tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-116337932011-08-16T11:38:40.253+01:00Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.comBlogger2661100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-45093898817936895842010-02-09T11:29:00.002Z2010-02-09T11:47:51.552Z

After months and months of leaving this blog alone, I think it's time to come clean: this blog is no more. Sorry if that disappoints (and perhaps even sorrier if that delights) but I think it's time to state the obvious and say that I'm no longer taking care of 'Parachute'.It's one thing to put your work out there; it's another to construct and to tend to a blogged self. I feel that it's fair to

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-5882648170514918992009-07-03T10:04:00.001+01:002009-07-03T10:06:05.066+01:00

All praise to The Onion for getting it right. Again.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-15391946218640517342009-06-19T12:06:00.003+01:002009-06-19T12:11:09.031+01:00

Very happy about this one, and if you're in London you can come and see it.Signs of Rust is a short play being directed by Dan Coleman, performed by Simon Darwen and Victoria Bavister, at the King's Head Theatre, Upper Street, Islington; it's one of three short plays (15-20 mins each) being put on at lunchtime as part of Zeitgeist Theatre's World At One series.Here's dem details.World at One in

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-78141590373614932212009-05-28T00:38:00.004+01:002009-08-05T08:37:05.181+01:00

Happy to say, particularly for friends or strangers in Sydney, that New Theatre is premiering one of my plays, Horrific Acts for Charity, as part of this year's New Directions season. James Beach directs. Starts July 22 - limited run.Let me continue to bang the drum for Poet #7 in Melbourne, too. Preview is June 11; opens June 12. Daniel Schlusser directs. (And one of the cast, Georgina Capper -

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-62168993540038666252009-05-23T10:50:00.003+01:002009-05-23T11:05:16.341+01:00

Nothing to do with theatre - yet. The Swiss electorate has voted to recognise complementary and alternative "medicine" in their constitution. That's right, memory of water and all that absolute bullshit (and I don't mind who I offend in saying that) is now to be funded within their health system. Read the Le Monde article about it. Perhaps it's a good thing, if CAM is suddenly subject to

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-41191634756869518382009-05-22T07:52:00.002+01:002009-05-22T07:55:06.641+01:00

I'd recommend buying tickets at/through the Arts Centre (to avoid the Tick-master sur-fees).

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-33395158774176267712009-05-13T09:06:00.004+01:002009-05-13T09:25:14.841+01:00

It's a busy week. It's the kind of week you wish for when you've gone through a period of nothing else on.Poet #7 started rehearsals in Melbourne on Monday. Meanwhile here in London, Eighty-Eight is being workshopped all week for a presentation this coming Monday night at RADA. Later this week, I'm going to a music festival for the weekend in Somerset - one of those things you plan to go for

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-63991522899400726822009-04-29T09:06:00.002+01:002009-04-29T09:08:19.636+01:00

It's coming home...Buy your tickets through here.If anybody's still reading this, I'll blog a bit more soon.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-6570390467861421852009-02-10T14:09:00.003Z2009-02-10T15:02:00.296Z

Now that I'm working a full-time job alongside the writing, I'm finding it difficult not so much to find the time to blog here, but certainly to will myself the time. I think I wrote this time last year that social sites like facebook had replaced some of the functions this blog had for me, and that still applies. (On the other hand, that ought to allow for some more detailed or deeper writing

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-42338247086678495112008-12-13T21:49:00.003Z2008-12-13T21:51:57.342Z

Yep. That's right. He's told Le Monde that he and his co-artistic-director are handing over the reins. In 2010. Here's the link. (If you're not a French reader, I'm sorry but I'm a bit too tired to translate this evening.)

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-40426243931896323722008-12-12T08:59:00.003Z2008-12-12T09:03:59.307Z

Well, we re-wrote it and now it's re-reviewed: 4 stars in the Evening Standard. Interesting one over at WhatsOnStage.com, too.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-27467300769182756792008-12-11T08:16:00.003Z2008-12-11T08:20:36.562Z

Theatre really is the 'living' art form:Actor slits his own throat as knife switch turns fiction into realitySo. Read the article and then tell me, what disturbs you more: the mistake or the audience's response? Why?

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-57742759162371414302008-12-08T14:09:00.004Z2008-12-11T11:55:04.916Z

*UPDATE 11Dec: George Hunka responds to the game in a typically thoughtful post here.The National Theatre microsite for August: Osage County has produced a fun, if slightly derivative game based on the play by Tracy Letts, or at least upon the character of Violet. Play it here.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-785806180314116882008-12-03T13:01:00.004Z2008-12-03T13:34:09.933Z

People talk about theatre on the BBC's Newsnight Review every Friday. But what does one learn from the discussion?Watching a discussion of August: Osage County from last Friday's show (28 Nov) you might have gleaned the following about theatre, about characters and about form in drama:1. It's a post-Beckett world. Get over it.2. People who live in the Oklahoma plains don't talk about T.S. Eliot3.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-85919195134817435612008-11-29T11:26:00.002Z2008-11-29T11:29:28.649Z

Yes. It's back. And with a few new Christmas baubles. Apparently you can win tickets to see it, here. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover... At Christmas gets going from 8 Dec, press night 10 Dec, for about a month. Go to the Bush site for on line tickets.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-65758297105006301892008-11-21T00:26:00.003Z2008-11-21T00:50:52.031Z

If you'll excuse a small amount of trumpeting, I just spent the day in Manchester at the extraordinarily beautiful Royal Exchange Theatre, for the announcement of the winners of the Bruntwood playwriting prize, in attendance as a short-listed playwright.Out of over 1200 plays entered from across the UK, my play, EIGHTY-EIGHT managed to make the shortlist of nine, but, alas for me, it wasn't one

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-27056581054669984842008-11-19T11:01:00.007Z2008-11-19T11:32:05.075Z

In Michelene Wandor's recent tome, The Art of Writing Drama, she highlights the emergence in the 1970s of the 'new writing' scene as something that occurred within a political context: for Britons in the '70s, you had the rise of identity politics, of second-wave feminism, of gay and lesbian movements, conflated with an interest in 'creativity' disciplines. You get Cloud Nine out of this

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-38232257488828094132008-11-17T12:17:00.000Z2008-11-17T12:18:27.444Z

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-39775101523734254512008-11-15T13:19:00.003Z2008-11-16T23:48:00.772Z

Sorry if this depresses some of my Australian readers, but look what happens when you have lots of newspapers, all with decent theatre coverage.I won't likely get a chance to see Gethsemane, but I'm stirred by what Dominic Cavendish writes of it in the Daily Telegraph. Lemme point you there... In the interest of balancing out my links, also read Michael Billington's very interesting review in the

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-9218391651985964312008-11-10T11:58:00.004Z2008-11-10T12:07:50.397Z

Some boring stuff: I'm making some overdue tinkerings to some of the aspects of this blog. Finally, I've separated out some of the links to other sites, and grouped them into different lists (playwrights; theatre-makers; reviews/writings...; news and politics). This ought to make this blog a bit easier to use, if navigate away from. I'll be stripping away some of the dead links in the Significant

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-7297806409930062932008-11-10T10:44:00.003Z2008-11-10T10:49:30.303Z

If you want to get any kind of grip on politics in Africa, the Independent's correspondent Steve Bloomfield has done us the service of having started THINGS SEEN AND HEARD... a blog. From the response to Obama's election in Kenya to the mapping of attacks on immigrants in South Africa, this would constitute my pick of the month if I regularly went around looking for things to pick.Go read it. Now.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-11949030100873008912008-11-07T10:22:00.003Z2008-11-07T10:29:49.065Z

Here's a bit of dryness for people, via the Guardian arts pages, with a Commons committee complaining that nobody knows how much administering arts grants costs:Taxpayer-funded organisations handing out money to arts, heritage, voluntary and sports groups are spending far too much on administration costs and seem unwilling to work together to bring them down, a Commons committee complains

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-24459167029829821712008-10-30T12:39:00.003Z2008-10-30T12:52:13.054Z

I might do this again: http://www.naplwrimo.org/If you are thinking of writing a play, this is a great project to join. You write a play in 30 days. 75 pages minimum (in US stageplay format, a little different from the UK and Australian page formats). It's international, despite the 'national' moniker; kind of an antidote to saying a national game represents the World Series, huh?Dorothy has done

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-40524207989247794532008-10-30T12:10:00.003Z2008-10-30T12:30:09.230Z

The first impulse I often have upon finishing the draft of a play is jump around like a man being happily electrocuted. Not Tuesday. Maybe it's just the mood I'm in, or an effect of the play I've written.The second impulse I usually feel is the desire to shove the thing under everybody's noses, "to get feedback". Of course, what this usually means is, "to get unqualified praise/worship, and upon

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-18044671186994898632008-10-21T11:22:00.002+01:002008-10-21T11:24:56.593+01:00

Penguin + politics = pleasure...(h/t Oliver Burkeman)

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-18901851205766262562008-10-18T08:31:00.002+01:002008-10-18T08:35:19.829+01:00

Sentimentality has damaged so many writers and storytellers. And to hell with redemption. It's not true, folks! To me, it's like creationism. Grow up and face reality. Just grow up.- Frank McGuinness, speaking to Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-70334382866628317872008-10-17T14:21:00.005+01:002008-10-30T12:39:33.177Z

The most exciting bit of theatre I have recently attended is Jack Thorne's Two Cigarettes, part of the Bush Theatre's Broken Space Season.Two voices in the dark. A mixture of internal and external dialogue between two characters having sex, it used a sexual ritual to reveal a tragedy at the heart of a broken relationship.Being one of the most successful pieces I have 'seen', I wonder if the idea

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-38789073720310590572008-10-15T16:41:00.006+01:002008-11-10T11:53:27.549Z

Sometimes readers of this blog want to know how they can get in touch with me regarding my plays or with regard to commissions or publications.The best way is to contact my agents! They're great.In the United Kingdom: please contact Fiona Williams or Lindsey Bender at Berlin Associates (+44 (0)207 7632 5281)In Australia: please contact Anthony Blair or Sadie Chrestman at Cameron Creswell. (+61 (

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-20690534803849873422008-10-15T13:48:00.005+01:002008-10-15T16:41:27.580+01:00

I'm 30% done on the first draft of a new play. At least I think I am. I make up statistics like this when I'm not writing it about 42% of the time. Plus, the percentage depends on whether I decide to write the original 23 scenes I have sketched out, or add the extra one that I'm mentally toying with.The play is set in the 1840s. In Australia. British voices collide with each other and the new

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-52138794327577283122008-10-15T13:36:00.009+01:002008-10-17T13:53:25.751+01:00

The Francis Bacon exhibition at Tate Britain amazed me.The curating opens up thought, makes evident previously obscure connections.Perhaps I respond to exhibitions in a utilitarian manner. As a playwright experiencing this art, I was confronted with the line you're able to draw between Francis Bacon's literary-referencing work and Sarah Kane's tragedy-agonies, which both go back to a familiarity

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-31392360270806619822008-10-15T00:10:00.001+01:002008-10-15T00:13:35.715+01:00

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-44586299980980526402008-10-10T15:23:00.003+01:002008-10-10T15:49:12.865+01:00

Until November 5, at least, this is my most visited site: www.fivethirtyeight.com.Now all I need is a site that does the same thing for the Melbourne Cup.Before the US elections take place and the campaigns finish, I think that this 2008 presidential campaign reminds me of what an effective campaigner was George W. Bush. Don't get me wrong; I detest the man's politics and believe that the blame

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-74407964976435585422008-10-08T08:48:00.003+01:002008-10-08T08:51:18.515+01:00

Source: The AgeThe Japanese-developed Repliee R-1 is based on a real Japanese five-year-old. Oh, for God's sake. How likely was it to have been based on a fake Japanese five-year-old?

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-21319530789254189432008-10-04T13:22:00.004+01:002008-10-04T13:26:18.104+01:00

The poor little buggers... the photo via Getty Images, and the story via the Independent:In between the bronzed bodies in skimpy thongs soaking up the rays on Copacabana beach, a tiny black and white bundle of feathers struggles to emerge from the surf. Exhausted and emaciated, its bones poking through the blubber, the young penguin finally collapses on the sand. It has strayed thousands of miles

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-59740101504904971162008-10-01T10:52:00.002+01:002008-10-01T10:56:41.699+01:00

For those of you in London who want to see some decent, raw theatre tonight, the folks at DryWrite are on tonight at the George Tavern. I got to see DryWrite's work at the Latitude festival a couple of months ago, and it ('Guilty') was one of my highlights. Tonight's performances go under the thematic umbrella of 'The Mob'.If you're going, I might even see you there.DryWrite Presents: THE MOB

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-34847237759142058422008-09-30T11:41:00.006+01:002008-10-01T11:29:39.929+01:00

While Zombie State finished its season, and I watched the Geelong Football Club (after getting a 4.30am bus across town to Clapham in order to see it) lose the AFL premiership, I had just completed seven days straight of shifts. (I sell books full-time at various hours sometimes more convenient to the public than to me.)I've been meaning to respond to the various reviews on-line of Zombie State,

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-87526436752218591762008-09-15T16:47:00.002+01:002008-09-15T16:48:51.183+01:00

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-4385828423809654602008-09-05T16:39:00.002+01:002008-09-05T16:42:26.536+01:00

Politics. I like it. Even when it repulses me.But I gotta tell ya, these are the kind of graphical representations I hang out for...

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-33196072096486196712008-08-27T11:34:00.002+01:002008-08-27T12:52:05.431+01:00

Which is your favourite story? (hat tip to Emma V via facebook)

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-11606594754381690102008-08-26T13:58:00.005+01:002008-08-26T14:08:42.552+01:00

For those in Melbourne, keep a night free in late September for my newest production, The Zombie State. Daniel Schlusser is directing this co-pro between Melbourne Workers Theatre and Union House Theatre at the Union Theatre, Melbourne University; it's been some time in the works. I began writing this mix of political theatre and zombie genre conventions in 2004 and it's been through two federal

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-79275767201067657142008-08-14T10:17:00.003+01:002008-08-14T10:21:28.507+01:00

So I go turn my back on nearly everything for a few weeks while I settle into a new full-time day/night job, and what happens? Octopuses start playing with icons of my childhood. Bet you that a giant squid has the brain to solve it in less than 20 seconds. I think that when these smaller squid learn that you can peel off the stickers, humanity's in for it.(And it's from the New Scientist, so it

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-8014120045685144992008-07-28T12:01:00.002+01:002008-07-28T12:05:06.070+01:00

An intelligent, informative, well-written theatre blog is always a joy to discover, even if I have come to Simon Harris's party shamefully late. Check out Perfect Way before your day is out.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-56598549103250149372008-07-21T13:38:00.004+01:002008-07-28T11:56:11.846+01:00

*Updating 28/7... A few more notices are in: you get a sense of the range in these from Susannah Clapp in the Observer and Lyn Gardner in the Guardian. Good on us, I say.Well, I've just spent the last four days at the Latitude Festival up in Suffolk, and 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, the Bush Theatre's contribution did quite well at it. As one of its five writers, that's quite pleasing.Already

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-73125273883138417462008-07-07T10:27:00.003+01:002008-07-07T10:34:47.987+01:00

Well, I ran the British 10K London Run yesterday, all the way, in a time of 51 minutes 55 seconds, and thanks to so many of you at last count we've raised over £200 for Diabetes UK as a result. Thank you to everybody who donated - I'll leave the donate button up on the side for the next week as some of you were planning to wait until I finished before splurging on research into diabetes.Thank you

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-47760979714649351062008-06-25T09:49:00.004+01:002008-06-25T10:26:47.976+01:00

Now this interests me. Michael Billington gave Anthony Neilson's production at the Royal Court a bit of a mugging last week. Neilson's taken the opportunity to respond (article here), taking issue with the play-as-thesis approach to communicating about theatre:A play-as-thesis is by nature reductive, an attempt to bring order to the unruliness of existence. But bringing order is the business of

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-55733730594783390132008-06-24T10:04:00.003+01:002008-06-24T10:18:40.585+01:00

Slavoj Zizek's latest tome, In Defence of Lost Causes, is out in hardback, which means that I will be reading selected passages in over twenty bookstores over the next six months while wondering if I should or ought or can.The thing is, he's calling for a return to the emancipatory fight for universal values. Having gone through university in the '90s, helping to campaign for niches of being and

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-52603371643538809872008-06-20T08:55:00.000+01:002008-06-20T08:55:16.899+01:00

Performance anxiety.I remember when I did my grade 2 piano exam. It was held in a church hall in Warragul, a town that is about 100km east of Melbourne. The examiner was a curly grey-haired woman, with slightly orange teeth, and seemed pleased with the first part of the test, where I went through some scales and chords. Not bad. But then it came to the recital bit, and the first of four pieces.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-56520334682868798662008-06-17T12:34:00.008+01:002008-06-17T13:19:11.441+01:00

The British 10K Run takes place on Sunday July 6, and I've decided to do it and try to raise some funds for Diabetes UK's research fund at the same time.You can support my run via the PayPal donate button I've added to the site. Or this button here:Some of you might not know that I have type one diabetes. It is a condition that I have had since I was five - almost thirty years - and I control

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-612790949823996282008-05-25T10:44:00.004+01:002008-05-25T10:51:44.993+01:00

Here's a little something from last night to cheer us all...One could say that all sorts of interesting symbolic processes are going in this song. After all, it is the captain who says, "pirates are all we can be." You could try relating that in a sort of Lacanian way to the Name of the Father, or shunting it into the Imaginary-Symbolic-Real triad that Zizek's always going on about. Or you can do

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-52724366379205239162008-05-15T10:09:00.004+01:002008-05-15T10:19:32.649+01:00

Yay for TheatreVoice: the event, Celebrating the Play, which I reported on below, was faithfully recorded in two parts. You can listen to it right now if you have the time; and you could even correct my original paraphrases for me, if so inclined.Just as important, Mark Brown makes a case on the TheatreVoice blog for political theatre that is political in its handling of metaphor, rather than in

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-56561049776146852008-05-11T11:21:00.005+01:002008-05-11T11:43:46.438+01:00

Further evidence published today of the depravity of the Iraq war: attacks on artists.Singer Muthana al-Jaffar, 37, from Baghdad, said: 'The government is not giving us any protection. I witnessed two of my friends being killed for singing western songs at weddings.'This is where the process (or lack) of planning for the war and its aftermath plays out. The effort that went into the lies and

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-70563841659798090452008-05-07T22:18:00.003+01:002008-05-07T23:28:58.502+01:00

It's the centennial of the Society of London Theatre this year, the society that more or less represents Official London Theatre in the West End. And they've chosen today to kick off some celebrations - involving talks, debates and Q&As. If you're a theatre junkie, that's actually quite a bit more appetising than it might otherwise sound.Somehow I made it onto the invitation list - as a blogger -

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-71751077905967299172008-04-24T18:54:00.000+01:002008-04-24T18:54:12.985+01:00

A couple of things that you might want to look at. First is the American Theatre Wing website in general and the hour-long interview with some of the Steppenwolf Ensemble regarding August: Osage County in particular. (Click on American Theatre Wing here.)Skip across the Pacific via the Guardian, and Alison Croggon sums up her 2020 summit experience.Contemplating why I have a small (not

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-23565086039492331892008-04-08T17:55:00.004+01:002008-04-08T18:39:50.883+01:00

April is not necessarily the cruellest month, even with my birthday plonked in the middle of it and with Boris Johnson running strongly in the London mayoral election polls. I've been temping quite a bit lately and have now come up for breath.One of the positive things I'm pouring my own body's CO2 emissions into is a project with the Bush Theatre, working with four other playwrights. It's part

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-75054743399338472532008-03-06T18:38:00.000Z2008-03-06T18:38:59.876Z

"[I]f the butter of common national values is spread too thinly it will disappear altogether"- John Howard, praising Reagan and Thatcher in a recent speech.Well, I don't know about my national values, but he's got my stomach churning again.I've got a theory. The man has been dead for several years already and he's undead. He's the embodiment of resurrecting decayed morality and a deceased view of

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-9704370712922699772008-02-29T08:51:00.001Z2008-02-29T08:52:10.689Z

To my enormous surprise, according to the press agencies that the Age relies upon, the Taleban does NOT rely upon New Idea for its military intelligence.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-34325019693433529532008-02-28T13:50:00.000Z2008-02-28T13:50:17.096Z

LRB · John Lanchester: Riots, Terrorism etcJohn Lanchester writes, engagingly as ever, of Nick Davies's Flat Earth News in the latest LRB. Having returned from a recent trip to Australia via long-ish stopovers in Tokyo and Singapore, I can say that I'm now jet-laggingly familiar with news stations like CNN and BBC World and would add that television news is no longer news, but seems to fall into

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-51265705473002869432008-01-09T11:07:00.000Z2008-01-09T11:14:43.276Z

Two entirely unrelated things today.The first - a blog written by playwright Christine Evans, writing as an expat from the US, with plenty of insights into her process and thinking. I feel silly for not having taken notice sooner. You'll find lots to agree and to disagree with, and I like in particular her wondering about "how Beckett or Ionesco or for that matter, Sarah Kane or Howard Barker

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-20243560380005106922008-01-04T14:55:00.000Z2008-01-07T16:52:01.216Z

** UPDATE 7/1 - you can help try to save the Bush Theatre by signing their on-line petition at www.bushtheatre.co.uk before January 15. Worth a visit even if you're not sure **Welcome back. Hope you all had restful holidays and rituals. I spent parts of my December in Tallinn, Estonia and in County Wicklow, south of Dublin, variations of white and green. Not the sort of places I wanted to blog in

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-45966403516555604032007-11-30T18:27:00.001Z2007-11-30T18:39:16.753Z

You have to earn a crust somehow. This little blighter entertains me when I'm pounding the keys at home.Finished writing my November play, only to fall 5 pages short of the target for Nawriplmo (75 US Letter pages). No matter. I've wanted to have my own go at a Woyzeck-inspired structure for sometime now, and having a "write a play in a month" festival was a great way of getting me to apply my

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-25657763460369542202007-11-16T18:06:00.000Z2007-11-16T18:21:37.677Z

David Eldridge posts his response to Michael Billington's new book, State of the Nation. After reading some of the to-ing and fro-ing in certain other UK blogs about form and content, I have to say that I'm with David on point 3 of his response. In the history of theatre-making, you could have had a group without a playwright explore sexuality in the 1970s for weeks and come up with an

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-21633613328256555282007-11-16T09:11:00.000Z2007-11-16T09:25:48.724Z

It's not really play-related, but this has given me more hope for the world than just about anything else I've read in the last few days. The headline? Xenophobia destroys EU's ultra-rightwing MEP group (from The Guardian). Racist fascism has a very limited capacity to be unifying force by definition, I suppose. Nice to see the supposition in action.As for me, been struck by a particularly insist

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-59361499928281987622007-11-09T16:32:00.000Z2007-11-09T16:34:22.811Z

Source: theage.com.au

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-59000178948008411772007-11-08T08:39:00.000Z2007-11-08T08:43:58.745Z

... when I grow up, I want to be Slavoj Zizek:Today's Left reacts in a wide variety of ways to the hegemony of global capitalism and its political supplement, liberal democracy.[...][For example,] it recognises the temporary futility of the struggle. In today’s triumph of global capitalism, the argument goes, true resistance is not possible, so all we can do till the revolutionary spirit of the

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-23790047564010546142007-10-31T18:17:00.000Z2007-10-31T18:51:41.780Z

On this very topic I've been highlighted in a Guardian theatre blog by Kelly Nestruck. Goodness, I had no idea that I came up that high on Google searches for playwriting blogs. I know from the stats counter that I get a lot of people who've been looking for pictures of Nicholas Sarkozy or things to do with parachutes.To those who don't care for Sarkozy or parachutes - or in fact care more for

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-8964293077356133032007-10-30T16:41:00.001Z2007-10-30T16:44:26.679Z

Labor's own Macbeth takes time out to campaign in Sydney yesterday. (For non-Australian readers, this man used to be our elected head of government.)

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-85448484900514008782007-10-29T11:06:00.000Z2007-10-29T11:21:38.097Z

The Final Shot finished its amazing and very successful run at Theatre503 on Saturday night. I don't think I've ever been held responsible for making so many people cry before. (Is that what maturing as a playwright is all about?) As much as some wonderful reviewers would like us to transfer, it's hard for me to see it happening without 'enhancing' it into a farce or a bit of a sing-a-long. Given

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-5459813966792518222007-10-29T10:57:00.000Z2007-10-29T11:06:22.951Z

Here's an interesting review in Eureka Street of a new book by Hilary Glow about politics in Australian playwriting. The book, Power Plays, features analysis of works by Hannie Rayson, Wesley Enoch, Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Reg Cribb, Katherine Thomson, Stephen Sewell and, er... me. Having read the book just recently, one of the really interesting features is the way Hilary manages,

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-89406425046268514182007-10-26T12:06:00.000+01:002007-10-26T12:13:42.262+01:00

I would love to be able to begin a post one day that reads, "We here at Parachute...", but I can't as there's only one of me.But there are two of the West End Whingers, and they have been very nice to me as well as reviewed The Final Shot. I blush.If you're in London and you're thinking about catching one of the final two performances, call up and reserve a seat for tonight or tomorrow. We've

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-30579592019506665682007-10-22T08:43:00.000+01:002007-10-22T08:45:36.432+01:00

Shan, like the Australian federal election campaign, is up and running...

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-22377462775721336062007-10-22T08:30:00.000+01:002007-10-22T08:47:19.420+01:00

Dominic Cavendish reviews the production here in the Daily Telegraph (London's, not Sydney's. The difference is sizable.) I'll happily be unknown if it means getting notices like this. And the big houses.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-66307777743379416852007-10-16T11:52:00.001+01:002007-10-16T11:59:41.792+01:00

Reviews for The Final Shot have just started to come out today.Of course, my preference is for the 4 star rave in today's Time Out: "the 'final shot' is a wonderfully unexpected and moving coup de theatre." Nice review in today's Guardian, also: "Ellis's play is sturdy and intelligent and crammed to bursting with ethical and emotional dilemmas."There's also a nice interview in today's Guardian

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-71759396699643601352007-10-15T09:21:00.000+01:002007-10-15T09:37:44.035+01:00

Yes, The Final Shot opened on Friday night. I think that we had some press in for the Thursday performance as well, but there were more on what is called "press night" here (as opposed to "opening night" in Oz and the US).I'm very proud of this play, and watching the work of the actors and crew on Friday made me even prouder of them. Of course, I loved the first preview on Tuesday, but by Friday

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-5437603875398049272007-10-04T23:37:00.000+01:002007-10-06T21:04:05.790+01:00

Alison has tagged me for a meme. Egads. It's the first time. Okay. Deep breath. Remember to take the phone's mouth piece away while deep breathing. And here we go.List 5 things that certain people (who are not deserving of being your friend anyway) may consider to be "totally lame," but you are, despite the possible stigma, totally proud of. Own it. Tag 5 others. 1. I not only found a bar while

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-89163389390554177522007-10-04T23:34:00.000+01:002007-10-04T23:35:45.199+01:00

George Hunka is blogging again at a new site, reduxing. Read, think, rejoice.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-19548682388045173002007-09-25T23:03:00.000+01:002007-09-25T23:04:32.630+01:00

I Liked The Megalomania So Much, I Bought The Company!Enter a word for your own slogan: Generated by the Advertising Slogan Generator, for all your slogan needs. Get more megalomania slogans.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-46917031688541386032007-09-23T13:44:00.001+01:002007-09-23T13:48:33.188+01:00

I know that I've posted about this before, but I still don't know whether to be happy or disturbed at the search terms that get people to this blog. Lately, I've had a lot of people looking for pictures of Sarkozy (the French president), but now there are people who come here via "seal wrangler" and "pissoir women".As the kids' thumbs push these days, WTF?

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-77354796262685662242007-09-22T19:50:00.001+01:002007-09-22T20:00:06.876+01:00

As far as verbatim theatre in Britain goes, one of the most skilled exponents is actor and playwright, Robin Soans. theatreVOICE has an interview with Robin Soans about the practice here (flash required).One reference point for me before working on my play, These People, was Robin Soans's A State Affair. (As was Peter Weiss's The Investigation.) If you're familiar with These People, you'll note

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-12932110908888536942007-09-14T11:04:00.000+01:002007-09-14T11:28:08.550+01:00

Now that it's up at the Theatre503 website, I can say that for the last month I've been writing a new play, called The Final Shot. The brief has been to write a play for production relatively quickly, with one aim being that the work is evidently of its time.This could bring up all sorts of questions: what are the parameters for being of your time? Days? Weeks? Months? Decades? Happily, I'm

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-37285915477970712222007-09-09T11:44:00.000+01:002007-09-09T11:47:05.996+01:00

This APEC security video is pretty funny. What would our old friend Stanley Milgram think?

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-21962201078203980782007-09-04T13:20:00.000+01:002007-09-04T13:24:10.390+01:00

This is the kind of research I love. It's privately-commissioned research, too. Try imagining the situation at Travelodge HQ.- Hey, guess what.- What?- You're it.- It for what?- A survey.- What survey?- Discarded books.- Which books?- Books left behind.- In guest rooms?- Yep.- How long's that going to take?- As long as it does.I'm a bit disappointed that the period of research isn't mentioned in

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-85083793447540794712007-09-01T12:46:00.000+01:002007-09-01T13:31:38.680+01:00

My good friends at The Production Company in New York are continuing on from last year's Australia Project with 11 new plays from Australian playwrights and their imaginative responses to the idea of the US.Very happily, I'm one the playwrights whose work is featured. The others included are Ross Mueller, Anthony Crowley, Lally Katz, Wesley Enoch, Brendan Cowell, Emma Vuletic, Tommy Murphy,

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-44488729238546139802007-08-29T17:08:00.000+01:002007-08-29T17:19:38.495+01:00

I think directors produce far too many plays from the repertoire. A director thinks himself heroic if he directs a new play in between six plays by Shakespeare or Chekov or Marivaux or Brecht. It simply isn't true that writers who've been dead for one or two or three hundred years tell stories about now. Of course you can find parallels - but I'm afraid no one's going to persuade me there's

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-14901155596157393152007-08-24T17:07:00.000+01:002007-08-24T17:11:57.504+01:00

Here's something that made me weep today. I'm sure that the contrived Tampa episode was worth it, eh Kim, eh Johnny? I'm sure the young man was kept out for reasons of national security. Ha! Make them both Australians of the Year...

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-70710892826882573752007-08-24T12:37:00.000+01:002007-08-24T12:46:41.426+01:00

The Guardian reports today that a theatre company and its audience were arrested in Minsk, Belarus. The play? Eleven Vests by Edward Bond. While governments (mainly in the West) fret about identity and Islam, events like this make me feel that the real issue, wherever you are, is about rights and liberties. That's the dividing line, not religious identification. The Taleban and people like John

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-90007741290219923972007-08-22T00:45:00.000+01:002007-08-22T00:57:35.833+01:00

Lately, I've been deep in writing (and admittedly, for light relief, in scrabbling games on facebook). For instance, today was a day for writing around 7500 words. I feel simultaneously heavy and light-headed. My eyes feel like pots of clag. And I know that if I'm lucky, about 1500-2000 of these words will be useful for the play I'm making. That's been pretty much the pattern of each day for the

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-3437190793592484912007-08-09T13:00:00.000+01:002007-08-09T13:12:03.933+01:00

I tend, for some reason, to try and steer clear of festivals. I guess it's the sense of desperation floating around many of the performers: I feel my whole self dissolving into their justifiable pain and anxiety. It's difficult for me to experience anything, let alone performance, in such hot hot beds.But everything I am reading about Edinburgh this year makes me want to be there right now. If

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-14518647572865065302007-07-26T12:02:00.000+01:002007-07-26T12:07:37.122+01:00

Been writing away like... um... a writer this last week and a half. Mostly rewriting Modern Living @ its Finest and creating a new piece that takes it structure from "war of the sexes" 1970s dramaturgy and warps it around ethnicity, sex and terrorism. Fun. It may even work.Anyway. For all of you who care about people not getting blown up, wherever they live, why not read about R U Ready High?

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-18569665278571612052007-07-20T09:07:00.000+01:002007-07-20T09:12:52.909+01:00

"There are two conclusions one can draw from this," he said to himself. The expenditure of muscular energy made by a citizen quietly going about his business all day long is considerably greater than that of an athlete who lifts a huge weight once a day. Physiologically this has been establish; and so doubtless the social sum-total of little everyday exertions, as a result of their suitability

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-76219596794959330672007-07-17T08:43:00.000+01:002007-07-17T08:46:47.773+01:00

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-10126839801361484522007-07-13T19:40:00.000+01:002007-07-13T19:56:58.394+01:00

Lyn Gardner keeps up her quite brilliant blogging for the Guardian site of late, this time contending that mainstream theatre needs to cultivate its experimental edge.I think that the most interesting paragraph comes via her quotation of Tim Etchells:I think audiences grow around what you do and what you give them. You get the audience you deserve, or the audience you expect, and conservative

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-35289578514096434092007-07-04T19:33:00.000+01:002007-07-04T19:40:48.667+01:00

In news from across the globe, Jean Betts is directing a BATS production of Falling Petals in Wellington, New Zealand. Goes from July 6 - 21. If you're there, let me know how you go with it.And I just found out that some college kids did a production in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, back in May. With a very nice facebook page image:Hope I got royalties. I think I need some new teeth.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-60139944768071473602007-06-29T18:23:00.000+01:002007-06-29T18:41:22.076+01:00

While the UK was experiencing nasty wet weather during summer (and Wimbledon), on the other side of the planet my home town of Bairnsdale was going overboard on flood envy.Regular visitors here will know that back before Christmas I was worried that my parents would end up medium-to-rare in one of the region's worst-ever bushfire seasons. Now I'm concerned that they'll be cut off from

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-56557058826249167042007-06-29T18:21:00.001+01:002007-06-29T18:23:06.923+01:00

Shan's got the second episode of Search for a Scapegoat happening. Amazing what that bastard John Howard will say when he's a puppet.

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-31811368213967209962007-06-16T18:40:00.000+01:002007-06-16T18:43:44.815+01:00

Shan tells me that this is the first episode of a series. On the basis of this one, let's hope he cranks them out:

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-73392183940430227202007-06-06T16:15:00.001+01:002007-06-06T16:17:53.399+01:00

Not sure who did this, but she or he is a gem. (Anybody out there know?)

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-31459603623564610352007-06-03T13:42:00.000+01:002007-06-03T13:54:07.088+01:00

So that's what it was all about.Mind you, I do feel that the sub-editor at the Observer is playing lazy games with Hytner by setting up his response as a simplistic challenge. ("Dear theatre critics: why not see a film?") The conversation that Hytner wants to provoke doesn't seem to be about age but rather about extending the range of criteria by which we engage with the art of theatre. It's

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-47877933586845890672007-06-02T18:28:00.000+01:002007-06-02T18:54:34.891+01:00

Bloody hell. There's so much to catch up on.First of all, I've recently started work as the part-time Administrative Assistant at the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, where fellow blogger, Benjamin Yeoh, currently has his translation/adaptation of Nakamitsu playing. As Aleks Sierz points out, this muscular text is served by a quite brilliant production from directors Jonathan Munby and Michael

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-133859087916221462007-05-30T00:17:00.000+01:002007-05-30T00:28:01.764+01:00

1) Locate kitchen table.2) Get kitchen scissors and apply to notes. Be careful to avoid fruit, candles and (optional) sunglasses. And...3) Eccola! That, kids, is what you call a "mess". More soon...

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11633793.post-25262071692284071502007-05-07T21:52:00.000+01:002007-10-19T09:50:12.907+01:00

Tony Blair has decided to congratulate the newly elected French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, in French:and in English:What a tete de merde (if I was going to be really bilingually rude, I might say, what a con). You might like to note that it takes Blair 3 minutes 43 seconds in French to say what he takes 2 minutes 32 seconds to say in English.Opting to speak in French is going to be the final

Ben Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16654820455368893078noreply@blogger.com1