ago it was impossible to rent - the private sector was very limited but people have moved on.
"It is not such an oddity. The oddity is the UK having such a low level of rental housing compared to the rest of the world. People get very hung up about it but it's very normal."
Not an experiment then, as suggested by architecture critic Jay Merrick during a session at Grand Designs Live at Excel recently.
"We don't normally experiment with the best part of half a billion pounds," responded Mr Corbyn, any bristling submerged beneath an effortless charm honed over years in the world of high end property.
He was chief executive of Cadogan Estates for 23 years until 2008 and was responsible for the resurgence of the Sloane area with its premium retail.
Jay also tackled a few points about the architectural gaucheness of "Elgin marble friezes" and "brick cassettes" but that's what architecture critics were vexed by and nothing to do with QDD, said Mr Corbyn. If fellow panellist Jonathan Kendall of architects Fletcher Priest bristled he did so covertly.
Mr Corbyn went on: "There is a very important point here and that is the assumption this is something new.
"Forty years ago a very substantial part of greater London was rental. The rental market before the first world war was 90 per cent and rental has been in gradual decline because of the amount of legislation - rental controls, security of tenure.
"We were at the bottom but since new legislation came in the amount of private rented sector has grown. What we're doing is making a choice available for people. An alternative.
"Our ambition is to give people an opportunity to rent for the long term. The idea is that people should be just as comfortable renting as they are owning their homes."
Comfortable. It's a baton of a word picked up and carried by Eliot Lipton. A tall, affable man, Mr Lipton is heading Triathlon's affordable housing half of East Village, a project that has its own high ideals, co-mingling private and social housing to create a cohesive community.
He set up First Base, an urban regeneration developer specialising in sustainable, high quality and affordable homes. First Base has linked with East Thames and Southern to be the triumvirate that is Triathlon.
Mr Lipton said: "What the design team have done here is very reflective of London as a whole. We want people to feel comfortable - they recognise it as distinct but they recognise it as part of London that they love, something they are familiar with. We have tried to create a place where people will want to live."
After the seminar he expanded on the theme to The Wharf.
He said: "QDD and Triathlon have been working to ensure that we have a community that works from Day One.
"We want residents to move in very early on from next year to feel at home straight away and we have a programme of activities that make them feel that way because we recognise an important part of finding a new home is the management and some of those community facilities."
Community and neighbourhood. Words that are peppered into the message from the two figureheads of East Village, the first of five estates that will take over the vast Olympic Park during the course of the next 20 years.
To take a trip in the East Village pod at Grand Design Live (as TV guru Kevin McCloud did) was to cycle - albeit virtually - through pathways lined with colourful summer flowers, alongside canals, through communal areas where families trip to and fro from shop, to grass, to sporting venue, to Westfield and back again.
Those connections to the traditional centres are vital. Across to the West End and City in minutes or back to "old" Stratford from where many of the new tenants will come.
I ask the question that is often asked of Canary Wharf: "East Village - friend or foe?"
Mr Lipton said: "Firstly, the scheme was designed so that it is part of the community it has a lot of bridges and connections whether they're into Newham or into Hackney. Accessibility and integration have been critical.
"Secondly, a very high proportion of Triathlon Homes will be reserved for the residents of Newham. So I hope we will make a positive contribution."
Mr Corbyn said: "As far as we are concerned, we will open our doors to anybody who wants to live there but it's not unnatural for people to stick to an area they know rather than move from the west."
The lessons have been learnt, so they say, of Canary Wharf which is still dogged by the reality and symbolism of an island.
Architect Jonathan Kendall, who has been working on the Stratford City project for a decade and whose work was subsumed into the Olympic circus, recalls a strict message from Newham Borough Council.
He said: "One of the interesting directions we had from Newham was not to be Canary Wharf.
"This place needed to have a different relationship to its surroundings. Hopefully, over time it will become something that is embedded in the community."
Pictured: From left, Stuart Corbyn of partnership QDD, Eliot Lipton, of Triathlon, and Jonathan Kendall, director of architect Fletcher Priest
FACTFILE
■ East Village will be run by QDD (a joint venture between Qatari Diar Real Estate Company and Delancey) and Triathlon Homes (a joint venture between First Base, East Thames Group and Southern Housing Group).
■ The new neighbourhood will initially deliver 2,818 new homes - of which 1,439 will be private and mainly available for rent, while the remaining 1,379 will be affordable offering the choice of buying or renting.
■ A range of properties will be available - from one-bedroom apartments to three and four-bed family homes.
■ QDD will create the first ever private sector residential investment fund of more than 1,000 homes.
■ For the affordable homes, 675 will be available as social rent and there is a lettings strategy covering how these will be allocated. An additional 700 homes will be for intermediate market rent and shared ownership.
■ Approximately half of the homes will be for people in the borough of Newham, although some will also be available for people in other host boroughs.
■ Facilities include: Chobham Academy which will offer 1,800 places for students aged three-19; a state-of-the-art medical centre; world class sporting and leisure facilities; 30 shops, cafes and restaurants, and access to the venues of the Olympic Park.
Go to eastvillagelondon.co.uk
© First published in The Wharf, May 2012
Thursday, 7 June 2012
What's going to happen to the Olympic Park?
It's pouring down. We're sheltering in a food and drink concession in the shadow of the Orbit. The canvas roof is pounding with rain that puddles at our feet.
Tricky climate then for Andrew Altman to paint a picture of what's to come. Still, he gives it a go.
The chief executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation (a "government in exile") says: "You can imagine people will be able to sit out on the lawn, look at the Orbit, look at the stadium.
"There's going to be a permanent cafe, shop, a restaurant, you'll be able to sit out on the roof but in a public space. You think about the Serpentine gallery - we should want that in east London.
"In these landscaped rooms that we're going to create, each one is going to be very different - some will have an amphitheatre where there will be small concerts, some will be a kids' play area, one will be a splash pool. We want it to be fun for families."
But that's looking ahead to Easter 2014 when the retro-fitting has been complete, the temporary Olympic venues removed, the park transformed and transferred.
What he's keen to share with us is this: He and his team have taken a decision to set a tough deadline of a year after Games, July 2013, to begin re-opening the park in phases, North Park first.
He says: "Our programme is to get it open as quickly as we can, get it open from North to South, get it open from a year after the Games, from July 2013 till Easter 2014, phased re-opening, get people in the park so they can enjoy it.
"The easy decision would be to say you'll open the park in 2014, give yourself a lot of time, reopen the whole thing, when you've worked everything out but that's not really right.
"People are anxious to get on the park. We want to keep that memory, that excitement alive."
He doesn't want the park to slip from people's minds, become a thing over there to which they're not invited.
"You're not going to have the density of people to use the park right away, to make it active and feel alive. So we're going to have to do a lot to get people in here and feel like it's their park."
London Assembly member John Biggs agrees with the concern, if not the length of the entire project.
He said: "I understand they've got to take down a few bridges and structures but there's a risk the Olympic buzz will have faded away in two years' time. These engineers serve us and people should have a chance to enjoy the park. If the Olympics are to have a legacy, people need access to the park."
If Andrew Altman worries about anything, it is this. He said: "The first years of the park are key. If it's just a passive park, fine, it's nice, but it won't work.
"We've got to get people into this park. Truthfully, it's going to be through giving people stuff to do.
"We'll open up the North Park a year after Games, have people come out, have London's greatest picnic which will happen over that summer.
"The North Park is like a river valley. Quiet, beautifully landscaped, a place where people can sit out, have a picnic, kick a ball about."
If it's not raining.
Tricky climate then for Andrew Altman to paint a picture of what's to come. Still, he gives it a go.
The chief executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation (a "government in exile") says: "You can imagine people will be able to sit out on the lawn, look at the Orbit, look at the stadium.
"There's going to be a permanent cafe, shop, a restaurant, you'll be able to sit out on the roof but in a public space. You think about the Serpentine gallery - we should want that in east London.
"In these landscaped rooms that we're going to create, each one is going to be very different - some will have an amphitheatre where there will be small concerts, some will be a kids' play area, one will be a splash pool. We want it to be fun for families."
But that's looking ahead to Easter 2014 when the retro-fitting has been complete, the temporary Olympic venues removed, the park transformed and transferred.
What he's keen to share with us is this: He and his team have taken a decision to set a tough deadline of a year after Games, July 2013, to begin re-opening the park in phases, North Park first.
He says: "Our programme is to get it open as quickly as we can, get it open from North to South, get it open from a year after the Games, from July 2013 till Easter 2014, phased re-opening, get people in the park so they can enjoy it.
"The easy decision would be to say you'll open the park in 2014, give yourself a lot of time, reopen the whole thing, when you've worked everything out but that's not really right.
"People are anxious to get on the park. We want to keep that memory, that excitement alive."
He doesn't want the park to slip from people's minds, become a thing over there to which they're not invited.
"You're not going to have the density of people to use the park right away, to make it active and feel alive. So we're going to have to do a lot to get people in here and feel like it's their park."
London Assembly member John Biggs agrees with the concern, if not the length of the entire project.
He said: "I understand they've got to take down a few bridges and structures but there's a risk the Olympic buzz will have faded away in two years' time. These engineers serve us and people should have a chance to enjoy the park. If the Olympics are to have a legacy, people need access to the park."
If Andrew Altman worries about anything, it is this. He said: "The first years of the park are key. If it's just a passive park, fine, it's nice, but it won't work.
"We've got to get people into this park. Truthfully, it's going to be through giving people stuff to do.
"We'll open up the North Park a year after Games, have people come out, have London's greatest picnic which will happen over that summer.
"The North Park is like a river valley. Quiet, beautifully landscaped, a place where people can sit out, have a picnic, kick a ball about."
If it's not raining.
Sunday, 13 May 2012
With D-Box, cinema becomes a moving experience
A shiver runs down my spine as Thor and Iron Man engage in a tete-a-tete that expresses itself through violence. The shiver is not the emotional resonance of the bromantic liaison but a genuine, arm-rest grabbing vibration.
Welcome to the next dimension in cinema viewing, in addition to the three others with which the massed Avengers are assailing my senses.
A helicopter swoops. To the left and right of me, my co-pilots brace themselves. The D-Box seats, programmed frame by frame, 30 movements a frame, respond to the action on the screen for on-the-button sensory feedback.
Cineworld at The O2 is one of only three theatres to install them thus far (the other two are in Glasgow and Milton Keynes).
"It's nothing to do with a theme park ride, it's all about immersing you in the movie," said Guy Marcoux, vice-president of marketing for D-Box technology.
And he was right. Sort of. Fearful that the vibrations, swoops and chirrups would be an irritation, I kept my seat down low, to a healthy heart murmur akin to a loud sound system.
But I was missing out on Joss Whedon's spectacular set pieces and took it up to the metaphorical 11. Suddenly the point of the exercise hit home. When movie and seat are in perfect sync then here's a killer app that puts home cinemas to shame.
When the movie goes quiet, so does the chair. It's not like a yappy nephew craving attention. In fact, you forget about it half the time until it kicks in and the world falls away and Hulk's fury becomes apparent in your kidneys.
"Sales have been spectacular," said David Spence, general manager of Cineworld at The O2. "All the seats are being booked out in advance."
Just pity the poor guys in ordinary seats. They might have paid less (D-Box can add a premium of £5.50) but they're forced to watch in their peripheral vision as the select few in the D-Box rows jiggle, jerk and yelp their way through the movies.
Makes 3D feel like, well, 2D.
© First published in The Wharf, May 2012
Welcome to the next dimension in cinema viewing, in addition to the three others with which the massed Avengers are assailing my senses.
A helicopter swoops. To the left and right of me, my co-pilots brace themselves. The D-Box seats, programmed frame by frame, 30 movements a frame, respond to the action on the screen for on-the-button sensory feedback.
Cineworld at The O2 is one of only three theatres to install them thus far (the other two are in Glasgow and Milton Keynes).
"It's nothing to do with a theme park ride, it's all about immersing you in the movie," said Guy Marcoux, vice-president of marketing for D-Box technology.
And he was right. Sort of. Fearful that the vibrations, swoops and chirrups would be an irritation, I kept my seat down low, to a healthy heart murmur akin to a loud sound system.
But I was missing out on Joss Whedon's spectacular set pieces and took it up to the metaphorical 11. Suddenly the point of the exercise hit home. When movie and seat are in perfect sync then here's a killer app that puts home cinemas to shame.
When the movie goes quiet, so does the chair. It's not like a yappy nephew craving attention. In fact, you forget about it half the time until it kicks in and the world falls away and Hulk's fury becomes apparent in your kidneys.
"Sales have been spectacular," said David Spence, general manager of Cineworld at The O2. "All the seats are being booked out in advance."
Just pity the poor guys in ordinary seats. They might have paid less (D-Box can add a premium of £5.50) but they're forced to watch in their peripheral vision as the select few in the D-Box rows jiggle, jerk and yelp their way through the movies.
Makes 3D feel like, well, 2D.
© First published in The Wharf, May 2012
Stage review: Conquest Of The South Pole, Arcola
STAGE
Conquest Of The South Pole
Arcola
★★★★✩
IN A NUTSHELL
Four unemployed lads give purpose to their lives by recreating Admundsen's epic trek in their attic.
REVIEW
Trapped in an attic with nothing but joblessness and despair, four likely lads instil hope and purpose into their lives by recreating Admundsen's epic adventure.
They have coats and kit from the Eskimo shop, the recipe for Pemmican, and a copy of the Norwegian's account.
What they haven't got is the approval of Braukmann's fussy wife (Emma Cunniffe) nor an entire uniformity of purpose. (Buscher, for one, sees Shackleton, the failure, as a more fitting role model.)
But Slupianek (O-T Fagbenie), Braukmann (Sam Crane), Buscher (Mark Field) and Seiffert (Andrew Gower) set out to tackle every conjured crevasse and glacier with a purpose born of pointlessness.
Manfred Karge's play is a rip-roaring blast of energy, a 90 minute cacophony of words and imagination, a Brechtian feast of in-yer-face slang and fury.
Like a stressed out Dr Seuss, the boys from the white stuff fling street poetry, puns and rhymes and like a lyrical blitz.
O-T Fagbenie plays the leader of the gang with charisma and presence and he is supported by a crew who imbue their characters with diffident soul and quiet angst.
While the energy of the piece occasionally tips into the overwrought, there is no doubting its power and relevance.
Veteran director Stephen Unwin squeezes every ounce of trickery from the small Arcola space and the final push to the pole is a bizarre masterpiece of marching and mirth.
Until May 26, go to arcola.com
© First published in The Wharf, May 2012
Conquest Of The South Pole
Arcola
★★★★✩
IN A NUTSHELL
Four unemployed lads give purpose to their lives by recreating Admundsen's epic trek in their attic.
REVIEW
Trapped in an attic with nothing but joblessness and despair, four likely lads instil hope and purpose into their lives by recreating Admundsen's epic adventure.
They have coats and kit from the Eskimo shop, the recipe for Pemmican, and a copy of the Norwegian's account.
What they haven't got is the approval of Braukmann's fussy wife (Emma Cunniffe) nor an entire uniformity of purpose. (Buscher, for one, sees Shackleton, the failure, as a more fitting role model.)
But Slupianek (O-T Fagbenie), Braukmann (Sam Crane), Buscher (Mark Field) and Seiffert (Andrew Gower) set out to tackle every conjured crevasse and glacier with a purpose born of pointlessness.
Manfred Karge's play is a rip-roaring blast of energy, a 90 minute cacophony of words and imagination, a Brechtian feast of in-yer-face slang and fury.
Like a stressed out Dr Seuss, the boys from the white stuff fling street poetry, puns and rhymes and like a lyrical blitz.
O-T Fagbenie plays the leader of the gang with charisma and presence and he is supported by a crew who imbue their characters with diffident soul and quiet angst.
While the energy of the piece occasionally tips into the overwrought, there is no doubting its power and relevance.
Veteran director Stephen Unwin squeezes every ounce of trickery from the small Arcola space and the final push to the pole is a bizarre masterpiece of marching and mirth.
Until May 26, go to arcola.com
© First published in The Wharf, May 2012
Sundance says farewell to London
The array of films and music events have been judged, if only informally, by the hundreds of people who attended the four-day Sundance London festival at The O2. But the most important decision hangs in the balance - is it coming back?
Festival director John Cooper said it was still not decided about a return visit although expanding the reach of the Sundance ethos is a well-stated aim of the institute which has already established its workshop "film labs" across the world.
President and founder of the Sundance Institute Robert Redford said: "Sundance London marked our first time hosting an event in the UK, and we are grateful to all our supporters and collaborators for the reception we received.
"These four days have seen features, documentaries and live events with insightful filmmakers and musicians, as well as passionate audiences in attendance."
Alex Hill, of AEG Europe, owner and operator of The O2, said: "The feedback to our hosting Sundance London has been terrific.
"We set out to bring a slice of the Sundance Film Festival to London and if the audiences' positive reaction is anything to go by, there's a real appetite for this kind of festival in the UK.
"The content of Sundance London, featuring a stunning film programme, amazing music performances and discussion panels, has brought new audiences to The O2 and allowed us to showcase the venue."
The four-day festival saw the pick of independent American cinema and a strong emphasis on music with live performances from Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Placebo, the Guillemots and Glen Hansard as well as up and coming artists in the Music Cafe.
Making their UK premieres at Sundance London were 14 fiction and documentary features as well as eight short films from this year's main festival in Park City, Utah.
Special events included a presentation of Prince Charles's eco-thesis Harmony, an evening with Redford and T Bone Burnett and an intimate performance by Rufus and Martha Wainwright.
OUR VERDICT
Despite some low-key marketing and dreadful weather, Sundance London was a palpable hit and the prospect of this as an annual event is mouth-watering.
The plus points were the array of live music events and the genuine focus on new voices in film with all main screenings introduced by accessible directors.
The theatres were mostly busy, if not packed, and the organisation was flawless, with a surfeit of helpful and enthusiastic volunteers.
Downsides? The acoustics in the Sky Superscreen are flawed and the loss of subtitles on the premiere of Two Days In New York was an annoying glitch (although handled so smoothly people actually applauded. That's the Brits for you.)
But this is undoubtedly five-star event we should fall over ourselves to entice back to the capital.
Go to sundance-london.com
© First published in The Wharf
Festival director John Cooper said it was still not decided about a return visit although expanding the reach of the Sundance ethos is a well-stated aim of the institute which has already established its workshop "film labs" across the world.
President and founder of the Sundance Institute Robert Redford said: "Sundance London marked our first time hosting an event in the UK, and we are grateful to all our supporters and collaborators for the reception we received.
"These four days have seen features, documentaries and live events with insightful filmmakers and musicians, as well as passionate audiences in attendance."
Alex Hill, of AEG Europe, owner and operator of The O2, said: "The feedback to our hosting Sundance London has been terrific.
"We set out to bring a slice of the Sundance Film Festival to London and if the audiences' positive reaction is anything to go by, there's a real appetite for this kind of festival in the UK.
"The content of Sundance London, featuring a stunning film programme, amazing music performances and discussion panels, has brought new audiences to The O2 and allowed us to showcase the venue."
The four-day festival saw the pick of independent American cinema and a strong emphasis on music with live performances from Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Placebo, the Guillemots and Glen Hansard as well as up and coming artists in the Music Cafe.
Making their UK premieres at Sundance London were 14 fiction and documentary features as well as eight short films from this year's main festival in Park City, Utah.
Special events included a presentation of Prince Charles's eco-thesis Harmony, an evening with Redford and T Bone Burnett and an intimate performance by Rufus and Martha Wainwright.
OUR VERDICT
Despite some low-key marketing and dreadful weather, Sundance London was a palpable hit and the prospect of this as an annual event is mouth-watering.
The plus points were the array of live music events and the genuine focus on new voices in film with all main screenings introduced by accessible directors.
The theatres were mostly busy, if not packed, and the organisation was flawless, with a surfeit of helpful and enthusiastic volunteers.
Downsides? The acoustics in the Sky Superscreen are flawed and the loss of subtitles on the premiere of Two Days In New York was an annoying glitch (although handled so smoothly people actually applauded. That's the Brits for you.)
But this is undoubtedly five-star event we should fall over ourselves to entice back to the capital.
Go to sundance-london.com
© First published in The Wharf
Interview: Stage director Stephen Unwin
Some 24 years ago, at the height of Thatcherism and in an era of riots and inequalities, a young director brought a crop of young Scottish actors to London in a landmark play that captured a sense of division and disillusionment.
The 1988 cast included Alan Cumming, now a fixture in LA and appearing every Thursday in More4's The Good Wife, and Ewen Bremner who came to wider acclaim in Trainspotting before establishing himself as a TV and film regular.
In the intervening years, the director - Stephen Unwin - often thought about the play and how it helped shape a number of careers, including his own, which has seen him launch the English Touring Theatre in 1993 and win the Sam Wanamaker Award in 2003.
Now, the political landscape is not dissimilar to those Thatcherite years, with social division, the haves, the have nots and the dispossessed youth, and he feels it is right to introduce a new generation to its startling energy and poetry of this modern classic.
"The play has become very relevant and resonant again," he said. "Back then we had an all-Scottish cast but now we have a young, multi-ethnic cast including one actor who was born about the time of the first production."
Unwin's relationship with the play and its German playwright Manfred Karge began a year before The Conquest Of The South Pole.
He had directed an old Cambridge University friend, and another up-and-comer, in Karge's Man To Man.
That pal was Tilda Swinton and the play was a critical and popular hit, taking Unwin on a journey from Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, where he was associate director, to the Royal Court.
Unwin was encouraged to investigate the writer's work further, unearthing his 1986 piece The Conquest Of The South Pole, which he took on a similar journey from Scotland to Sloane Square.
"Karge came from a Brechtian background," said Unwin, "and the play is very sensual and poetic. The title is slightly misleading, it's not a story about the conquering of the South Pole so I don't want people to think that is what they're going to see."
Instead, the story is this: Out of work and on the dole, four men find themselves faced with a reality of jobcentre visits, dirty laundry and too much time on their hands.
They find escape through the epic journeys of the imagination, recreating Amundsen's 1911 attempt on the South Pole.
"There is collaboration and division and fragmentation. The leader is a bit of a bastard who gets them together and faces rebellion and has to force them on - one step for every step that Amundsen took. It is funny and touching.
"They fight over whether they want to retrace the footsteps of Amundsen who succeeded or Shackleton who failed. Ultimately they want hope."
Some aspects of the play have been updated from the German's 1986 original and its translation by Tinch Minter and Anthony Vivis but Unwin said this was mere tinkering.
It is the often brutal word play, he said, that made the play such a "jolt of energy, like a rock concert or a rave".
Unwin, his enthusiasm clearly undimmed by the intervening decades, talks excitedly about his reunion with the work and extols its virtues as a piece of writing and as an "anarchic, bracing shot of energy".
"It's a rich soup, full of variation, like a fast, tough Shakespeare with poetry, dreams and brutal confrontations."
"Good plays often become more relevant as the years go by. This feels up to date.
"There's a classical feel to the work. It stands as a social documentary and speaks for a generation."
Stephen Unwin is the artistic director of the Rose Theatre in Kingston, (taking over from Sir Peter Hall) where this production moves to in June.
The Kingston space is vast, he says, while the new space at the Arcola is testing of his ingenuity, the intimacy providing challenges for the veteran director who says he is "thrilled" to be returning to a play with which he has had such a long relationship.
"I often thought about it in the intervening years," he said. "Now I think it's the right time to bring it to another young audience."
■ Until May 26, Arcola Theatre, £18 (£12 concs) and Pay What You Can Tuesdays arcolatheatre.com.
© First published in The Wharf, May 2012
The 1988 cast included Alan Cumming, now a fixture in LA and appearing every Thursday in More4's The Good Wife, and Ewen Bremner who came to wider acclaim in Trainspotting before establishing himself as a TV and film regular.
In the intervening years, the director - Stephen Unwin - often thought about the play and how it helped shape a number of careers, including his own, which has seen him launch the English Touring Theatre in 1993 and win the Sam Wanamaker Award in 2003.
Now, the political landscape is not dissimilar to those Thatcherite years, with social division, the haves, the have nots and the dispossessed youth, and he feels it is right to introduce a new generation to its startling energy and poetry of this modern classic.
"The play has become very relevant and resonant again," he said. "Back then we had an all-Scottish cast but now we have a young, multi-ethnic cast including one actor who was born about the time of the first production."
Unwin's relationship with the play and its German playwright Manfred Karge began a year before The Conquest Of The South Pole.
He had directed an old Cambridge University friend, and another up-and-comer, in Karge's Man To Man.
That pal was Tilda Swinton and the play was a critical and popular hit, taking Unwin on a journey from Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, where he was associate director, to the Royal Court.
Unwin was encouraged to investigate the writer's work further, unearthing his 1986 piece The Conquest Of The South Pole, which he took on a similar journey from Scotland to Sloane Square.
"Karge came from a Brechtian background," said Unwin, "and the play is very sensual and poetic. The title is slightly misleading, it's not a story about the conquering of the South Pole so I don't want people to think that is what they're going to see."
Instead, the story is this: Out of work and on the dole, four men find themselves faced with a reality of jobcentre visits, dirty laundry and too much time on their hands.
They find escape through the epic journeys of the imagination, recreating Amundsen's 1911 attempt on the South Pole.
"There is collaboration and division and fragmentation. The leader is a bit of a bastard who gets them together and faces rebellion and has to force them on - one step for every step that Amundsen took. It is funny and touching.
"They fight over whether they want to retrace the footsteps of Amundsen who succeeded or Shackleton who failed. Ultimately they want hope."
Some aspects of the play have been updated from the German's 1986 original and its translation by Tinch Minter and Anthony Vivis but Unwin said this was mere tinkering.
It is the often brutal word play, he said, that made the play such a "jolt of energy, like a rock concert or a rave".
Unwin, his enthusiasm clearly undimmed by the intervening decades, talks excitedly about his reunion with the work and extols its virtues as a piece of writing and as an "anarchic, bracing shot of energy".
"It's a rich soup, full of variation, like a fast, tough Shakespeare with poetry, dreams and brutal confrontations."
"Good plays often become more relevant as the years go by. This feels up to date.
"There's a classical feel to the work. It stands as a social documentary and speaks for a generation."
Stephen Unwin is the artistic director of the Rose Theatre in Kingston, (taking over from Sir Peter Hall) where this production moves to in June.
The Kingston space is vast, he says, while the new space at the Arcola is testing of his ingenuity, the intimacy providing challenges for the veteran director who says he is "thrilled" to be returning to a play with which he has had such a long relationship.
"I often thought about it in the intervening years," he said. "Now I think it's the right time to bring it to another young audience."
■ Until May 26, Arcola Theatre, £18 (£12 concs) and Pay What You Can Tuesdays arcolatheatre.com.
© First published in The Wharf, May 2012
Redford and T-Bone talk movies and music
Music and movies have taken equal billing in the Sundance London festival, which runs over the weekend, and an evening with festival founder Robert Redford and hypercool music maestro T Bone Burnett was the perfect confluence of the two art forms.
At his press conference, Redford had been keen to push both strands of the festival suggesting that a hybrid of the two was fast becoming the next generation of the artform.
The first full-scale event at The O2 explored the theme further with Redford and T Bone reflecting on a career in which both had spent their careers attempting to enhance story-telling techniques with image and music.
Conversation - moderated by music-movie connoisseur Nick Hornby - was accompanied by film clips from O Brother Where Art Thou, Butch Cassidy, Ordinary People and others to illustrate the anecdotes.
And if that wasn't enough for the enthralled audience at a packed Indigo2, the songs were re-interpreted and played live by the sinuous Guillemots and Oscar-winning Glen Hansard.
The live music was raw and live, even to the point of Hansard abandoning his cheap instrument ($60 from a shop in Brooklyn) which kept falling out of tune to be replaced with a haunting unaccompanied folk ballad.
The Guillemots - who had their own small-scale version of technical difficulties - came out with a thrilling versions of, among others, A Man Of Constant Sorry and Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.
That song - anachronistically placed in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid - but capturing the revolutionary, free-love verve of its time - was one of a number of self-confessed misjudgments by Robert Redford.
"I thought 'it didn't even rain in the movie'," he said when shown the sequence. The song and the charged cycling scene which it accompanied was put in to give Paul Newman a romantic slant to his character.
Originally, Newman was slated to play the Sundance Kid but when they swopped roles he lost the girl, something that producers thought unpalatable when he was the bigger box office draw and Redford the newcomer.
Redford also cited his ignorance of the music of Scott Joplin before director George Roy Hill memorably used his jaunty piano score to create the rhythm and feel of The Sting.
But Redford's most famous dud call came with the comment "she's not going to sing, is she?" to Sydney Pollack about a certain Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were.
However, he had more success in his own movies, giving Randy Newman his break in the baseball film The Natural, an excerpt of which was now a familiar fall-back in baseball grounds and sports network studios.
And he introduced Pachelbel's Canon to the closing credit of Ordinary People. He said he had heard the music at a hotel on the Big Sur which he had walked when he was younger but it took him years to track down exactly what it was. He said it had the right mournful tone to end the film.
T Bone Burnett is the go-to guy in Hollywood for the recreation of authentic roots sounds.
His knowledge of the music of his home country made him a natural choice for "sound track movie" O Brother Where Art Thou> but his collaboration with the Coen Brothers began with cult classic The Big Lebowski.
He said: "[The Coens] just wanted me to put together, well if you were to say it in today's speak, put together the Dude's ipod playlist. The songs in the film were character-driven choices, that is, what would he listen to."
He worked for months with Reese Witherspoon and Joaquim Phoenix ["he quit everyday saying it was too big for him"] on Walk The Line, building up the band for months on end to recreate the organic history of the sound of Johnny Cash and his untutored backing players while the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges, reunited with T Bone for Crazy Heart, the title song of which was played by the Guillemots.
He also spoke of his work with Glen Hansard and The Civil Wars attempting to imagine what Apalachian music would sound 300 years into the future for the soundtrack of The Hunger Games. "It could sound like AC/DC," he suggested before explaining how free jam sessions with his musicians increasingly found traction.
The evening dovetailed at the end when T Bone and Redford showed a clip from their new, early-stage project American Epic, which has unearthed never-before-seen footage of performers such as iconic bluesman Lead Belly, to chronicle the birth of the music that shuffles around the iPods of today's contemporary music lovers.
A standing ovation at the end seemed genuinely to warm Redford, who had said earlier in the day that Sundance would be judged by its reception, and the cinephile crowd could scarcely believe that this was just the beginning of a feast of smart film and music right on their doorstep.
© First published in The Wharf, April 2012
Interview: I'm in medal form says Aggar
Paralympic rower Tom Aggar says he's feeling fitter and stronger than ever before and is "training to win gold".
The reigning Paralympic and World Champion in the single sculls said: "I'm not expecting it to be easy. People will think they can beat me and I've just got to make sure that they don't."
The engaging 27-year-old is one of the Paralympics' brightest hopes for a gold medal and he's working hard to ensure he doesn't let down the legion of friends and family who will be in Eton Dorney in late August to cheer him on.
He said: "It's been the best year I've had in terms of consistent training. The number of days I've missed through illness and injury have been minimal so the preparations are going really well. I'm the fittest and strongest I've been."
He was talking to The Wharf at the London Regatta Centre in Royal Docks, a familiar place and familiar water for the man who played first team rugby for University of Warwick before an unrelated accident changed his life.
He took up rowing in 2006 to boost his strength and represented Royal Docks Rowing Club in his early career.
He said: "I guess this is still my affiliated club. This was the first place where I went on the water and I trained here for about 18 months before I went for the trials for the Paralympic team."
He was back last week as a brand ambassador for Games sponsor EDF which is running the EDF Community Rowing Challenge. Five east London schools were pitching for a place in the final.
It was a rare break away from the training regime.
Tom said: "I guess there's been a real big push since January. The coaches like to make sure we're getting the most of us and you go home each evening with nothing left.
"We're training six days a week, two or three sessions every day. Most of our training is aerobic training so when the weather's rough we're on the machines. Whenever it's not rough we're on the water in the boats either doing long slow stuff or time pieces.
"I'm feeling confident, I'm definitely better placed to win it this year than any other year.
"I guess the mentality is you don't want to get there and have any regrets, you want to get there and know that you've done everything you can and do the best you can.
"If I go to the games and produce a personal best performance or a performance that I know is at my limit then hopefully that will be good enough to win a gold."
As for the whole Olympic bandwagon itself he said: "I think it'll be great to have support from the British public and friends and family. That will be completely different to Beijing where it was just my Mum and Dad.
"Right now you get the sense that something big is looming. You have competitions to concentrate on in the months in between but now the Games is here you have to make every day count."
© First published in The Wharf
The reigning Paralympic and World Champion in the single sculls said: "I'm not expecting it to be easy. People will think they can beat me and I've just got to make sure that they don't."
The engaging 27-year-old is one of the Paralympics' brightest hopes for a gold medal and he's working hard to ensure he doesn't let down the legion of friends and family who will be in Eton Dorney in late August to cheer him on.
He said: "It's been the best year I've had in terms of consistent training. The number of days I've missed through illness and injury have been minimal so the preparations are going really well. I'm the fittest and strongest I've been."
He was talking to The Wharf at the London Regatta Centre in Royal Docks, a familiar place and familiar water for the man who played first team rugby for University of Warwick before an unrelated accident changed his life.
He took up rowing in 2006 to boost his strength and represented Royal Docks Rowing Club in his early career.
He said: "I guess this is still my affiliated club. This was the first place where I went on the water and I trained here for about 18 months before I went for the trials for the Paralympic team."
He was back last week as a brand ambassador for Games sponsor EDF which is running the EDF Community Rowing Challenge. Five east London schools were pitching for a place in the final.
It was a rare break away from the training regime.
Tom said: "I guess there's been a real big push since January. The coaches like to make sure we're getting the most of us and you go home each evening with nothing left.
"We're training six days a week, two or three sessions every day. Most of our training is aerobic training so when the weather's rough we're on the machines. Whenever it's not rough we're on the water in the boats either doing long slow stuff or time pieces.
"I'm feeling confident, I'm definitely better placed to win it this year than any other year.
"I guess the mentality is you don't want to get there and have any regrets, you want to get there and know that you've done everything you can and do the best you can.
"If I go to the games and produce a personal best performance or a performance that I know is at my limit then hopefully that will be good enough to win a gold."
As for the whole Olympic bandwagon itself he said: "I think it'll be great to have support from the British public and friends and family. That will be completely different to Beijing where it was just my Mum and Dad.
"Right now you get the sense that something big is looming. You have competitions to concentrate on in the months in between but now the Games is here you have to make every day count."
© First published in The Wharf
Exhibition: Royal River, National Maritime Museum
This Jubilee year will see the greatest flotilla of ships to sail down the Thames for more than 350 years.
It will reprise the great heritage of the Thames as the capital's "grandest street" and bring to life the 500 years of enterprises and ambitions that a new exhibition aims to depict.
In a year of landmark cultural events, Royal River at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, takes its place on the podium - although "watermark" would be a more suitably aqueous adjective.
From the grand Canaletto at the entrance, through to the gilded figureheads, chalices, trumpets, uniforms and miniatures, this is an authentic and opulent experience of the Thames as royal and political canvas.
Among the artefacts are the oldest known copy of Handel's Water Music, Anne Boleyn's personal music book, and stern carvings from royal yachts.
Ahead of the opening by the Queen, on Wednesday, guest curator David Starkey toured a preview.
He said: "This exhibition is a feast for the eyes and the senses. It evokes the sights, sounds and even the smells of half a millennium of royal river pageantry and popular celebration. Royal River also shows how the grandest river pageants have been used to celebrate. the coronation of Tudor and Stuart Queens.
"What more appropriate way of celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen, who will herself lead another grand royal river pageant?"
Using the establishment of the Woolwich Royal Dockyards 500 years ago as its starting point, the exhibition thematically and chronologically depicts the river's popular fortunes.
For much of the 500 years, the Thames was the focus of city's celebrations but, as the river became an open sewer, London turned up its nose.
The construction of the Embankment was the high water mark of this rejection although the Palace of Westminster, without water gates, indicated the general displeasure.
The Lord Mayor's procession, as captured by Canaletto, moved from water to land in 1857 but this grand exhibition, and the Thames Jubilee Pageant in June, may finally signal a return to royal favour.
- Until Sept 9, Royal River: Power Pageantry And The Thames, National Maritime museum, rmg.co.uk
Image © National Maritime Museum
It will reprise the great heritage of the Thames as the capital's "grandest street" and bring to life the 500 years of enterprises and ambitions that a new exhibition aims to depict.
In a year of landmark cultural events, Royal River at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, takes its place on the podium - although "watermark" would be a more suitably aqueous adjective.
From the grand Canaletto at the entrance, through to the gilded figureheads, chalices, trumpets, uniforms and miniatures, this is an authentic and opulent experience of the Thames as royal and political canvas.
Among the artefacts are the oldest known copy of Handel's Water Music, Anne Boleyn's personal music book, and stern carvings from royal yachts.
Ahead of the opening by the Queen, on Wednesday, guest curator David Starkey toured a preview.
He said: "This exhibition is a feast for the eyes and the senses. It evokes the sights, sounds and even the smells of half a millennium of royal river pageantry and popular celebration. Royal River also shows how the grandest river pageants have been used to celebrate. the coronation of Tudor and Stuart Queens.
"What more appropriate way of celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen, who will herself lead another grand royal river pageant?"
Using the establishment of the Woolwich Royal Dockyards 500 years ago as its starting point, the exhibition thematically and chronologically depicts the river's popular fortunes.
For much of the 500 years, the Thames was the focus of city's celebrations but, as the river became an open sewer, London turned up its nose.
The construction of the Embankment was the high water mark of this rejection although the Palace of Westminster, without water gates, indicated the general displeasure.
The Lord Mayor's procession, as captured by Canaletto, moved from water to land in 1857 but this grand exhibition, and the Thames Jubilee Pageant in June, may finally signal a return to royal favour.
- Until Sept 9, Royal River: Power Pageantry And The Thames, National Maritime museum, rmg.co.uk
Image © National Maritime Museum
Book review: Quiet, by Susan Cain
BOOK
Quiet, by Susan Cain
Viking
★★★★✩
IN A NUTSHELL
Susan Cain argues that Western culture values bravado over contemplation, to the detriment of business, society and creativity.
REVIEW
Susan Cain's important thesis is simple: extroverts (self-evidently) grab the attention, often undeservedly, while introverts, who often have more to offer, are overlooked and dismissed as ineffectual.
There is a crucible for this idea currently on TV. The overwhelming, overbearing, often misguided (but invariably followed) voice of the extrovert is amply on display in all its ghastly glory in The Apprentice.
The loudmouth wins. The pushy, upfront, take-no-prisoners candidate is lauded and the thinker (it's all relative of course) is considered structurally flawed and weak.
Worryingly (but predictably) Big Pharma is attempting to make social anxiety an illness to be cured, ironing out the wrinkles that provided, as Cain notes, the Apple Computer, the theory of relativity and Van Gogh's sunflowers.
The book is culturally biased (in her native US shouty is good while in Asian cultures the reverse is often the case). However, this is a detailed, fascinating and level-headed book which provides much succour to the shy.
Quiet, by Susan Cain
Viking
★★★★✩
IN A NUTSHELL
Susan Cain argues that Western culture values bravado over contemplation, to the detriment of business, society and creativity.
REVIEW
Susan Cain's important thesis is simple: extroverts (self-evidently) grab the attention, often undeservedly, while introverts, who often have more to offer, are overlooked and dismissed as ineffectual.
There is a crucible for this idea currently on TV. The overwhelming, overbearing, often misguided (but invariably followed) voice of the extrovert is amply on display in all its ghastly glory in The Apprentice.
The loudmouth wins. The pushy, upfront, take-no-prisoners candidate is lauded and the thinker (it's all relative of course) is considered structurally flawed and weak.
Worryingly (but predictably) Big Pharma is attempting to make social anxiety an illness to be cured, ironing out the wrinkles that provided, as Cain notes, the Apple Computer, the theory of relativity and Van Gogh's sunflowers.
The book is culturally biased (in her native US shouty is good while in Asian cultures the reverse is often the case). However, this is a detailed, fascinating and level-headed book which provides much succour to the shy.
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