A Short History of Crisps and Sex

This is the third play or performance text I have written for Volcano. The two previous pieces, Vagina Dentata and Moments of Madness developed from very different concerns than are evident here. Vagina Dentata was partly written in conjunction with the improvisations and techniques that we employ in rehearsal. It was also an attempt to engage with the some current debates concerning our shifting conception of identity.

Moments of Madness, despite commencing from our contemporary obsession with conferences designed to diagnose and rectify our national ills, was really a historical piece. It sought in a surreal and absurd fashion to graft one aspect of the Russian revolution onto the body politic of Wales.

I cannot say whether TalkSexShow shares any of the motifs and emphases of these two previous pieces. I have always tried to wrestle with the form of theatrical presentation, trying to find new ways of exploring the relationship between the spoken or performed and the received word. TalkSexShow may do this in occasionally rather obvious ways, but in wrestling at least, the old moves can still win us the bout. I don't know whether any of these old moves will pay off. TalkSexShow is more about laughing than winning and refusing to take seriously the appalling mix of prudery, outrage, advice, opinion and sex obsession that so dominates this sometimes nasty little island. I suppose I put all of these thoughts into a pot and came out with a bag of crisps. You choose the flavour.

Paul Davies

About Gurus

"According to Guy Claxton, professor of psychology at Bristol University, who has written extensively on the psychology of spirituality: 'It's about the collapse of the old certainties. Communities, the wise old granny, the family doctor - they're no longer there. And what you don't get from your psychotherapist, your doctor, your priest, is a personal quality, some charisma. Increasingly, what people are looking for is not a professional skill, but someone who sees you. Who is wise about you.

We're all saying, "Give me something simple to live by. Money, or affairs, or my own personal growth and salvation." With gurus, we're saying, "Here's me with my confused world. And there's that person, who seems so clear and calm. I might get some of that if I hang out with them." '

Others are more suspicious about key guru characteristics. Psychiatrist Anthony Storr thinks that gurus and psychopaths share the same basic traits, that gurus tend to be loners, capable of attracting disciples but not of forming actual relationships, and that they have generally experienced profound psychological crises at some point in their lives.

Claxton concedes that guru figures can have dubious qualities. 'It can be that your guru period is a phase of your own growth, part of your own journey, and something you grow out of. Sometimes, people discover they have that power, insight and charisma before they can follow all the way through with teaching people. When a guru's charisma and wisdom are outweighed by their ego and their desire for power, they are dangerous."

Polly Vernon, Observer Magazine, 25 August 2002

CREDITS

"Paul Davies is a perfectly convincing slimeball" Time Out