First Public Appearance: Canberra Craft Beer and Cider Festival

Last weekend was the Canberra Craft Beer and Cider Festival. Wignall Brewery was making its first public appearance so I went along to help serve customers and document the event. We began by heading to the brewery and picking up the kegs to transport them to the festival. 

 

  

It was a beautiful clear morning as everyone was setting up their stalls and the organisers were laying out the tables and chairs and blowing up the balloons. After a quick coffee and a short but informative briefing - there are lots of volunteers who are willing to help - it was time to open the gates to the general public. 

 

There were 52 exhibitors with plenty of beer and cider to taste. The layout was along Batman Street and in the car-park of the Mercure Hotel. Stalls lined either side of the street with plenty of seating in the middle of the road. There were umbrellas and pine trees providing plenty of shade, and with suncream and water readily available, it was all set up to be a perfect beer-drinking environment.

I walked around early on to take photos of the people and their stalls before they got too busy, and I also sampled one or two beverages. Yes, I'm biased but I do love the Cole Porter from Wignall Brewery - it's deep and rich and chocolatey smooth. It did establish quite a reputation over the day and I heard many good things from customers.

 

 

 

We were next-door to Feral, who have long been a favourite of mine. I began the day with a Biggie Juice, which is so full tropical fruits and stone fruit and a pulpy hazy texture going on, that it totally tastes like a healthy breakfast beer. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

  

 

Of course we were sharing the stand with the crew from Pact; they make great beer and they stand out not just for the quality of their brews, but also for their bold colours and striking marketing.

There was a small queue of dedicated drinkers waiting to be let in at 11am and the crowd slowly built up to lunch time, when the street and the stands got really busy.

 

I had a Passion of the Puss from Wayward early on in the proceedings - the passion fruit and yuzu Berliner Weisse is so fresh and tart and delicious - it's a real sorbet of an amuse bouche and the perfect palate-cleanser.

 

These lads from Cupitt Craft Brewers make a great smoked porter that has a good depth and a subtle charcoal flavour - very nice indeed.

I'm not usually a fan of 'session IPAs' but there is a time and place for all strengths of beer, and about 2pm at the Canberra Craft Beer and Cider Festival seemed about right to try a Piss-Weak Sauce (Session IPA). For once I appreciated a session IPA that has all the hop flavours without the alcohol strength. Nice.

I also got in a sneaky cider: George the Fox is smooth featuring well-balanced tastes of apple and oak. It's very easy-drinking and makes a refreshing change. 

Drinky Pete is horrified to find himself empty handed.

 As well as Pact and Wignall, Canberra were well represented by Bentspoke, Capital and Zierholz. The latter's porter has a smooth coffee/chocolate richness and that signature berry taste.

 

The bands added to the atmosphere by supplying a relaxed and entertaining vibe. There were also food options, including burgers, nachos and 'loaded' chips. The food was good but a little tucked away in a back corner; I would have liked it to have been more plentiful and prominent.

Our friends at Willie the Boatman pour some of the finest beers around. The Crazy Ivan has a good malty hop balance, and the Nectar of the Hops is described as 'perfect beer for our warmer months'. It was certainly a festival favourite today with the big and juicy; sweet and fruity hops (tropical fruit flavours; pineapple; mango; lychees) and low bitterness for a smashable session.

 

Crazy Ivan

Pact Beer Co and Wignall Brewery collaborated on a blend of the Mt Tennet Pale Ale and the Stable Genius IPA. It's quite soft and sessionable with a good hop level coming through while the bitterness has been tamed. An on-line competition resulted in it being called Mount Pale McStable Face, and if you're not impressed with the name, here's the person to blame. 

 

As the day wore on the crowds kept coming, so we kept serving them beer. Fortunately, other people did too.

 

The boys from Akasha

Club Brewing are an interesting outfit, describing themselves as a beer subscription service with a difference. They focus on small batch releases designed and brewed in collaboration with some of the best breweries in the world exclusively for their members. I tried their stout (brewed in collaboration with Baird Beer) and their hoppy black ale (brewed in collaboration with Beer Here), both of which were jolly decent. 

Collaborators!

It was a big day and at the end of it we were tired but happy, as they used to say in the Famous Five. In terms of getting out and about, talking to and meeting customers and chatting with other brewers about their beers and the general market, it must be considered a great success. Roll on the next one!

 

Hearts and Minds: QED

Ylaria Rogers as Catherine in Proof

Proof by David Auburn

Freefall Productions

The Q, 14 -17 March 2018

A mathematical proof is an argument in support of a statement based on exhaustive logic. It implies a clinical level of control, which David Auburn exploits in his 2000 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play Proof. Catherine (Ylaria Rogers) is the daughter of mathematical genius and professor, Robert (Gerard Carroll), who has recently died after a long mental illness. During his increasing insanity she cared for him mentally and physically as she explains in intimately heartbreaking detail.

Her sister, Claire (Julia Christensen), who has escaped filial duty in New York as a currency trader, returns for the funeral and to sell the house. Her bags may be light but her baggage is not. Meanwhile, Robert’s former student, Hal (Derek Walker), stumbles across a proof in his mentor’s notebooks that he believes will change the future of mathematics.

On one level the play is simplicity itself, pared back to four characters and a single set. Despite the intellectual subject matter, there is no emphasis on chalk-covered blackboards or complicated-looking equations; we never see the experimental scribblings as they are contained in innocuous-seeming notebooks. The action all occurs outside the house, set on an oblique angle across the stage, featuring an array of well-tended pot plants in a sort of conservatory and windows covered with sheets through which lights shine erratically during scene changes.

Against this solid backdrop, however, we are in the world of non-linear narrative and imaginary numbers. Robert, whose death precedes the beginning of the play, makes several appearances and gives Catherine a bottle of birthday bubbles, which she drinks with him. Should we see this as an example of her mental fragility or the time-bending possibilities of quantum physics? She, herself believes she may be following her father’s footsteps both in the cerebral world of prime number theory and the irrational realm of madness.

Scratching the surface further uncovers layers of guilt, fear and anxiety, as is felt in all relationships, whether that be between father and daughter; siblings; tutor and pupil; or lovers. Carefully constructed façades crumble just as we are told the house in which Catherine and her father have lived until now is falling to pieces.

While a proof follows logical steps, it may also include natural language – in a mathematical context, this means a language developed and spoken by humans in an organic manner as opposed to a formal language, such as that used to program a computer. This is accepted to admit some level of ambiguity to the deductions, and this production excels in its ambiguity. Those who didn’t know the plot were shocked at the mid-point revelation, although admitting they should have seen it coming; a true testament to expert storytelling.

Tour director, Tyran Parke, and original director, Derek Walker, trust the actors to carry the narrative, and their belief is well placed as all four handle their character with subtlety and sensitivity. The frequent switches in pace and motivation are demonstrated through tone and expression as well as posture and movement. No one resorts to histrionics or excess; all are entirely believable. The role of Catherine is pivotal to the success or otherwise of this play and Ylaria Rogers imbues it with grace and nuance, highlighting every aspect from stubborn anger to enchanting naivety.

They also credit the audience with enough intelligence to reach their own conclusions about the ‘moral’ of the play rather than enforcing any particular agenda or riding any current hobbyhorse. The programme notes state that Freefall Productions wants to give audiences, ‘stories that they can identify with, theatre that touches our hearts and minds.’ With this superb and thoughtful gift of a production, they have done just that.

Alexander Brown as Hal and Ylaria Rogers as Catherine

Friday Five: Different (Re)viewpoints

I am currently performing in the Canberra Repertory Production of Oh, What a Lovely War! I am not one of those people who don't read reviews (or claim not to) of the shows in which they are performing. I do read them but, as I have been a professional reviewer myself and have studied the art of reviewing under several different people, all of whom I respect (including Jeffrey Wainwright; Dave Olive; Laurence Coupe; Jeffrey Walsh; Kathryn Ryan; Peter Rose; Marion Halligan), I am aware that they are to be taken with a grain of salt. 

One of the first things I learned is that a review is only one person's opinion; not everyone will like what you do and that's just fine. A good reviewer should never divulge the plot or criticise without good reasoned argument; neither should they refer to themselves unless they believe the reader is more interested in them than the product they are reviewing, such as Jeremy Clarkson's car 'reviews' or Martin Scorsese's film choices.

The purpose of a review should be to give the potential consumer an idea of whether they will like the thing being reviewed or not, by placing it in context and mentioning the ways in which it is similar to or different from other comparable works. It should review the object that is there; not what the reviewer would have liked it to be. In that light, some of these are better than others - not because of what they say, but because of how they say it.

5 Reviews of Oh, What a Lovely War!

1. Reviewed by Joe Woodward in The City News - "The production is a triumph for what theatre can achieve in a cultural and social connection with the political agendas of our time."
2. Reviewed by Len Power for The Canberra Critics Circle - "This production is a puzzling disappointment...This was an important play in its day but with this uninvolving production it’s hard to see why."
3. Reviewed by Peter Wilkins for The Canberra Times - "A precisely marshalled demonstration of outstanding ensemble work by the company, inspired by Baldock's directorial inventiveness, Ewan's excellent musical direction and Ylaria Rogers' lively and appropriate choreography."
4. Reviewed by Cathy Bannister for Stage Whispers - "A fresh and vibrant interpretation... handled with alternating humour and foreboding, formality and relief."
5. Reviewed by John Lombard for The Canberra Critics Circle - "While there were a lot of good physical ideas, they did not always tell the story effectively. Between thick accents and some poor articulation, it was hard to follow the extremely dense narrative."

Deeds Not Words

Deeds Not Words: Women's Suffrage in Britain

Treasures Gallery, National Library of Australia

6 February - 19 August 2018

This month saw the hundredth anniversary of the passing of the Representation of the People Act, granting women in the UK the right to vote. Not all women, of course; only those aged over thirty who were householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of £5, and graduates of British universities.

Leading Australian feminist Bessie Rischbieth (1874-1967) was in London from May to June 1913, a time when the campaign for women's suffrage was at its peak.

Although not an activist in the British campaign, she attended meetings and heard the rousing speeches of suffrage leaders like Emmeline Pankhurst and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She followed the press reports of the spectacular actions of the suffragettes and what she witnessed helped inspire her future commitment to women's rights. 

Fascinated by the charisma of the suffragettes and their militant actions, Bessie Rischbieth gathered memorabilia of the movement. building a collection of photographs, pamphlets, newspapers cuttings, suffrage periodicals, postcards and correspondence. She conceived of her transnational collection as a 'bridge over the British and Australian demand for the vote'. The British campaign formed the basis for her own campaigns for women's equality and rights in Australia. Building on this foundation, she became a prominent figure in Australian and international feminism.This exhibition is drawn from the collection that she bequeathed to the National Library of Australia.

In 1872 the fight for women's suffrage became a national movement with the formation of the National Society for Women's Suffrage and later the more influential National Union of Women'a Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). In 1906 the militant campaign began with the formation of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). 

In October 1908 Muriel Matters and Helen Fox padlocked themselves to 'that vile grille behind which women have had to sit in the House of Commons for so many years'. The police had to remove the grille in order to release them. Matters and Fox shouted 'Votes for Women' from the gallery. They are considered the first words to have been spoken by women in Parliament.

Women who spoke publicly for the cause frequently faced hostile mobs. They were jeered and abused; pelted with stones, rotten eggs and (on one occasion) dead rats; attacked; molested; stripped and trampled. They received very little police protection and faced crowds of angry men demanding they go home and cook their husband's dinner. Their bravery and determination in the face of such hostility totally humbles me.

The WSPU was tightly controlled by the three Pankhurts; Emmeline and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. It specialized in highly visible publicity campaigns such as large parades and acts of violence -stone throwing, window smashing and arson of unoccupied buildings. While there was much support for women's suffrage in Parliament, the Liberal Government refused to allow a vote on the issue and arrested women on charges of vandalism, interrupting meetings, and obstructing traffic. Many of these women couldn't or wouldn't pay the fines and went to prison instead, where some of them went on hunger strike to draw attention to the cause.

One of the viler consequences of the fight for women's suffrage was the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act - commonly known as The Cat and Mouse Act - passed by Parliament under Asquith's Liberal Government in 1913. Women who went on hunger strike were force fed by shockingly brutal methods, and became seriously ill. Constance Lytton describes the process thus:

“Two of the women (wardresses) took hold of my arms, one held my head and one my feet. One wardress helped to pour the food. The doctor leant on my knees as he stooped over my chest to get at my mouth. I shut my mouth and clenched my teeth. The sense of being overpowered by more force that I could possibly resist was complete, but I resisted nothing except with my mouth. The doctor offered me the choice of a wooden or steel gag; he explained that the steel gag would hurt and the wooden one would not, and he urged me not to force him to use the steel one. But I did not speak nor open my mouth, so after playing about for a moment or two with the wooden one he finally had recourse to the steel. The pain of it was intense; he got the gag between my teeth, when he proceeded to turn it much more than necessary until my jaws were fastened wide apart, far more than they could go naturally. Then he put down my throat a tube, which seemed to me much too wide and was something like four feet long. The irritation of the tube was excessive. I choked the moment it touched my throat until it had gone down. Then the food was poured in quickly; it made me sick a few seconds after it was down and the action of the sickness made my body and legs double up, but the wardresses instantly pressed back my head and the doctor leant on my knees. The horror of it was more than I can describe. I had been sick over my hair, all over the wall near my bed, and my clothes seemed saturated with vomit. The wardresses told me that they could not get a change (of clothes) as it was too late, the office was shut.”

In an attempt to prevent the suffragettes from becoming martyrs in prison, the Cat and Mouse Act provided for the release of those whose hunger strikes and force feeding had brought them sickness to the point of near death, as well as their re-imprisonment once they had recovered. As the women were able to testify as to their treatment, this proved to be great publicity for their cause. On 14 July 1913 Emmeline Pankhurst, on temporary release from prison, famously declared,

"I would rather be a rebel than a slave. I would rather die than submit... I mean to be a voter in the land that gave me my birth or that they shall kill me, and my challenge to the Government is: "Kill me or give me my freedom; I shall force you to make that choice." 

WSPU Poster 1914

Increasing numbers of doctors, as well as members of the general public, were speaking out against forcible feeding, saying it contravened the rules of medical practice and that those doctors performing the operation were punishing, rather than treating, their patients. Even The Times, well known for its anti-suffragism, suggested review of policy.

In recognition of the enormous toll this practice took on women both physically and mentally, the WPSU presented hunger strikers with commemorative medals “For Valour” in pursuing “to the last extremity of hunger and hardship a great principle of political justice”. The purple white and green of the ribbon were the official colours of the WPSU (representing dignity, purity and hope) and each bar was inscribed with the date on which the recipient was force fed. 

The outbreak of war in 1914 enabled both the WSPU and the authorities to retreat. Emmeline Pankhurst called a temporary suspension of militancy while the government granted an amnesty to all suffrage prisoners. Thus ended the most shameful episode in the history of the British women’s suffrage campaign. 

This particular medal was awarded to Letitia Withall by the WPSU in August 1913 after her release from prison. She sent it to Bessie Rischbieth hoping that it would be exhibited in the museum that Rischbieth intended to create in Canberra. Fewer than 100 of these medals are thought to have been awarded, and only three are known to be held in Australian institutions (Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, and Museums Victoria).

"The hunger-striking suffragette laid bare the sexual divisions in Edwardian society, exposing a deep flaw in an all-male Liberal government that claimed to be ‘democratically’ elected yet tortured those women who challenged its legitimacy. Although partial enfranchisement for certain categories of women over the age of 30 was not granted until 1918, the forcibly fed suffragette had won the moral high ground. Through her courage and endurance, she had showed that physical force could never overcome the justice of her cause. In the battle for women’s equality, she had politicised her body in a way that those who came after her would never forget. Men might insist upon controlling women’s bodies, but physical force could never triumph because their cause was just." - June Purvis, Professor of Women's and Gender History at Portsmouth