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Neil Oram

Neil Oram, London Fields, Hackney, Oct 2010. Photo by Sean Pollock

Neil Oram is a musician, poet, artist and playwright, best known as the author of The Warp, a 10 play cycle, directed by Ken Campbell.

Family

Oram is a Celt born in Torquay in 1938. His father, Bob Oram, was a sportsman and musician, a champion cyclist who played the fiddle and mandolin. He was also a witty cartoonist and an accomplished conjurer. In the Second World War Bob Oram worked with Frank Whittle on creating the first jet engine. He was an expert gardener and later worked managing a large flower shop. Above all Oram’s father was a warm-hearted and spiritual teacher. By contrast, Oram’s mother was nasty and cruel, a tyrant who freely handed out demonic curses to anyone who in any way displeased her. “Cursed was the day that you were born!” was one of her favourites. His upbringing led Oram to learn to find spiritual strength in himself and to find pleasure in solitariness.

Early Life & Influences

Oram was ‘educated’ at Torquay Boys' Grammar School where the Headmaster - ‘Soapy Joe’ Harmer - pronounced that Oram was the worst behaved boy in the whole history of the school. This was after Oram had organized a couple of mass rebellions and refused to be caned. In his second year a fellow pupil, Paul Eva, introduced Oram to modern jazz. Neil recounts how from the moment Paul put on the jazz classic ‘Walking Shoes’ everything instantly changed for him, even the way he looked. Soon, via a primitive record player and earphones in his father's shed, Oram discovered the art of Gerry Mulligan, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and Charlie Mingus. New very sharp modern clothes were tailored and worn at the modern jazz gigs held in the Torquay Town Hall where combos like The Tony Kinsey Trio and The Don Rendell Sextet played.

Soho, Jazz, Art & Poetry

In 1957 Oram traveled to Africa where he met musician Mike Gibbs in Salisbury, (now Harare). He played double bass in the Mike Gibbs Quintet. A post-concert epiphany where a voice repeatedly told him "Je suis un poet!" led him to take up writing. Oram returned to Britain in 1958 where he ran a jazz café called The House of Sam Widges at 9 D'Arblay Street in Soho, London. The café was known for its jukebox which only had modern jazz records. It attracted many of the top London musicians. Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes, Graham Bond, Dave Tomlin and Bobby Wellins were frequent customers, occasionally enjoying a bowl of spaghetti bolognese crafted by Oram. Downstairs was a club/performance space called 'The Pad'.

Oram was now writing poetry, giving readings and painting large abstract jazz inspired paintings. In 1960 he opened The Mingus art gallery in Marshall Street, Soho, where abstract paintings by Graham Bradbury, George Popperwell, Jaime Manzano, William Morris (the American beat poet/painter) and Tony Shiels could be seen, whilst bebop sounds filled the space. The paintings for this exhibition were painted in The Pad to the sound of jazz performed by the Graham Bond Quartet.

Oram’s published poems can be found in ‘Children of Albion’ (Penguin 1968), ‘Words-re-arranged’, (privately printed 1970), ‘Past The Antique Pain’ (Zum Zum 1974), ‘Beauty’s Shit’ (Zum Zum 1976), ‘The Golden Forgotten’ (Great Works 1977), ‘Yes To The Fresh’ (Zum Zum 1985).

Poems & other writings can also be found in many ‘underground’ magazines from the late 50's onwards, like Night Scene published by Lee Harwood, and International Times (IT)

Spiritual Life

After Oram closed The Mingus he lived in Paris where in 1965 he attended talks given by Krishnamurti. In the same year Neil met Krishnamurti personally for the first time at the Wimbledon home of Doris Pratt, Head teacher of the Krishnamurti School in Brockwood. At this first meeting Krishnamurti asked Neil to organise a small discussion group to meet with him in London which Neil did, leading to a number of further meetings with the spiritual teacher.

In 1963 Oram became a member of The Study Society founded by Peter Ouspensky where he was introduced to Sufi and Advaita teachings, Dervish Turning, Transcendental Meditation and The Movements designed by George Gurdjieff.

In 1965 Oram moved with his wife and baby daughter to Haworth - the village where the Bronte sisters lived. According to Oram while meditating near the Bronte graveyard, in another epiphany, he was "Told by the Voice" to found "a center where a person could give birth to their true Self. A spiritual maternity hospital without dogma."

He settled on 100 acres of abandoned land overlooking Loch Ness. He has lived there ever since he arrived in 1968, crofting the land, growing wheat, oats, vegetables, and learning to make natural dyes and weave carpets.

In 1983/84 Oram stayed in the Ashram of Haidakhan Babaji in India, which is recorded in his play The Friends of Deception written in 2012/13.

The Warp

In 1977 Oram had meetings with Rajneesh in Poona which he later recorded in his ten play cycle The Warp,

The Warp's hero is called Phil Masters named after the blind poet Philip Bourke Marston who lived from 1850 to 1887. The play traces the hero’s many previous lives over a period of thousands of years. The Warp was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as being the longest play ever performed. Lasting 22 hours when performed in full, the Phil Masters character is required on stage for all but five minutes, making it one of the most demanding acting roles ever created.

The first performance of the Warp (Warp 1, The Storm's Howling through Tiflis) opened at London's ICA on the 2nd January 1979, the author's birthday. For the first two weeks the performances were of one play per night.Then due to the enthusiasm created there were three full non-stop performances of all 10 plays which were also filmed. Performers included Russell Denton (in the lead), Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Maria Moustaka, Stephan Williams, and Pat Donovan. Five further marathon performances followed at the Roundhouse in London in November 1979 also directed by Campbell. Five marathon performances were staged at the Edinburgh Festival during a squat of the Regent Theatre during the Festival of 1979. This was followed with one performance at Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire. In 1980 Oram was 'the resident playwright' at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool where The Warp ran for ten weeks.

In 1980-82 The Warp was adapted by director Werner Nekes for a film called Uliisses, shot in Germany with the Warp cast. It was screened at the 1982 London Film Festival. In 1984 the film was awarded Best Film at the German Film Critics Association Awards .

The Warp was subsequently turned into a three volume novel by Oram, published by Sphere Books.

The Warp DVD, a video of the full 18 hour 1979 ICA production is available directly from Oram

In the 1990s there were a number of productions of the Warp directed by Ken Campbell's daughter Daisy Campbell.

Authorship confusion

Obituaries on Ken Campbell in the Telegraph and The Guardian say that Ken "wrote" The Warp or "co-wrote" The Warp with Neil Oram. However other reviews and articles plus all known publicity material acknowledges Neil Oram as being the sole author. It seems clear that Ken Campbell directed, but never wrote a word of the Warp. There is no evidence that he ever claimed that he did.

According to Oram the true story behind the writing of The Warp is as follows: Ken Campbell "inspired" him to write theThe Warp' as a play after, at the ICA in 1978, Campbell heard Oram give a one man performance of stories from his life. Campbell suggested dramatization and offered to direct the result. Commissioned by the ICA, and funded by the Arts Council, Oram set to work. A brief attempt at collaboration, with Cambpell typing up the script, proved impractical. Oram then wrote the entire ten play cycle, by hand, by himself in Butleigh, Somerset.

Bibliography

• Children of Albion (Penguin 1968)
• Words-re-arranged (privately printed 1970)
• Past The Antique Pain (Zum Zum 1974)
• Beauty’s Shit (Zum Zum 1976)
• The Golden Forgotten (Great Works 1977)
• Yes To The Fresh (Zum Zum 1995)
• The Warp 1: The Storm's Howling Through Tiflis (Sphere)
• The Warp 2: Lemmings On the Edge (Sphere)
• The Warp 3: The Balustrade Paradox (Sphere 1982).
• Spy For Love (Oberon 2002)
• Inside Out (Barncott Press 2013)
• The Friends of Deception (Barncott Press 2013)

Filmography

• Uliisses (1982) (dir. Werner Nekes) (35mm, 94mins)

External Links

• Neil Oram's website.
• The Warp (full text on line)*
• Neil Oram at IMDb