Waterboarding Spoiled My New Fitness Regime

Having spent the last few months singing about Gay Eskimos at T in the Park, torturing Frodo and being tortured in return and making awesome pizza for Hannah, I wasn't getting much exercise.

I decided to remedy this by taking up swimming.

Swimming is the one form of exercise I actually enjoy and can actually do, so it seemed the obvious choice and off i went to the local sports centre with my towel, goggles and trunks ready to get some fit and feel a bit better about myself!

Little did I know that the horrors of the waterboarding experience during Drumhead would come back to haunt me. It had been over two months since I had been waterboarded during the run of Drumhead at the Tron Theatre and although the comedown from the experience had lasted a week or so, everything in my head had got back to normal. The nightmares had gone, as had the headaches, the feeling of depression, and the blocked nose.

When we decided to realistically portray the waterboarding scene, I was aware the experience would be unpleasant but I think the ignorance of not actually knowing what my body would do in such a situation (it’s just a wee bit of water on your face, how bad can it be?) made me think that it wouldn't be all that bad and I was sure I could handle it.

Then we tried it out and it was... well, horrible; the single worst experience of my life.

So I got a bit of a fright with that realisation, but it was the after effects that completely took me by surprise. It hadn't even occurred to me that I would be in shock, that I would feel depressed and cold and really sorry for myself. There we were in the director’s flat sitting, staring at the floor with nothing to say.

Feeling like hell, we put on a DVD of Back to the Future and had some whisky, things perked up a bit. (But if you’re a suspected terrorist you don't get a fine single malt and cult classic 80's movies. You just don't!)

So the after effects, because they were more of a surprise, seemed to affect me more than the actual act of waterboarding itself. And they stuck with me for a while!

So back to swimming!

I dropped into the pool without even a thought of Drumhead and began to swim. Of course, as i was swimming, my head went underwater and some water went up my nose and suddenly

I was in a blind panic. That feeling I endured during the play when I could feel the water running

into my nose, the intense stinging pain in my sinuses came back to me immediately. I came up, gasping for air. My heart rate was quite a bit faster and I could hardly catch my breath.

I did not dare go back under the water.

When I left the pool, got dressed and went home; all the after effects seemed to creep back. I felt exhausted, my nose was stuffed up and I was far from feeling happy. My headache had come back

and when I eventually managed to get to sleep that night, the nightmares returned.

So that’s what being waterboarded for 10 minutes every alternatenight for a week can do to you.

Makes you wonder how long the effects last when it’s done to you for hours every day, for months!

I have been swimming again since, but not without my trusty noseclips!

Drumhead....the play that just keeps giving!

Ben.

Marketing motivation - by Hannah

Having spent the last ten months writing papers for a Marketing degree, it is refreshing to be able to write freely about what motivates me in arts marketing without the footnotes.

Perhaps not the part of theatre most associate with high levels of emotion, but for me, I started this degree in the hope of learning how I could be useful to an industry whose currency is more than just monetary. There is little literature which shows a deep concern for the academic consideration of arts marketing. But I think there is constructive mileage here. This is an industry where ideas are given space to develop freely and the usual restrictions of our day-to-day existence are temporary disregarded in favour of something more significant. This creativity can and should be extended into every part of the theatre’s business practice, especially the marketing.

Not being an actor, I do not presume to understand the motivation behind a desire to act. However, I am an artist. For me the most gratifying part of creating a new piece of work was when I managed to translate an emotion into an image which was appreciated by others. Some use words. Others act.

Market experience has led me to believe that being able to share these experiences, these moments of exploration on stage, is incredibly important. Theatre companies are disillusioned by small audiences or the absence of an influential person in their lives. I believe it is the marketing team’s job to package their product creatively to match production with audience in order to make the most impact, not the highest revenue.

Using marketing models is a useful place to start. I would never disregard the fundamental lessons of marketing moguls. However, it requires a further leap from technical know-how into developing real consumer relationships.

This is where the arts industry must surely have the competitive edge. This is an industry about communities, connections, creativity and communication. I want to see arts marketers push forward with the same freedom as the actors to develop meaningful communities where courage, openness and a willingness to enter into debate are the true currencies.

The Politics of Performance - by Louise

As we find ourselves in the midst of a general election you would be forgiven for assuming that the launch of Mayfesto was strategic in its timing but as Andy Arnold has pointed out, this was merely serendipitous.

However, as the nation turns its collective focus on politics, it does provide an appropriate backdrop for Mayfesto and the work being presented under this banner.

Unlike the politicians of the day Mayfesto has no hidden agenda; its remit is simply to tell stories, real stories about real people caught up in the inevitable tumult of conflict derived from political decision making. Mayfesto and the artists involved are not nailing their flags to the wall and expecting you to follow suit but rather presenting you with the truth of the human condition, with a reflection on the personal effects of manmade corruptions like war, tyranny and governance gone awry.

"What theatre does, at its best, is use artifice to tell fundamental truths. Whereas what politics does, at its worst, is hide the truth with cleverly fashioned artifice." Chris Wilkinson [Guardian Theatre Blog 22.04.2010]

DRUMHEAD is our contribution; part theatrical performance, part live presentation and part investigation. A piece of site-specific theatre, it is a social and political commentary on humanity's relationship with itself. With particular focus on the ramifications of legalised torture methods, DRUMHEAD has been a fact-finding mission and an intensive exploration into the limits of human cruelty.

The key question behind DRUMHEAD is in the context of a civilised society that values human rights, is torture ever justified? Our answer? Ambiguous...we are presenting you with the truth; it is up to you, the audience, to decide what you think.

When presented with the reality of what we, all of us, are capable of in defence of a belief or a dogma whatever that may be you are made to wonder at what point we threw our humanity out of the window. But what do you believe in? What do you love? If this was threatened in some way...what would you resort to and to what lengths would you go to justify your defence?

The development process for DRUMHEAD was a fascinating one but it was not always easy. By pulling into focus some sanctioned practises of various government regimes, including those that are closer to home than we would like, we were shining a light on ourselves. The subject of torture is no longer taboo but a live debate on our own collective apathy and compliance. That is a difficult notion to come to terms with.

Our research was practical as well as theoretical; when investigating the techniques used in enhanced interrogation (not torture) we found waterboarding the most alarming and it became the focus of our attention.

Waterboarding: an interrogation technique in which water is forced into a detainee's mouth and nose so as to induce the sensation of drowning.

In order to truly understand the effect of this practise the cast had to subject themselves to it. The results were harrowing but experiencing this in a controlled environment is one thing, to have it done against your will with no way of knowing when or if it's going to stop would be entirely another.

Like all artists, we create things in order to understand and respond to the world around us. DRUMHEAD is a reaction, not a soapbox moment. We simply want to communicate the facts and have you make up your own mind.

Louise Oliver
CREATIVE DIRECTOR