When Thomas Bernhard’s last drama Heldenplatz (Heroes Square) premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on October 7, 1988, it caused a public uproar. Before the play was published, carefully selected extracts of the text had been leaked to various papers and, taken out of context, led to massive protests against the play. Austria’s president Kurt Waldheim, a former officer of the SA, called the drama an “insult to the Austrian people”, and Thomas Bernhard was physically assaulted for allegedly besmirching Austria’s reputation. Bernhard’s play led to a heated debate about Austria’s role in the Nazi era.
Courtesy of Judith Buss.
Launched in September of 2020, the T Level offers a practical alternative to the traditional A Level. A technical qualification equivalent to 3 A Levels, students benefit from a mixture of classroom based lessons and on the job experience, the courses included on the programme designed to meet the needs of our 21st century, post pandemic work force. Created in partnership with awarding organisation NCFE, 3 T Levels were made available from 2020 – Digital production, Design and Development/design, Surveying and Planning for Construction and Education and Childcare, with a further 7 launched in September of 2021 – Building Services Engineering for Construction/Digital business Services/Digital Support and Services/Health/Health Science/Onsite Construction/Science. The rest to be launched in 2022/2023, this including a course in craft and design. With some of the courses still currently being developed, NCFE’s Director of Qualifications and Assessment Zac Aldridge tells us more about designing the innovative courses!
The pinnacle of the film industry calendar, the Academy Awards will return for their 94th edition on Sunday 27th March at the Dolby Theatre, LA. With a total of 24 categories being recognised, the evening offers a chance to celebrate the great work produced by creatives devoted to their craft. Having won his first Academy Award – a Student Academy Award as a recent graduate of The Danish Film School at the time with short film Feeding Desire in 2001, before winning his second for This Charming Man in 2003, member of AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) filmmaker Martin Strange-Hansen returns with his latest production On My Mind – a tale of loss drawing from his own personal experience of this. Announced as an Academy Award 2022 finalist on Tuesday 8th February in the ‘Best Live Action Short Film’, Martin tells us more about how he feels post announcement, working with double Academy Award® Winning producer Kim Magnusson and performers Rasmus Hammerich, Camilla Bendix and Ole Boisen and what he’s taken away from his varied career within film!
Having created a much needed space for the first hand experiences of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers within the UK to be heard, PSYCHEdelight have presented a series of crucial works placing these stories centre stage. Currently presenting Mohand and Peter, drawing on company member Mohand Hasb Alrosol Abdalrahem’s real life experience of leaving his native Sudan to seek asylum, the devised piece, created by fellow company member Peter Pearson and artistic director Sophie Bertrand Besse blends clowning and visual poetry to explore explore cultural identity and the traumatic effect of long-term exile as well as celebrating refugee home countries. Ahead of the production, showing at the Southwark Playhouse from the 9th March until 9th April, Mohand and Peter tell us more about exploring this pertinent story, what it means to have a platform such as PSYCHEdelight to tell these stories and how the team have approached creating the show.