Week two in charge, and our new Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingham is already winning awards!

Earlier this week Indhu attended the prestigious Asian Women of Achievement Awards, an inspiring evening celebrating Britain’s pioneering Asian women.

The awards, hosted by Real Business, Pinky Lilani OBE and Caspian Media, brought together an incredible list of talented, ambitious nominees from ground-breaking entrepreneurs, passionate philanthropists to City professionals.

With 11 categories and 52 nominees, competition was tough, but there could only be 10 winners…

A huge congratulations to our new Artistic Director!

The Arts & Culture Award

Indhu Rubasingham, artistic director, The Tricycle Theatre, for her “astounding achievements” in theatre, having also directed at the National Theatre, The Royal Court and The Almeida.

“Tonight’s winners have all shown courage, intelligence and determination to succeed in their chosen fields and will certainly help to inspire the next generation of ambitious women keen to make their mark in the professional, business or cultural sectors,” commented Chris Sullivan of RBS, the Asian Women of Achievement Awards’ main supporter.

The Awards’ founder Pinky Lilani said: “We’re now in our 13th year of the Asian Women of Achievement Awards and the wealth and variety of the talent we unearth year-on-year never ceases to amaze me. These women are remarkably talented and are true trailblazers in their individual sectors and specialities, but they all share one common goal: to make a positive difference for young Asian women.”

Tamsin Waley-Cohen is the Artistic Director of the Honeymead Ensemble, who have been delighting audiences with their Classical Music Series since last autumn. Their next concert, this Sunday (20 May), will feature two of the most revered quartets from the Russian Romantic movement, by Arensky and Tchaikovsky. Click here for more information.

When did you first become interested in music and what inspired you to pick up a violin?
I have been interested in music since before I can remember! I remember asking and asking for lessons when I was very little, and I remember my first violin lesson very clearly – the story goes that I saw a televised prom, aged 2, and become totally transfixed but the violin. And I still am!

How did the Honeymead Ensemble begin?
We began 6 years ago now on Exmoor, as week of intense work and exploration of the great chamber music works. The idea was to have a week away from the usual distractions of life, living and working together, with a big programme to explore, and then three concerts to bring it all to life at the end of it.

There is so much fantastic classical music, how do you decide what to programme each month?
That is a very good question! We are spoiled for choice. I try to combine the great works with some lesser known pieces, and to give each concert a theme or connecting thread, so that each work relates to the other. I have tried to create programmes that are profoundly powerful and yet give great joy to the listener, that are challenging yet rewarding, and to keep as much variety as possible within the series – we have travelled from Schubert to Schoenberg, to Glass and Janacek, Ravel and Beethoven to Tchaikovsky and Strauss.

What has been the highlight of the Tricycle’s Classical Music Series so far & what are you most looking forward to in the upcoming concerts?
Each concert has been so different, and the whole series such an exciting journey that it is very hard to pick one! I think that part of what is so special is that each concert is absolutely different from all the others, so there is never any sense of monotony. I am really looking forward to the gorgeous French programme that seems so ideal for a summer evening, and I am extremely excited about the new quartet that Joseph Phibbs is writing for us. We are playing it alongside two of the great quartets int eh repertoire by Schubert and Britten. It is a great honour to give a world premier for such a fantastic composer, and to have the chance to work alongside him in interpreting his work. To play something for the first time ever is not an everyday occurrence, and I’m sure it’ll be quite an occasion.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen and the Honeymead Ensemble continue the Classical Music Series this Sunday (20 May) at 7pm in the Tricycle Theatre. Click here for more information and to book tickets.

Vanessa Paradis has never been pinned down to one label. Before she was an actress, she was a model and a singer, becoming globally famous at the age of 14 when her single ‘Joe Le Taxi’ became a smash hit in 15 countries. But despite winning a French Cesar for her 1989 debut Noce Blanche, she’s turned down several major film offers over the years and taken prolonged sabbaticals from acting in order to focus on her music and raise two children with Johnny Depp (they’ve been a couple since the 1990s). In the last couple of years, however, she has picked up the pace again with film work and her starring role in Cafe De Flore may be a sign that Paradis, now 39, is about to enter the most fruitful phase of her acting career.

Jean-Marc Vallée’s emotive, mystical drama tells two parallel stories: one, set in present-day Montreal, depicts the break-up of a marriage and its devastating impact on Carole (Hélène Florent), who remains convinced that her bond with husband Antoine (Kevin Parent) was meant to last forever; the other is set in 1969 Paris, where single mother Jacqueline (Paradis) is raising a young son with Down’s Syndrome. To call Jacqueline devoted is an understatement – she showers love and affection on Laurent (Marin Gerrier), enrolling him at a normal school, teaching him to defend himself from bullies. But when he develops a close attachment to Veronique, another Down’s syndrome child, her maternal devotion comes under threat, leading to unforeseen consequences. It’s fair to say that Paradis is heartbreaking in the role and she was duly rewarded with a Best Actress prize at the 2012 Genies, Canada’s equivalent to the Oscars.

Congratulations on your award. Were you there to accept in person?

Thank you very much. I wasn’t but Jean-Marc Vallée, the director, went and accepted it on my behalf. He asked me to send a little note just in case I won. I thanked Jean-Marc and Marin, the little boy that plays opposite me, because if they’re giving me the prize, it’s really because of these two men. It’s the case in every movie that you’re only good if the people around you are good. That little boy added so much grace and so much humour to our little tandem.

Was it difficult finding a young actor to play your son?

It was by luck and by love that Jean-Marc found Marin, because he is the actual friend – boyfriend even – of Alice [Dubois], who plays Veronique in the movie. Alice’s parents had sent a tape of her to be considered for the movie and Marin was on that tape because he was playing with her. They’re pretty much in love with each other.

You’re known to be picky with film roles. Why did you choose to do Cafe De Flore?

It was so brilliantly written. It was a shock to read but such a beautiful script. I also loved the movies that Jean-Marc had done before and the fact that he offered me a character unlike any I’ve been offered before was irresistible.

She’s a tough and devoted mother. What did you make of Jacqueline?

She has set a goal in her life because she has nothing. There’s no husband, no family, no friends and no money – nothing but the love she has to give this little boy. It’s all about him for her and she lives with the threat of losing him so her goal is to make him strive and survive and be strong. She doesn’t do everything well – it’s actually the contrary – but she does everything from her heart.

Did you ask Jean-Marc why he wanted you for this role?

He didn’t want me for the role! He met with other actresses in France. But after I read the script, I called him and I think he could see that I was so into it. It was that conversation that made him choose me, I think.

What did your collaboration with Jean-Marc bring out in the character?

She’s so different from me so I had to erase a bunch of things. I couldn’t be seductive, sensitive, vulnerable. When Jean-Marc and I were looking for the voice of this woman, it became really clear at one point that she had to be very masculine. Because she is both the mom and the dad, we had to find the masculinity in her.

Without giving too much away, did you ever meet or talk to the actors who star in Cafe De Flore’s parallel storyline?

No, we only met when the movie was done. They started to shoot the Canadian part first, and then Jean-Marc came to Paris for a month of preparation. He brought a 20-minute edit of what they had just shot in Montreal so we got to see the other characters and also the tone and rhythm and level of emotion they were playing. We still had to find our bearings together but there was already a movie that we could relate to, even if our story in Paris has nothing to do with theirs… apparently.

Had you had experience of working with or knowing anyone with Down’s Syndrome prior to making Café De Flore?

No, it was the first time. And it was an amazing experience because Marin comes from such an amazing family. He has an older brother and a younger brother and the parents, Natalie and Christophe, are just unbelievable people – great parents and great human beings. This little boy was born with Down’s Syndrome. He was also born with an amazing personality, amazing intelligence and a sense of humour. It’s in his genes. It was beautiful spending time with them; we got along so well.

Were his parents there all the time?

No. It’s a tough thing for parents to leave their son in the hands of other people. It’s a big responsibility for us and they trusted us very much. They got to know us and then trusted us enough to leave their boy with us. They gave us shortcuts to what he likes, what he doesn’t like, what works, what doesn’t work.

How did he behave with you, the woman playing his mother?

He was great. That was my biggest fear because with Down’s Syndrome, most of the time there is a problem with assimilation, of processing new information. It’s quite a weird thing anyway for anybody – kids, grown-ups, Down’s Syndrome or not – to be in the scenes we were playing. It’s not a comedy, it’s tough, but he always knew that we were playing and when it was done, I was just Vanessa.

So you made him feel relaxed on set?

You know what? He made me feel relaxed. Everybody fell in love with this little boy on the set. He’s so funny and he’s a little angel. He’s a demon as well! He’s very stubborn so it wasn’t easy all the time.

Did you introduce your own children to him?

Yes. We had a few parties where we danced and ate fries and drank Coca-Cola. It was great.

Cafe De Flore is showing in the Tricycle Cinema from 11 – 17 May.
For more information, screening times and to book tickets, CLICK HERE.

Alan Ayckbourn, writer and director of Neighbourhood Watch, is one of the UK’s most treasured playwrights. Here, he shares his thoughts on the themes of the play, and what caused him to write it.

Your new play is called Neighbourhood Watch, what is it about?

I think it’s all in the title.  It’s a cautionary play.  It addresses modern hang-ups such as law and order, health and safety. Are we safe in our beds when there are lawless youths roaming the streets whilst the police seem powerless? It’s tapping into that sort of fear.

Is it as dark as it sounds?

It’s in my dark farce mode.  I’ve always been interested in how, out of tiny things, wars are often fought. Whenever history is examined, you always say: Is that really what started it? Helen of Troy was responsible for an awful lot!  Neighbourhood Watch begins with a genuine misunderstanding where no-one is prepared to stand down and the reason becomes all but forgotten, but nonetheless causes a war.

And you’re tackling this from the perspective as something as apparently innocuous as a neighbourhood watch scheme?

It’s about committees which have a way of being taken over by lunatics and extremists. Sane people often haven’t the patience or staying power to serve on committees. So the people in charge of them are often those with nothing better to do but manipulate other people’s lives. Then there are sub-committees, which are answerable to nobody and do all the work from finance to, in this case, retribution! Very few normal people volunteer for those, as that’s another evening out of their lives, so you find people volunteering for sub-committees who shouldn’t be in charge of a box of matches let alone the future of an estate. (For more information, please see my earlier play Ten Times Table!)

What quickly emerges from this scheme is a particularly extreme British version of a gated community, do you think that’s a real possibility?

There is a sense of impotence these days, an instinct to build little fences around ourselves. Because my English people are inherently polite people, they very rarely contradict each other and are happy to go along with things until, usually, it’s far too late. I don’t think we’ll ever become an extreme fascist state in this country over night, but we might over the years just drift into it and people will then ask how on earth did we get here? The English are not for turning! But gently nudging? The English are for nudging.

One of the ideas of the play is our perception of real versus imagined threats, do you think that is particularly pertinent to society today?

I think so, because we are increasingly distancing ourselves from reality. We get our information from newspapers or TV or the internet; we are aware of things that are happening but since we don’t witness them first hand relying instead on news media, often amplified, this compounds the sense that society is breaking down.  I think there’s too much information which we can’t process fast enough – no wonder we’re in danger of getting badly confused I’ve been aware that once I’m out of the stream – and when one is a writer, you do tend to keep dipping out and in – the world seems completely demented.  Then when you get back to reality, you realise most of your fears were ludicrously exaggerated.  Yes, it is risky to walk down certain streets even in Scarborough alone at night but society is not breaking down.
 
How would you compare Neighbourhood Watch to your last play, Life of Riley?

I describe some of my plays as watercolours and some as oils. I think Life of Riley was probably more a watercolour and this is more towards oil – maybe a pastel! It’s slightly bolder and has some extremely dark shadows in it, but also some light moments.
 
Life of Riley was rather oblique. A lot of people who saw it didn’t quite perceive what was happening and were looking for twists which weren’t there. This one is much more in your face!

Neighbourhood Watch is at the Tricycle from 10 April – 5 May.
Click here for more information and to book tickets.

The first reaction you get when you tell someone that MUJU is a Muslim-Jewish theatre and comedy crew is surprise, the second is always curiosity – how, when, why? The how and the when are easy – MUJU started life in 2003 as the Tricycle’s Muslim-Jewish youth group, coming together   to do weekly drama workshops. Spin forward a few years and MUJU has developed into a fully fledged company of devisers and performers, still resident at the Tricycle but also touring. MUJU is  a charitable foundation and voluntary project and the reason we exist remains the same as back in 2003: to bring Muslims and Jews together through a shared passion for art.

We’ve cover all ground in our work, from straight drama pieces about the Middle East, to a comedy sketch show about extremism and the government’s response to it. As the MUJU Crew’s skills developed, we wanted to give a platform to those with less experience of performing and devising so in 2010 we started a second group, the MUJU Upstarts. The MUJU Upstarts are a vibrant, enthusiastic and highly creative bunch and we are delighted that they are performing their second show with us next week as part of the MUJU double bill at the Tricycle. Their show, Flirting With Faith, is a very fun look at dating in the Muslim and Jewish communities. Join them for a night of speed dating the likes of which you’ve never seen before…

As for the MUJU Crew, we’re busy learning lines for our play, My Dutiful Laundrette. Written by MUJU Crew member Yasmeen Khan (her first play) who will also be acting in the piece alongside Raph Bar, Georgina Bednar and Salman Siddiqui, the play is a comedy-drama (or soapy saga…) about love, loss and of course…laundry. The set has proved a challenge; with the whole play taking place in a laundrette, MUJU have been busy sourcing props to make it look authentic. There is now not a thing we don’t know about the laundrette industry, in fact we’ve dragged our friends into joining the debate about whether you get a better result in your machine at home or in the laundrette. See? Now we’ve set you off. Duvets. Everyone needs a laundrette for their duvet…

We wanted the cast photos to also be authentic as possible, so thanks to the laundrette owner on our very own Kilburn High Road that let us use his place for our shoot. Service wash, anyone?

MUJU double bill, Flirting With Faith and My Dutiful Laundrette, Mon 2^nd April-Thu 5^th April, 7.30pm.

Read more about the show by clicking here.

All photos: Kit Oates

FIRST BLAST: Proliferation – the first installment in our new season The Tricycle Goes Nuclear opened on Thursday night.

We’ve picked out our favourite pictures to share with you, dear readers, ahead of the opening of the show’s counterpoint, SECOND BLAST: Present Dangers, which opens next Thursday (16th of Feb). Enjoy!

Photos by John Haynes: