Stoke Newington International Airport

Ping pong, pirates and wooing.

These are just three elements that arts collective Stoke Newington International Airport bring to the Fringe this week, with their shows Ping Pong Pub Quiz (PPPQ), The Lost Pirates and Live Art Speed Date.

Oh! Fringe speaks with one of the collective’s five founders, Greg McLaren and also Captain Porkbelly who heads up The Lost Pirates to find out more.

“How is your Ping Pong on a table that has pints of Guinness to avoid, or whilst being poked by a long stick, or while having to sing?” asks McLaren.

This question follows a boast of receiving the very prestigious ‘Table tennis player of the year’ award in school nine years ago.Touché.

And it turns out I’m not alone. “We have noticed that many people have hidden ping pong skills, but those skills are aggregated by players being asked fiendish questions which they have a limited amount of time to answer - during which they are loosing points for their team”, McLaren explains.

So it’s not as easy as you might think. “We have been practicing like demons and so when you come to play one of us in the Ping Pong final championship-or-death heavyweight match-up, you had better be ready”, he adds.

The consequences and forfeits as a result of loosing are still being defined. McLaren says, “These are still being thought up in our lab. Loosing at Strip-Pong could be pretty bad, or having to endure the horrors of the William Tell Offal Round. But there are some pretty attractive bonuses to be won too.”

Worth taking your chances on so.

The same could be said of Live Art Speed Date, an evening that sees the group creating four minute one-on-one dates for you to experience, incorporating “performance, music and strange spectacle”.

McLaren elaborates on the show, “It's a beast. The concept is simple; each of our contributing artists, performers and comedians create a one on one ‘date`. Some very private, some more public. Some will endeavour to woo you; others want to be wooed by you. Indeed sweet dreams are made of these, while others may be the stuff of nightmares.”

It is grounded in reality then, so we asked how can participants tell if their date is ‘faking it’? He advises, “Look deep into their eyes and tell them you want it for real. Although I don't think any of the daters will fake anything, it has a kind of free-fall feel to it, you just get sucked in to whatever's happening. A well known journalist turned up at Edinburgh's Speed Date and proclaimed it a 'mad house', he stayed all night.”

Stoke Newington International Airport has had its fair share of bad dates too.“Once we tried it on with Heathrow, but she was too big. Gatwick is a stroppy little so-and-so, JFK is ugly, and so hopefully we can hit it off with Dublin, you've got such a lovely runway...”

On that note we move on to The Lost Pirates, claiming to be ‘deadlier than heart disease’, the show is a sort of pre party for ‘International Speak Like a Pirate Day’ which falls on 19^th September this year.We know, we know, it rolls around so quickly each year…

The Lost Pirates mark the holiday with celebrations that are theatrical, unusual and set off by pirate shanties, ska, disco and punk.Captain Porkbelly rejects the idea that they are cashing in on the pirate trend, “We are pirates. We are responsible for the explosion in the popularity of pirates.”

With that cleared up, Captain Porkbelly tells us more about the show.We ask, since you’re seeking ‘hot booty’, should we lock up our daughters?

Captain Porkbelly responds, “Yes! [pause] No. I mean ‘no’. Bring them to the show. Damn is it too late to take back the 'yes`?

Yes it is. “I'd just stand back if I were you. Don't want to damage the locks. Pirates have always held a romantic place in the hearts of wenches and men of a curly persuasion”, he says.

As a concept gig, The Lost Pirates features original compositions, “We wrote every last note of it, almost. When we're not maintaining ramming speed or preparing to board, us Pirates love little more than a good dance and that is all we's demanding from our fans. To which end our show is hand crafted disco gold. We take the finest cuts of Ska, Funk, Sea shanty, and Klezma and boil it in the fine oil of disco.”

Sounds delicious. On that note Captain Porkbelly asks, “Is that it then? Can I go? I’ve got a ham cooking.”

And with that, Captain Porkbelly followed a star towards the morning.

*Published in Issue 10 of Oh! Fringe, September 2009

http://www.ohfrancis.com/Web_Issue_10.pdf

Madame Butterfly

Peering through the butterfly framed window, a sex swing hangs nonchalantly.

Samurai swords hang from meat hooks overhead; the sex swing is all leather and chains.

These props are playfully at odds with their womb-like surroundings.

A warm pinkish hue lights the set, familiar symbols of suburbia and childhood, the white-picket fence and the Wendy house, frame the scene while a girl-on-girl porno flickers in the corner of your eye.

The set is full of aesthetic conflicts and playing with established societal myths is a trait that permeates the piece performed in this space.

This year, the inconspicuous Crane Lane in Temple Bar hosts one the Fringe’s most intriguing acts, as Aideen McDonald debuts her show Madame Butterfly.

The set is a site of contradictions in many ways.

McDonald says, “It is the womb of the show. It glows and pulsates. It’s like a crazy little nursery that sprang out of a Japanese jack-in-the-box. As a whole it has the feel of a magical, heightened, in every sense of the word, playpen.”

Yet at the same time, the set is a highly sexualised environment.

“The set is both a contemporary red light district window in full, if slightly skewed, swing and a take on an imagined, contemporary Geisha’s private salon,” she says.

To the fore, Madame Butterfly, as a prostitute in the window, has two personas (the flyers for the show advertise them separately), the virgin and the whore.

For all intents and purposes they are very similar to the eye, they both wear dildos, or dongs, to the initiated, one only slightly less intimidating than the other.

“The penis is a power symbol. The dongs speak to issues of gender construction and power relations,” McDonald elaborates.

It is in the background, the private salon space that Madame Butterfly invites you, on a one-on-one basis, to engage in a performance that will stimulate your ‘visual, oral and aural’ senses.

Men, if you’re thinking “I’d like to be stimulated visually, orally and aurally”, don’t get too excited: there is a catch — these tickets are for women only.

McDonald, who also works in the applied arts field, defends the move as she considers “working with single identity groups, in this case women, to be a productive means of addressing societal issues with a clear focus.”

‘Women only’ is also a comment on the context of the show.

“The less transparent establishments on this lane, the Boilerhouse sauna and the Emporium lapdancing club have been set up for the sensual enjoyed of men.”

Madame Butterfly only services women, engaging her female clients with a view to provoking self-analysis around issues of identity and intimacy.

“The process offers up a little sensual enjoyment for good measure”, McDonald assures.

She also adds, “I want to engage with women from across a broad section of society who work with or live with, issues directly affecting women. My hope is that the experience will be thought provoking through arousing all the senses.”

The show aims to raise questions. How do we feel about ourselves? What is our role in society? To what extent do we create our identity? What of femaleness? What of maleness?

But McDonald acknowledges, “Just as there are no new themes, there are no new questions. I don’t have the answers, only an active interest in the issues. These are questions I believe it is important for women to be asking themselves and each other.”

Pedestrian voyeurs will encounter and undoubtedly be engaged by the red light district act, the virgin and the whore in the window, “with a twist”.

Admittance is limited so individual “guests” willing to remove their shoes, enter the scene and enjoy Geishaesque acts of hospitality must book a ticket quickly.

Only the brave, the lucky and the fairer of the sexes will get to experience the full Madame Butterfly experience.

* Published in Issue 11 of Oh! Fringe, September 2009

http://www.ohfrancis.com/Web_Issue_11.pdf