Award-winning playwright Alex Oates and renowned dance artist Esther Huss present Rude Health; an innovative new arts project unlike any other in the North East of England.
Rude Health is a four-week-long festival of art, dedicated to different aspects of health, with each week carefully curated to reflect a certain need of the community, including mental health, aging and isolation, women’s health, and environmental issues. This exciting performing arts festival will give the local community access to high quality arts, underlining that art is for everyone, not just those in capital cities.
The festival aims to showcase a variety of high-quality art and emphasise that art should be accessible for everyone. Notable creatives partaking in the festival include the legendary free jazz improviser Maggie Nichols and North East born actor, Trevor Fox.
Ahead of the festival we spoke to Alex Oates and Esther Huss to learn more.
What can you tell me about Rude Health?
Rude Health is the first whole ‘season’ of work we’ve presented at The Tute, and it’s a bit of a mission statement for us. It’s the four weeks of October, with each week looking at a different aspect of health through a creative lens.
Week 1 is Mental Health – and Tim Dalling takes the reigns; he’s designed three days of workshops and performances that will use music to bring joy, spontaneity, and freedom to anyone who comes along. Tim is an early member of Kneehigh and a brilliant anarchic theatremaker. Maggie Nicols is a hero of his, a feminist vocal jazz improviser, and Tim used this opportunity to reach out to her and ask her if she’d collaborate. We’re very lucky she said yes. Thursday night, Maggie is leading a workshop for anyone of any ability who is interested in music making; they can bring an instrument or bring their voice, and it’ll explore improvising in a very user-friendly way. Friday night is a double bill gig by Maggie Nicols and Tim Dalling, showing off precisely what these two artists can do; various guests join them to perform alongside them. Saturday is Musical Boxing Day, where we’re erecting a boxing ring and inviting musicians to play off against each other in bouts. For participants, it promises to be a one-off opportunity to experience the power of working and improvising in a playful, non-competitive way, and for the audience, it’ll be a joyous occasion to witness a night of spontaneity and skill. Everyone is welcome, and we’re particularly inviting groups to address people's mental health challenges, ensuring that no one feels left out.
Week 2 is about ageing and isolation. We’re bringing Samuel Beckett’s classic play ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ to The Tute, performed by veteran actor Trevor Fox, who’s just finished a summer in Stratford for the RSC. It’s directed by Tees Valley artist of the year Andy Berriman. It’s a play about an older man reflecting on his life, relevant to our community. We’re taking it into nursing homes and running workshops alongside it with residents who often feel stranded in their homes.
Week 3 is focused on women’s health and features UK pioneer of New Dance Jacky Lansley and co-founder of The Tute Esther Huss, who have been friends and artistic collaborators for 20 years. Their new performance work, HIPS&SKINS, draws on dance, performance art, theatre and comedy skills and strategies to explore a shared journey around two very different challenging health situations – Jacky’s full hip replacement and Esther’s second pregnancy after a previous C-section. Using their personal experience with relentless wit in episodes such as ‘The Consultant’ and ‘The Patient’, their performance will enable diverse audiences to engage with important issues concerning women, health and equality.
Week 4 – Planetary health – we couldn’t do a month of health-related things and only focus on our species. That would be too human a thing to do. Because it’s such an important issue, we’re targeting younger audiences with these as we believe they hold the vast potential to make a difference while deserving the utmost care and support from older generations. We’re bringing the stunning Miscreations theatre to The Tute; they’re bringing a play about the Sycamore Gap tree for younger children. Alongside that, Hilary Elder and Jeremy Bradfield are working with young people at risk of dropping out of education at Bedlington Academy to develop an immersive sound installation, which we’ll present at The Tute over half term.
Week 1 is Mental Health – and Tim Dalling takes the reigns; he’s designed three days of workshops and performances that will use music to bring joy, spontaneity, and freedom to anyone who comes along. Tim is an early member of Kneehigh and a brilliant anarchic theatremaker. Maggie Nicols is a hero of his, a feminist vocal jazz improviser, and Tim used this opportunity to reach out to her and ask her if she’d collaborate. We’re very lucky she said yes. Thursday night, Maggie is leading a workshop for anyone of any ability who is interested in music making; they can bring an instrument or bring their voice, and it’ll explore improvising in a very user-friendly way. Friday night is a double bill gig by Maggie Nicols and Tim Dalling, showing off precisely what these two artists can do; various guests join them to perform alongside them. Saturday is Musical Boxing Day, where we’re erecting a boxing ring and inviting musicians to play off against each other in bouts. For participants, it promises to be a one-off opportunity to experience the power of working and improvising in a playful, non-competitive way, and for the audience, it’ll be a joyous occasion to witness a night of spontaneity and skill. Everyone is welcome, and we’re particularly inviting groups to address people's mental health challenges, ensuring that no one feels left out.
Week 2 is about ageing and isolation. We’re bringing Samuel Beckett’s classic play ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ to The Tute, performed by veteran actor Trevor Fox, who’s just finished a summer in Stratford for the RSC. It’s directed by Tees Valley artist of the year Andy Berriman. It’s a play about an older man reflecting on his life, relevant to our community. We’re taking it into nursing homes and running workshops alongside it with residents who often feel stranded in their homes.
Week 3 is focused on women’s health and features UK pioneer of New Dance Jacky Lansley and co-founder of The Tute Esther Huss, who have been friends and artistic collaborators for 20 years. Their new performance work, HIPS&SKINS, draws on dance, performance art, theatre and comedy skills and strategies to explore a shared journey around two very different challenging health situations – Jacky’s full hip replacement and Esther’s second pregnancy after a previous C-section. Using their personal experience with relentless wit in episodes such as ‘The Consultant’ and ‘The Patient’, their performance will enable diverse audiences to engage with important issues concerning women, health and equality.
Week 4 – Planetary health – we couldn’t do a month of health-related things and only focus on our species. That would be too human a thing to do. Because it’s such an important issue, we’re targeting younger audiences with these as we believe they hold the vast potential to make a difference while deserving the utmost care and support from older generations. We’re bringing the stunning Miscreations theatre to The Tute; they’re bringing a play about the Sycamore Gap tree for younger children. Alongside that, Hilary Elder and Jeremy Bradfield are working with young people at risk of dropping out of education at Bedlington Academy to develop an immersive sound installation, which we’ll present at The Tute over half term.
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| Esther and Cosmo at The Tute. Photo by Brian Morgan |
We wanted to do something of real value, so we looked to find something that connected all of us around the community. Health, with all its complexities, seemed a great place to start. We then contacted some of our favourite artists from across the country and invited them to dream with us.
How important has putting together the festival been for the North East?
We can’t speak for the whole region, but it’s definitely been important for us, and we hope that some people in the North East can come along and feel inspired by it. The sort of work we’re spotlighting is the kind of work that falls between the cracks of commercial theatre and publicly funded theatre—provocative work from big thinkers and dreamers like Samuel Beckett, Jacky Lansley, and Maggie Nicols.
How important has putting together the festival been for the North East?
We can’t speak for the whole region, but it’s definitely been important for us, and we hope that some people in the North East can come along and feel inspired by it. The sort of work we’re spotlighting is the kind of work that falls between the cracks of commercial theatre and publicly funded theatre—provocative work from big thinkers and dreamers like Samuel Beckett, Jacky Lansley, and Maggie Nicols.
Why do you think now is the right time for the festival?
We’re in a moment of significant change in the world. We have a new government, war’s bubbling up everywhere, climate continuing to heat up, economic instability, artificial intelligence is coming for our jobs, there’s plenty of reasons to feel scared or alone looking at the global big picture. Zoom in on the lives of people living in South East Northumberland and you find a whole generation of people struggling with the inheritance of de-industrialisation. Yet within every human lies massive potential for joy, for growth, for change. We believe that by working with people now, through the Rude Health festival, we’re able to affect change for the future and maybe play a small part in helping swing the needle away from war, climate disaster and gloom, towards a more hopeful and optimistic future.
How did you approach the programming of the festival?
We thought of people we really wanted to work with and started dreaming from there. Tim Dalling was high on our list because we’ve seen his work before, and it’s always so brilliant. He was an early member of Kneehigh Theatre company, and he shares their sense of dark-tinged silliness. We spoke to him about the health idea, and he suggested bringing in his hero, Maggie Nicols.
How did you approach the programming of the festival?
We thought of people we really wanted to work with and started dreaming from there. Tim Dalling was high on our list because we’ve seen his work before, and it’s always so brilliant. He was an early member of Kneehigh Theatre company, and he shares their sense of dark-tinged silliness. We spoke to him about the health idea, and he suggested bringing in his hero, Maggie Nicols.
Alex recently wrote a short film that Trevor Fox played the lead character; he’s been in numerous plays for The National Theatre and spent the summer in Stratford at the RSC; he’s one of the UK’s best actors. We realised that our community is an ageing one, and often, older members of the community are left on their own or can’t get out as they’d like to. Krapp’s last tape is one of Beckett’s more accessible plays; at its essence, it’s about a man on his own near the end of his life stuck reminiscing.
Esther has known Jacky Lansley for almost twenty yearsand has always wanted an opportunity to collaborate in making a piece together. They had recently supported each other through two particular health situations, i.e. a hip replacement and preparation for a birth post-c-section. Since moving to Cambois and beginning our work at The Tute, we have witnessed first-hand the disconnect between personal lives and politics. One of our neighbours walked 1.5 hours to their local GP while eight months pregnant. She was seen as demanding when asking if she could be home visited instead due to inferior public transport links.
For Climate Week, we wanted to work with young people and inspire the next generation. We came across MiscreationsTheatre by accident at a festival in Darlington. We loved their work and asked them to be involved.
What do you hope to achieve from running the festival?
We hope that people will expand their artistic horizons and experience work they may not have come across before, we hope that people will feel lifted by what we present, we hope people feel heard, and we hope people feel inspired. We gently want to raise the exterior reputation of Cambois, where we live, from a place of dead industry and broken promises to a home for curious minds and the artistically brave.
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| Esther Huss and Jacky Lansley. Photo by Hugo Glendinning. |
Where did your arts career begin, and how do you reflect on your career journey so far?
Alex – I moved from the North East to London to study theatre. Very quickly after graduating, I realised I wanted to pursue writing instead of acting or directing and was selected for the Old Vic’s 24-hour plays. This was a mad project where you wrote a ten-minute play overnight, and it was presented that evening on stage at The Old Vic. It went very well; there was a massive audience, all laughing and crying in the right bits; I thought I was off to the races. I thought I’d have some considerable success quickly, have lots of money, and be able to set up my own theatre. I was 21. About fifteen years later, when I was working on my play ‘All in A Row’ with brilliant actors I’d seen on west end stages and we were chatting about how skint we were that I realised there isn’t any money in theatre. Writing is often a horrendous career path; you sit torturing yourself in a room on your own, sure the thing you’re writing is awful and then somehow reaching a point where you contemplate maybe letting it out into the world, only for it to be rejected or worse, ignored by lots of artistic directors who you’re supposed to be schmoozing whenever you have the opportunity. Not realising those very same artistic directors feel precisely like you on the inside, unsure what they’re doing is any good. Yet I keep writing because I don’t know anything else I can do, and some part of me must enjoy the sadomasochism of putting myself through it. Of course, the real payoff comes when you see your work come to life, when you see people find resonance in something you’ve created; that buzz in the air of an auditorium is such an addictive substance it ought to be illegal. The problem is, though, that like any addiction, it’s deeply unhealthy. Since becoming a father, I’ve got my head around the fact that the healthier way to pursue a career as a writer is simply to show up and do the work and try to detach my own self-worth from what happens to that work. I’m having a good year; I’ve just written a short film, I had a play translated into Catalan presented in Barcelona, I’m on attachment at The National Theatre and writing a Peter Shaffer commission play for a large cast at Northern Stage, it’s a lot to be grateful for. I’ve had years where I had little opportunity, and I was sure nobody was interested in my work. I’m sure I’ll have them again, and that’s being a writer. What has changed recently is my involvement in The Tute and the ability to be reminded why we make art. Working in communities with real people who aren’t in the industry is massively refreshing and rewarding; it keeps your feet on the ground.
Esther – I grew up in a small village in the valley in the black forest in Germany; it was through an encounter with ballet teacher Susan Schwantes, an ex-soloist with the Royal Ballet, who ignited a curiosity for movement in me. The joy of self-expression that I experienced through her lessons at the age of 8 eventually brought me to study professionally in London at the age of 17 and remain working as a freelance performer for 20 years. I was trained in ballet, but while loving its vocabulary and music, I never felt entirely at home in this style; it was when I discovered contemporary dance while studying in London that I could envisage a dance career. I was very fortunate to work with many brilliant choreographers and people with integrity and solid values who cared about the art form, such as Jacky Lansley, Kate Flatt, Aletta Collins and Michael Keegan-Dolan. Alongside this, I spent many hours roaming through galleries and constantly yearning to find a way of understanding how different art forms inspire each other. This led to an interest in interdisciplinary work and site-specific work. To achieve a sense of financial stability, I started teaching movement to adults with learning difficulties and disabilities, and it's this work that I could draw hope and a will to continue in the often disappointingdance industry. In 2013, I co-founded an inclusive dance company, Dandelion Collective, that continues to run under its new director, Kuan Chan—the 7 years spent with that fantastic group of humans taught me so many lessons about the power of dance and the human spirit. Moving to North East provided an opportunity to focus on my career as a performance maker, for the first time, away from the oversaturated capital, I felt inspired to make work and bring all my experience to the new landscape and people that surrounded me. Over the last four years, I’ve presented work in various spaces such as a lead mine, timber merchants, national trust sites and the beach. I’m working on a collaborative research project with Newcastle University that looks at coastal communities, seaweed, and movement, as well as a commission for the AONB. I’m always on the lookout for exciting spaces and opportunities to collaborate. Having a space to work in has been profoundly grounding, and it’s been a joy to see our community work at The Tute slowly grow in number. I take immense pleasure out of the dance group, now a force of 11 women, sharing close relationships and developing friendships through a shared purpose in dance. I no longer feel worried about the group wishing I was teaching strictly come dancing but feel excited to know we collectively keep seeking experimental and new forms.
What keeps you inspired?
Living where we live – Cambois is such a rich area, every single resident is a character in their own right. And, of course, our wonderful children who continually make us laugh and see the world through a different lens again.Children keep you present which is useful when you have so many plates spinning, they can always pull you back into the present moment and that’s a valuable tool to have.
Rude Health festival runs from Thursday 3rd until Saturday 31st October 2024. For full details and tickets visit https://thetute.uk/
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| Trevor Fox (Krapps Last Tape). Photo by Sel MacLean |
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