We've been delving into the archives, trying to put our past into some sort of order. Talk about Aegean stables! Anyway, we were going through some old Horizon stuff (Horizon Production Company was the theatre company Sean and I founded in Ireland, God, twenty-five years ago?) and came across a manifesto I'd put together fairly early on - and much of it still holds up in terms of my own aesthetic and critical sensibilities. Some of it, as I recall, was appropriated, though God knows from whom (I suspect the baleful influence of a few surrealists), but here it is:


HORIZON MANIFESTO

THEATRE SHOULD BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD


I

You are there for the audience, not the other way around

IF IT AIN'T POPULIST, IT AIN'T ART


II

Dare to be pretentious
(aspire to be naive)


III

Exploit your weaknesses;
treat problems as solutions


IV
TEXT

Why do someone else's play when you can write your own?

If your own play isn't ready, look to the classics
(they are there for a reason)

Writing from one's experience is only as interesting as masturbation:
imagine


V
REHEARSAL

Warm-ups are prerequisite

Research is an indispensable tool
(without a knowledge of history, art is impossible)

Stop talking and get on your feet!

Depicting and creating are secondary to smashing them over the head


VI
PERFORMANCE

The sole and only sense of theatre is exhilaration
(think of yourself as an aerialist or a racehorse)

NEVER - EVER - FORGET:
ACTING IS A VISUAL ART


VII

If you have nothing to say or no new way of saying it,
shut up


VIII

If your ethics aren't laughable, they aren't serious enough


IX

Aim for the grotesque or the sublime
(we've quite enough of the mundane)

MELODRAMA AND FARCE ARE IDEALS


X

Do not rely on conventions,
create them


NEVER SACRIFICE THEATRE FOR REALITY


Meh - it got us through seven or eight years of pretty decent theatre.

Tags: social and personal, theatrix
humour: nostalgic

Geithner assures China investors, according to the BBC (in an item that won't even appear in the American press), but on closer look:

In a speech at Beijing University at the start of his two-day visit, Mr Geithner reassured his Chinese hosts that they need not worry about the estimated $770bn (£475bn) they have invested in US treasuries, a class of US government debt.

"Chinese financial assets are very safe," he said, drawing laughter from the audience.

Now, where I come from, if people laugh at your assurance, they haven't been assured. Hey, BBC, how about Geithner: Epic Fail in China?

Tags: politburo
humour: assured