Wellywood Woman

The idea of  negative capability ran through the Jane Campion workshops and  I've thought a lot about it   since,   linked to her suggestion that we learn a poem a week. I had an almost-memory of  negative capability in relation to Bright Star and later found this interview , where Jane Campion refers to it. I imagine that there are more Jane Campion statements about  negative capability  out there and I believe that a better understanding of it will enhance my appreciation of her work  and  help my own work. (The interview also states that– On the set of  Bright Star , she told Whishaw that for her poetry means 'openness to the divine'; her films open us all to that possibility that such a realm might exist. Before the workshops, I might have skipped reading what Jane said about poetry. But I won't do that again.) This post is for those like me who lack basic info about...

Jane Campion Last Monday was a special day in Wellington, celebrating Richard Campion (1923-2013) . As distinguished actor and co-founder of Wellington’s Circa Theatre Ray Henwood wrote– Richard was the leading figure of New Zealand theatre during the latter part of the 20th Century and we are privileged to remember him as an important part of our history and the first man of New Zealand professional theatre as we know it today. At the Paramount Theatre at 4pm there was ‘a celebration of Richard Campion’s work and the life force of theatre’ and before then one of Richard Campion’s daughters, Jane Campion, ‘shared the love’ at Circa, where he had often been in the audience. This is how she announced the workshop programme– My father, Richard Campion, was passionate about theatre, about performance, about creativity, about people having a go. He was a wondrously generous man who breathed warmth and belief into my fledgling hopes of making film and television. In his memo...