I, Cinna (the poet) | Teacher Resources

I, CINNA

(THE POET) TEACHER RESOURCE PACK FOR TEACHERS WORKING WITH STUDENTS IN YEARS 7 - 9

A Unicorn Production

I, CINNA (THE POET) Written and performed by Tim Crouch Directed by Naomi Wirthner

FROM WED 5 FEB - SAT 29 FEB 2020 FOR STUDENTS IN YEARS 7 - 9 WRITE A REVOLUTION. The poet Cinna hardly says a word in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar before he’s mistaken for someone else and torn to pieces by an angry mob. He’s Shakespeare’s unluckiest character. Now Cinna searches for the subject of his next poem and invites us, the audience, to write with him, live.

This brilliantly clear introduction to Julius Caesar is a unique and warmly engaging solo show about words and actions, art, protest and power.

Tim Crouch is an internationally renowned playwright and theatre-maker. I, Cinna (the poet) is the fifth play in a series about Shakespeare’s minor characters. Tim’s recent play Beginners premiered at the Unicorn in 2018 and won the Writers’ Guild Award for best play for young audiences.

Duration: 1 hr (approx)

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TEACHER RESOURCES

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

p. 4

ABOUT THE PLAY MAKING THE PLAY

p. 6 p. 9

INTERVIEW WITH WRITER AND PERFORMER TIM CROUCH DRAMA ACTIVITIES

p. 13

SEQUENCE ONE: ACT 3, SCENE 3

p. 14

SEQUENCE TWO: MINOR CHARACTERS - WRITING MONOLOGUES SEQUENCE THREE: DREAMS

p. 17

p. 20

SEQUENCE FOUR: POETRY

p. 23

RESOURCES FOR ACTIVITIES

p. 26

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TEACHER RESOURCES

INTRODUCTION This is the pack for teachers bringing students to see the Unicorn Theatre’s production of I, Cinna (the poet), written and performed by Tim Crouch and directed by Naomi Wirthner.

I, Cinna (the poet) is a unique theatre experience in which the audience writes a creative response to the death of Cinna, during the performance.

The play takes the form of a conversation between Cinna the poet, a minor character in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and the audience. Cinna is a small person on the tide of history, a bit player, in times of great political upheaval. He shares with the audience his fears about what is happening on the streets of Rome. Through him we hear of Julius Caesar’s triumphant return to Rome; how the people hail Caesar as a hero and want him crowned emperor; how he refuses the crown three times; the way in which the conspirators finally act to stop Caesar’s ambition; and the chaos that is unleashed at Caesar’s death.

As Cinna reveals what’s happening in Rome, he also shares his own internal struggle. As a poet, what should his response be? He is a small man at a key moment in history, but all he wants to do is live a quiet life and write his poetry: words of beauty and love. Will anything he writes have an effect on what is happening? What power do words have?

Told with a gripping immediacy, I, Cinna (the poet) is a one-man show which connects Shakespeare’s depiction of 5th century BCE Rome with 21st century global politics. As Cinna keeps the outside world at bay, behind his locked door, the play uses contemporary video projection to bring the political present into the theatre space. The story of Julius Caesar is juxtaposed with film footage of contemporary street protests - such as Extinction Rebellion, the gilets jaunes of Paris, protest around Brexit and Trump - enabling the audience to experience the ways in which Shakespeare’s words written more than four hundred years ago have power and relevance today.

When Cinna realises that Mark Antony has changed the course of history through the power of words, he is changed. Foreseeing his death, Cinna asks the audience to respond through his art form: poetry.

The audience is given time and encouraged to write honestly in response to what he has shared with us.

I, Cinna (the poet) holds art and creative pedagogy together, bringing audiences into a live relationship with the content, activating the imagination and challenging and stretching them as audience and participant.

The play is about writing and the writer, as an individual and as a citizen. It gives the audience the opportunity to step into the perspective of an artist in a time of violent political change, and to write from that perspective.

This writing activity is not concerned with creating polished or finished work, but is about the young people engaging with words and having the freedom to follow their own thoughts and processes – to put pen to paper and see where words and their imaginations lead them.

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TEACHER RESOURCES

CPD: THU 16 JANUARY 2020, 4.30PM - 7PM There will be a free teacher CPD day for I, Cinna (the poet), a chance for teachers to find out more about the show and gain practical experience of the accompanying scheme of work and classroom activities before leading them with a class. For more information or to book your place, email schools@unicorntheatre.com.

Teachers may also book up to two free tickets per school to the press night, on Wednesday 12th February at 7pm, subject to availability.

Tim Crouch is an internationally renowned playwright and theatre-maker. I, Cinna (the poet) is the fifth play in a series about Shakespeare’s minor characters. Tim’s recent play Beginners premiered at the Unicorn in 2018 and won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Play for Young Audiences. He directed the much-loved Jeramee, Hartleby and Oooglemore which ran at the Unicorn in 2016 and 2017. His plays for adult audiences include An Oak Tree (selected as one of The Guardian’s fifty best plays of the 21st century), Adler & Gibb and Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation. Tim is the creator and co-writer of BBC2’s comedy drama Don’t Forget the Driver.

The Unicorn Theatre is the UK’s leading professional theatre for young audiences, dedicated to inspiring and invigorating young people of all ages, perspectives and abilities, and empowering them to explore the world – on their own terms – through theatre. Purpose-built for children and based in London, the Unicorn is one of the most prolific producing theatres in the UK, presenting up to 30 productions for children of all ages every year, and touring widely across the UK and beyond.

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TEACHER RESOURCES

ABOUT THE PLAY What do poets do? Tell me? What is their purpose? To write about great things or small things? To get involved or to stand on the sidelines?

The play opens with Cinna, the poet, returning to his house after queuing for bread, while outside a mob throngs the streets. He’s hungry, and wants to get away from the crowds who have gathered to celebrate Caesar’s triumph.

Cinna is troubled. He doesn’t share the people’s jubilation at Caesar’s return: ‘To hell with Caesar’, he says. He wants to keep his head down.

I will not go out there. I will live quietly in the shadows of these great men. I will make soup. I will close my curtains. We have paper and pen. We will write ourselves safe. We will imagine ourselves peaceful.

Leave it to politicians. It’s got nothing to do with poems.

Caesar has returned from war victorious. The people are out celebrating, and they want to crown Caesar - ‘Or at least that’s what they think they want’.

But Rome is a republic, and there are no crowns, kings or emperors in a republic.

I’m not here to celebrate Caesar’s victories. I am silent and scared, I am a coward. Cinna the coward. I hide behind words.

The police hate Caesar. The politicians hate Caesar - the leaders of the opposition, Brutus remember him? Cassius, Casca, Cinna (not me, not this Cinna!). Caesar has become too powerful, they say. But the people love him! They want a king.

Cinna tries to make sense of what’s happening, and invites the audience to join him in placing words on the page to see what connections are formed. He asks us to write ‘CAESAR’, and ‘BRUTUS’, ‘REPUBLIC’ and ‘CROWN’.

But Cinna realises he cannot find the subject for his poem.

I have lost my voice as a poet. I want to write about love and freedom and peace but this world won’t let me.

How did my dream end?

How does our poem start?

Cinna draws the audience into his world: the world of a poet. In response to the volatility on the streets, he asks everyone to write while he boils the kettle for tea.

Write one sentence describing what you would be prepared to die for... Write another sentence describing what you would be prepared to kill for.

Time passes. Outside events are moving fast, and Cinna follows them on his phone via social media.

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TEACHER RESOURCES He describes the huge crowds hailing the great hero’s return and how Mark Antony, travelling with Caesar, offers him the crown three times, and three times Caesar turns it down.

Cinna is angry; he doesn’t believe Caesar is a modest man. He’s someone who owns half of the city and has gold taps in his home. Cinna believes Caesar’s action is false modesty, designed to manipulate the crowd, and that this is a dangerous moment, with Caesar poised to overthrow the Republic and take ultimate power.

In his distress, Cinna decides to use the chicken he had bought as food to perform an augury, to find out what the future holds.

At first the omens are good, but as he goes to remove the last of the organs - the heart - he cannot find it. He’s horrified.

No heart. No heart! A beast without a heart. I dreamt of this. I dreamt of this!

The next morning a newspaper comes through the door. It is March 15th: the Ides of March. Cinna reads what has been happening overnight.

‘Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight. ... Graves have yawned and opened up their dead… Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan…’

‘Caesar to go to the Capitol. Coronation expected. Crowds camp overnight to get the best view.’

He reads how a soothsayer has warned Caesar to ‘beware the ides of March’, and a report that two policemen who removed the people’s scarves from Caesar’s statues have been put to death by Caesar’s men.

Cinna panics at the growing political upheaval and thinks that he is nothing, that he has done nothing with his life.

Writing isn’t living. Poetry serves no function. I have achieved nothing.

And then Cinna watches footage on his phone of the death of Caesar.

He describes and demonstrates the way in which Caesar is assassinated, blow by blow. How the final conspirator to wield the knife is Brutus, Caesar’s friend.

He watches the footage over and over, a hundred times.

And then Cinna relates the funeral of Caesar to the audience: how Brutus speaks of his love for Caesar, but his greater love for the Republic. And the way in which Brutus makes way to let Mark Antony speak on behalf of his friend.

Mark Antony’s words move the people, and galvanise them against the conspirators, until they are crying for their blood. Cinna is devastated that his words have so much power: ‘Mark Antony’s poetry has changed history, words have defeated actions.’

Rome is now at Civil War, between the conspirators and Mark Antony who has joined forces with Caesar’s cousin Octavius.

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TEACHER RESOURCES Listen to the streets. Listen to the terror and the confusion.

I have no words. There are no words.

Cinna, changed by what he has witnessed, chooses to go outside. As he leaves, he foresees his own death and describes how it happens. Mistaken for the conspirator Cinna, he is torn to pieces by the crowd. He appeals to the audience to write a poem: to write about the death of Cinna.

Write my death. Write how I die - fists or feet or knives. Write why I die. For having the wrong name? For being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was I innocent because I wouldn’t get involved? Or was I guilty because I wouldn’t get involved? Write my last thoughts. My last sights.

My last feelings. Write the thoughts of the mob, the rioters, as they tear me for my bad verses.

Write what happens when the mob loses control.

Here’s how you write a poem.

First you must live. Then you must question. Then you must be free. Here. (He points to his head.)

The audience is left for a time to write their poems.

When Cinna finally returns he is a ghost. He tells us what happens when Mark Antony and Octavius wreak their revenge on the conspirators, and of the other ghosts he has met; the victims of the civil war. He tells us about the establishment of the most powerful empire the world had ever known: the Roman Empire.

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TEACHER RESOURCES

MAKING THE PLAY INTERVIEW WITH WRITER AND PERFORMER TIM CROUCH

WHY DO YOU WANT TO STAGE I, CINNA (THE POET) AT THE UNICORN IN 2020?

Compared to 2012 [when the play was first commissioned], the world is very different now. 2012 was the year after the riots in London, so there was a connection to that in the original production, but the riots feel piecemeal, small-scale compared to what’s happening globally now. And the idea of a country being led by a dictator who is manipulating language – welcome to the world! Who knows who will be in charge of this country [when the play is performed in February 2020]; there’s a sequence in the play where Cinna asks the audience to write down who the leader of the country is and to write one word to describe that leader.

Cinna says ‘There’s nothing that cannot be done or undone with words’. So there’s that focus on words, because words often get short shrift, because it’s all image now. Cinna says ‘Words are better than pictures, words are also pictures’. Words at the moment are really complex, slippery things, politically.

In 2012 we were infants in that world, and now we’re kind of horrified teenagers, going ‘Can words really have that effect?’ People can lie, using the right words; they lie and everyone just accepts them.

And that is also in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar; Mark Antony turns the whole course of history with his use of language.

So to have the opportunity to look after that charge, that political charge, that educational charge, and to connect it to something that was written 420 years ago is really exciting.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE CHARACTER OF CINNA? I hope he will represent all of us, in the sense that he is a small person on the tide of history, believing that his existence has no impact or influence on the world, and that’s obviously a modern malaise - well, a perennial malaise. Thinking that we, as individuals, have no impact on the world. In this play, Cinna’s journey (not in Shakespeare’s play, as Shakespeare doesn’t give him enough time) is an awakening of his responsibility, of what is going on in the world. But that awakening takes place a moment too late, just as he walks into the street and is attacked by a mob and killed. His wisdom comes after his death, when writing a poem: ‘First you must live. Then you must question. Then you must be free.’

Shakespeare uses a poet in his play. It could have been anyone; it could have been a fishmonger, it could have been a cobbler. There are tradesmen at the beginning of the play Julius Caesar, but he doesn’t choose a tradesman to be taken by the crowd and killed, he chooses a poet, and the poet is torn apart ‘for his bad verses’.

It is exciting to put that kind of figure into young people’s imaginations, because they will all write during the performance. When students are at school they all write, and what they write they often think of as nothing and of no importance, and what we’re trying to say in this play is that what you write is important and how you write is important.

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TEACHER RESOURCES Cinna says: ‘My death, the death of Cinna, what does my death represent... Write with purpose... My death is a warning, a warning that only serves a purpose if my story is told; tell my story, write your poem, send them out. Words work, but only if you work words.’

That feels really important, about how powerful language is if it is used responsibly. So it’s a call for responsible writing, I suppose.

IS THIS THE FIRST TIME YOU’VE CREATED WORK THAT CREATES SPACE FOR THE AUDIENCE TO INTERACT AND BE CREATIVE WITHIN THE PIECE? Yes, totally.

It connects to my most recent play for adults, Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation [National Theatre of Scotland production in association with the Royal Court Theatre, Teatro de Bairro Alto, Lisbon and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, 2019]. In this piece, the audience read a book we’re printing for the performance. Everyone, audience and actors, have a book in their hands. The audience doesn’t write, but at times they read out loud. In the book there are illustrations, so some of the story is told through all of us together in a circle turning the pages, looking at the illustrations.

In my work I am always trying to find opportunities for the audience to become more active. So in Beginners, an audience needs to be more active to understand that the characters aren’t adults, but are actually children. It’s not like audience participation as in ‘Come up on stage’, but it’s audience participation as in ‘You are needed to make sense of this show’.

Without an audience writing, the death of Cinna will not happen. The actor will transform with blood and dust – their costume gets transformed into that of a corpse, because that’s what happens to Cinna the poet. But in that time, the audience needs to write.

DOES THIS DEMAND A PARTICULAR KIND OF PERFORMER FOR THE ROLE? In any of my work, I’m not asking for performers to do traditional acting, or to inhabit a traditional actor’s role. A traditional actor’s role is to get into character and to try and seal the gaps between the world of the character and the world outside it, so you can exist hermetically inside the world of the character.

In all my work, I want the audience to understand that there is an actor and there is a character. There is an idea of a character and there’s also an idea of an actor, and those forms are completely fluid and flexible. And you can understand that that’s you and that’s not you; it’s the character and it’s not the character. It needs that contradiction, I think, to make the show work best.

THE PLAY ASKS US TO THINK ABOUT POWER, THE SMALL PERSON AND PROTEST. DO YOU WANT TO ACTIVATE A MORE DIRECT POLITICAL RESPONSE FROM YOUR AUDIENCE? There are issues in the play around leadership; Cinna says ‘I live in a republic; do you live in a republic?’ in the knowledge that the people in this country, in this show, live in a monarchy.

And then he talks about equality and asks if this is a democratic space, in this theatre. ‘Are we equal here?’ he says. So I want an audience to think about power and who owns it. Power also exists in Page 10

TEACHER RESOURCES the words that we use; a young audience will know that, because of names that they will have been called. Rude words do hurt us, they really hurt us. And they control us, and they overpower us, and they silence us, words do that. It’s not true about sticks and stones only being the oppressors. Words are also the oppressors.

We use a lot of film in the production - this is a very important thing. We’re not filming the riots around Caesar’s death, but we are taking a metaphorical position with regard to protest around the world.

I hope there will be clips of Extinction Rebellion, they’re on Waterloo Bridge as we talk. In Stratford, we were using images of the 2011 riots, which we still might include; I don’t want to be prescriptive!

The film will be of people standing up for something, finding their voice, understanding their power.

All that stuff about trying to make yourself heard, and the culture that demolishes the small voice, dismisses the small voice. Give the small voice some power. It’s about people standing up and being counted.

It can’t just be an acting job, and it certainly can’t just be a teaching job, but it’s somewhere between those two things [for the actor]: a creative writing teacher and a performer. And I’m really excited about that and how the roles merge.

IS THERE A TENSION BETWEEN TIGHTLY STRUCTURING THE PIECE FOR THE AUDIENCE TO RESPOND AND HANDING IT OVER TO THEM AND GIVING THEM SOME CREATIVE SPACE? Generating a sense of freedom in a young audience, or a sense of empowerment in a young audience, sometimes really requires you to place that audience in quite a structured environment. I went to see Dismantle This Room at the Royal Court - it’s like an escape room, but it’s around dismantling the power structures of theatre. It’s complex, because it asks you to challenge power but in a very constructed and instructed environment. When it was over, we all went to the bar and we all moved the tables around and sat around tables and talked, and in a way that was the most exciting thing, that this triggered us to get together and talk and to think about these ideas. That is all you can do with theatre.

I’m excited by the reach of the show and the complexity of the show and the danger of the pedagogy in the show. The script is there to be done but there is also space to stop and talk about stuff, about Trump or fake news or Brexit, belief, politics, Extinction Rebellion, etc.

There’s a great story from when Living Theatre did a show called Paradise Now at the Roundhouse in the 1960s, and at the end of the show they got everyone up out of their seats marching down Chalk Farm Road shouting ‘Paradise Now, Paradise Now’. And gradually as the march went on people began to peel off, started to go to the pub, or for a coffee and so that’s a fascinating integration of that energy, that potent energy into real life.

Theatre should also acknowledge that those processes will happen, that assimilation into our everyday.

You question and you question all the time. Cinna says ‘Here’s how you write a poem, first you must live, then you must question, then you must be free here’, and he points to his head.

I don’t need the poems the audience writes to be particularly good. They can be the repetition of a Page 11

TEACHER RESOURCES single word, ‘Freedom, freedom, freedom’, anything. It’s just asking for an action to take place that is in the right direction, generally. An action that is taken that is generally in the right direction. If we can do that with theatre, then that’s as good as it gets probably.

A word is also an action.

An active principle is instilled within the audience; what they do with that active principle is not in my control.

THEY CAN WRITE WHATEVER THEY WANT TO WRITE? Absolutely. Noone will judge them.

There are the issues about freedom and form, constraint and liberation. There is a beginning, a middle and an end to this play; Cinna’s life has a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s not going to break down into just a creative writing session, that’s not the intention. I want to tell Cinna’s story. But there is the hope that after the session, teachers would take some of the inspiration of the play and work further on their writing and what’s important about writing: words.

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DRAMA ACTIVITIES CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES These teacher resources and the accompanying CPD aim to equip teachers to make the most of their visit to I Cinna (the poet), and to develop work that connects to the form and content of the play. The play engages directly with the audience as Cinna speaks to them; asking the audience’s opinions, thoughts and feelings, as well as inviting them to write in response to what happens as it’s happening.

The resource activities extend this model of interaction between play and audience back into the classroom.

The drama and writing activities offer teachers a range of activities that link to KS3 Drama and English through which to explore the characters, themes and setting of I, Cinna (the poet) before or after a visit. They extend the imaginative reach of the play and allow young people to give shape to their own thoughts, feelings and understanding in drama and theatre form and creative writing.

OVERVIEW In this section there are four separate drama sequences for teachers to work through with their classes. Sequences one to three can be run before or after your visit to the Unicorn to see the show; sequence four provides ways to respond to the show after your visit. The activities are designed to build sequentially, but also to be flexible enough for you to adapt to your own classroom priorities and curriculum planning.

Sequence One introduces students to key characters and themes in the play and explores the scene in which Cinna, the poet, appears in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Students will create short devised moments in response to the themes in the play and then Act III, Scene III from Julius Caesar, in which Cinna is confronted by the mob.

Sequence Two asks students to create a monologue based on a person in the crowd - an ordinary person, on the outside of events. The aim is for them to create a character that they care about and can relate to, and will explore the relationship between ordinary people and those with power and status.

Sequence Three focuses on dreams and premonitions as a key theme in the play. Building on the characters created in Sequence Two, students will devise dream sequences which express the unconscious hopes and fears of their character. Working in dreams will also allow students to follow their intuition and imaginations to expand their characterisation.

Sequence Four provides post-show discussion-based activities that ask the students to reflect on their experience of the play, and of being invited to write as part of the performance. Activities develop themes around the power of words, the role of the poet or artist in society, and the process of creative writing.

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TEACHER RESOURCES

SEQUENCE ONE

ACT 3, SCENE 3 AIMS

To introduce key characters and themes from the play.

To devise short scenes based on these central themes.

To stage Shakespeare’s Act 3 Scene 3 from Julius Caesar.

RESOURCES Text extracts from I, Cinna (the poet) (resource one), Act 3 Scene 3 from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (resource two).

STRATEGIES Ensemble work, small group devising, still image, text work, staging a scene.

INTRODUCTION This sequence introduces students to key characters and themes in the play and explores the scene in which Cinna, the poet, appears in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Students will create short devised moments in response to the themes in the play and then stage Act 3, Scene 3, when Cinna is confronted by the mob.

STAGE ONE: ENSEMBLE WARM UP • Ask students to move around the room and STOP and GO when you say – aiming to stop at the same time and move off at the same time.

• Now ask them to STOP and GO without your instruction; they need to work together as an ensemble to feel the moment as a group, stopping and starting without any obvious leader.

• Continue the game, but when you call ‘Republic’, ask them to form a circle with everyone looking in. Then ask them to feel the moment when they should move off again and resume moving around the space individually.

• Now when you say ‘Crown’, everyone but one person will drop to the floor (in supplication) and one person will remain standing. This should not be discussed, but again should be felt by the group and negotiated nonverbally.

• Discuss how easy they found the activity and how it felt when they were working well as an ensemble, communicating across the whole group.

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TEACHER RESOURCES STAGE TWO: DEVISED MOMENTS • Move the class into five groups and give each group a theme or concept from the list below, and ask them to make a physical image that represents their theme.

FREEDOM CONSPIRATORS THE PEOPLE POET CROWN • Now give each group the corresponding text fragment from the play (resource one), and ask them to use it in conjunction with their images in some way. Ask them to retain their original image somewhere in their piece, but they can now move and develop their physical work as they add the lines of text. They will need to decide how to share the text out amongst them - they could decide to speak in unison, allocate solo lines and/or repeat phrases.

FREEDOM: I was born as free as Caesar. But does a free man live like this? Does a free man queue for food? Is a free man scared to write the words he wants to write?

CONSPIRATORS: The politicians of the Republic - the men who don’t want a king. A dagger. Look. Down it comes into Caesar’s back.

THE PEOPLE: Listen to the crowds. Their hearts full of fury for the death of their hero.

POET: What can words do? How will words save us? I’m nothing. I’m a nobody, I have wasted my life.

Poetry serves no function.

CROWN: Mark Antony offered Caesar the crown. And Caesar rejected it three times. And the crowd went crazy.

STAGE THREE: SHARING AND RESPONDING • See each group’s work around the room - perform them seamlessly, one after the other, before discussing. Ask the students what kind of a story they see emerging, reflecting on the way in which characters and themes connect across the moments that they have created.

• As you discuss the moments, draw out key concepts and plot moments in Julius Caesar which they will need to understand in order to stage Act 3, Scene 3.

- Rome at this point in time is a republic, ruled by a senate - a group of elected men who share the power and vote on what happens.

- Caesar has returned victorious from fighting Pompey, the people have been given a holiday to celebrate his victory. At the victory parade, Mark Antony offered Caesar a crown three times, and he refused it three times.

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TEACHER RESOURCES - A group of senators believe that Caesar is getting too powerful and that he intends to take absolute power, so they conspire to stop him in order to protect the Republic - even his close friend Brutus decides he needs to be stopped for the good of Rome.

- When Caesar arrives at the senate, the conspirators stab him one by one. One of these

conspirators is called Cinna; Cinna the senator, not the poet.

- The people are now on the streets, angry at the killing of their hero. Cinna the poet chooses to go outside onto the streets.

STAGE FOUR: ACT 3, SCENE 3 • Move the class into groups of five and ask them to read through the scene (resource two) and allocate parts.

• Now ask them to create three still pictures of different moments in the scene which establish the relationship between the people or mob, and Cinna, the poet. These could include: - When the citizens first encounter Cinna - The questioning of Cinna - When they first hear his name is Cinna - When they choose to disregard the fact that he is Cinna the poet, not Cinna the conspirator - How the scene ends • Now ask them to choose one line for each of their characters from the text: the lines that they think would give an audience the strongest sense of the meaning of the scene.

• Using their still images, build the scene combining all their images and lines of dialogue.

• If the groups are working well with the text they can, of course, use all the dialogue to stage the whole scene.

• Look at the groups’ work and discuss: - Why did the crowd react to Cinna as they did?

- Why do you think Shakespeare chose a poet to be mistaken for Cinna the conspirator and then killed by the mob?

- Why do you imagine Tim Crouch might have chosen the minor character of Cinna (the poet) to have written his play about?

- What perspective might Cinna give to the story of Julius Caesar?

- What relevance to 2020 do you think the play I, Cinna (the poet) might have?

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TEACHER RESOURCES

SEQUENCE TWO

MINOR CHARACTERS WRITING MONOLOGUES AIMS

To explore the idea of minor characters and their perspective on events - looking at the relationship between the ‘main players’ and ‘ordinary people’.

To create an imagined character profile.

To write a monologue based on the character created.

RESOURCES Photographs (resource three), paper and pens, questions for character development (resource four).

STRATEGIES Still image, writing, hot seating, performing monologues.

INTRODUCTION I, Cinna (the poet) is one of a series of plays Tim Crouch has written based on minor characters in Shakespeare’s plays. For each, he creates a piece exploring the character’s perspective on what happens in Shakespeare’s original play.

This activity asks students to create a monologue based on a person in the crowd - an ordinary person, on the outside of events, looking in, observing and considering what matters to them and their place in wider events.

The emphasis in this sequence is on students creating a character that they care about and can relate to, allowing them to create freely and follow what is of interest to them. The sequence will also explore the relationship between ordinary people and those with power and status.

STAGE ONE: POWER • Ask students to think about when they feel powerful, and to create a still image depicting this.

• Now ask them to create an image when they feel powerless, and to transition from their first image into the second.

• Spotlight on a few students around the room transitioning between their two images.

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TEACHER RESOURCES • Discuss when it is that they feel powerful and why, and when they don’t feel they have power.

What are the circumstances outside of their control which contribute to their feeling of powerlessness? Who, or what, has power over them?

STAGE TWO: CREATING A CHARACTER PROFILE • Show the students the photographs you’ve selected (resource three) and ask them to select one which they would like to work on. We have provided a range of photographs; some are taken from close to home, for example Boris Johnson visiting a school during a recent election campaign.

Others come from further back in history, or beyond the UK - these might take a further leap of the imagination, but you may decide these would be of more interest to your students. Or you may be able to find photographs you think might be more stimulating for your students yourself.

• Ask them to choose a ‘minor character’ in the photograph and explain that you would like them to begin to build an imagined character profile of this person.

• Ask them to study the photograph, and take up a still image of the character they have chosen, embodying their physicality and facial expressions, and to imagine what their character might be thinking at this moment.

• Explain that we’ll now put aside the real person in the photograph, and create a fictional character.

• Give everyone paper and pens, and ask them to work individually on their ideas; they can draw as well as write their answers, if they’d like to.

• Talk students through a number of questions (resource four) they should try to answer in order to provide a profile of their character. Ask the students not to overthink their answers to questions, but to go with ideas as they come up. They should make some quick initial decisions at this stage, with immediate, intuitive and playful responses.

- What are they good at?

- What do they find difficult, or struggle with in life?

- When do they feel powerful?

- When do they feel small and powerless?

- What is their favourite food?

- What music do they like?

- What do they do in their spare time?

- Who are the people that are important to them?

- What were they like as a child? What kind of things did they enjoy doing?

- What is the most important thing for them at this time in their life?

- What do they want out of life - where would they like to be in five years’ time?

- Who was the last person they spoke to before this moment, and what did they say?

- Where would they rather be - what would they rather be doing right now?

- When do they feel most alive?

STAGE THREE: HOT SEATING • Explain that this is the beginning of creating their character, and that they are just starting to bring this person to life in their imaginations. When creating a character, we don’t want to tie Page 18

TEACHER RESOURCES things down too much, but will discover new things about them, keeping open to complexity and ambiguity. We are beginning to trace an outline to which more and more detail can be added.

Some details will begin to ‘make sense’, while others they may want to let go of as their character becomes more defined.

• Hot seat some of the students in-role as their characters; you can start with questions you have already asked as part of the writing exercise, but also open out to new questions that ask the person in the ‘hot seat’ to invent more about their character in the moment.

• Acknowledge that the person in the ‘hot seat’ may not want to answer everything truthfully; they may have things they want to keep secret, or they may want to give a particular impression to the audience. These are all aspects of the person they are creating.

• When you have finished, discuss what the characters have revealed that is of interest to an audience: what was surprising, and what makes the audience curious to find out more.

STAGE FOUR: WRITING A MONOLOGUE • Using their character profile notes, ask students to write a short monologue, speaking directly to an audience, retelling the event recorded in the photograph.

- What are they thinking in this moment?

- What would they like to say right now if they could?

- How would they describe the other people at this event, and, in particular, the main players: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, Greta Thunberg?

- What do they say about what is happening, and why?

- What do they want in this moment - what is their objective?

- What is getting in the way of what they want - what are their obstacles?

• Emphasise that they can take their writing wherever they want; there are or no right or wrong approaches. Their monologue might even have very little to do with the moment depicted in the photograph, and can instead be a jumping off point for them to write about who and what is really important to them.

STAGE FIVE: SHARING AND RESPONDING • Ask students to perform their monologues for each other.

• Discuss the characters you have created and the things you have discovered about them.

• Talk about about the relationship between the personal details they created for their characters and the wider political context they are in. To what extent have they explored their power or powerlessness in the monologues?

• Finish by making the link back to the play I, Cinna (the poet), for which Tim Crouch created the character of Cinna based on a few lines in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in order to explore things which matter to him as a playwright: the role of an artist in society, and the power ordinary people have in the world.

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TEACHER RESOURCES

SEQUENCE THREE

DREAMS AIMS

To explore the relationship between dreams, the unconscious, imagination, and creativity.

To explore pupils’ own experiences of déjà vu and dreams.

To devise a dream sequence for the characters created in Sequence Two.

RESOURCES Text from I, Cinna (the poet) (resource five), text from Julius Caesar (resource six).

STRATEGIES Still image, text analysis, paired improvisation.

INTRODUCTION The dream is a theatre in which the dreamer is himself the scene, the player, the prompter, the author, the producer, the public and the critic. Carl Jung In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Tim Crouch’s I, Cinna (the poet), dreams and premonitions are a key theme. Throughout the play Cinna remembers dreams he has had and struggles to remember more of it; the dream is telling him something he needs to understand, and also predicts what will happen to him in the future. This sequence explores students’ experience of dreams and introduces the idea that dreams can be expressions of our unconscious, and premonitions of the future.

Building on the characters they created in Sequence Two, they will devise dream sequences which express the unconscious hopes and fears of their character. Working through the imagery of dreams will also allow students to follow their intuition and imaginations to expand their characterisation.

[Dreams] do not deceive, they do not lie, they do not distort or disguise… They are invariably seeking to express something that the ego does not know and does not understand. Carl Jung

STAGE ONE: WARM UP - DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES • Get the students moving in the space and warmed up, ready to make some physical images.

• Move into groups of four and five and ask them to create two images, the first of a wonderful dream, the second a nightmare.

• See some of the images around the room, and notice how they have managed to communicate the atmosphere and imagery of dreams.

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TEACHER RESOURCES STAGE TWO: DISCUSSION - DREAMS, PREMONITIONS AND DÉJÀ VU • In pairs, ask students to share whatever they can recall about their dreams; some might be able to remember a dream in a lot of detail; some may only remember fragments or the feelings of dreams; or they may not dream at all.

• Share back as a whole group, and write up a list of the kind of things people dream about, the imagery or symbols that occur in people’s dreams and the feelings or atmospheres they can evoke. This list will provide a shared resource for the subsequent devising work.

• Read the scene below from I, Cinna (the poet) (resource five), and, in pairs, ask students to discuss what they think is happening at this moment in the play. Clarify that this is a one-man show and that the character Cinna will speak directly to the audience throughout.

[Cinna] ‘sees’ the audience.

No way! I dreamt of this! I dreamt this. That I was here and you were there. You, there! I dreamt this! I remember your face! (How could I forget your face?) Exactly this. A dream I’d forgotten until now! Sometimes a dream is what will happen in the future, do you agree? Déjà vu – it didn’t happen before, it’s just you dreamed it once. In my dream, what then, I talked to you and what then? We wrote together and then what? What did we write?

How did that dream end?

• Discuss what they understand from this extract from the play; what is happening to Cinna in this moment, and how do you think he feels about it?

• Now discuss the way the playwright links the idea of dreams and premonitions with the idea of déjà vu.

• Discuss their experience of déjà vu. How would they describe what it is? What do they think causes déjà vu? Has everyone experienced it? Add to your dreams list, recording any thoughts, sensations, or associations they have made with the concepts of déjà vu and premonitions.

Déjà vu, noun: a feeling of having already experienced the present situation.

Déjà vu is a common intuitive experience that has happened to many of us. The expression is derived from the French, meaning “already seen”. When it occurs, it seems to spark our memory of a place we have already been, a person we have already seen, or an act we have already done.

Judith Orloff, ‘The Meaning of Déjà Vu’ in Psychology Today

STAGE THREE: CALPURNIA’S DREAM [The dream is] a spontaneous self-portrayal in symbolic form, of the actual situation in the unconscious. Carl Jung • Introduce the idea of the interpretation of dreams as a way of understanding reality – that dreams are an unconscious way of expressing and processing what is happening to the individual.

• In pairs, ask the students to read the text (resource six) from Julius Caesar and to underline key Page 21

TEACHER RESOURCES lines which describe what the dream is, and the two different interpretations of the dream’s meaning.

• Ask the pairs to identify the central symbol of Calpurnia’s dream about Caesar and how she interpreted it (as reported by Caesar)? What was Decius Brutus’ interpretation of the same dream? Why might Brutus have a different interpretation to Calpurnia?

• Now, in their pairs, ask the students to improvise the scene in their own words. How does Caesar recall Calpurnia’s dream, the premonition or warning in it, and her sense of dread for Caesar? How can Brutus persuade Caesar of his alternative interpretation?

STAGE FOUR: DEVISING - DREAMS • Move the class into groups of four or five each, and ask them to remind each other of the characters they created in the previous sequence, and to choose one that they would all be happy to work on together.

• Explain that you would like them to devise a dream that the character has which speaks to what might happen in the future. It can explore their hopes and fears; it might offer a premonition or warning about their future.

• Ask them to create one or two scenes with dialogue and a slow motion movement sequence, with music of their choice to underscore. What symbols might occur in their dreams? How can they convey the absurdity or surreal aspects of the dream? Ask them to consider including: - Something very naturalistic/everyday happening in the dream - Moments from their past as well as the future - The dream can go anywhere - things, people and places might morph; the familiar becoming unfamiliar, or vice versa - There may be moments of pure beauty, happiness or comfort - There may be moments of terror or disturbance - The dream could be funny or absurd

STAGE FIVE: SHARING AND RESPONDING • Perform the devised dreams to each other and discuss: - What did they see in each other’s work that they found interesting or surprising?

- How does the imagery of dreams expand on the reality of the character’s world? What more did it tell you about them?

- To what extent did devising dreams help students to play creatively and free their imaginations?

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TEACHER RESOURCES

SEQUENCE FOUR

POETRY AIMS

To explore the role of language and poetry in I, Cinna (the poet).

To reflect on students’ experience of writing as a part of the performance.

To analyse Brutus and Mark Antony’s speeches in Julius Caesar.

RESOURCES Students’ writing created during the performance of I, Cinna (the poet), Shakespeare’s text, Brutus and Mark Antony’s speeches (resource seven), a selection of poetry (resource eight).

STRATEGIES Group discussion, debate.

INTRODUCTION In the play, Cinna despairs of his life as a poet; he is unable to write - the political situation unsettles him and he feels the loss of the power of words. Throughout the play he is searching for what it is he has to say. In the end, it is the audience who take up the pen on behalf of Cinna.

These post-show discussion-based activities ask the students to reflect on their experience of the play and of being invited to write and develop the themes around the power of words, and the role of the poet or artist in society.

STAGE ONE: RESPONDING TO THE PLAY • Discuss why it is that Cinna felt unable to write in the play: - What is it that was stopping him from writing?

- What was the conflict he felt about his role as a poet?

- Why do you think he asked the audience to write about his death at the end? What did he want from us?

• You could share some of the poems - or beginnings of poems - that students wrote during the performance. However, it is important that the young people don’t feel pressured to share; the writing within the play is about engaging with words and having the freedom to follow their own thoughts and process. It is not focused on outcomes, polished or finished work. Some students may be keen to share what they wrote; others will be more reticent. You could ask each person to choose one line from their writing that they are happy to share with the class and then hear each person speak their line.

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TEACHER RESOURCES • Discuss their experience of writing during the play, and what aspects of the invitation or prompts to write they found they responded to and why.

STAGE TWO: THE POWER OF SPEECH Breaking news: poetry beats prose. ...

Mark Antony’s poetry has turned the people.

When Mark Antony speaks at Caesar’s, funeral he appeals to the crowd’s feelings. Brutus, who speaks before him, speaks in prose; making a rational argument for the death of Caesar and appealing to the people’s reason. But it is Mark Antony’s powerful language and poetic imagery that sways the crowd against the conspirators. The result is a violent civil war, and the end of the Republic.

This activity asks the students to compare Brutus and Mark Antony’s speeches at the funeral of Caesar, and to think about how effective their appeals to the crowd were and why.

• Divide the class in half and give one half Brutus’ speech, and the other Mark Antony’s. In their groups, ask them to discuss the position Brutus or Mark Antony have taken to what has happened, what they think should happen next, and how they try to influence the people in this moment.

• Ask them to identify and underline the most powerful sections of each character’s speech in preparation to use as examples, when they share back.

• Bring the class together and ask them to share their thinking on Brutus and Mark Antony’s speeches.

- What was the most powerful thing they had to say in their speech?

- How did they appeal to the crowd; their audience?

- Why did Brutus’ speech fail ultimately?

- Why did Mark Antony’s speech sway the crowd?

• You could introduce the concept of rhetoric and look at the key elements in the art of persuasion: ethos, logos, and pathos. The RSC‘s Learning Zone has a great two-minute video in which artistic director Gregory Doran explains the art of rhetoric. https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learningzone/julius-caesar

STAGE THREE: THE POWER OF POETRY Throughout I, Cinna (the poet), Cinna loses faith in the power of poetry in a time of great political upheaval. As events unfold, he questions and challenges our idea of what poetry is for.

Discuss with the class their thoughts on the relevance and power of poetry.

- What is it that poetry can offer us?

- Does a poet have a responsibility to write about political events?

- Or is poetry more suited to political or universal themes?

Are there examples of poetry that speak to the personal and the political which you can draw on?

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TEACHER RESOURCES Provided in this pack are some examples of political poetry (resource eight). How do these poems communicate political ideas, whilst still working as poetry?

Other poems speak purely to personal, or universal themes about what it is to be human (resource nine). Do these poems have a place in times of political urgency?

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TEACHER RESOURCES

RESOURCE ONE EXTRACTS FROM I, CINNA (THE POET)

FREEDOM: I was born as free as Caesar. But does a free man live like this? Does a free man queue for food? Is a free man scared to write the words he wants to write?

CONSPIRATORS: The politicians of the Republic - the men who don’t want a king. A dagger.

Look. Down it comes into Caesar’s back.

THE PEOPLE: Listen to the crowds. Their hearts full of fury for the death of their hero.

POET: What can words do? How will words save us? I’m nothing. I’m a nobody, I have wasted my life. Poetry serves no function.

CROWN: Mark Antony offered Caesar the crown. And Caesar rejected it three times. And the crowd went crazy.

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TEACHER RESOURCES

RESOURCE TWO ACT III, SCENE III FROM SHAKESPEARE’S JULIUS CAESAR

SCENE III. A street.

Enter CINNA the poet CINNA THE POET I dreamt to-night that I did feast with Caesar, And things unlucky charge my fantasy: I have no will to wander forth of doors, Yet something leads me forth.

Enter CITIZENS FIRST CITIZEN What is your name?

SECOND CITIZEN Whither are you going?

THIRD CITIZEN Where do you dwell?

FOURTH CITIZEN Are you a married man or a bachelor?

SECOND CITIZEN Answer every man directly.

First CITIZEN Ay, and briefly.

FOURTH CITIZEN Page 27

TEACHER RESOURCES Ay, and wisely.

THIRD CITIZEN Ay, and truly, you were best.

CINNA THE POET What is my name? Whither am I going? Where do I dwell? Am I a married man or a bachelor? Then, to answer every man directly and briefly, wisely and truly: wisely I say, I am a bachelor.

SECOND CITIZEN That’s as much as to say, they are fools that marry: you’ll bear me a bang for that, I fear. Proceed; directly.

CINNA THE POET Directly, I am going to Caesar’s funeral.

FIRST CITIZEN As a friend or an enemy?

CINNA THE POET As a friend.

SECOND CITIZEN That matter is answered directly.

FOURTH CITIZEN For your dwelling, - briefly.

CINNA THE POET Briefly, I dwell by the Capitol.

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TEACHER RESOURCES THIRD CITIZEN Your name, sir, truly.

CINNA THE POET Truly, my name is Cinna.

FIRST CITIZEN Tear him to pieces; he’s a conspirator.

CINNA THE POET I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet.

FOURTH CITIZEN Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses.

CINNA THE POET I am not Cinna the conspirator.

FOURTH Citizen It is no matter, his name’s Cinna; pluck but his name out of his heart, and turn him going.

THIRD CITIZEN Tear him, tear him! Come, brands ho! fire-brands: to Brutus’, to Cassius’; burn all: some to Decius’ house, and some to Casca’s; some to Ligarius’: away, go!

Exeunt

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TEACHER RESOURCES

RESOURCE THREE Boris Johnson in schools during the 2019 election: https://bit.ly/2S4TJWA https://bit.ly/2S4TP0o Greta Thunberg and Donald Trump (2019): https://bit.ly/38TkaEm Greta Thunberg speaks to the EU (2019): https://bit.ly/2Q48Xsm People at Princess Diana’s funeral (1997): https://bit.ly/2Q2C4vQ Martin Luther King meeting the public (1968): https://bit.ly/2EwV3JE Young people protesting about Brexit for Our Future, Our Choice, at Number 10 (2019): https://bit. ly/2ttwlHT Women’s Equality March in Spain (2018): https://bit.ly/36LVuvL Greta Thunberg with young people in London (2019): https://bit.ly/35D1fM4 School students in London climate strike protests (2019): https://bit.ly/2sARShB https://bit.ly/2M6Tkz6

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TEACHER RESOURCES

RESOURCE FOUR What are they good at?

What do they find difficult, or struggle with in life?

When do they feel powerful?

When do they feel small and powerless?

What is their favourite food?

What music do they like?

What do they do in their spare time?

Who are the people that are important to them?

What were they like as a child? What kind of things did they enjoy doing?

What is the most important thing for them at this time in their life?

What do they want out of life where would they like to be in five years’ time?

Who was the last person they spoke to before this moment, and what did they say?

Where would they rather be what would they rather be doing right now?

When do they feel most alive?

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TEACHER RESOURCES

RESOURCE FIVE EXTRACT FROM I, CINNA (THE POET)

He ‘sees’ the audience.

No way! I dreamt of this! I dreamt this. That I was here and you were there. You, there! I dreamt this! I remember your face! (How could I forget your face?)

Exactly this. A dream I’d forgotten until now! Sometimes a dream is what will happen in the future, do you agree? Déjà vu – it didn’t happen before, it’s just you dreamed it once. In my dream, what then, I talked to you and what then?

We wrote together and then what? What did we write?

How did that dream end?

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TEACHER RESOURCES

RESOURCE SIX EXTRACT FROM ACT II, SCENE II FROM SHAKESPEARE’S JULIUS CAESAR

CAESAR Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home: She dreamt to-night she saw my statue, Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts, Did run pure blood: and many lusty Romans Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it: And these does she apply for warnings, and portents, And evils imminent; and on her knee Hath begg’d that I will stay at home to-day.

DECIUS BRUTUS This dream is all amiss interpreted; It was a vision fair and fortunate: Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, In which so many smiling Romans bathed, Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck Reviving blood, and that great men shall press For tinctures, stains, relics and cognizance.

This by Calpurnia’s dream is signified.

CAESAR And this way have you well expounded it.

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TEACHER RESOURCES

RESOURCE SEVEN EXTRACT FROM ACT III, SCENE II FROM SHAKESPEARE’S JULIUS CAESAR

BRUTUS Be patient till the last.

Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear: believe me for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour, that you may believe: censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better judge.

If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar’s, to him I say, that Brutus’ love to Caesar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: - Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honour for his valour; and death for his ambition. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended.

Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.

ALL None, Brutus, none.

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TEACHER RESOURCES BRUTUS Then none have I offended. I have done no more to Caesar than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol; his glory not extenuated, wherein he was worthy, nor his offences enforced, for which he suffered death.

Enter ANTONY and others, with CAESAR’s body Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony: who, though he had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a place in the commonwealth; as which of you shall not? With this I depart, - that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death.

MARK Antony Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest– For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men– Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man.

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TEACHER RESOURCES He hath brought many captives home to Rome Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me.

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TEACHER RESOURCES

RESOURCE EIGHT SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR POETRY WITH A POLITICAL FOCUS

‘Questions from a Worker Who Reads’ by Bertolt Brecht (1935), trans. M. Hamburger Who built Thebes of the seven gates?

In the books you will find the names of kings.

Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?

And Babylon, many times demolished Who raised it up so many times? In what houses of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?

Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished Did the masons go? Great Rome Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song Only palaces for its inhabitans? Even in fabled Atlantis The night the ocean engulfed it The drowning still bawled for their slaves.

The young Alexander conquered India.

Was he alone?

Caesar beat the Gauls.

Did he not have even a cook with him?

Philip of Spain wept when his armada Went down. Was he the only one to weep?

Frederick the Second won the Seven Year’s War. Who Else won it?

Every page a victory.

Who cooked the feast for the victors?

Every ten years a great man?

Who paid the bill?

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TEACHER RESOURCES So many reports.

So many questions.

‘Solely Because of the Increasing Disorder’ by Bertolt Brecht (1934), trans. Frank Jellinek Solely because of the increasing disorder In our cities of class struggle Some of us have now decided To speak no more of cities by the sea, snow on roofs, women The smell of ripe apples in cellars, the senses of the flesh, all That makes a man round and human But to speak in future only about the disorder And so become one-sided, reduced, enmeshed in the business Of politics and the dry, ‘indecorous’ vocabulary Of dialectical economics So that this awful cramped coexistence Of snowfalls (they’re not merely cold, we know) Exploitation, the lured flesh, class justice, should not engender Approval of a world so many-sided; delight in The contradictions of so bloodstained a life You understand.

‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou (1978) You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom? ’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Page 38

TEACHER RESOURCES Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don’t you take it awful hard ’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

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TEACHER RESOURCES Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise I rise I rise.

RESOURCE NINE SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR PERSONAL OR UNIVERSAL POETRY

‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost (1916) Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh Page 40

TEACHER RESOURCES Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

‘“Where does such tenderness comes from?”’ by Marina Tsvetaeva (1916), trans. Ilya Kaminsky and Jean Valentine Where does such tenderness come from?

These aren’t the first curls I’ve wound around my finger— I’ve kissed lips darker than yours.

The sky is washed and dark (Where does such tenderness come from?)

Other eyes have known and shifted away from my eyes.

But I’ve never heard words like this in the night (Where does such tenderness come from?) with my head on your chest, rest.

Where does this tenderness come from?

And what will I do with it? Young stranger, poet, wandering through town, you and your eyelashes—longer than anyone’s.

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TEACHER RESOURCES ‘Battle’ by Yrsa Daley-Ward (2015) Loving someone who hates Themselves Is a special kind of violence.

A fight inside the bones.

A war within the blood.

Heat by Yrsa Daley-Ward (2017) I miss you in tiny earthquakes In little underground explosions My soil is a hot disaster Home is burning.

You’re a lost thing.

‘Wild Geese’ by Mary Oliver (1968) You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, Page 42

TEACHER RESOURCES calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

‘Poem for My Love’ by June Jordan (2005) How do we come to be here next to each other in the night Where are the stars that show us to our love inevitable Outside the leaves flame usual in darkness and the rain falls cool and blessed on the holy flesh the black men waiting on the corner for a womanly mirage I am amazed by peace It is this possibility of you asleep and breathing in the quiet air

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I, CINNA (THE POET) A Unicorn Production

Written and performed by Tim Crouch Directed by Naomi Wirthner Resource pack written by Catherine Greenwood