Neil Oram
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Neil Oram | |
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Born | Neil R. G. Oram January 2, 1938 |
Neil Oram (born 2 January 1938) is a British musician, poet, artist, and playwright. He is best known for his 10-play cycle, The Warp, directed by Ken Campbell.[citation needed]
Soho, jazz, art and poetry career
While in Africa, Oram met musician Mike Gibbs, and played double bass in the Mike Gibbs Quintet with Gibbs playing piano, vibes and trombone.
A post-concert epiphany when a voice repeatedly told him, "Je suis un poet!" led Oram to take up writing.[1]
Oram returned to Britain in 1958 where he ran a jazz café called The House of Sam Widges on 8
Oram was now writing poetry, giving readings and painting large, abstract, jazz inspired paintings.
In 1960, he opened "The Mingus" art gallery in Marshall Street, Soho, where abstract paintings by O. G. Bradbury, George Popperwell, Jaime Manzano,
Oram's poems and other writings can be found in
Oram’s published poems were collected in ‘Children of Albion’ (Penguin 1968), ‘Words-re-arranged’ (Privately printed, 1970), ‘Past The Antique Pain’ (Zum Zum 1974), ‘Beauty’s Shit’ (Zum Zum 1976), ‘The Golden Forgotten’ (Great Works 1977), ‘Yes To The Fresh’ (Zum Zum 1995). A select collection of poems drawn from 56 years of poetry, The Rain Stands Tall, was published in 2015 by Barncott Press.
Oram has painted abstract pieces of art over a long period of time out of which mostly have not been shown in public. The paintings include a series of twenty geometric images, the Diamond Series, painted over two decades.
The Warp
The Warp's hero is called Phil Masters, named after the blind poet
Lasting upwards of 22 hours when performed fully, the Phil Masters character is on stage for all but five minutes, making it one of the most demanding acting roles ever created.The first performance of The Warp (Warp 1, The Storm's Howling through Tiflis) opened at London's
At the 1979
Five further marathon performances followed at the Roundhouse in London in November 1979, also directed by Campbell.
In 1980 Oram was 'resident playwright' at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, where The Warp ran for ten weeks. While there, Oram wrote an 11th Warp play entitled Chameleon Blue.[10]
In 1980-82, The Warp was adapted by director
The Warp was subsequently turned into a three-volume novel by Oram, published by Sphere Books.
The Warp DVD, a video of the full 18-hour 1979 ICA production is available directly from Oram. [14]
In the 1990s, there were a number of productions of The Warp directed by Ken Campbell's daughter Daisy Eris Campbell.
In the late 1990s, the play was staged at "The Drome" nightclub under the arches of the London Bridge [1] as part of a rave called The Warp Experience that ran for 9 events.
Authorship confusion
Obituaries on Ken Campbell in The Telegraph[15] and The Guardian[16] say that Ken "wrote" The Warp or "co-wrote" The Warp with Neil Oram. However, other reviews[17] and articles[18] and all known publicity material acknowledges Neil Oram as being the sole author. It seems clear that Ken Campbell directed, but never wrote a word of the Warp and there is no evidence that he ever claimed to have done so.
According to Oram,[19] the true story behind the writing of The Warp is as follows: Ken Campbell "inspired" him to write The Warp as a play after, at the ICA in 1978, Campbell heard Oram give a one-man performance of stories from his life. Campbell suggested dramatization and offered to direct the result. Commissioned by the ICA, and funded by the Arts Council, Oram began working. A brief attempt at collaboration, with Campbell typing up the script, proved impractical. Oram then wrote the entire ten play cycle, by hand, by himself, in Butleigh, Somerset.
Bibliography
- Children of Albion (Penguin, 1968)
- Words-re-arranged (Privately printed, 1970)
- Past The Antique Pain (Zum Zum, 1974)
- Beauty’s Shit (Zum Zum, 1976)
- The Golden Forgotten (Great Works, 1977)
- Yes To The Fresh (Zum Zum, 1995)
- The Warp 1: The Storm's Howling Through Tiflis (Sphere)
- The Warp 2: Lemmings on the Edge (Sphere)
- The Warp 3: The Balustrade Paradox (Sphere, 1982)
- Spy For Love (Oberon, 2002)
- Inside Out (Barncott Press, 2013)
- The Friends of Deception (Barncott Press, 2013)
- The Rain Stands Tall (Barncott Press, 2015)
Filmography
- Uliisses (1982, director: Werner Nekes, 35mm, 94 mins)
References
- ^ Warp 1, The Storm's Howling through Tiflis, page 40.
- ^ Lee Harwood Not The Whole Story] Photo + interview, Chapter 2, page 32. Shearsman Books, Exeter (2008).
- ^ Interview with Neil Oram 2013
- ^ The Energetic Eighties, Neil Oram, International Times, 1980 Vol 5 No 5.
- ^ Vol. 66/2 (1976). Contributors to the Poetry Review 1972-1977.
- ^ Ian Shuttleworth. "THE WARP: Introduction". Compulink.co.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
- ^ "World's longest play. Neil Oram The Warp". Thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
- ^ "The Warp". Arena. BBC. 1979. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ 'NO PROBLEM' Arts Council film by Ian Johnson, partly shot in The Regent during rehearsal for The Warp
- ^ Poster for Chameleon Blue
- IMDb
- ^ BFI.org
- ^ "German Film Critics Association Awards (1984)". IMDb.
- ^ "The Warp Now available as a 6 DVD set".
- ^ Ken Campbell obituary, Daily Telegraph, 1 September 2008.
- ^ Ken Campbell obituary, The Guardian, 1 September 2008.
- ^ The Warp, Michael Coveney, Financial Times, 22 January 1979.
- ^ The Man With The Warp Mind, Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post, 15 November 1980.
- ^ Introduction to Spy For Love by Neil Oram (Oberon 2002)