One Turbulent Ambassador 195

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It is really wonderful to be back home again after almost six weeks travelling. It is also a tremendous pleasure to be able to announce this:

ONE TURBULENT AMBASSADOR
A play by
Robin Soans
A World Premiere
Directed by
Jessica Swale
One Turbulent Ambassador follows the career of Craig Murray on
his appointment as Her Majesty’s Ambassador and Plenipotentiary
to the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2001.
Murray’s proximity to post 9/11 Iraq forces him into a political
minefield that neither he nor the Foreign Office could have
envisaged. When he walks into a bar in Tashkent late one
Monday night and sees a beautiful belly dancer arching her
limbs, his personal life threatens to become as turbulent as
the political landscape around him.
Don’t miss this opportunity to see the world premiere of Robin
Soans’s newest play, researched and developed in collaboration
with LAMDA students.
Please note that this production contains strong language and
scenes of an adult nature.
Lyric Hammersmith Ticket Office:
PLEASE NOTE BOOKING OPENS 1 MAY
0871 22 117 22* (Mon – Sat, 9.30am – 7.30pm, 5.30pm on
non-performance days) or book online at www.lyric.co.uk**
* Calls cost 10p per minute, plus network extras. **Agents, industry guests and LAMDA
Angels should continue to book through The LAMDA Linbury Studio Box Office.
Venue Lyric Hammersmith
Dates 7.30pm Mon 02 July
& Times 7.30pm Wed 04 July
2.00pm Thu 05 July
7.30pm Fri 06 July
2.00pm Sat 07 July
7.30pm Mon 09 July
2.00pm Tue 10 July

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195 thoughts on “One Turbulent Ambassador”

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  • Mary

    Craig has been portrayed in a previous play by Robin Soans.
    .
    [..]
    He is clearly very pleased with the critical and public reaction to his Cookbook and Talking to Terrorists plays, particularly because
    “Terrorism had never previously been put under the theatrical microscope”. This has become vitally important since four suicide bombers have given the subject extra topicality.
    .
    Its main exponent, along with Sir David Hare, attributes this sudden vogue for Verbatim Theatre to the fact that there is so much spin in life. “While there has always been spin, for example Winston Churchill during the Second World War or going back further, Alexander the Great, with so much media coverage spin has increased remarkably. The guarding of information is a huge business now”.
    .
    Theatre is a good antidote to this because audiences don’t have to process, they get the whole picture. “Craig Murray (an ambassador portrayed in Talking to Terrorists) isn’t some glorious crusader battling for human rights. He is also scurrilous in his private life. In a theatre you see him warts-and-all”.
    .
    Soans ensures that after interviewing subjects, he presents their words absolutely verbatim (give or take the odd “and” or “but”). As he says, “You can do anything with editing, be very creative. You always have to think of the audience.
    .
    http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/otherresources/interviews/RobinSoans.htm (2007)

  • Rocki

    Craig I have tweeted ALL at the Guardian BBC and other outlets on Al Jazeera journas quiting – if they do not follow the story we all know where we stand. (:

  • glenn_uk

    Daniel: Well, I haven’t actually starred in a performance since playing Scrooge back in the day, brought the house down. Nevertheless, I’d be ideal given your other requisites, although the accent may take a bit of work.

  • Clark

    Rocki, I think that RT report might be quite old. I have had another RT report about the same resignations on my computer since March 15, so if it hasn’t been in the mainstream media it is probably being overlooked deliberately. Or were there two walk-outs?
    .
    Do you have a link to the Wikileaks report that you mentioned? I’d like to pass that on.
    .
    Arsalan, as ever, thanks for making me laugh.

  • Mary

    This article has rather a stupid title. No words can express the feelings of horror, disgust and sadness at the legacy of Shock and Awe.
    .
    Those Laboratory Mice Were Children
    By Karlos Zurutuza
    .
    One among an unusually high number of children in Basra fighting leukaemia.

    Credit:Karlos Zurutuza/IPS.
    .

    FALLUJAH, Iraq, Apr 13, 2012 (IPS) – At Fallujah hospital they cannot offer any statistics on children born with birth defects – there are just too many. Parents don’t want to talk. “Families bury their newborn babies after they die without telling anyone,” says hospital spokesman Nadim al-Hadidi. “It’s all too shameful for them.”
    .
    “We recorded 672 cases in January but we know there were many more,” says Hadidi. He projects pictures on to a wall at his office: children born with no brain, no eyes, or with the intestines out of their body.

    /..
    http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107424

  • Mary

    Ref Skintland 🙂
    .
    The current issue of The Economist magazine carries a warning to Scotland of the potential cost of independence, illustrated on the front cover by a spoof map of “Skintland”, with its capital renamed “Edinborrow” and the islands to the north “Orkward” and “Shutland”.
    .
    This has drawn furious condemnation from Alex Salmond who claimed that “it insults every single community in Scotland” – ignoring the point that it is a warning of what Scotland would be like, rather than a comment on Scotland as it is now.
    .
    They should have called it Thin Skinland.
    .
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/diary/diary-skintland-alex-salmond-is-quick-to-rise-to-the-bait-7644002.html

  • nevermind

    meanwhile in Olympic bliss land all is not well.

    “While the German company – which unveiled its Stella McCartney-designed kit for British athletes last month – hopes to make £100m from its Olympic lines, the mainly young, female factory employees work up to 65 hours (25 hours more than the standard working week), for desperately low pay. They also endure verbal and physical abuse, they allege, are forced to work overtime, and are punished for not reaching production targets.”

    The workers and children who have sewn the Team GB’s kit we will see on a daily basis, are earning 34p/hrs. and are skipping meals to save money for their families.

    Ethical, green Olympics are a sham, whatever Darren Johnston LAM says about it.
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/exposed-the-reality-behind-londons-ethical-olympics-7644013.html

  • Mary

    European airlines are cancelling tickets to Tel Aviv. Eastjet, Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines so far. Jet2.com Leeds/Bradford too.
    .
    The occupation reaches Europe: airlines cancel ‘flytilla’ passenger tickets
    by Allison Deger April 13, 2012 23 36
    .
    Three European airlines have canceled the flights of passengers from the Airflotilla2, or flytilla, the campaign in which activists challenge Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories by flying into Tel Aviv and announcing to customs their intent to travel to the West Bank. The campaign started last year with a similar “Welcome to Palestine” fly-in, where some were also refused entry onto their purchased departure flights, at the behest of Israeli security.
    .
    Again, this year based on “Israel’s orders,” Lufthansa Airlines, Brussels Airlines and EasyJet all have canceled flytilla passenger tickets. As of today, European airlines have canceled up to 40 passenger tickets.
    .
    Campaign organizers with Bienvenue Palestine also found the tickets of two passengers unaffiliated with the flytilla were included in the mass cancellations.
    .

    Screen shot of organizer flytilla organizer, the Bienvenue Palestine campaign. Tweet on the bottom translates: “@Lufthansa @FlyingBrussels @Jet2Offers prefer to support Israeli apartheid in lieu of their humanitarian clients. ”
    After arriving in-country, activists are expected to tour the West Bank with Bienvenue Palestine. I translated from French Bienvenue Palestine’s full statement on flight cancellations:
    .
    Several dozen passengers who bought plane tickets to travel to Tel Aviv Sunday, April 15 were notified Thursday by Lufthansa airlines that their reservations were canceled, “by Israel’s orders.”
    .
    “Israel produced a list of names of persons to whom this country denies entry. Yours is on it, which brings us to cancel your ticket and we will immediately refund your credit card,” said Lufthansa employees to the passengers.
    .
    Unable to distinguish between those who intended to participate in the Welcome to Palestine mission and those who were not involved, the Israeli government, long accustomed to mass “collateral damage,” apparently decided to blacklist passengers in bulk. As of Thursday evening we had reports of at least two people who are not connected to the campaign and were planning to travel to Israel whose tickets were also canceled.
    .
    Passengers on Lufthansa flights have not committed any infractions, and do not accept the mafia-methods, favored by governments complicit in the imprisonment of the Palestinian people, starting with the French government.
    .
    Therefore, with the support of many friends, passengers with the campaign will arrive at their departing airports as scheduled this weekend, as a reminder that the West Bank and the rest of Palestine do not belong to Israel, and to demand respect of international law.
    Passengers also received cancellation notices from the other European airlines, stating “Israel Immigration Authorities have informed us that you will be refused entry to Israel and instructed us to refuse you carriage.” Bienvenue Palestine posted the text of the notices. Below is one from EasyJet:
    .
    Dear DUPONT,

    We regret to inform you that Israel Immigration Authorities have informed us that you will be refused entry to Israel and instructed us to refuse you carriage. We have therefore had no choice but to cancel your reservation on easyJet flight to Tel Aviv on 15/04/2012. You will receive a full refund of your booking….

    Please do not go to the airport as the Israeli Immigration Authorities have instructed us to refuse you carriage.

    If you require further information relating to the refusal of travel may we suggest that you make contact with the Israeli Embassy in Bern. Their contact details are noted below for your information.

    Embassy of Israel

    Chancellery

    Alpenstrasse 32

    P.O.Box

    3006 Bern

    Phone number : +41(0)31 356 35 00 – Fax : +41(0)31 356 35 65

    We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause you and please be assured we are working under the instruction of the Israeli Immigration Authorities and will be unable to accept you for travel until so advised by the authorities.

    Yours Sincerely

    easyJet Customer Services
    .
    http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/the-occupation-reaches-europe-airlines-cancel-flytilla-passenger-tickets.html

  • Mary

    So much for Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
    .
    ‘Article 13.
    • (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
    • (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.’
    .
    http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a13

  • Mary

    GREAT Britain 2012 – just months before the big off of the Jubilympics. Will the tourists and the visitors notice? Cameron and Johnson hope not.
    .
    GLASGOW
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFmBZf7IsvM&feature=player_embedded
    156 Refused Refugees Forced into Destitution in Glasgow April 2012
    .
    LONDON
    {http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/dispossessed/in-2012-thousands-of-children-are-starving-on-the-streets-of-london-7621114.html}
    05 April 2012
    .
    The children arrive with the telltale signs: shrunken faces, sallow skin, dark rings around their eyes and rotting teeth.
    .
    Some of the 11-year-olds are so underweight and undersized they look like six-year-olds, and those aged six often look only three or four.
    .
    You do not expect to find severely malnourished children on the streets of London in 2012, three months before the city showcases itself for the Olympics, but workers employed by Kids Company — a charity feeding thousands of extremely vulnerable children — say that child hunger is on the rise and they see it daily at their network of street-level centres.
    .
    Young mother Susan Scott, 21, who arrived at Kids Company nine months ago weighing six-and-a-half stone, described what it felt like to go hungry. “It gives you a blinding headache, you’re constantly feeling sick, your belly’s hurting, your head’s hurting, you can’t concentrate. You feel irritable with your baby and wish it would go away.
    .
    “Me and my three-year-old daughter lived off cornflakes for two weeks every month because the £20 I had left for food after paying my other household bills ran out. I would fantasise about walking out of the supermarket with a trolley full of food like other mothers but I had no money so I ate secretly in the aisle without paying. I always went for sandwiches and yoghurt because they fill you up quick, but then I got caught and shamed and was told to leave. One time I didn’t eat for a week, except for water, and my stomach got full with gas. I just swelled up and I had to go to A&E.”
    .
    Today Susan, doing a midwifery access course, is no longer malnourished and goes to Kids Company for her main meal of the day, along with 2,000 young people they feed every week.
    .
    Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder and chief executive of Kids Company, said: “The number of children coming to us with hunger problems has increased five-fold in a decade and the number of children self-referring on a daily basis has doubled in the last year.
    .
    “We are struggling to cope with the scale of this silent epidemic of hunger. More than 60 per cent of the 2,000 children we help every week tell us there is no food at home and 85 per cent rely on us for their main meal of the day. What I am seeing shocks even me. One child told me that he and his brother were so hungry they stole frozen meat from a flat they visited — and they ate it raw.
    .
    “We see children who are literally starving, including children whose parents are seeking leave to remain in Britain but have no access to benefits or employment in the meantime and so no means to provide for their kids. We are also seeing a rise in hunger among children from London-born parents who used to scrape by but have been undone by the rise in the cost of living and unemployment and now run out of food midweek.”
    .
    Today, as families look forward to the Easter break, Kids Company is launching an appeal — the Kids Company Plate Pledge — calling on Evening Standard readers to help give thousands of hungry and malnourished kids a break. It costs the charity just £1 to provide a child with a hot nutritious meal for a day, and a £20 donation would sustain one child for a month.
    .
    On a visit to their Kenbury Street site in Camberwell, the Standard saw 250 children hunker down to a lunch of barbecued chicken, hot-dogs, salad and coleslaw.
    .
    Among them was 10-year-old Alex who said: “I come here every day after school for my main meal. I come because I like the food, and because I used to go hungry at home. I’d get really, really hungry. I’d tell my mum, Why can’t I have a hot supper like the other children?’ Often I had to make a sandwich for dinner or eat biscuits.
    .
    “Sometimes my older brother would take me to the chicken shop to get wings and chips for a pound. Other times we would ask our neighbour if they had any food or even a few biscuits. I still get nervous about having enough food to eat and I’m always dreaming and thinking about what I can hope to eat for lunch.
    .

    “My older brother got wobbly teeth because he didn’t eat much. I’m scared. When you get older, like 12, will I also lose my teeth?”
    .
    Laurence Guinness, head of campaigns for Kids Company, said they helped teenagers of 13 who had turned to prostitution to make money for food, as well as mothers of children with rickets.

    .
    /..

  • jay

    Mary

    Do you think i would be braking the law if I posted through American service peoples letterboxes details of the Iraq`s plight you and Rocki have brought attention to.

    Also would any protest around Mildenhall, Lakenheath likely get me arrested or worse.

    Any volunteers to assist?

    Jay.

  • Mary

    Is USUKIsNATO heading for another Libya?

    .
    UN Security Council passes plan to deploy Syria monitors
    14 April 2012 Last updated at 17:25
    .
    Activists say government tanks have been pounding parts of the city of Homs
    .
    The UN Security Council has passed a resolution authorising the deployment of an advance team of monitors to Syria to oversee the ceasefire there.
    .
    A small group of observers has been poised to leave for Syria as soon as a resolution is passed. Correspondents say they could leave within hours.
    /..
    .
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17715354

  • Wayfarer

    @Mary –
    .
    You’re right – Thin Skinland is very apposite.
    .
    Born just south of the Border, I’ve lived most of my life just north of it. I’ve given up trying to be involved in local affairs after decades of being told that as an ‘incomer’ (of only 42 years!) I simply have no right to an opinion. Even after all these years, I still hear ‘b@st@rd English’ regularly muttered whenever I turn my back.
    .
    Criticise something – public building, whatever – south of the Border and whatever your origins you’ll simply be asked why you don’t like it. North of the Border there’s a good chance you’ll be told to shut up and keep your damned foreign opinions to yourself. If Scotland wants independence (which I’m actually in favour of, if only so they can no longer blame everyone but themselves for their problems) they’re going to have to grow out of such very common attitudes.

  • Frazer

    @Wayfarer.
    I am quite surprised at your comment, as I have found the majority of Scots to be very friendly, though as a Scot myself I am probably biased.
    Though I must admit, I deliberatly change my accent when north of the border to my lowland Scottish burr, merely to confuse annoying tourists asking me for directions. The only real time you may encounter an angry Scot is when you get between him and the bar. I speak from years of experience on that one!

  • glenn_uk

    Frazer: It’s not just bias, your experience is likely to be wholly different. I’ve never met an Irish or Scottish person I didn’t get on with very well, but that might be because they seem to have a fondness towards the Welsh.
    .
    Then again, while in the US a bunch of ex-pats were commenting on how rough a lot of Welsh pubs were. I was surprised. “Really? I’ve haven’t found many pubs to be rough there at all”, I said. They looked at me incredulously, and pretty much said in unison, “They are if you’re English!”

  • Frazer

    @Glenn..As I am in Cardiff on Monday I will make it my business to visit as many Welsh pubs as I can and I will let you know how I get on. On the other hand, my American gf has said exactly the same thing about Edinburgh pubs, mind you, I did ensure we only went to pubs that had put down new sawdust in the past month and only allowed bar fights between patrons that had blood feuds going back to the Jacobite rebellion. No pleasing some people!!! Pint of Heavy and a Dram please barman..

  • Clydebuilt

    Mary

    Alex salmond know’s fine well that the Economist is painting an independent Scotland as Skintland. it’s completely wrong to suggest that an independent Scotland could not be successfull. With our oil, Whisky and enormous renewable energy resources an independent Scotland has a prosperous future to look forward.

    By the way Mary it wasn’t just Alex Salmond who took exception to the Economist’s gaff here’s some reaction from people on the oposite side of the debate on Scotland’s future.

    om Devine – Senior Research Professor in History at University of Edinburgh

    “The piece in The Economist is a totally predictable kind of thing that can be heard from time to time at middle class dinner parties or in the letters pages of the Daily Telegraph.

    “ If we take away the south east of England and the overblown economy in London , in relation to the rest of the UK then Scotland is doing rather well.

    (Scotsman 14.4.12)

    Henry McLeish – Former Labour First Minister

    “ As a reader of The Economist over many years I’m not surprised at how patronising and eccentric it can be. It reveals the sparsity of knowledge about the subject and comes from the magazine’s traditional right wing stance on most political and economic issues.”

    (Scotsman 14.4.12)

    Tim Montgomerie – Editor of Conservative Home website

    “ Have to agree with Angus Robertson. Cover is insulting to Scottish people and unhelpful to the Unionist cause.”

    (From Twitter – mentioned in Scotsman 14.4.12)

    Lesley Riddoch – Broadcaster

    “This treats Scots like idiots with delusions of grandeur. What do you gain by causing such offence?”

    (From Twitter – mentioned in Scotsman 14.4.12)

    Patricia Ferguson – Labour MSP

    “Most people will recognise this front page does not represent the facts, is way over the top and will not endear itself to readers in Scotland .”

    (Herald 14.4.12)

    Scottish Green Party co-leader, Patrick Harvie Said that the cover was “ill-judged and patronising.”

    (Herald 14.4.12)

    If you think Alex Salmond has a hard skin you should have a look at some of his brushes with BBC interviewers on youtube.

    All the best

  • Mary

    James Corbett speaks to ‘Syrian Girl’.
    .
    The Syrian commentator known online as “Syrian Girl” joins us to go over the latest news on the moves toward outside intervention in Syria. We talk about the hypocrisy underlying the entire humanitarian intervention ideology and the real agenda that is driving this overthrow of the Syrian government.
    .
    http://www.corbettreport.com/interview-495-syrian-girl-on-the-syrian-intervention/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CorbettReportRSS+%28The+Corbett+Report%29

  • Mary

    Clydebuilt In no way was I endorsing the Rothschild owned Economist’s views.
    I just thought that the names on the cover were other version was humorous.

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