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gordonwilliamsweb · 3 years ago

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Veterans Push for Medical Marijuana in Conservative South

RALEIGH, N.C. — Each time Chayse Roth drives home to North Carolina, he notices the highway welcome signs that declare: “Nation’s Most Military Friendly State.”

“That’s a powerful thing to claim,” said Roth, a former Marine Corps gunnery sergeant who served multiple deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Now he says he’s calling on the state to live up to those words. A Wilmington resident, Roth is advocating for lawmakers to pass a bill that would legalize medical marijuana and allow veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and other debilitating conditions to use it for treatment.

“I’ve lost more men to suicide since we went to Afghanistan in ’01 than I have in combat,” said Roth, who said he doesn’t use cannabis himself but wants others to have the option. “It’s just unacceptable for these guys to go overseas and win the battle and come home and lose the battle to themselves.”

He is among several veterans brought together by a recently formed advocacy group called NC Families for Medical Cannabis. These veterans have testified before the legislature and visited lawmakers individually.

In a state that’s home to eight military bases, one of the largest veteran populations in the country and a Republican-controlled legislature that prides itself on supporting the troops, they hope their voices will act as a crucial lever to push through a bill that has faced opposition in the past.

“If we really want to be the most veteran-friendly state in the union, this is just another thing we can do to solidify that statement,” Roth said.

From California to Massachusetts, veterans have been active in the push for medical marijuana legalization for decades. But now, as the movement focuses on the remaining 14 states that have not enacted comprehensive medical marijuana programs or full marijuana legalization, their voices may have outsize influence, experts say.

Many of these remaining states are in the traditionally conservative South and dominated by Republican legislatures. “The group carrying the message here makes a huge difference,” said Julius Hobson Jr., a former lobbyist for the American Medical Association who now teaches lobbying at George Washington University. “When you’ve got veterans coming in advocating for that, and they’re considered to be a more conservative bunch of folks, that has more impact.”

Veterans also have the power of numbers in many of these states, Hobson said. “That’s what gives them clout.”

Successes are already evident. In Texas and Louisiana, veterans played a key role in the recent expansion of medical marijuana programs. In Mississippi, they supported a successful ballot initiative for medical cannabis in 2020, though the result was later overturned by the state Supreme Court. And in Alabama, the case of an out-of-state veteran arrested and jailed for possession of medical marijuana incited national outrage and calls for legalization. The state legalized medical marijuana earlier this year.

To be sure, not every veteran supports these efforts, and the developments in red states have been influenced by other factors: advocacy from cancer patients and parents whose children have epilepsy, lawmakers who see this as a states’ rights issue, a search for alternative pain relief amid the opioid epidemic and a push from industries seeking economic gains.

But the attention to the addiction and suicide epidemics among veterans, and calls to give them more treatment options, are also powerful forces.

In states like North Carolina, where statewide ballot initiatives are banned, veterans can kick-start a conversation with lawmakers who hold the power to make change, said Garrett Perdue, the son of former North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue and a spokesperson for NC Families for Medical Cannabis and CEO of Root Bioscience, a company that makes hemp products.

“It fits right in with the general assembly’s historical support of those communities,” Perdue said. “For [lawmakers] to hear stories of those people that are trusted to protect us and enforce the right of law” and see them as advocates for this policy “is pretty compelling.”

Gary Hess, a Marine Corps veteran from Louisiana, said he first realized the power of his platform in 2019, when he testified in front of the state legislature about seeing friends decapitated by explosions, reliving the trauma day-to-day, taking a cocktail of prescription medications that did little to help his symptoms and finally finding relief with cannabis. His story resonated with lawmakers who had served in the military themselves, Hess said.

He recalled one former colonel serving in the Louisiana House telling him: “They’re not going to say no to a veteran because of the crisis you’re all in. As someone who is put together well and can tell the story of marijuana’s efficacy, you have a powerful platform.”

Hess has since started his own nonprofit to advocate for medical marijuana legalization and has traveled to other state and national events, including hearings before the North Carolina legislature.

“Once I saw the power my story had,” he said, “the goal became: How do I expedite this process for others?”

Experts trace the push for medical marijuana legalization back to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s, particularly in California’s Bay Area.

As the movement tried to expand, medical marijuana activists realized other regions were not as sympathetic to the LGBTQ community, said Lee Hannah, an associate professor of political science at Wright State University who is writing a book about the rise of legal marijuana in the U.S. They had to find “more target populations that evoke sympathy, understanding and support,” Hannah said.

Over time, the medical marijuana conversation grew from providing symptom relief for patients with AIDS to include such conditions as cancer, pediatric epilepsy and PTSD, Hannah and his colleagues noted in a 2020 research paper. With each condition added, the movement gained wider appeal.

“It helped change the view of who a marijuana user is,” said Daniel Mallinson, a co-author on the 2020 paper and the upcoming book with Hannah, and an assistant professor at the Penn State-Harrisburg School of Public Affairs. “That makes it more palatable in these legislatures where it wouldn’t have been before.”

In 2009, New Mexico became the first state to make PTSD patients eligible for medical marijuana. The condition has since been included in most state medical marijuana programs.

The movement got another boost in 2016 when the American Legion, a veterans organization with 1.8 million members known for its conservative politics, urged Congress to remove marijuana from its list of prohibited drugs and allow research into its medical uses.

“I think knowing an organization like the American Legion supports it frankly gives [lawmakers] a little bit of political cover to do something that they may have all along supported but had concerns about voter reaction,” said Lawrence Montreuil, the group’s legislative director.

In Texas, when the Republican governor recently approved a law expanding the state’s limited medical marijuana program, he tweeted: “Veterans could qualify for medical marijuana under new law. I will sign it.”

It’s smart political messaging, Hannah said. Elected officials “are always looking to paint laws they support in the most positive light, and the approval rate of veterans is universally high.”

Nationally, veteran-related marijuana bills seem to be among the few cannabis-related reforms that have gained bipartisan support. Bills with Democratic and Republican co-sponsors in Congress this session deal with promoting research into medical marijuana treatment for veterans, allowing Veterans Affairs doctors to discuss cannabis with patients in states where it is legal and protecting veterans from federal penalization for using state-legalized cannabis.

Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), who has co-sponsored two bipartisan bills concerning veterans and medical marijuana this session, said the interest of veterans is “what drew me to cannabis in the first place.”

In North Carolina, veterans like Roth and Hess, along with various advocacy groups, continue to drum up support for the medical marijuana bill. They know it’s a long battle. The bill must clear several Senate committees, a full Senate vote and then repeat the process in the House. But Roth said he’s optimistic “the veteran aspect of it will be heavily considered by lawmakers.”

An early indication of that came at a Senate committee hearing earlier this summer. Standing at the podium, Roth scrolled through his phone to show lawmakers how many of his veteran contacts were now dead due to suicide. Other veterans testified about the times they had contemplated suicide and how the dozens of prescription medications they had tried before cannabis had done little to quiet those thoughts.

The hearing room was silent as each person spoke. At the end, the lawmakers stood and gave a round of applause “for those veterans who are with us today and those who are not.”

The bill later passed that committee with a nearly unanimous vote.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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stephenmccull · 3 years ago

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Veterans Push for Medical Marijuana in Conservative South

RALEIGH, N.C. — Each time Chayse Roth drives home to North Carolina, he notices the highway welcome signs that declare: “Nation’s Most Military Friendly State.”

“That’s a powerful thing to claim,” said Roth, a former Marine Corps gunnery sergeant who served multiple deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“If we really want to be the most veteran-friendly state in the union, this is just another thing we can do to solidify that statement,” Roth said.

Veterans also have the power of numbers in many of these states, Hobson said. “That’s what gives them clout.”

But the attention to the addiction and suicide epidemics among veterans, and calls to give them more treatment options, are also powerful forces.

Hess has since started his own nonprofit to advocate for medical marijuana legalization and has traveled to other state and national events, including hearings before the North Carolina legislature.

“Once I saw the power my story had,” he said, “the goal became: How do I expedite this process for others?”

Experts trace the push for medical marijuana legalization back to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s, particularly in California’s Bay Area.

In 2009, New Mexico became the first state to make PTSD patients eligible for medical marijuana. The condition has since been included in most state medical marijuana programs.

It’s smart political messaging, Hannah said. Elected officials “are always looking to paint laws they support in the most positive light, and the approval rate of veterans is universally high.”

The hearing room was silent as each person spoke. At the end, the lawmakers stood and gave a round of applause “for those veterans who are with us today and those who are not.”

The bill later passed that committee with a nearly unanimous vote.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

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florrickandassociates · 7 years ago

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TGF Thoughts: 2x06-- Day 443

Sorry for the delay, guys. I liked this episode but for some reason I found it super boring to rewatch and kept putting off writing this. (I think you will be able to tell that I was writing this just to write something.)

A chair sits in a brightly lit, half unfinished room. This turns out to be the studio where Adrian is recording an interview with Cable News (they say it like it’s a proper noun in this episode so I’ve decided it is). Adrian looks uncomfortable doing this—the strange room, the logistics of the interview, the soundcheck, the unmanned camera.

We only hear Adrian’s side of the interview, and we have no context for it, so it sounds awkward. He misgenders someone (he can’t see the rest of the panel) (this is just like s5 Alicia!) and makes a comment about a case and then it’s over.

When Adrian arrives at the office, he’s wearing a black baseball cap. I am not sure why but it’s a look.

Marissa applauds him when he gets off the elevator—apparently the ten words he said were super impressive. Marissa also informs Adrian that Diane and Julius are in his office and there’s a visitor there for him. What, exactly, is Marissa’s job?

There are still boxes left over from the party. That’s a lot of booze.

“The next time they ask me to be a pundit, tell me no,” Adrian laughs, thinking he made a fool of himself.

“Wait, wait, wait, we’ve got to discuss Lucca,” Diane says as Adrian starts to leave. “We can’t ask her if she’s pregnant. It’s illegal,” Julius explains. “And Lucca’s not saying anything,” Adrian understands. The partners quickly realize that Lucca’s not saying anything specifically so she isn’t bumped from “the biggest case of the year” which goes to trial in two months.

Julius’s solution is to “talk to her friend Maia” to get info about Lucca’s pregnancy. Well, that’s shitty. Also, where is Liz? In this episode, but also in this scene specifically. We get Julius for this but not the name partner who is a mother?

The dude involved in the Peeper case Adrian referenced on Cable News shows up in the conference room, wanting Adrian to represent him.

And it’s Adrian’s lucky day, because a prominent Chicago lawyer we’ve never heard of is in reception too! Diane seems more impressed by him than I would think, since I was long under the impression that Diane Lockhart was supposed to be one of the biggest names in the Chicago legal world.

Ok I take that back, this Franz dude says “And Diane Lockhart, I know you,” when after introducing himself to Adrian. Ok, good.

He also knows Julius. Where has Julius been these past few episodes? I thought he was a series regular. Maybe he went for a visit to the New York office. Or he was spending time with the six children he has.

Franz was impressed with Adrian’s Cable News appearance too. It apparently has 300,000 likes.

Franz tries to stand while everyone from RBL sits, and Adrian won’t let him. I’m reminded of the Supreme Court Superlawyer in W4x09 who preached at Diane, Will, and Alicia. Adrian remains standing, so Franz can’t literally talk down to him.

Then some weird pantomiming of fighting happens. I am unsure what is going on, but I do know that Adrian’s air punches have been gifed and are on GIPHY or something, because on my commute home one day this week I looked up for a second and saw a gif of Adrian from this scene on someone else’s phone screen. (Sadly, he selected another, non-TGF gif to use in his conversation.)

Oh, we are talking about Wilk Hobson again. I didn’t realize he was in multiple episodes—I only remembered him from 2x05—but he popped up last night when I was rewatching 4x17, and IMDb says he’s also in 2x10.

Franz wants to talk about the lawyer killings. In fact, he informs RBL, “the big six firms have been meeting over the past few weeks to discuss how to address this problem.” I’ve never heard of the Big Six firms, but I guess that makes sense. If all firms in Fictional Chicago go through as much turmoil as LG always did, I can definitely believe there’s an alliance of six firms we’ve never heard of before.

Franz extends RBL an invitation to meet with the Big Six, because he saw Adrian on Cable News.

After the meeting, Diane and Adrian are shocked and Julius is so excited he’s had to leave the room (lol no he’s just disappeared without an explanation again). “What DID you say on Cable News?” Diane asks.

Now we get to see the Cable News panel from the other side, and I’m still not sure why what Adrian said is impressive. It lasts for about five seconds and he offers some mild pushback. That’s it. I feel like if you’re going to bother with showing something from one perspective and then later filling in the blanks, the scene should make sense the second time around. It still seems awkward and abrupt to me, and even though I’ve seen the episode and know what Peeper is, I don’t get what Adrian’s talking about. I am not sure what would get this clip 300,000 likes?

Diane and Marissa (who’s popped up because… idk she has) encourage Adrian to go on Cable News again.

The fact that Adrian has a framed picture of himself with Obama is fantastic but it doesn’t really help me believe that his office is anything other than Diane’s office, redecorated. Just swap out the Hillary/Diane pic for an Obama/Adrian one…

Adrian was doubting his Cable News abilities, but not anymore!

Julius goes to talk to Maia about Lucca’s pregnancy. Maia is at a table rather than a work station and Julius asks why. “I got here too late,” Maia says. Why would you tell your boss that, Maia? I can’t imagine RBK is chill with people strolling in whenever they want (though actually, maybe they would have a flex hours program) and you probs shouldn’t tell a partner that you arrived to work too late to grab a desk.

Julius asks Maia about Lucca’s “condition” and they both know what he’s talking about. “I think she wants to be thought of as a lawyer and not an expectant mother,” Maia explains. Yeah, something like that. And Lucca’s not even slightly wrong to assume her pregnancy would affect things.

Case in point: seconds after Maia says this, Julius doubles back to ask Maia to take the lead on the next step in Lucca’s big case. Maia is stunned and runs after Julius to protest her new assignment. It’s Lucca’s case, after all. When Maia asks why she’s been put in charge of the motion, Julius says “I’m a partner, and you’re an associate, and I want you to take it.” Good ‘ol Julius. I think he takes pleasure in lording his power over underlings.

“Is this about Lucca’s condition?” Maia asks. Um, yes, it obviously is. Equally obvious is that Julius would never say that out loud.

“No. It’s about you having a chance to be first chair,” Julius replies.

“Does Lucca know?” Maia asks next. “No. Go ahead and tell her!” Julius tells Maia. Seriously, he sounds delighted to give Maia this task.

Maia immediately goes to inform Lucca. “You are different since your ride-along,” Lucca observes after Maia makes a comment about being fine without a desk. What? First Maia was different after prison, now she’s different after her ride-along… can we stop saying Maia’s changed so much? And if we’re going to stick with that narrative, can it at least be consistent? I don’t even understand what her ride-along would’ve changed or how her comment about desks is possibly related to it.

Lucca jumps right into talking about the case, and Maia hesitantly tells her about what Julius asked her to do. Lucca asks why, and Maia says she doesn’t know, but Julius was asking about her “condition.” Lucca just goes, “Oh, fuck.” She’s not thrilled that the partners are assuming things about her work performance.

“You haven’t even told me, and I’m your friend,” Maia says. … Lucca is v obviously pregnant (she’s showing!). But, as she says, it’s not that she’s unaware that others can tell—it’s at least in part “just having those words [I’m pregnant] come out of my mouth. It feels weird.”

“Now, here’s the other worry. I’m on the partner track. For the first time in my career, I have some traction. And now I’m worried they’ll use… this to penalize me,” Lucca explains.

This prompts Maia to say what may be the smartest thing I’ve ever heard Maia say: that the partners can’t legally penalize Lucca for her pregnancy, but if she continues to keep it a secret, they can blame “performance” and make moves against her without being liable.

I do not remember much about the opposing counsel in the COTW, Amber Wood Lutz, but I remember that she was on last season and I expected her to become a recurring player. And here we are again.

“Every time a new lawyer is killed, I think of you,” she tells Adrian. I definitely don’t remember this rivalry. It was probably a thing. I just don’t remember it.

Mike from Veep is a judge now! He keeps saying that trials are nothing like what we see on TV. He even makes the same comments twice. The point—which could’ve been conveyed in far fewer lines, IMO—is that this trial is going to become extremely theatrical (even by TGW/F standards) since Adrian’s in Cable News mode.

This case is not that interesting. It could be, but it’s not much more than an excuse to talk about the alt-right and neo-Nazis. So, I probably won’t comment on it much, if at all.

Diane and Adrian head from court to a meeting of the Big Six Plus RBL, which is being held in a space that looks like the Cheesecake Factory but for people who think they’re too classy for the Cheesecake Factory.

Amber Wood Lutz is also in the Big Six. Adrian believes this is because they are “pretending to be diverse.”

I really don’t know how I’m forgetting this Amber/Adrian rivalry from last season. It’s quite intense.

Oh God, I’m only just at the credits? Can you tell from how sloppy my writing is that I just want to get this written? This episode wasn’t bad and it wasn’t great. It wasn’t even that interesting. I like writing about things that give me a lot to chew on, and I like writing about things that are so terrible I can rant for pages. Recapping something boring… is boring.

This episode was written and directed by women! (Finally.)

RBL is asked to donate $40,000 pretty much immediately after they sit down at the table. The widow of a wealthy lawyer needs $40,000 donations from seven firms? Why the fuck does she need $280k?

“We are being hunted,” Franz says. The show would like us to believe, at least to an extent, that the lawyer killings aren’t being investigated thoroughly because the police and lawyers aren’t friendly and everyone hates lawyers.

Now we get a rehash of the debate about giving the police your firm’s client list that we already heard in 2x03. That reminds me, when do we get to learn more about Liz’s husband?

Adrian comes up with a good next step for the Big Six. And then he’s on Cable News again (okay, it’s called Review of the Day). This time, he isn’t doing an interview remotely, but it’s the same show. If the show was in Chicago this whole time, why was Adrian doing the interview remotely from a studio in the first place?

There is another black man on the panel that night—“I’m the young, angry activist. You’re the older Obama statesman. That’s the only way they keep two black pundits on the panel, if we both stick to our lanes,” the other panelist warns. Adrian waves this advice off.

There’s been another lawyer killing, only this one may be racially motivated as well. Or, at least, that’s what Cable News thinks. This goes about as well as anyone who has ever watched a panel on actual cable news would expect, which is to say that people start screaming at each other about racism and making claims they can’t support based off of baseless assumptions they’ve made.

Adrian then insults Asshole Panelist and says he’s being overpaid to “ignorantly yap your mouth off.” Heh. I get why that one might go viral.

This makes the other panelists mad. Asshole Panelist thinks Adrian is playing high and mighty and the other black panelist accuses him of intentionally coming after his job. Even the host isn’t thrilled: Adrian mentioned money, and you’re not supposed to mention money.

Adrian’s second appearance is poorly received by some of his peers, even though this time, he was sure of what he was doing. Diane (playfully) accuses Adrian of intentionally stirring up trouble, and Adrian doesn’t deny it. Instead, he smiles and laughs.

For some reason there is a young woman who wants an autograph in reception at Adrian’s office. Don’t y’all have security?

Case stuff happens.

Lucca waits nervously to talk to the partners. She chats with Marissa a little and informs her of her pregnancy. “I’m telling everyone now,” she says. Marissa says she’s going to throw Lucca a shower—with a stripper. I want to see that! The shower, not the stripper. (Though…)

The partners congratulate Lucca when she shares her news. It seems genuine enough, and I’d love to believe that the partners won’t hold Lucca’s pregnancy against her. It’s certainly possible not to! I just need to see it to believe it with these people at this firm on this show.

“The birth date is scheduled for May 22nd,” Lucca says. It’s SCHEDULED? Honey. I’ve never spent any time around babies and even I know that you can’t make a baby obey your schedule. Lucca claims she’ll be back at work on the 25th. I’m curious to see how Lucca’s priorities and expectations shift over the course of the season. I think it’s very reasonable that she would want to keep working and I definitely don’t expect—or want—to have that choice invalidated. But a lot of what Lucca’s saying right now sounds more like denial of the realities of being a parent and nervousness about losing the things that are part of her identity than an actual plan for parenting.

Julius Cain is the father of six. I am assuming he doesn’t spend much time with any of his SIX kids given that there are six of them, and in nine years we’ve never heard about a single one. Poor Julius. The writing for him seems to consist of excuses for why he’s been absent and revelations that are out of left field. (Though I do buy that he’s the father of six. If you told me he was the father of six and he was very involved in his kids’ lives, I might have a problem believing that.)

Yeah, the partners are just putting on a show. They’re still going to watch Lucca very carefully. And they’re going to keep Maia ready to step in. If this case is so big, why is MAIA the backup plan? No offense to Maia (or maybe offense to Maia)—she hasn’t proven herself capable of this so why would the partners trust her with a big case?

The Big Six are back at Fancy Cheesecake Factory because that’s their favorite spot. I don’t even know what’s going on. It’s about police suits. I don’t care, since I know this whole conversation is lead-up to the reveal about Franz trying to woo RBL into dropping their police brutality suits so he’ll get more business from the police. It’s also a theoretical debate about issues I can’t have a stance on because they’re created for the show. Are the police failing to investigate lawyer killings? I mean, IDK, because the lawyer killings are fiction.

JULIUS wants to pursue police brutality cases and DIANE wants to drop them because “it’s worth every fucking irritation in the world!!!” to sit with the Big Six? What kind of opposite land is this where the Trump voter wants to hold the police accountable and the Hillary voter who gives no fucks is obsessed with status? (I don’t think it’s out of character for Diane to consider trading her values for status. I just think it’s weird that right now Diane is concerned with status, and also that she’s literally screaming at Julius about this.)

ALSO WHERE IS LIZ?

Lucca and Colin are in court with Judge Friend (hello!) and Colin tries to move the trial out by four months, to the week Lucca’s due in May.

OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE WRITERS, DID YOU NAME THE EPISODES AFTER REAL-TIME DATES JUST TO DRIVE ME MAD? Lucca and Colin hooked up after the Rindell case (202), but that was five months ago, even though it was the 415th day of the Trump administration and this is the 443rd day. And the 443rd day is in April, but May is four months away. Writers. If the dates aren’t going to have any bearing on the timeline of the show, maybe pick a different gimmick? Plus, it’s fucking annoying to memorize numbers.

Lucca and Colin fight in an elevator about the timing. Colin is more than a little annoyed that Lucca seems to be expecting him to ignore her pregnancy. While I agree that Lucca is expecting everyone to just ignore it, I feel like maybe if Colin wants Lucca to be more open with him, he should be supportive of her and her decisions and not incessantly propose to her (when it should be obvious to anyone who has ever met Lucca she would not want that) slash lash out against her in court.

Apparently Colin knows—or Lucca believes he does—that Maia would be the one to try the case if Lucca couldn’t. Why would Colin know that? And again, why would this fall on Maia?

Marissa hatches a plan because she believes Franz has ulterior motives. In a cafeteria, she chats with his assistant. His very chatty assistant. Turns out he wants the business of the police.

Case stuff happens. The jury is totally captivated by Television Personality Adrian Boseman, and the judge isn’t having it and tries to tell Adrian not to play to the jury. Diane objects and asks what, specifically, Adrian is doing wrong, and for the judge to rule on her objection.

“To quote a lawyer that I respected, ‘I want a ruling that I can appeal,’” Diane explains. Awwww, it’s a Will reference! (Will says this in W116, to Judge Lessner). IMO, these small, subtle references to Will are meant to show that Diane’s thinking about her former partner. And how could she not be thinking about him each time another lawyer is murdered?

Diane did not witness Will asking for a ruling he could appeal, so I imagine he must have told her the story at some point. Since there’s already a scene in W116 where Will recaps his case to Diane (he’s talking about auditioning for Bishop and groveling), it’s so easy to picture a conversation between them about this moment.

Back at Fancy Cheesecake Factory, Adrian and Diane fuck shit up by announcing that Franz is trying to land the business of the police (and that’s the only reason he invited RBL to the meetings in the first place). When the lawyers start arguing over one another, Diane and Adrian, satisfied with the mess they’ve made, leave. Hehe.

Lucca and Colin haven’t settled on a court date, so Lucca decides to tell Judge Friend that she’s pregnant and Colin’s the father. I don’t have much to say but it’s a really fun scene.

Colin shows up at Lucca’s office and explains his motivations. He didn’t want Lucca off the case: he wanted Lucca to be able to relax and not be stressed about the case! “This was for your benefit!” he says. “Oh my God. I didn’t think this could get any worse, but here we go,” Lucca responds accurately.

Colin is concerned Lucca might miscarry if she’s stressed. He asks if he can be even a little concerned, and she says that he can’t. Especially not if he’s going to express his concern that way!! Lucca also says she regrets having sex with Colin, and Colin’s all “I didn’t regret it.” Sigh. Lucca’s turned him down so many times. If there’s a way to win Lucca over—and there might not be!—this is definitely NOT it.

Anyway, Colin has info to help in the Peeper case. Which means that more case stuff happens and RBL wins.

Adrian calls Marissa (at work) to thank her for finding dirt on Franz. And to give her a 10% raise. “This is the first raise I’ve ever gotten,” she replies. “First of many, I’m sure,” he says. Aww. I like what they’re doing with Marissa and Adrian this year. It’s clear she respects him, and also clear that he’s recognizing her work when she does a good job (also clear is the fact she is doing a good job).

Adrian goes back on Cable News and finds out that J.D. (the young black man) is no longer on the panel.

On the panel, Asshole Panelist starts crying reverse racism. Adrian decides to burn all bridges with the show and its inanity, and he tries to stir shit up by getting the white panelists to say the n-word. Heh. Diane watches the clip (with a glass of wine and, likely, some drugs) at her desk and laughs.

Then she swivels around in her chair and hallucinates the Trump Mask People fucking. She laughs even harder. How many scenes of Diane laughing loudly is too many? I don’t think there could ever be too many scenes of Diane laughing.

I love Adrian not giving a fuck about what the host of the show has to say. He tells him off and then the ep ends with Adrian looking at himself in the mirror. This is a much better Adrian-centric episode than last week’s effort.

#I'M DONE WITH WRITING THIS!! FINALLY!!!#it's not even like it's a long post by my standards #The good fight #TGFThoughts

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londontheatre · 7 years ago

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Steffan Rhodri and Nathaniel Parker in THIS HOUSE at Chichester Festival Theatre. Photo by Johan Persson

Rehearsals began today (Monday 22nd January 2018) for the first UK tour of This House, which opens at West Yorkshire Playhouse on 23 February (national press night 28 February). The cast – who play a colourful host of MPs and Whips – is Ian Barritt (Batley & Morley/Woolwich West/Belfast North/Western Isles & Ensemble), William Chubb (Humphrey Atkins), Giles Cooper (Fred Silvester), Stephen Critchlow (Bromsgrove/Abingdon/Liverpool Edge Hill/Paisley/Fermanagh & Ensemble), James Gaddas (Walter Harrison), Natalie Grady (Ann Taylor), Ian Houghton (Armagh, Ambulance Man, Ensemble), David Hounslow (Joe Harper), Marcus Hutton (Ensemble), Harry Kershaw (Paddington South/Chelmsford/South Ayrshire/Henley/Marioneth /Coventry North West/Rushcliffe/Perry Barr & Ensemble), Louise Ludgate (Rochester & Chatham/Welwyn & Hatfield/Coventry South West/Ilford North/Lady Batley & Ensemble), Geoffrey Lumb (Clockmaker/Peebles/Redditch/Stirlingshire West/Clerk & Ensemble), Nicholas Lumley (Oxshott/Belfast West/St Helens & Ensemble), Martin Marquez (Bob Mellish), Matthew Pidgeon (Jack Weatherill), Miles Richardson (Speaker Act I/Mansfield/Sergeant at Arms Act II/West Lothian & Ensemble), Tony Turner (Michael Cocks), Orlando Wells (Walsall North/Plymouth Sutton/Serjeant at Arms Act I/Speaker Act II/Caernarfon/Clerk & Ensemble) and Charlotte Worthing (Ensemble). Ian Houghton, David Hounslow, Matthew Pidgeon, Tony Turner and Orlando Wells return to This House having previously appeared in the West End production.

James Graham’s critically acclaimed and prescient political drama takes on a new importance in the current political climate. Are we in the midst of a political revolution? Can the country stay united? Roll back to 1974… The corridors of Westminster ring with the sound of infighting and back biting as Britain’s political parties’ battle to change the future of the nation, whatever it takes.

In an era of chaos, both hilarious and shocking, when votes are won or lost by one, there are fist fights in the parliamentary bars, high-stakes tricks and games are played, and sick MPs are carried through the lobby to register their crucial votes as the government hangs by a thread. This House strips politics down to the practical realities of those behind the scenes; the whips who roll up their sleeves and on occasion bend the rules to shepherd and coerce a diverse chorus of MPs within the Mother of all Parliaments.

Directed by Jeremy Herrin with Jonathan O’Boyle, the production is designed by Rae Smith with lighting design by Paule Constable and Ben Pickersgill on tour, music by Stephen Warbeck, choreography by Scott Ambler and sound by Ian Dickinson.

This House is produced on tour by Jonathan Church Productions and Headlong.

Cast Ian Barritt – Batley & Morley/Woolwich West/Belfast North/Western Isles & Ensemble Theatre includes: The Life of Galileo, The Alchemist (National Theatre), The Shawshank Redemption (UK Tour), Rebecca (UK Tour) Handbagged, Remarkable Invisible (The Theatre by the Lake, Keswick), The Lower Depths (Arcola), Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Tempest, Troilus and Cressida (Tobacco Factory), Other Desert Cities (English Theatre of Frankfurt), Othello (Sheffield Crucible), Uncle Vanya (Bristol Old Vic/Galway Festival), Kes, Separate Tables (Manchester Royal Exchange), Richard II, Corionlanus (Almeida/New York/Tokyo), Gates of Gold (Manchester Library), One Night In November (Coventry Belgrade).Television includes: Wolf Hall, The Musketeers, Attila The Hun, Doctor Who, Upstairs Downstairs, Doctors, Foyle’s War, Life On Mars, Only Fools and Horse.

William Chubb – Humphrey Atkins Theatre includes: Racing Demon (Theatre Royal Bath), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, King Lear (Old Vic), In The Depths of Dead Love (The Print Room), Lawrence After Arabia (Hampstead Theatre), Waste, Great Britain, Othello, Scenes from an Execution (National Theatre), Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Vortex, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Love’s Labours Lost (Rose Theatre, Kingston), Yes Prime Minister (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End), The History Boys (National Theatre), The Sea (Theatre Royal Haymarket). Television includes: Close to the Enemy, My Baby, Breathless, Edge of Heaven, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Law and Order, Silk, The Bill. Films include: 6 Days, Adrift in Soho, Tees, Veer, Affair of the Necklace, Mrs Caldicot’s Cabbage War, Milk, The Woodlanders.

Giles Cooper – Fred Silvester Theatre includes: The Duchess of Malfi, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Henry V (Shakespeare’s Globe), People, After the Dance (National Theatre), As Is (Arion Productions), Great Expectations (ETT), The Talented Mr Ripley (Northampton Royal), Trilby (Finborough), Dreams of Violence (Soho/Out of Joint), Think Global, F**k Local (Royal Court/Out of Joint), A Touch of the Sun (Salisbury Playhouse), Rafts and Dreams (Royal Court), The Witches (West End), Full Circle (Triumph Ent.), The Witches (Birmingham Rep), Twelfth Night (Bolton Octagon), Across Oka, Rafts and Dreams (Manchester Royal Exchange). Television Includes: Hollyoaks, Consenting Adults. Film includes: The Lady in the Van, Pride, Apollo and the Continents, The Nun.

Stephen Critchlow – Bromsgrove/Abingdon/Liverpool Edge Hill/Paisley/Fermanagh & Ensemble Theatre includes: Filthy Business, Loyalty (Hampstead Theatre), The Men From The Ministry Reloaded (The White Bear), The 39 Steps (The Criterion Theatre), Pygmalion (The Albery Theatre), Hamlet (West End), Cyrano De Bergerac (National Theatre), A Christmas Carol, The Relapse, When We Are Married (Birmingham Rep), Soap, Time of My Life, Twelfth Night, (Theatre Royal Northampton), The Game of Love and Chance (Salisbury Playhouse), Round The Horne Revisited (UK Tour). Television includes: Downton Abbey, Guerrilla, Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Prince And The Pauper, Cider With Rosie, Heartbeat, Red Dwarf 11, Miranda, Coronation Street, Casualty, Holby City, Doctors, Skins, Hattie, Fantabuloza, The Armando Iannucci show, The Railway Murder, The Thieving Headmistress, Trial And Retribution, Blue Murder, Daziel and Pascoe, The Vice, Without Motive, Heartbeat, Walking on the Moon, Baggy Trousers, A Likeness in Stone, A Line in the Sand, The Vice, Back Up, The Bill, Monarch of the Glen. Film includes: A Way Through The Woods, Fogbound, The Calcium Kid, Churchill The Hollywood Years.

James Gaddas – Walter Harrison Theatre includes: The Girls (Phoenix Theatre), Billy Elliot (Palace Theatre), Mamma Mia (Novello), Spamalot (UK Tour), Art (Wyndhams Theatre), Peter Pan (Curve, Leicester), The Messiah (West Yorkshire Playhouse), You Never Know Who’s Out There (Drill Hall), A Passionate Woman (Comedy), Jackie, A Chorus of Disapproval (Lyric Hammersmith), Three Guys Naked From The Waist Down, (Donmar Warehouse). Television Includes: Bad Girls, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Waterloo Road, Against The Law, Casualty, Holby City, The Camomile Lawn, Medics, Class Act, Troubles, The Bill, Backup, Dogtown, Vincent, Jonathan Creek, Grafters, Heartbeat, Between The Lines, Secrets, El Cid. Film Includes: Starter For Ten, The Human Bomb, Girl’s Night, The Black Candle, Dead Man’s Folly, A Hazard of Hearts, The Pied Piper, Last Days Of Summer.

Natalie Grady – Ann Taylor Theatre includes: Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Storyhouse Chester), Brassed Off (Oldham Coliseum), Marth, Josie and The Chinese Elvis (Hull Truck), To Kill a Mockingbird (Regent’s Park Theatre/ UK Tour), Hobson’s Choice (Bolton Octagon). Television Includes: Hollyoaks, Snatch, Trollied, Endeavour, 6 Wives, Coronation Street, Doctors, Jam and Jerusalem.

Marcus Hutton – Understudy Marcus trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre includes: Private Lives (Nottingham Playhouse), Naomi (The Gate), Slave Island, Don Juan (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Scarlet Pimpernel (Wolsey Ipswich), Crusade (Theatre Royal Stratford East), She Stoops to Conquer (Oxford Stage Company), Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Exeter Northcott), Tess of the D’urbevilles (Horseshoe Basingstoke), Flags and Bandages (Colchester Mercury), Reeling (New Vic Productions), The Lady from the Sea (Portlands Playhouse), Secrets of Cherry on the Run (Riverside Studios), Table Manners (UK Tour), Sound of Murder (UK Tour), Dial M for Murder (UK Tour), Kiss Chase (UK Tour), The Ghost and Mrs Muir (UK Tour), Dangerous Obsession (UK Tour), Suddenly at Home (UK Tour), Jeckyll and Hyde (UK Tour), What the Butler Saw (UK Tour), The Wind in the Willows (UK Tour). Film includes: Made in Dagenham, I’m Here, Cycle, Deep in the Woods, The Dark Channel, The Wager, Framed, Grandma.Television includes: Midsomer Murders, Making Beach, Holby City, Dr Who, Love Hurts, Lovejoy, Diana: Her True Story, A Class Act, The New Professionals, The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Crocodile Shoes, Smack The Pony, Hollyoaks, Brookside. Marcus is a founder member of the Radio City Theatre Company.

Ian Houghton – Armagh, Ambulance Man, Ensemble Theatre includes: War Horse (New London Theatre), This House (West End), The Audience, Yes, Prime Minister (Gielgud Theatre), Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (UK Tour), The Best Man (UK Tour), Boeing Boeing (UK Tour), The Fastest Clock in the Universe (Old Red Lion), Unrestless (Old Vic New Voices), What’s Wrong with Angry? (King’s Head) Moonlight and Magnolias (Hertford Theatre), Woman in Mind, Oliver! (Gordon Craig Theatre) Decade (Theatre503), Art, Gagarin Way, Journey’s End, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, The Government Inspector, Incorruptible, Absurd Person Singular, Noises Off (The Company of Players). Television includes: Harley and the Davidsons, Mr. Selfridge, Eastenders, Call the Midwife, The Great Outdoors, Waking the Dead, MI High and Moving Wallpaper. Film includes: RocknRolla and Breaking and Entering.

David Hounslow – Joe Harper Theatre includes: This House (National Theatre/Chichester Festival Theatre/West End), The Fall Of The Master Builder (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Queen Coal (Sheffield Crucible), The Empty Quarter (Hampstead Theatre), Way Upstream (Salisbury Playhouse), Too Much Pressure (Coventry Begrade), Warm (Theatre 503), Billy Liar (Liverpool Playhouse), Tamburlaine (Bristol Old Vic/Barbican), A Night At The Dogs (Soho Theatre), The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice (Royal Exchange Manchester), Holes In The Skin (Chichester), Dealer’s Choice, My Night With Reg, Perpetua, First Person Shooter, (Birmingham Rep), Tales From Hollywood, Privates On Parade (Donmar Warehouse), Alcestis (Northern Broadsides), All of You Mine, A Question Of Mercy (Bush Theatre), Othello, Henry V, Coriolanus, The Wives Excuse, Zenobia (Royal Shakespeare Company), Bent (National Theatre/West End), Fuente Ovejuna (National Theatre), Macbeth, Billy Budd (Sheffield Crucible), Our Boys (Cockpit), Treasure Island (Farnham Redgrave), The Snowman (Leicester Haymarket). Film includes: London Kills Me, Captives, Fever Pitch, The Man Who Knew Too Little, I Want You, Tabloid TV, The Flying Scotsman, The International, Defining Fay, Ginger and Rosa, Peterloo. Television includes: The Unknown Soldier, Coronation Street, Othello, Children of the North, Gone to the Dogs, The Bill, Resnick, True Crimes, Minder, Bad Company, Under The Hammer, Anna Lee, Soldier Soldier, Deadly Crack, The Cinder Path, Chandler and Co., Six Sides of Coogan, Crimes and Punishment, Turning World, Is It Legal, Peak Practice, A Wing and a Prayer, Dangerfield, Playing the Field, The Unknown Soldier, Bugs, Within Living Memory ,Casualty, Eastenders, City Central, Bomber, Always and Everyone, Peak Practice, Silent Witness, North Square, Doctors, Heartbeat, London’s Burning, Margery & Gladys, Ultimate Force, Crisis Command, Blackpool, Holby City, The Brief, Doctors, Robin Hood, Jekyll, Dalziel And Pascoe, Is This Love?, Coronation Street, Little Miss Jocelyn, MI High, Dead Set, Bonekickers, Waking The Dead, Spooks IX, Homefront, Foyle’s War, The Bletchley Circle II, Emmerdale, Moving On, Bad Move.

Harry Kershaw – Paddington South/Chelmsford/South Ayrshire/Henley/Merioneth/Coventry North West/Rushcliffe/Perry Barr & Ensemble Harry trained at RADA. Theatre includes: Mischief Movie Night (Arts Theatre), Peter Pan Goes Wrong (West End/UK Tour), The Play That Goes Wrong (West End), One Man Two Guvnors (West End), The Circle Game (Old Vic New Voices).Television includes: Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Christmas Special), Supreme Tweeter, The Interceptor, Omid Djalili’s Little Cracker, Switch, Cuckoo, Wallander, Endeavour. Film includes: Unhappy Campers, Exhibition, Unrelated, Blue Monday, Great Expectations, Skyfall, Rufus Stone, The Date.

Louise Ludgate – Rochester & Chatham/Welwyn & Hatfield/Coventry Sount West/Ilford North/Lady Batley & Ensemble Theatre includes: Iron (Traverse/Royal Court) Lanark, Sub Rosa (Citizen’s Theatre), Sex and Drugs, Greta, Class Act, First Bite (Traverse Theatre), The House of Bernada Alba, Little Otik, Macbeth, Realism, Home (National Theatre of Scotland), Strawgirl, The Adoptive Papers (Royal Exchange Manchester), Trojan Women (Tobacco Factory), World Domination, Resurrection, The Course of True Love (Oran Mor Theatre), When The Dons Were Kings, Guilty, the Course of True Love, Fishwrap (The Lemon Tree), Jeff Koons (UK Tour), Balgay Hill (Dundee Rep), 13 Sunken Years (Assembly Rooms/Finnish National Theatre). Film includes: City of the Blind, Swung, No Man’s Land, Goodbye Happy Ending, Café Rendevous, The Last Ten Minutes. Television includes: River City, Freedom, Taggart, Kissing Tickling and Being Bored, High Times, Sea of Souls, The Key, Spooks, Tinsel Town, Glasgow Kiss, Robert Burns ‘Alive and Kicking’.

Geoffrey Lumb – Clockmaker/Peebles/Redditch/Stirlingshire West/Clerk & Ensemble Geoffrey trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Theatre includes: Vice Versa, Coriolanus, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, King John, Shrew, The American Pilot, The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC), King Charles III (UK tour/Australia), Much Ado About Nothing (Lamb Players), Macbeth, Twelfth Night (Filter Theatre Company), Prophesy, Macbeth (Baz Theatre Productions), Fitzrovia Radio Hour Tour (UK tour), Chekhov in Hell (Soho Theatre/Drum Plymouth), Romeo and Juliet (US Tour), Rendezvous with Fear (Fitzrovia Radio Hour), His Dark Materials (Birmingham Rep/West Yorkshire Playhouse), Rendition Monologues (Bridewell Theatre/Queen Elizabeth Hall), The Changeling, Twelfth Night (English Touring Theatre), Hansel & Gretel (Northampton Theatre Royal). Television includes: Holby City, 24: Live Another Day, Doctors, Hollyoaks, Luther, Europe’s Secret Armies. Film includes: Paddington 2

Nicholas Lumley – Oxshott/Belfast West/St Helens & Ensemble Nicholas read Law at Newcastle University before training at the Bristol Old Vic. Theatre includes: Dr Faustus, Don Quixote, Beaux Stratagem, Midsummer Nights Dream, Kiss Me Kate (RSC), Great Britain, NT 50, The Magistrate, After The Dance, Never So Good, Afterlife (National Theatre), Timon of Athens (Young Vic), Sergeant Musgraves Dance, Richard II (Old Vic), Tyne (Live Theatre), Pitman Painters (Royal National Theatre/ UK Tour); Close The Coalhouse Door (UK Tour), Much Ado about Nothing (Wyndhams Theatre), The Company Man (Orange Tree Theatre) Porridge (UK Tour), Looking for Buddy (Live Theatre, Newcastle/Bolton Octagon), The Sound of Music (Apollo Victoria), The Canterbury Tales (Garrick Theatre), Chorus of Disapproval (Lyric Theatre),The Bakers Wife, Richard II, Richard III (Phoenix Theatre), Bellman’s Opera (The Pit), Brighton Rock (Almeida), Little Voice, Rope (Watermill), Oleanna, Educating Rita (Salisbury Playhouse). Television includes: Downton Abbey, Houdini and Doyle, Doc Martin, Parade’s End, Vera, George Gently, Enid, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, The Bill, Lovejoy, Kavanagh QC, Wycliffe, Catherine Cookson’s The Secret, Holby City, Crossroads, Wilderness, Eastenders, Coronation Street, Derailed. Films include: Peterloo, Where Hands Touch, Paddington 2, Lady Macbeth, Winterflight, Stormy Monday Goal!, Right Hand Drive, Across the Universe.

Martin Marquez – Bob Mellish Theatre includes: Husbands & Sons, Anything Goes, Loves Labour’s Lost, Mother Courage & Her Children (National Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing, Imogen (Shakespeare’s Globe), Ah, Wilderness (Young Vic), Cleansed, Identical Twins (Royal Court Theatre), Fool For Love, Front Page (Donmar Warehouse), The Iceman Cometh (The Old Vic), Snowball (Hampstead Theatre) Gondoliers, I Caught My Death In Venice, Insignificance, Pal Joey (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Crucible, Don Juan, Of Mice and Men (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Brothers Marquez (Soho Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Nottingham Playhouse), Before I Leave (National Theatre of Wales), Blasted (Sheffield Theatres), From Here To Eternity (Eternity Productions Ltd), 4 Knights in Knaresborough (Tricycle), Asylum (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Biloxi Blues (Library Manchester), Boeing Boeing (UK Tour) The Dark Side of Buffoon, The Sea (Belgrade Theatre). Film includes: After Louise, Girl on a Bicycle, A Louder Silence, Les Miserables, The Business.Television includes: The Crown, New Tricks, Elizabeth, Empire, Hotel Babylon, Lead Balloon, Dead Pixels, Bounty Hunter, Modus, Decline and Fall, Suntrap, The Javone Prince Show, The Job Lot, Woody, Vera, Knifeman, Benidorm, The Whale, Twenty Twelve, Falcon – Blind Man of Seville, Holy Flying Circus, Eastenders, Heartbeat, Dirty Tricks, The Plastic Man, Murder Most Horrid, The Bill, In Suspicious Circumstances.

Matthew Pidgeon – Jack Weatherill Theatre includes: This House (Chichester/West End/National Theatre), Salome (RSC), The James Plays (National Theatre of Scotland UK/World Tour), Wolf Hall & Bring Up the Bodies (RSC/Aldwych Theatre/Broadway), Edward II (National Theatre), Midsummer (Traverse Theatre/World Tour), Much Ado About Nothing, The Mysteries (Shakespeare’s Globe), Kyoto (Traverse Theatre) The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Realism, Caledonia (National Theatre of Scotland) The Lying Kind (The Royal Court), The Cherry Orchard, The Wizard of Oz, Vanity Fair, Pinocchio, The Glass Menagerie (Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh). Television includes: Taggart, Casualty, Holby. Film includes: Daphne, The Winslow Boy, State and Main, A Shot at Glory.

Miles Richardson – Speaker Act I/Mansfield/Serjeant at Arms Act II/West Lothian & Ensemble Miles graduated from Arts Educational Drama Collage in 1982, winning the Best Actor award. Theatre includes: Macbeth, Death of a Salesman, The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Newcastle Rep) Another Country (Queens) Romeo & Juliet (Ludlow Festival) Wilfred, A Midsummer Nights Dream, An Inspector Calls, The Contractor (Birmingham Rep) Othello (Theatr Clwyd) Private Lives (Theatre Royal York) Richard II & Richard III (UK Tour) An Evening with Gary Lineker (Lyric) The Seagull (Bromley) Journeys End (Kings Head) Charley’s Aunt, The Three Musketeers (Canizzaro Park) The Picture of Dorian Gray (Westminster Theatre) The Three Musketeers (UK Tour) Romeo & Juliet (Hull Truck) Wuthering Heights, Cause Celebre, First Class Passengers (Pitlochry) The Invisible Man (Stratford East/Vaudeville Theatre/Harold Pinter Theatre) Candida, The Lovers, Playing Sinatra (New End) Lulu (Almeida/Kennedy Center, Washington DC) A Doll’s House, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Warwick) The Rivals (Wimbledon) The Moment of Truth, Dear Brutus (Southwark Playhouse), Anjin: The Shogun and the English Samurai (Tokyo/Sadler’s Wells), 12 Angry Men (Garrick Theatre), King Charles the Third (Wyndhams Theatre/Broadway) King John (Rose Theatre Kingston) Sleuth (Nottingham) Loves Labours Lost, All’s Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Volpone, Henry IV pt1, Henry IV pt2, Henry V, Henry VI pt1, Henry VI pt2, Henry VI pt3, Richard III (RSC). Television includes: Elizabeth, Highlander, Byron, Inspector Lynley Mysteries, The King Must Die, Porterhouse Blue, Allo,Allo, The Brief, Cambridge Spies, Miss Marple, Doctors, Upstairs Downstairs, Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, Jo, Midsomer Murders, Dancing on the Edge, Sick Note, Lucan, Genius, The Crown. Film includes: Maurice, Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone, The Best Offer, Beat Girl, The Remains of the Day, Flushed away, A Princess for Christmas, Mindgame, Their Finest, A Quiet Passion, The Colour of Magic, Big Pants, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Sabotage, Titanic, Peterloo, The Queen of Spain.

Tony Turner – Michael Cocks Theatre includes: Ink (Almeida/West End) This House (National Theatre/Chichester/West End), The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night Time (West End) Burnt by the Sun, Her Naked Skin, Present Laughter, Playing With Fire, The UN Inspector (National Theatre), Measure for Measure, Big White Fog, Enemies (Almeida Theatre), The House of Special Purpose (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Damned United (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Derby Theatre), The School for Scheming (Orange Tree Theatre) Journey’s End (UK Tour/West End), Personal Enemy (Brits Off Broadway), One Night In November (Belgrade Theatre), The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (Salisbury Playhouse), Mad World My Masters, Neville’s Island (New Wolsey), Madness of George III (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Birmingham Rep), The Danny Crowe Show (Bush Theatre), Christmas Carol (Stoke New Vic), Talent (Colchester Mercury/Watford Palace Theatre), Communicating Doors (Manchester Library Theatre), Macbeth, Othello (Liverpool Everyman), Romeo and Juliet (Birmingham Rep). Television includes: Delicious, WPC 56, Call The Midwife, Downton Abbey, Loving Miss Hatto, Holby City, Silk, Doctors, Andrew Osler, Maxwell, Party Animals, Gavin & Stacey, Trial & Retribution XIII, Foyle’s War, Derailed, Eyes Down, Red Carp, Coronation Street, Children’s Ward, September Song.

Orlando Wells – Walsall North/Plymouth Sutton/Serjeant at Arms Act I/Speaker Act II/Caernarfon/Clerk & Ensemble Orlando trained at LAMDA. Theatre includes: This House (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End), Noises Off, Tonight at 8:30 (English Touring Theatre), The Woman In Black (Fortune Theatre), Katrina (Bargehouse, South Bank), Our Country’s Good (Watermill), The History Boys (National Theatre), Pirandello’s Henry IV (Donmar Warehouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Modernists (Sheffield Crucible), The Tempest (Plymouth Theatre Royal), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Anthony and Cleopatra (RSC), Treehouses (Northcott Exeter), Deathrap (Vienna’s English Theatre), The Journey of Mary Kelly (Theatre Clwyd). Television includes: Father Brown, Casualty, Holby City, A Very British Sex Scandal, Doctors, Nowhere Left to Hide, Living the Quake, The Machioness Disaster, Slave Dynasty, As If, Trust, A Rather English Marriage, Killer Net, Mosley, After the War. Film includes: The King’s Speech, Midsummer Madness, Zemanovaload, Wilde. Orlando is also a writer for Theatre and Television.

Charlotte Worthing – Understudy Charlotte trained at Oxford School of Drama and East 15 Acting School. Theatre includes Princess Charming (Spun Glass Theatre and Ovalhouse Theatre), These Trees Are Made Of Blood (Arcola Theatre and Southwark Playhouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Young Shakespeare Company), Twelfth Night (Open Bar Theatre Company), The Absolute Truth About Absolutely Everything (Camden People’s Theatre), The Wind in the Willows (Open Book Theatre Company), The Just So Stories (National Tour for Red Table Theatre Company), Little Pieces of Gold (Theatre503), Wait (Arcola Theatre), The Wasabi Nut (National Theatre of Scotland). Film includes Here and Now, Souljacker, Coincidence. Television includes Panorama.

Creatives

James Graham won the Pearson Playwriting Bursary in 2006 and went on to win the Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play of 2007 for Eden’s Empire. His upcoming and recent plays include The Culture – A Farce in Two Acts for Hull Truck Theatre, Quiz (Chichester Festival Theatre, transferring to the West End this spring), Labour of Love (West End), Ink (Almeida and West End), Monster Raving Loony (Theatre Royal, Plymouth), The Vote (Donmar Warehouse), Finding Neverland (American Repertory Theater), The Angry Brigade (Theatre Royal, Plymouth and The Bush) and Privacy (Donmar Warehouse). His television credits include the award-winning Coalition (Channel 4) and his film credits include X+Y (BBC Films).

Jeremy Herrin is Artistic Director of Headlong, for which he has directed Labour of Love (a Headlong and Michael Grandage Company co-production), Junkyard (Bristol Old Vic/Theatr Clwyd/Rose Theatre Kingston), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (UK Tour), The Absence of War (UK Tour) and The Nether (at the Royal Court and in the West End). For the National Theatre his directing credits include Common (A co-production with Headlong), The Plough and the Stars (co-directed with Howard Davies), People, Places & Things (A co-production with Headlong which transferred to the West End, toured the UK tour and played a sold out run at St Ann’s Warehouse, New York in 2017), This House (Olivier nomination for Best Director), which transferred to Chichester Festival Theatre and the West End in a co-production with Headlong, and Statement of Regret. For the RSC he directed the world premiere of Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, which transferred to the West End in May 2014 and Broadway in March 2015 and for which he won the Evening Standard Award for Best Director and was nominated for an Olivier and Tony Award.

Jonathan O’Boyle’s credits include: Pippin (Southwark Playhouse/Hope Mill Theatre), Dear Brutus (Southwark Playhouse), Hair (Hope Mill Theatre/The Vaults), Four Play, Sense of an Ending, Water Under the Board (Theatre503), Bash Latterday Plays (Trafalgar Studios/Old Red Lion), The Surplus, All The Ways To Say Goodbye (Young Vic), The Verb, ‘To Love’, Made in Britain (Old Red Lion), Broken Glass (Central School of Speech and Drama), Last Online Today, Guinea Pigs (Crucible New Writers’ Project, Sheffield Crucible Studio), The Monster Bride (Tristan Bates Theatre). Associate Director Credits include: An American in Paris (Dominion Theatre), This House (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End), The Judas Kiss (Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto/Brooklyn Academy of Music), Mack and Mabel (Chichester Festival Theatre/UK Tour), Bull (Young Vic), This Is My Family (Sheffield Lyceum/UK Tour). Assistant Director credits include: The Scottsboro Boys (Young Vic). Jonathan was selected as one of the Guardian’s Rising Stage Stars of 2014.

About Headlong Headlong creates exhilarating contemporary theatre: a provocative mix of innovative new writing, reimagined classics and influential twentieth-century plays that illuminate our world.

Headlong is one of the most ambitious & exciting theatre companies in the world. We make bold, innovative productions with some of the UK’s finest artists. We take these industry leading, award-winning shows around the country & beyond, in theatres & online, attracting new audiences of all ages & backgrounds. We engage as deeply as we can with these communities & this helps us become better at what we do.

Productions have included Labour of Love (Noël Coward Theatre), People, Places & Things (National Theatre/West End/UK Tour/New York), The House They Grew Up In (Chichester Festival Theatre), Common (National Theatre), Junkyard (Bristol Old Vic, Theatr Clwyd and Rose Theatre Kingston), This House (Chichester Festival Theatre and West End), Pygmalion (UK tour), Boys Will Be Boys (Bush Theatre), 1984 (UK and international tours and West End), The Nether (Royal Court Theatre and West End), American Psycho (Almeida and Broadway), Chimerica (Almeida and West End), and Enron (UK tour, West End and Broadway).

https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/this-house-on-tour

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jgmail · 5 years ago

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“Vivimos en la era del Final” Una Entrevista con Dari Dugina

Traducido del inglés para TM por Felix W.

http://openrevolt.info/2013/01/23/we-live-in-the-era-of-the-end-a-interview-with-dari-dougina/ Open Revolt se complace en presentar una conversación entre Dari Dugina, de la Unión Juvenil Eurasiática, y nuestro colaborador James Porrazzo . Dari, la hija de Aleksandr Dugin, además de su trabajo en la Unión Juvenil Eurasiática, dirige el proyecto “Europa Alternativa” para Global Revolutionary Alliance.

Dari, perteneces a la segunda generación de eurasiatistas, hija de nuestro pensador más importante y líder Aleksandr Dugin. ¿Te importaría compartir con nosotros tus pensamientos sobre ser una joven militante a éstas alturas del Kali Yuga?

++ Vivimos en la era del Final – que es el fin de la cultura, la filosofía, la política, las ideologías. Ese es el tiempo sin movimiento real; la tenebrosa profecía de Fukuyama del “fin de la historia” se convierte en una especie de realidad. Esa es la esencia de la modernidad, del Kali Yuga. Estamos viviendo en el momento del Finis Mundi. La llegada del Anticristo está en esa agenda. Ésta noche profunda y agotadora es el reino de la cantidad, enmascarado por los conceptos tentadores como Rizoma de Gilles Deleuze: las piezas del Sujeto moderno los mutan en la “mujer-silla” de “Tokyo Gore Police” (película japonesa post-moderna) – el individuo del paradigma moderno se convierte en las piezas de lo dividido. “Dios ha muerto”, y su lugar es ocupado por los fragmentos del individuo. Pero si hacemos un análisis político nos daremos cuenta de que este nuevo estado del mundo es el proyecto del liberalismo. Las ideas extravagantes de Foucault aparentemente revolucionarias en su pathos, después de ser más escrupulosamente analizadas muestran su lado conformista y (secretamente) liberal, que va en contra de la jerarquía tradicional de valores, estableciendo un pervertido “nuevo orden” cuya cúspide está ocupada por el endiosado individuo en su decadencia atomista. Es difícil luchar contra la modernidad, es insoportable vivir en ella – de acuerdo con este estado de las cosas – en el que todos los sistemas se cambian y los valores tradicionales se convierten en una parodia – siendo purgados y objeto de burla en todos los ámbitos bajo los paradigmas modernos. Ese es el reino de la hegemonía cultural. Y este estado del mundo nos molesta. Luchamos contra él – para el orden divino – para la jerarquía ideal. El sistema de castas en el mundo moderno está completamente olvidado y se ha transformado en una parodia. Pero tiene un punto fundamental. En la República de Platón hay un pensamiento muy interesante e importante: las castas y las jerarquía verticales en la política no son más que el reflejo del mundo de las ideas y del bien superior. Este modelo manifiesta en la política los principios metafísicos básicos del mundo (espiritual) normal. Destruyendo el primordial sistema de castas en la sociedad, negamos la dignidad de lo divino y su Orden. Renunciando al sistema de castas y al orden tradicional, brillantemente descrito por Dumézil, dañamos la jerarquía de nuestra alma. Nuestra alma no es más que un sistema de castas con una amplia armonía de la justicia que une las siguientes tres partes (la filosófica – el intelecto, el guardián – la voluntad, y la comerciante – la lujuria). Luchando por la tradición estamos luchando por nuestra naturaleza profunda como seres humanos. El hombre no es algo terminado – es el objetivo. Y estamos luchando por la verdad de la naturaleza humana (ser humano es esforzarse por la superhumanidad). Eso puede llamarse una guerra santa.

++ ¿Qué significa para tí la Cuarta Teoría Política?

++ Es la luz de la verdad, de algo escasamente auténtico en los tiempos post-modernos. Es el acento justo en los grados de existencia – los acordes de las leyes naturales del mundo. Es algo que crece sobre las ruinas de la experiencia humana. No hay éxito sin los primeros intentos – Todas las ideologías del pasado contenían en ellas algo que les ocasionó el fracaso. La Cuarta Teoría Política – que es el proyecto de las mejores partes del orden divino que pueden manifestarse en nuestro mundo – del liberalismo rescatamos la idea de la democracia (pero no en su significado moderno) y la libertad en el sentido evoliano; del comunismo incorporamos la idea de la solidaridad, el anticapitalismo, el anti-individualismo y la idea del colectivismo, del fascismo tomamos el concepto de jerarquía vertical y la voluntad de poder – el código heroico del guerrero indoeuropeo.

Todas estas ideologías del pasado sufrieron graves deficiencias – la democracia, con la adición del liberalismo se convirtió en tiranía (el peor tipo de estado según Platón), el comunismo defendió el mundo tecnocéntrico sin tradiciones ni orígenes, el fascismo seguía una mala orientación geopolítica, su racismo era occidental, moderno, liberal y anti-tradicional. La Cuarta Teoría Política es la transgresión global de estos defectos – el diseño final del futuro (abierto) de la historia. Es la única manera de defender la verdad. Para nosotros – la verdad es el mundo multipolar, el gran florecimiento de culturas y tradiciones diferentes. Estamos contra el racismo, contra el racismo cultural y estratégico de la civilización occidental moderna de los EE.UU., que está perfectamente descrito por el profesor John M. Hobson en “La concepción Europocentrica de la política mundial”. El racismo estructural (abierto o subliminal) destruye la encantadora diversidad de las sociedades humanas, ya sean primitivas o complejas.

++ ¿Encuentras particulares desafíos tanto como mujer joven y como activista en esta época?

Esta guerra espiritual en contra del mundo (post) moderno me da la fuerza para vivir. Sé que estoy luchando contra la hegemonía del mal y por la verdad de la Tradición eterna. Se oscurece ahora, pero no está completamente perdida. Sin ella, nada podría existir. Creo que ambos géneros y cualquier edad tienen sus formas de acceder a la Tradición y sus maneras de desafiar a la Modernidad. Mi práctica existencial es rechazar la mayoría de los valores de la juventud globalista. Creo que tenemos que ser diferentes de esa basura. Yo no creo en nada moderno. La modernidad es siempre mala. Considero que el amor es una forma de iniciación y de realización espiritual. Y la familia debe ser la unión de personas espiritualmente similares.

++ Además de tu padre, obviamente, que otros autores puedes sugerir a jóvenes militantes que quieran aprender sobre nuestras ideas?

Recomiendo familiarizarse con los libros de René Guenon, Julius Evola, Jean Parvulesco, Henri Corbin, Claudio Mutti, Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein (tradicionalismo), Platón, Proclo, Schelling, Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, E. Cioran (filosofía); Carl Schmitt, Alain de Benoist, Alain Soral (política), John M. Hobson, Fabio Petito (relaciones internacionales), Gilbert Durand, G. Dumézil (sociología). El kit básico de lectura para nuestra revolución intelectual y política.

++ Ahora has pasado algún tiempo viviendo en Europa occidental. ¿Cómo comparas el estado de Occidente a Oriente, después de una experiencia de primera mano?

++ De hecho, antes de mi llegada a Europa pensé que esta civilización estaba absolutamente muerta y que no sería posible una revuelta allí. Estaba convencida de que la Europa moderna liberal se encontraba atascada, sin posibilidad de protestar contra la hegemonía del liberalismo. Leyendo la prensa europea extranjera, al ver los artículos con títulos como “Putin – el Satanás de Rusia” / “La vida de lujo del malvado presidente Putin” / “Pussy Riot – las grandes mártires de la corrupta Rusia” – esta idea se confirmó casi. Pero después de un tiempo encontré algunos grupos y movimientos políticos anti-globalistas como Egalite&Reconcilation, Engarda, Fils de France etc – y todo cambió Los pantanos de Europa se han convertido en algo más – con la posibilidad oculta de la revuelta. He encontrado la “otra Europa”, la “alternativa”, el imperio oculto, el polo geopolítico secreto. La verdadera Europa secreta debe despertarse para luchar y destruir a su doble liberal. Ahora estoy absolutamente segura de que hay dos Europas, completamente diferentes – la decadente Europa liberal atlantista y la Europa alternativa (anti-globalización, anti-liberal, orientada a Eurasia). Guénon escribió en “La Crisis del Mundo Moderno” que hay que resaltar la diferencia entre ser anti-moderno y anti-occidentales. Estar en contra de la modernidad, es ayudar a Occidente en su lucha contra la modernidad construída sobre los parámetros liberales. Europa tiene su propia cultura fundamental (recomiendo el libro de Alain de Benoist – “Las tradiciones de Europa”). Así que encontré esta Europa alternativa, oculta, poderosa, tradicionalista y pongo mis esperanzas en sus guardianes secretos. En octubre organizamos con Egalité&Reconciliation una conferencia en Burdeos con Alexander Dugin y Christian Bouchet en una sala enorme, pero no había lugar para todos los espectadores que querían ver esta conferencia. Esto demuestra que algo empieza a moverse …

En cuanto a mis puntos de vista sobre Rusia – He observado que la mayor parte de los europeos no confían en los medios de comunicación – y el interés por Rusia crece – se ve en la moda de aprender ruso, de ver películas soviéticas y mucha gente en Europa entiende que los medios de comunicación están completamente influenciados por el hegemónico Leviatán, máquina liberal-globalista de mentiras. Así que las semillas de la protesta están sembradas, con el tiempo crecerán, para destruir la “sociedad del espectáculo”.

++ Toda tu familia es una gran inspiración para nosotros aquí en Open Revolt y New Resistance. ¿Tienes algún mensaje para tus amigos y camaradas de América del Norte?

++ Realmente, no puedo dejar de admirar vuestra intensa obra revolucionaria! La forma en que estáis trabajando – en los medios – es la forma de matar al enemigo “con su propio veneno”, utilizando la estrategia de la guerra de redes. Evola hablaba de eso en su excelente libro “Cabalgar al Tigre”. Uomo differenzziato es alguien que permanece dentro de la civilización moderna, pero no la acepta en el imperio interior de su alma heroica. Puede utilizar los medios y las armas de la modernidad para causar una herida mortal al reino de la cantidad y sus golems. Puedo entender que la situación en EE.UU. ahora es difícil de soportar. Es el centro del infierno, pero Hölderlin escribió que el héroe debe lanzarse al abismo, en el corazón de la noche y así conquistar la oscuridad.

++ Algún pensamiento de cierre que te gustaría compartir?

++ Estudiar en la Facultad de Filosofía y trabajando en Platón y el neo-platonismo, puedo señalar, que la política no es más que la manifestación de los principios metafísicos básicos que se establecen en el fundamento del ser. Haciendo la guerra política para la Cuarta Teoría Política también estamos estableciendo el orden metafísico – manifestándolo en el mundo material. Nuestra lucha no es sólo para la condición humana ideal – es también la guerra santa para el restablecimiento de la ontología correcta.

#cuarta teoría política #entrevista #filosofía

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monosko · 5 years ago

Text

Artist: George Francklin Atkinson. c.1850s Source: ‘Curry & Rice’ authored by the Artist.

চাঁদনি বাজার

SHOPKEEPER’S CITY, CALCUTTA Calcutta in the 18st century was a new city with enormous mercantile resources. The respectable of its inhabitants were merchants. Men were getting involved in wealth-getting and wealth-spending activities – an economic life led by the shopkeepers. [Biswas]. Calcutta earned the moniker SHOPKEEPER’S CITY even before modern bazaars came up in 1783. Half a century later, it was the improved company policies and the growing public interest in bazaar farming, Calcutta was looked upon as a great city for living comfortably with foods and drinks and all that facilitate city life. Emma Roberts wonders in late 1830s that there is “perhaps no place in which everything essential for an establishment can be obtained so easily as at Calcutta, carriages and horses are to be hired at a not unreasonable rate, palanquins by the day or half day, and servants of all descriptions of a very respectable class also by the day, these people are called ticca, and if recommended by individuals of known good character, may be trusted. A whole house may be furnished from the bazaars in the course of a few hours, with articles either of an expensive or an economical description, according to the means of the purchaser, a well filled purse answering all the purposes of Aladdin’s wonderful lamp. Never was there a place in which there are greater bargains, for if sales happen to be frequent, the most costly articles, carriages, horses, &c., are to be had for a mere song.” [Roberts]

Visibly, the life in Calcutta was then being supported by a range of service providers from giant merchant houses to feriwalas on foot. There were big firms who acted as auctioneers or commission agents, like Messrs King, Johnson and Pierce; Mouat and Faria; Stewart and Brown; Tulloh & Co. Most of them were in business for decades selling and commissioning wide range of articles from black bear and rabbit skin tippets to Persian attar or essence of roses to cider and other kinds of intoxicating drinks to guns to soda water to Madeira wine. The Europeans, it seems, also engaged themselves, apart from trading in manufacturing businesses dealing with carpentry, glass work, gun making, washing and mangling, distillery, jewelry, coach-making, etc. and catered essentially to the European population residing in the city. [Basu]

CALCUTTA BAZAARS In maps, old and modern, the entire city of Calcutta may be seen dotted with bazaars, private and public. These bazaars are permanent markets or street-markets consisting of open shops grew mostly as veritable zamindaries for their owners – mostly Indians and few Europeans. Normally bazaars cater the daily necessities, like fresh vegetables, fishes, meets, groceries and stationary items, and also store ready consumer goods. Besides selling of products, there are other classes of ‘bazaar people’ who sell small services of varied kinds, like money-changers, bookbinders, stationers, cobblers, cabinet-makers, umbrella makers, petty agents, leeches-men, idol-sellers, retailers of saccharine dainties, and general dealers do regular business in these bazaars and thoroughfares.’ These are the folks who frequented these bazaars as traders and artisans to share space with regular product shoppers to sustain their livelihood. [Ghose] To a large extent, these job-vendors and artisans found their place in bazaar settlement in response to the changing pattern of consumer behavior in colonial societies. The character of the bazaar and its sales likewise shift toward new varieties of products. Emma was pleased to discover: “European vegetables may now be purchased in the native bazaars. Indian gardeners have found their account in cultivating potatoes, peas, cauliflowers, lettuces, &c. ; and in travelling particularly, it is of great importance to be able to procure such useful and agreeable additions to the table.” [Roberts] As we come to know from James H. Harrington’s Report of 1778 [cited in Basu] ] and Mark Wood’s Plan of Calcutta of 1792, there had been around 20 desi bazaars within Calcutta, namely Burra Bazaar, Bow Bazaar and Lal Bazaar, Bytakhana Bazaar, Sutanuti Hat and Bazaars, Charles Bazaar or Shyam Bazaar, Ram Bazaar, Sobhaa Bazaar, Dharmatala Bazaar, Arcooly Bazaar, Machua Bazaar, Kasaitala Bazaar, Colootala Bazaar, Jaun Bazaar, Hat Jannagar, Hat Rajernagar, Colimba (Colinga) Bazaar, Simla Bazaar and Simla Road Bazaar— as far as the official public bazaars were concerned. Among the private bazaars Tiretta’s Bazaar, Sherburne’s Bazaar, Kashi Babu’s Bazaar (near Sherburne’s) and Gopee Ghosh’s Bazaar in Entally were included.

This is a part of the original panoramic view of the Dhurrumtollah crossing captured from terrace of a house on Esplanade Row by an unknown photographer supposedly at a very early date of Calcutta photography disclosing some details of immense historical significance. Source: suvrodahal.blogspot.com

The three bazaars – Burra Bazaar, Bow Bazaar, and Bytakhana Bazaar were the biggest and busiest bazaars of Calcutta that generally dealt in daily necessities like vegetables, fruits, and of course fishes, besides some other necessities. Hat Jaunnagar, Hat Rajnagar(?) and Kashi Babu’s Bazaar had become special markets dealing in rice, betel leaf and nuts, spices, and paddy straw. Burra Bazaar , the central whole sale market of Calcutta, consists of huge warehouses and plenty of retail shops offering largest variety including, “sundry materials like cutlery, glass ware, glass, earthen ware, fans, blankets, fine mats (shitalpati), coarse mats (chattai), common mats, board mats, wickerwork, coarse cloths, silk ribbon, cotton thread, rope, cotton, leather shoes and slippers, bracelets of all kinds, necklace of wood or beads, goods tirade of brass, small iron boxes or shinduk, iron works, medicinal tools, coconut hookahs, balls for hookah, straw, paddy straw, bamboo, bird cages, umbrellas, stone cases, deshlais or match sticks, etc. were also up for sale”. [cited in Basu] The diversity of goods on sale bears witness to the grandness of the select few bazaars, which were designed to meet the changing pattern of demands of ‘cosmopolitan population of the city’ in particular. It appears, only in Bytakhana Bazaar, Burra Bazaar and in Sherburne’s private bazaar animals like fowls, geese, duck, horses, pigeons were sold. These apart, goats were available in Burra Bazaar, and ‘homed’ cattle in Bytakhana Bazaar only. All the bazaars of Calcutta had separate places allotted for the sale of fish. Burra Bazaar, Bytakhana Bazaar, Machua Bazaar and Sherburne’s Bazaar had cowrie exchange facilities against gonads. The private bazaars in general seem to specialize in certain articles some of which catered more to the European demands. For example, in those days fireworks were sold primarily in Tiretta’s Bazaar. Among the private bazaars Sherburne’s Bazaar dealt with the greatest number of articles.

EUROPEAN BAZAARS The owners of three new European bazaars, Edward Tiretta, Joseph Sherburne, and Charles Short came forward to propose setting of modern bazaars in tune with the changing outlook of the Company administration against the backdrop of a ‘civilizing mission’ for improvement of city life. Their proposals also contained distinctive perceptions about a bazaar and references to ‘improve’ upon the existing ill-organized and unhygienic set-ups. To bring about in Calcutta bazaar relatively modern notions in terms of western sensibilities, Edward Tiretta, Joseph Sherburne and Charles Short petitioned individually in May 1782, October 1782 and July 1783, respectively, to the Governor General and Council for permission to build such market places in accordance with the Bye Law of 1781. They pledged to set up bazaars with pucca buildings, tiled shops and stalls instead of the straw huts of the desi bazaars. Mechua Bazaar, although owned and managed since 1775 by a European marketer, Francis D’Mello, was in no way better than the bazaars run by desi masters. In fact, it was since 1882 the shapes of the Calcutta bazaars get changed outwardly and internally for the first time. The new two bazaars, Tiretta Bazaar, and Sherburne’s Bazaar, were set on larger plots, occupying 8-18-4, and 10-1-4 bighas respectively, than Bazaar Sootaluty (3-17-2), and Dhurrumtollah Bazaar (6-10-0). [ Proceedings of the Board of Revenue, Sayer, November, 1794. Cited in Biswas]

SHERBERN’S BAZAAR Sherburne’s bazaar, like Tiretta’s and Short’s, followed western model in which hygiene was the primary consideration in its planning to safeguard against deteriorating state of the physical ‘health’ of the city. Huge waste of the native bazaars was regarded largely responsible for infecting the air leading to the degeneration of the atmosphere into poisonous miasmas. These considerations went a long way in the planning of the three newly set bazaars. Sherburne’s bazaar was permitted on a fixed annual rent of Rs.300, revised later to Rs500, and entered the 1785 list of authorized private bazaars of the city. He was given in 1785 an official position of Scavanger [(Hobson-Jobson) ] of the Town of Calcutta, and at rooms, nos. 1 and 3, in his bazaar Sherburne used to discharge his duties of inspection of the goods on sale in Calcutta markets, as well as collection of the taxes. [Calcutta Gazette] The Bazaar was situated in a piece of land, locally known as Ismail Sarang’s Garden, where Chandney Market stands now on the fringe of Dhurrumtollah Street. As we understand, Joseph Sherburne petitioned the Governor General in October 1782, for permission to establish a public bazaar on this very plot he purchased, seemingly from Gokulchandra Mitra. Mitra, who had made a fortune in salt trade and, as it was said, won the Chandney Chawk area in the first Lottery. Behind Sherburne’s Bazaar, Julius Soubise opened his Repository of horses on a large piece of land leading from the Cossitollah down Emambarry Lane. It looks like, the old Chandney Chawk has been more a part of Cossitollah than Dhurrumtollah contrary to popular belief.

After two decades of close association with the Bazaar, Joseph Sherburne passed away at Monghyr on July 18, 1805. His only son, Pultney J. P. Sherburne, died on 28 June 1831. [ Asiatic Journal ] The map of the City and Environment of Calcutta published next year by Jean-Baptiste Tassin, printed the name of Chandney Bazaar for the first time replacing Sherburne’s Bazaar in the site of Chandney Chawk. [Tassin] Although a ‘Chandnee Choke’ and a ‘Chandnee Choke Lane’ found printed in Wood’s map of 1792, there had been no Chandney Market in Calcutta until the Sherburne’s Market wiped out from Calcutta maps. In all probability Sherburne’s Bazaar shuttered down in 1831.

CHANDNEY BAZAAR When Chandney Bazaar came into existence by 1832, there was no R C Church, no Tipu Mosque, but only the Dhurrumtollah Bazaar opposite Dhurrumtollah Tank stood on roadside since 1796 with Stibbert’s House behind. The oldest institution remained there was the Native Hospital built in 1793 near Chandney. In Talpooker, Pritaram erected his Jaunbazaar House in 1808. “In 1793-94, all over the town there were no fewer than 1114 pucca houses; in 1821 it increased to 14,230” [Biswas] The new suburbs as southern extension of Town Calcutta grew faster with masonry houses built by Europeans and deshi well-to-dos as nucleus of new urban experience of ‘airy habitation’ .

Chandney Market stands on no. 167, Dhurrumtollah Street, at the crossing of Chandney Chawk Street, or Chandney Chawk Bazaar ka Rastah, on the north side of Dhurrumtollah, where Sherburne’s earlier stood. Chandney Bazaar did not replace Sherburne’s Market but came up with a unique identity of its own, completely dissimilar kind of a bazaar, to sell commodities of special kind to altogether different sections of consumers than what Sherburne’s or other bazaars usually target, that is, the common people whose requirements are chiefly food and other daily necessities such as household items, weareables, fashion items – all for ready consumption. In contrast, Chandney Bazaar has never been a place to retail fresh food unlike others. It was not a market for ready-made garments but held shops of cloth lengths and cut-pieces, and tailoring shops for making dresses cheaply and quickly. Chandney was known as a native shopping complex for retailing popular as well newest materials, accessories and tools needed primarily for consumption of journeymen, including artisan, craftsmen, petty tradesmen, mostly pieceworkers like tailors, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, smiths and small manufacturers.

Stuart Hogg’s Market. Photographer: Bourne and Stephens. 1860s

Cotton described the Bazaar as ‘a labyrinth of ill-kept passages, lined with shops, in which may be found a wonderful collection of sundries, from a door nail to a silk dress. The list can be lengthening endlessly by adding items like ‘brass and iron hand-ware, clothes, umbrellas; shoes, stationery, and various other articles of domestic use.’ Cotton, however, unwittingly left a piece of empty advice for shopaholics that “very similar shops and stalls may now be found, but under conditions infinitely more advantageous and comfortable, in the Municipal Market in Lindsay Street, off Chowringhee”. [Cotton] In reality, the two markets have been entirely dissimilar. So much so, no comparison can be possible between the two without distorting facts that still alive. Yet his advice as to the ‘getting favourite picks at pocket-friendly price’ at Chandney by ‘bargaining at your heart’s content’, and that ‘one must essentially be guarded with sharp shopping skill’ may prove helpful for a shopaholic even today.

Chandney Bazaar has never been a market for gentlefolk – sahibs or babus; rarely shoppers go there with families. Most shops were kind of mini warehouse, with no display-windows, no fashion shows. On the whole, the market looked drab, shabby, and uninviting – a mockery of the model market of Sherburne. Chandney, however, was not a ‘second-hand’ market, nor a chore bazaar – a ‘receptacle for all stolen goods’ as Cotton perceived. Chandney Bazaar was essentially, and still it is, a hardware market and not a market of second-hand goods, like some other auction houses and antique bazaars of Calcutta where stolen fancy goods of every description were being sold in the open.

CHANDNEY AMBIENCE The ambience of Chandney Bazaar has always been disgustingly chaotic – a contradiction of the model picture of the bazaars the city administrators drew in 1783 that Tiretta, Shorts, and Sherburne followed. Outside the Bazaar, the doldrums of Chandney crowd and its unruly traffic overflowed into Dhurrumtollah crossing creating a logjam on the highway.

Chandney Bazaar Interior 2017. Photographs by Olympia Banerjee:

“Gharis wait outside shops, the horses hunched up in their shafts and harness, limp-legged, asleep. The drivers are asleep on the box and syces (সহিস) slumber behind. Water and rubbish on the pavements. The air is heavy with a fetid smell of hookah and food; paint, oil and cycles. In the shadow of the gold-tipped minarets women swathed in sheets clatter their slipperiered feet along the road. … The patrons of the ‘Chandni’ bazaar, scowling, busy; bargaining, wrangling; smiling, smirking; cycle shops, camera shops, pigeon stalls for cigarettes and sherbet. Pavement vendors with their wares in their baskets, pavement barbers assisting the needy with their toilet; street hawkers who pause on the roadway at the; hailing of a customer quarrelsome ghari men lashing their whips at one another.” [Minney ] Yes, this picture penned by R.J. Minney represents a true to life profile of Chandney – a pet object for a satirist it seems. The pathetic scenario of Chandney inspired even Sukumar Ray to chose the spot to make the road accident happen to one of his comic characters, namely, the over-smart uncle of Ramesh, as we may read in his immortal book, আবোলতাবোল (Aboltabol):

রমেশের মেজমামা সেও ছিল সেয়না, যত বলি ভালো কথা কানে কিছু নেয় না ; শেষকালে একদিন চান্নির বাজারে পড়ে গেল গাড়ি চাপা রাস্তার মাঝারে । [সুকুমার রায় ।“সাবধান”,আবোলতাবোল । ১৯২৩]

CHANDNEY BAZAAR, AN AGENT OF CHANGE Behind the bland homely face of Chandney Bazaar, we may still discover signs of its lost charms that helped Calcutta society to keep pace with the industrial productivity 1832 onward. During the industrial era, the ‘new products’, that is, the newly designed products manufactured by the industrial giants as well as petty workshops, were being increasingly likened by all. There have been also some ‘new products’ designed and developed by the European settlers to help them living comfortably and in style in oriental environment. Society accepts some and rejects others for more than one reason. Market availability, replacement and maintenance are evidently among the main factors for decision-making. Chandney Bazaar stood by the consumers with steady stocks of current and the latest utility products for them to buy replace or repair. Though there were few relatively decent shops, like Nandy’s that used to sell fancy household items, or Kar & Kar the tailoring and garment seller, Chandney has been largely a receptacle of machine-tools, machine parts, and raw materials for the consumptions of small manufacturers, tradesmen, and mechanics. This group of working hands plausibly provided Chandney Bazaar with a unique opportunity to motivate utilization of new products to homemakers more effectively, and to reach families at their homes who hardly ever visit the stinky marketplace – not meant for gentlefolk. That might have been a good reason to postulate that Rev Evan Cotton never had occasion to step inside Chandney Bazaar in person to verify his ideas before attempting to compare it unfairly with Hogg’s Market. It is unfortunate; Chandney Bazaar does not have enough archival records available for us to distinguish between gossips and facts, so that the worth of its contributions to Calcutta society, in accommodating new products, ideas, new habits, could have been determined with some degree of certainty. Had Chandney Bazaar existed when Captain Thomas Williamson lived in Calcutta (1778-1798), he would have depicted Chandney analytically and objectively in the manner he elaborated on China Bazaar in his prudent Vade Mecum published in 1810. [Williamson] In absence of dependable sources we are being overwhelmed with skewed information disseminated through prints and e-media. Google may take you at once to a number of blogs publicizing Chandney Bazaar of Calcutta in chorus as an exclusive market of electronic goods; while in reality not a single stall of electronics to be found inside, but outside Chandney Bazaar hundreds wait to greet you on the street. I fear the ever increasing nonsense in today’s manufactured information will pose greater challenge to future researchers to investigate issues with scanty documentary evidence, depending largely on literary references and oral traditions, as is the case of Chandney Bazaar of Calcutta.

REFERENCE

Asiatic journal and monthly register for British India and its dependencies. (Jan. 1830-Apr. 1845). London : Printed for Black, Parbury, & Allen. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.095922792&view=1up&seq=4

Basu, Shrimoyee. 2015. “Bazaars In The Changing Urban Space of Early Colonial Calcutta.” University of Calcutta. http://hdl.handle.net/10603/163761.

Cotton, Evan. 1907. Calcutta, Old and New: A Historical and Descriptive Handbook to the City. Calcutta: Newman. https://archive.org/details/calcuttaoldandn00cottgoog.

Ghose, Benoy. 1960. “The Colonial Beginnings of Calcutta Urbanisation without Industrialisation.” The Economic Weekly, no. August 13: 1255–60. http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/1960_12/33/the_colonial_beginnings_of_calcuttaurbanisation_without_industrialisation.pdf?0=ip_login_no_cache%3Dfc8386086015fc6e2268f71b76bece16.

Minney, Rubeigh James. 1922. Round about Calcutta. Calcutta: OUP. https://archive.org/details/roundaboutcalcut00minnrich.

Ray, Sukumar. n.d. “Sukumar Sahitya Somogro; vo.1.” Calcutta: Ananda. https://archive.org/details/SukumarSahityaSomogro3/page/n17.

Roberts, Emma. 1845. East India Voyager, or the Outward Bound. London: J. Madden. https://books.google.co.in/books/about/The_East_India_Voyager.html?id=rOFAAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y.

Setton-Karr, W. S. 1864. Selections from Calcutta Gazettes. Calcutta: Military Orphan Press. https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.195937/2015.195937.Selections-From-Calcutta-Gazettes-1864#page/n5/mode/2up.

Tassin, Jean-Baptiste. (1832). Map of the City and Environs of Calcutta; Constructed chiefly from Major Schalch’s Map and from Captain Prinsep’s Surveys of the Suburbs. Retrieved from https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b530996458

Williamson, Thomas. 1810. East India Vade Mecum; or, Complete Guide to Gentlemen Intended for the Civil, Military,or Naval Service of the Hon. East India Company; Vol. 2 (2). London: Black, Parry. https://www.scribd.com/document/305022589/The-East-India-Vade-Mecum-Volume-2-of-2-by-Thomas-Williamson.

Wood, Mark. (1792). Plan of Calcutta. Calcutta: William Baillie. Retrieved from https://www.bdeboi.com/2016/02/blog-post_27.html

Yule, Henry ; and Coke Burnell. 1886. Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Words and Phrases and f Kindred Terms. London: Murray. https://archive.org/details/hobsonjobsonagl02croogoog/page/n8.

CHANDNEY BAZAAR: An Ignored Element of Change toward Social Awakening of Bengal

চাঁদনি বাজার SHOPKEEPER’S CITY, CALCUTTA Calcutta in the 18st century was a new city with enormous mercantile resources.

CHANDNEY BAZAAR: An Ignored Element of Change toward Social Awakening of Bengal চাঁদনি বাজার SHOPKEEPER’S CITY, CALCUTTA Calcutta in the 18st century was a new city with enormous mercantile resources.

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