{"id":414,"date":"2016-01-05T14:12:11","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T14:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/?p=414"},"modified":"2016-01-05T14:32:43","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T14:32:43","slug":"2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/?p=414","title":{"rendered":"2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2015 was one of my best years yet.<\/p>\n<p>It began with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/?page_id=318\">POLITRIX<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0with the amazing <a href=\"http:\/\/thebighouse.uk.com\">The Big House<\/a>, a company of\u00a0care leavers. In the run up to the May election, Politrix was a sort-of verbatim play about the political life of care-leavers inspired by real stories from the cast, and a surreal visit to the Houses of Parliament.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThese people\u00a0who\u00a0we\u00a0want to listen, I don\u2019t think\u00a0we\u00a0ever get to see\u00a0them\u2026 these\u00a0people hide.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"flexslider-wrapper\"><div class=\"flexslider\"><ul class=\"slides\"><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Moses-copy-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Oz-Marcus-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><div class=\"flex-caption\">From POLITRIX, The Big House. Photo: Catherine Ashmore.<\/div><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/2703ashm_344-copy-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/2703ashm_065-copy-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Directed by genius Maggie Norris, Politrix was an extraordinary experience for me. Read my reflections on the process <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/?p=339\">here<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>Then came <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/?page_id=421\">ACROSS THE DARK WATER<\/a>, a &#8216;contemporary&#8217; historical play about the Southampton Plot to kill Henry V. It was produced by The Berry and The Point in Eastleigh, directed by the uncannily brilliant Owen Calvert-Lyons, and was performed in amazing and atmospheric locations all over Hampshire, including Portchester Castle and St Julien&#8217;s Chapel, Southampton.<br \/>\nI loved doing this play, with a fantastic cast and creative team. It&#8217;s really got me excited about history, and writing about history. Here&#8217;s a trailer for the play:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fya9DgUnZt0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If you missed the live performances, the play was also filmed rather brilliantly. Here&#8217;s the first episode:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Vek6b7VFS5Y\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Finally, the end of the year saw the premiere of my play <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/?page_id=415\">CRUSHED SHELLS AND MUD<\/a>. Perhaps of all my plays, this is the one I love the most, and I was delighted with\u00a0a fabulous, rich, brilliantly-performed and realised production, directed with visionary aplomb by Russell Bolam.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"flexslider-wrapper\"><div class=\"flexslider\"><ul class=\"slides\"><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Crushed-Shells-Dress-\u00a9-Jack-Sain-2015-3552-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><div class=\"flex-caption\">From CRUSHED SHELLS AND MUD. Photo: Jack Sain, 2015<\/div><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Crushed-Shells-Dress-\u00a9-Jack-Sain-2015-9741-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><div class=\"flex-caption\">@ Jack Sain, 2015<\/div><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Crushed-Shells-Dress-\u00a9-Jack-Sain-2015-3435-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><div class=\"flex-caption\">@ Jack Sain, 2015<\/div><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Crushed-Shells-Dress-\u00a9-Jack-Sain-2015-3415-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><div class=\"flex-caption\">@ Jack Sain, 2015<\/div><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Crushed-Shells-Dress-\u00a9-Jack-Sain-2015-3663-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Crushed-Shells-Dress-\u00a9-Jack-Sain-2015-2687-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><div class=\"flex-caption\">@ Jack Sain, 2015<\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n<p>And I&#8217;m proud to say that Nick Hern Books also published the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickhernbooks.co.uk\/Book\/1804\/Crushed-Shells-and-Mud.html\">playtext<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the Crushed Shells trailer:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MWYf4n2IShU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If you were able to make it to something this year, thank you for coming, and hope you enjoyed yourself. There&#8217;s more in the pipeline for 2016 &#8211; watch this space!<\/p>\n<p>And many many thanks to all those gifted and generous people I&#8217;ve worked with this year. Too many to mention (but do please explore the other pages on the site for more about the plays and the teams behind them).<\/p>\n<p>Happy new year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2015 was one of my best years yet. It began with POLITRIX,\u00a0with the amazing The Big House, a company of\u00a0care leavers. In the run up to the May election, Politrix was a sort-of verbatim play about the political life of care-leavers inspired by real stories from the cast, and a surreal visit to the Houses [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,21,35,4,34,25,32,7,22,24,8,18,26,31,29,10,33,11,36],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alex-lawther","tag-alexander-arnold","tag-ben-callon","tag-ben-musgrave","tag-chris-gunter","tag-clare-almond","tag-darrell-brockis","tag-hackney-showrooms","tag-hannah-britland","tag-laura-howard","tag-maggie-norris","tag-owen-calvert-lyons","tag-russell-bolam","tag-simon-lenagan","tag-southwark-playhouse","tag-the-berry","tag-the-big-house","tag-the-point","tag-tom-brownlee","content-columns-1"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ben-musgrave.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}