little scratch: Shortlisted for The Goldsmiths Prize 2021

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The authorial figure in the book is actually telegraphed for those that read it properly. She is “R” (naturally!) The message of the story is important but you will have to work hard and be focused to receive it and follow along. The title itself is a tongue-in-cheek description of what the character experiences. A scratch is something very minor, inconsequential and nothing life-altering. Life moves on and she’s supposed to carry on with her life as if nothing happened yet in actuality what she experiences and the trauma that follows is giant, deep and all consuming.

The theatre’s Artistic Director, Roxana Silbert, will direct Nell Leyshon’s new play Folk. Inspired by a true story and set in Leyshon’s home county of Somerset, this beautiful new play will feature live folk song. Ben Allen, Sasha Frost, Mariam Haque and Simon Robson will perform in Folk from 18 December until 5 February 2022. little scratch is the first novel in the impressive career of Rebecca Watson. It takes us through a single day in the life of a woman in the aftermath of an assault, attempting to, in the simplest terms, carry on. We are not just with this unnamed character but within them. At times, it is like we are some kind of imaginary friend to them and at others, it is like we are them and along with her, we get pulled and pushed and turned inside out through an intimate demonstration on themes of gender and mental health; the crowd figuring out gradually how close it was: the when, the where, the who, and clearly very close to home for Watson. In Little Scratch Rebecca Watson captures the disarray of human consciousness as a woman goes through the course of a day. Despite being initially unsure about the experimental format, I didn’t find it hard work at all. My brain loved the parallel thoughts and the agency this gave me as a reader. Whilst others have disagreed, I found the protagonist’s often self-conscious inner narrative believable and relatable. Why can’t I praise a woman’s shoes, is the strident reaction. This clearly misses the point that not every man is being creepy, but it is important (should be obvious) that all men start to recognise this type of male gaze even if they are not personally culpable.

KEEPING YOU SAFE AT HAMPSTEAD

The story originally started life as a prize shortlisted short story – and that story forms the midpoint of the day and is reproduced in full in the novel and gives a good sense of the book – much better than I think I have or can manage or that the formatting on Goodreads easily allows. This version of the day-in-a-life book, directed by Katie Mitchell, achieves the same lingering power using a quartet of actors'

The show is structured in waves. Build, release, repeat. Time warps around welcome moments of humour and dreaded moments of pain. Highs you want to stay in forever, smiles broken, twinkle returning to your eye and then lows like dark ditches made all the more heavy by the soft, light feeling left behind, that ‘not again’ kind of feeling. It’s a pattern, just not a pleasing kind like most. It is a genius recipe for hope and sympathy and it works wonderfully.

The book covers 24 hours in the life of an office worker., from the moment she gets up to bedtime. We see her daily routines like finding it difficult to get up to her struggles to get in the tube on time. As the book progresses we readers get little crumbs of her life: she has a long distant relationships, she does not like her boss and, more importantly she constantly feels itchy and scratches herself until she bleeds. Blisteringly honest and unflinchingly intimate, little scratch is extraordinary – and indispensable’ The I when I write a diary (when I did) or notes (which has not been for a long time yes great I know) (no not since, nothing since) but when I did, it was always there – the other – the performance of writing! I write thinking someone is looking in, translate my thoughts into something a little prettier, more heightened than my actual head, context handily supplied ……….

Katie Mitchell will direct Miriam Battye’s compelling adaptation of little scratch. Adapted from Rebecca Watson’s debut novel, little scratch is a fearless and exhilarating account of a woman’s consciousness over the course of 24 hours. Morónkẹ́ Akinọlá, Eleanor Henderson, Eve Ponsonby and Ragevan Vasan will perform in this production from 5 November until 11 December.It is interesting to use columns to structure parallel events, so one column to quote e.g. reading of texts on the commute while another is the inner commentary on them but the book doesn't escape its own textuality. At times, this feels like an almost send-up of Woolf mashed up with Plath. Adapted from Rebecca Watson’s ‘daringly experimental debut’ novel (The Guardian, 2020), little scratch is a fearless and exhilarating account of a woman’s consciousness over the course of 24 hours. The charged narrative records in precise detail her impressions of a deceptively ordinary day - the daily commute, office politics and a constant barrage of texts on WhatsApp – and as the day goes on, she gradually starts to unveil the trauma of a rape that is consuming her. little scratch is about the coexistence of monotony with our waking, intelligent lives. It is a powerful evocation of how the external and internal aspects of our lives exist in a helix, and what it means to live out the course of a single day consumed by trauma. I did like the use of side by side columns in Little Scratch, not least to differentiate and match up two sides of a conversation. After its wildly acclaimed, total-sell-out premiere at Hampstead Theatre, little scratch transfers to New Diorama for a strictly limited run.

Hampstead Theatre is delighted to announce the remaining two world premieres for its Downstairs space in 2021. By the end, as she slides into sleep, still pursued by the unspoken anguish she’s suppressing, the lights dim until the performers’ faces resemble masks floating in the darkness. Watching – and hearing – the narrative unspool with the theatrical mechanics laid bare makes it realer, more raw. Folk was inspired by the true story of two sisters who lived near my village, in the landscape which has influenced much of my work. I am so excited to be returning to Hampstead Theatre where I’ve loved working over many years, and look forward to seeing what Roxana and the incredible cast and team bring to the script.” On her influences, Watson cited Sarah Kane (playwright); Virginia Woolf; especially Between the Acts ; Eimear McBride; Meena Kandasamy—the link is ‘performative voices’You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. The poetry reading awkwardness is hilarious, but the musings around how to deal with rape are a very ample counterweight, brought in a claustrophobic manner, with thoughts like: