A scandalous
piece of opportunism and insensitive bad taste.
JEEVES/ Tweedland
“Whether you are a monarchist or a republican, some events
should be beyond humour, and the funeral of Princess Diana is one thing nobody
should be laughing at.”
"the recreation is nothing short of sick and
twisted".
Charlie Proctor / Royal Central
“THIS was the disgraceful moment Princess Diana was
"exorcised" in a reenactment of her funeral - 21 years after she
died. The sick remake featured a smashed up vehicle imitating the crashed
Mercedes Diana was travelling in when she was killed.”
Express / Fri, Sep 7, 2018
Diana's funeral: re-enacted in Salford with Jill Dando and a
mariachi band
It provoked tabloid fury. But this bizarre spectacle,
complete with car wreck, posed tough questions about death, royals and the
social order. Our writer joined the procession
Dave Simpson
Thu 13 Sep 2018 00.06 BST
‘Princess Diana to be
EXORCISED in ‘sick and twisted’ FUNERAL re-enactment,” raged a recent tabloid
headline, announcing a “satirical remake” at Salford’s White Hotel to mark the
21st anniversary of her death. The paper even quoted Charlie Proctor, editor of
regal website Royal Central, who blasted: “Whether you are a monarchist or a
republican, some events should be beyond humour, and the funeral of Princess
Diana is one thing nobody should be laughing at.”
But are the artists involved in this event really laughing
at Diana? Or is something more interesting going on? I decide to find out for
myself, and so I join the procession as a coffin draped in flags is carried
through the streets of Salford. As requested, everyone is wearing black and
many carry flowers. The procession walks in respectful silence while traffic
slows, bystanders gawp and people peer from behind twitching curtains. Genuine
paparazzi hurry after the procession, just as they chased Diana’s Mercedes
before the fatal crash in Paris. Someone says: “This is going to be the
weirdest experience we’re going to have this year.”
They’re not wrong. The Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales
2.0, is a free entry, word-for-word re-creation but with a mariachi band in
place of Elton John. The event – put together by well-known faces from the arts
and featuring novelist and film-maker Chris Petit as “master of ceremonies”,
and writer and documentarian Jonathan Meades as Diana’s brother Earl Spencer –
was always going to be controversial. Posters for the event (provocatively
depicting Diana, Jimmy Savile, Jill Dando and Barry George) have been torn down
across town.
“We sent out a press release knowing what would happen,”
says author Austin Collings, who is directing the re-enactment. “But it’s very Chris
Morris/National Enquirer to talk about an ‘exorcism’. The papers used a picture
of the wrong building and said we’re having a Jimmy Savile impersonator, which
is nonsense. So it’s already become an exercise in fake news.”
For most people in the procession, what awaits us at the
hotel is shrouded in mystery. Those involved are being cagey. Film-maker and
artist Stanley Schtinter says only that it will “reclaim the people’s princess
for the people”. Even one of the actors – Little Anthony, once of Manchester
band Intastella – has no idea what he’s getting into: “All I know is that my
role involves a pair of union-jack boxer shorts.”
Collings, who ran with the idea after Schtinter suggested
it, was brought up a staunch anti-royalist, but researching the project by
watching hours of old footage made him reappraise Diana and her attitude to the
royals. “I love the factshe was a passionate thorn in their side,” he says.
“The more you watch, the more endearing she is. When you see footage of the
Queen Mother approaching a crowd, she keeps her distance, whereas Diana bowls
right in.”
Collings is old enough to remember the original, emotional
funeral and the way that – briefly – the nation turned against the royal family
because of the way they treated Diana. And he remembers how the press treated
her:“She was the first woman to have her cellulite homed in on, when she was at
the gym. It was the precursor of the Kim Kardashian treatment of celebrity,
almost Ballardian.”
What about Jill Dando and Barry George (who was wrongly
convicted of her murder)? How do they come into it? Collings says he sees both
Dando and Diana as “ciphers, truth-tellers to power. Savile, as a friend of
Charles, was a marriage counsellor to the royal couple. Diana had a terrible
feeling about him from the start. She had emotional intelligence.
“At the time, putting her hands on black babies and all the
stuff with landmines seemed like PR, but you look at it now and maybe she
became a woman in a way they hadn’t let her. And the men she chose later on –
an Indian doctor [Hasnet Khan]; Dodi [Fayed], a Muslim – were V-signs to the
royals. So we’re essentially telling an absurd story of class, monarchy, racism
and corruption.”
The procession arrives. The paparazzi are refused admission
to the old club-turned-arts space. Everyone gathers in uneasy silence. But for
all the mystery beforehand, it’s largely as Schtinter envisaged: a
word-for-word re-creation, but taken vastly out of context. The rundown space,
with its huge speakers and 24-hour licence, is no Westminster Abbey. It feels
truly surreal, emphasising the strangeness of our social order.
Tony Blair, hissed and booed, is the pantomime villain,
brilliantly played by Rob Thornber, a kitchen worker and club promoter. He had
four days to learn the part but studied footage to send up the pomposity of the
then-PM’s original speeches and bizarre, dramatic stutter. A car wreck – a
Volkswagen, not a Merc – filled with flowers feels a bit crass, though Collings
argues that it provides crucial context.
Earl Spencer’s emotional, almost vengeful eulogy about how
Diana’s “blood family” will protect the princes is, however, received in
awestruck silence. The words are delivered by Meades via a deliberately bad
recording, so people hang on every word. We never do get to see Little
Anthony’s Brexit boxer shorts: his role was dropped. Nor, despite subsequent
tabloid reports, is there any reference to Savile, apart from on that initial
poster. Instead, the Aloof’s The Last Stand – the most-played song on Radio 1
on the day Diana died – closes proceedings at punishing volume, while mist
descends and George shoots Dando.
Afterwards, everyone I speak to has a different perspective.
Alex Taylor, 28, from Stockport, sees it as an exercise in challenging the
limits of free speech. Artist and musician Dalitso Moni believes dialogue about
taboo subjects “brings people together – it’s an artist’s job to give you
experiences you might not have thought of”. Isabel Aitken, who gave some of the
readings, identifies with Earl Spencer’s idea that “people were drawn to her
because they saw one of the dejected and vulnerable. She was such a part of the
establishment, but struggled to assert her individuality, and I admire her for
that.”
It’s not always clear how the creators intended the piece to
be received. But for art student Alice Pennington, playing Dando in a
performance about Diana has made her think about #MeToo. “For me, things
haven’t changed in terms of growing up surrounded by idealised womanhood. I
think Jill Dando was on the verge of exposing something, and there are
parallels with these young women who were killed in mysterious circumstancesand
who embodied female innocence. Diana was the fairytale princess who refused to play
the game.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, AKA TV producer James Norton,
says: “People still get pissed off with William and Harry for being emotional
and talking about depression, but that’s Diana’s legacy – and it’s still
subversive. They don’t think royals should behave like that.”
“It’s the weirdest thing I’ve seen, but I think she’d have
liked it,” says 19-year-old Huddersfield student Eve Pennington. “She was a
rebel, wasn’t she?”
Princess Diana funeral remake with Mexican mariachi band
sparks fury –'It's disgraceful'
THIS was the disgraceful moment Princess Diana was
"exorcised" in a reenactment of her funeral - 21 years after she
died. The sick remake featured a smashed up vehicle imitating the crashed
Mercedes Diana was travelling in when she was killed.
PUBLISHED: 17:26, Fri, Sep 7, 2018 | UPDATED: 18:16, Sat,
Sep 8, 2018
It was organised by artist Stanley Schtinter at The White
Hotel, a "rundown" popular rave warehouse in Manchester located yards
away from Strangeways prison.
Around 160 people attended - and many of the mourners were
no older than 30.
It included a Jimmy Savile impersonator and writer Jonathan
Meades played the role of Diana's brother Charles, Earl Spencer - who read his
original funeral speech in full.
The coffin arrived in an Uber and mourners threw broccoli
and flowers as it was carried into the warehouse.
Photographer Karen Priestley, 49, attended the event
yesterday - on the 21st anniversary of Diana's funeral.
She said: "There must have been around 160 people there
and some of them looked emotional.
"People were carrying flowers and broccoli - a lot of
those attending would be too young to remember the original.
"It was sick and disgraceful - there was a smashed up
car imitating the vehicle Diana was in when she died.
"It was covered in flowers and they had a picture of
Diana with roses next to it.
"The final service was a word for word reenactment of
her funeral - and they even had an actor playing Diana's brother to read his
speech.
"They had somebody dressed up as a priest and a man
dressed as a high priest.
"The White Hotel is a disused warehouse where they hold
raves - it's white but that's the only thing that is true to the name."
The procession started at 6.30pm and the route wound its way
through the backstreets of Broughton in Salford.
The White Hotel said of the event: "The World Cup may
not be coming home but our Queen of Hearts has just ordered a taxi and she's on
her way.
"Commissioned by The White Hotel's arts cabinet, artist
Stanley Schtinter has cooked up a word for word remake/re-enactment of Princess
Diana's funeral to mark the anniversary of the original and popular 1997
production.
"The funeral will benefit from the natural
incorporation of the Jill Dando/Barry George fit-up/Crimewatch cock-up, and
Jimmy Savile cock-in(to) the mix for goodbad measure.
"With an original score by a live Mexican mariachi band
(includes a specially adapted version of Candle In The Wind), and appearances
by writer and TV star Jonathan Meades (as Earl Spencer) and writer and
filmmaker Chris Petit's Museo de la Soledad (as Master of Ceremonies)see it as
a purge after another year of pointless patriotism."
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