Figures in Extinction/ Nederlands Dans Theater & Complicité/ Crystal Pite & Simon McBurney/ Factory International/ Aviva Studios/ 19-22 Feb 2025// Vain can mean a lot of things. It is vain for instance to presume that we can understand animals. Jacques Derrida, in his The Animal Which Therefore I Am: I often ask myself, just to Continue…
Escaped Alone & What If If Only/ by Caryl Churchill/ dir Sarah Frankcom/ design Rose Revitt/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 07/02 – 08/03/2025// Caryl Churchill offers a metaphysics in which we are each the focal point for an entire universe of terror. These two shorts, Escaped Alone and What If If Only are well-matched explorations of Continue…
untitled fuck miss saigon play/ by Kimber Lee/ dir Roy Alexander Weise/ design Khadija Raza/ sound design Giles Thomas/ Manchester International Festival/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 24 Jun – 22 Jul 2023/ Young Vic Theatre/ 18 Sep – 4 Nov 2023// three shell casings/// What are we doing when we read a play? What are we Continue…
Interview/ Sam Fairbrother/ The Commission for New and Old Art The Commission for New and Old Art present ‘The Long 40s’ at The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Fri 06 Oct: https://www.anthonyburgess.org/event/concert-the-long-40s/ Visit The Commission’s website here: https://the-commission.vercel.app ‘We have given up on certain contracts between the state, artists and audiences.’ I meet Sam Fairbrother in Continue…
Julius Caesar/ by William Shakespeare/ dir Atri Banerjee/ design Rosanna Vize/ music Jasmin Kent Rodgman/ movement Jennifer Jackson/ Royal Shakespeare Company/ The Lowry/ 20-24 Jun 2023// black grease and the engine of fate When I think of wolves I think of lies. One of the key figures responsible for the modern myth of the ‘alpha’ Continue…
all of it/ by Alistair McDowall/ cast Kate O’Flynn/ dir Vicky Featherstone & Sam Pritchard/ lighting des Elliot Griggs/ composer Melanie Wilson/ The Royal Court/ 06-17 Jun 2023// focus and epicentre // This is a diagram of the epicentre of an earthquake. There is a single point which can be tens or hundreds of kilometres Continue…
we were promised honey!/ writer/performer Sam Ward/ sound des Carmel Smickersgill/ lighting des David Doyle/ additional dir Atri Banerjee/ dramaturgy Deirdre McLaughlin & Craig Gilbert/ YESYESNONO/ HOME/ 9-10 June 2023// [tour] a machine for expanding a question Don Paterson, in his 101 Sonnets: ‘The poem is no more or less than a little machine for Continue…
No Pay? No Way!/ by Dario Fo & Franca Rame/ new version by Marieke Hardy/ dir Bryony Shanahan/ design Cecile Tremolieres/ composer/sound Russell Ditchfield/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 12 May – 10 Jun 20213// Sympathetic to revolution What use will the Royal Exchange Theatre be in the revolution? The entrance stairs provide defensible space. Continue…
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof/ by Tennessee Williams/ dir Roy Alexander Weise/ design Milla Clarke/ composer & sound design Alexandra Faye Braithwaite/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 24 March – 29 April 2023// Air Looms, exploded rooms ‘The arrangement of the furniture is at the same time the sketch plan of murder cases, and the perspective Continue…
Of All The Beautiful Things In The World/ by Yusra Warsama/ dir Yusra Warsama/ design Ellie Light/ lighting & sound design Mark Distin-Webster/ composers: Tom Leah AKA Werkha; Clive Hunte; Rob Hiley/ HOME/ 24 Mar – 06 Apr 2023// Only an Image In the text of his 1936 play The House of Bernarda Alba, Federico Continue…
Too Much World at Once/ by Billie Collins/ dir Adam Quayle/ design Katie Scott/ sound design Lee Affen/ HOME/ 03 – 11 March 2023// Children, betray us. When I was doing my A Levels, I wanted to learn the bass guitar. My mum made me a promise: I could start learning the bass once my Continue…
Song From Far Away/ by Simon Stephens & Mark Eitzel/ dir Kirk Jameson/ design Ingrid Hu/ sound design Julian Starr/ HOME/ 22 Feb – 11 Mar 2023// a doomed effort Willem’s brother is dead. He cannot speak to him and so he writes letters. In the course of his writing, we discover that Willem may Continue…
Graceland/ by Ava Wong Davies/ dir Anna Himali Howard, with Izzy Rabey/ design Mydd Pharo/ composer & sound design Anna Clock/ co-produced with Sister/ Royal Court/ 09 Feb – 11 Mar// a horrifying sentence ‘Self-possession. To be in possession of oneself. That’s the only thing really.’ – Angela Carter, journal, 1972 When she knew Continue…
Wasteland/ Gary Clarke Company/ Contact/ 1-3 Feb 2023// touring nationally// Give the wound a name: 1) Coppers Wasteland is a Fuck The Police show. A Fuck The Police show because the police were instrumental in shutting down illegal raves. A Fuck The Police show because it is about the event and the aftermath of pit Continue…
BETTY!: A sort of Musical/ book by Maxine Peake/ music and lyrics by Seiriol Davies/ dir by Sarah Frankcom/ design James Cotterill/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 03 Dec – 14 Jan 2022// Saint Betty: counterrevolutionary BETTY! is selling the icon. She is a precocious child, she is a steadfast adult; she is from Yorkshire, she is Continue…
Crimes of the Future/ by David Cronenburg/ feat. Viggo Mortensen; Léa Seydoux; Kristen Stewart/ May 2022// Our Bodies are Not Fascists Brecken is eight and he is dead. He lies on an ergonomically-designed slab-cum-instrument which both displays and dissects him. He is here because his body is a symbol. His body is a symbol because Continue…
The Glass Menagerie/ by Tennessee Williams/ dir by Atri Banerjee/ design Rosanna Vize/ LX design Lee Curran/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 02 Sep – 08 Oct, 2022// The Violin in the Wings There’s nothing new in a play telling you it isn’t real. It wasn’t new when The Glass Menagerie premiered in 1944 and hell, Continue…
Oh Mother/ RashDash/ text: Abbi Greenland with Helen Goalen & Penny Greenland/ devisers: Helen Goalen, Abbi Greenland, Penny Greenland & Simone Seales/ composers: Becky Wilkie & Simone Seales/ set & costume design: Oli Townsend/ lighting design: Katharine Williams/ HOME/ 12 – 28/05/2022// In her book ‘Feminism Interrupted’, Lola Olufemi asks us to Imagine this: Continue…
Electric Rosary/ by Tim Foley/ dir Jaz Woodcock-Stewart/ design Charlotte Espiner/ composition & sound Anna Clock/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 23 Apr – 14 May 2022// Once a year, my primary school would take a flotilla of coaches to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic church. The year 6 children would perform for us the story of Continue…
Color Out of Space/ screenplay Scarlett Amaris, Richard Stanley/ director Richard Stanley/ 2020/ 22/04/2020// Richard Stanley’s Color Out of Space follows Lovecraftian tradition. Protagonist Ward Phillips (Elliot Knight) is largely absent from the action of the plot. A hydrologist conducting a survey, he arrives at the beginning of things and quickly becomes a stunned Continue…
The Salford Docker/ by Sarah Weston/ dir Steph Green & Sarah Weston/ prod Isaac Rose/ Salford Community Theatre/ The Lighthouse Venue/ 08-13/07/2019// I believe theatre is a social form. It finds power from gathering a group of people into the same place. That gesture isn’t uncomplicated – there are people involved. The ‘same place’ Continue…
dressed./ ThisEgg/ in collaboration w/ Made My Wardrobe/ costume Lydia Higginson/ dramaturg Laurence Cook/ HOME/ 4-8/06/2019// i went to see dressed. by This Egg. is it helping/ sometimes you’ve seen a friend in pain so many times its hard not to feel pointless. useless. but friendship isn’t about utility. i’ve been seeing a lot Continue…
Grand Finale/ Hofesh Shechter/ Hofesh Shechter/ Hofesh Shechter Company/ designer Tom Scutt/ HOME/ 22-25/05/2019// Hofesh Shechter is a dance company performing dances choreographed by Hofesh Shechter to music composed by Hofesh Shechter. He’s obviously got some good bloody hustle about him because I can’t for the life of me see what forces have brought Continue…
Embedded Critic: Forest [introduction] [#1] [#2] [review] afterword Wed 6 Feb 2019 In the spirit of theatre being live an morphic I pay tribute by my final piece of writing on James Monaghan’s Forest being a record more of a succession of aftermaths than the process/show themselves. I write this two weeks after James and Continue…
Embedded Critic: Forest [introduction] [#1] #2 Wed 16 Jan 2019 Today is immediately different. James and Leentje are rehearsing at the Royal Exchange in a rehearsal room I’ve been in several times over the past four years, but which each time has felt like a separate space. That’s a phenomenon with rehearsal rooms, I think Continue…
Embedded Critic: Forest [introduction] #1 Thu 10 Jan 2019 This is the first rehearsal I sit in on. ‘Sit in on’ feels a strange way to put it, like a bit matronly, as if I’m a nurse or a supervisor. Or like I’m an investor. I think the stakes at the moment are me both Continue…
Embedded Critic: Forest, by James Monaghan Introduction Over the next two weeks, I’m going to be sitting in on James Monaghan’s rehearsals for his show Forest and writing some reflections about the process, as the room’s Embedded Critic. James is working with Dramaturg Leentje Van de Cruys ahead of presenting Forest at HOME’s PUSH Festival.* Continue…
Burgerz/ written & performed by Travis Alabanza/ dir by Sam Curtis Lindsay/ design Soutra Gilmour/ presented by Hackney Showroom/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 21-24/11/2018// In 2016, a man threw a burger at performance artist, Travis Alabanza, on Waterloo Bridge in broad daylight. They think over a hundred people must have seen. No one did anything. ‘I Continue…
Me & My Whale/ by Xavier Velastin and Hannah Mook/ Partisan/ 20-21/10/2018// The ocean makes me think of death and noise. A couple of weekends ago, I went and stayed with a writer friend in my Grandma’s caravan in Wales, about 20 miles inland from Aberystwyth on the coast. On the Friday night we Continue…
Queens of the Coal Age/ by Maxine Peake/ dir Bryony Shanahan/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 28/06-28/07/2018// Coal’s a ghost. You walk down the street and terraced houses have those holes in the ground in front of them, with like a grate over and sometimes you can see into them. Or sometimes they’re concreted over and you Continue…
The Drill/ direction: Dorothy Allen-Pickard (video)/ Billy Barrett (live)/: writers: Billy Barrett/ Ellice Stevens/: Breach/ HOME/ 14-16/06/2018// I think ultimately Breach’s The Drill is a show about deep, difficult to navigate, embodied sensations, which doesn’t manage to make me actually Feel any of them. There’s a story about hooking up with a Daddy through an Continue…
Three Sisters, by RashDash, after Chekhov/ by RashDash/ after Anton Chekhov/ The Royal Exchange/ 03-19/05/2018// /ththere are wayS to talk about theatrere// All writing is self-portraiture so allow me some self-definition for a moment. I am a full-time freelance writer and theatre maker. The most money I’ve made from writing about theatre in a Continue…
Circle Mirror Transformation/ by Annie Baker/ dir Bijan Sheibani/ HOME/ 02-17/03/2018// (written to be read simultaneously with my revew of Frankenstein) and discovering there is something in the mirrors, we see each other. I would have written we see ourselves but that would suggest the audience enter as a homogeneous mass and actually we filter Continue…
Frankenstein/ by Mary Shelley/ adptd by April De Angelis/ dir Matthew Xia/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 09/03-14/04/2018// (written to be read simultaneously with my revew of Circle Mirror Transformation) in reaching across a depth of time is like a bed of ice. Reflective, superficial but iterative in a way you don’t understand. Is like a journey. Continue…
No one belongs here more than you./ by Miranda July/ published by SCRIBNER/ 2007// In the course of reading No one belongs here more than you., I feel like I am getting to know someone. I feel like they are a person I can relate to intensely, that they are someone I would neither Continue…
A Hurry of English/ by Mary Jean Chan/ ignitionpress/ February 2018// There’s a distinction between bravery and confidence; confidence happens when bravery has been necessary, or when power is held, over oneself or others (or both). Mary Jean Chan’s first collection A Hurry of English steps in and out of bravery and confidence; its Continue…
Brief Encounter/ by Noel Coward/ adptd Emma Rice/ dir Emma Rice/ Kneehigh/ The Lowry/ 20-24/02/2018// Alternative version of Brief Encounter: in which, as Laura runs out of the café in the climax, a woman called Thelma pulls up on the train platform in a 1966 Ford Thunderbird. She invites Laura into the car and she Continue…
Metalhead/ Black Mirror, S4E5/ starring Maxine Peake/ by Charlie Brooker/ dir David Slade/ 29/12/2017-// Maxine Peake has become a symbol of a dignified north. She is hard-edged and stern-eyed and she is an actor, in that she does, rather than philosophises. In her and Sarah Frankcom’s 2015 production of The Skriker, she entered the Continue…
Guys And Dolls/ “A musical fable of Broadway based on the story and characters of Damon Runyon”/* music Frank Loesser/ book Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows/ dir Michael Buffong/ prod Royal Exchange Theatre and Talawa/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 02/12/2017-27/01/2018// Theatre is not telling lies. It’s pretending, sure, but theatre isn’t about deception. We don’t Continue…
Uncle Vanya/ by Anton Chekov/ vers by Andrew Upton/ dir Walter Meierjohann/ HOME/ 3-25/11/2017// i swear the most precious and beautiful and Must Be Repeated part of Uncle Vanya at HOME is Leaf Boy. he plays the accordion at random intervals for no reason, at the start of the second half he comes onstage and Continue…
Parliament Square/ by James Fritz/ dir Jude Christian/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 18-28/10/2017// CW: every external link in this revew is related to self-immolation in the UK Man douses himself in petrol and threatens to set himself on fire at Ashton Job Centre (this is not fiction) I’ve got all these messy and confused Continue…
Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness/ by Anthony Neilson/ dir Evelyn Roberts/ People Zoo/ Hope Mill Theatre/ 10-14/10/2017// I’ve been reassessing what I value recently. I like to think that’s an ongoing project in myself but I also operate and live my life with a fear that one day I will find myself old Continue…
Kissing the Shotgun Goodnight/ Christopher Brett Bailey/ Contact/ 4/10/2017// Captain Estar Goes To Heaven is a 170 page sci-fi webcomic by Winston Rowntree. I must have read it when I was about 14-16 maybe. I think about it surprisingly often. I don’t even think of Captain Estar as Rowntree’s best work. Their science/spec fiction Continue…
Bravado/ by Scottee/ The Britons Protection/ HOME/ 28-30/09/2017// Scottee: ‘I Fear Working Class Men’ Scottee is a real man. /The Britons Protection is a proper pub, the sort of place I’d rather go for a pint in. The distinction I usually make between places I prefer going for a pint and others is a sort Continue…
Our Town/ by Thornton Wilder/ dir Sarah Frankcom/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 14/09-14/10/2017// In 1967, a bloke called Desmond Morris published The Naked Ape: A Zoologist’s Study of the Human Animal. The title largely gives away what it’s about – treating ‘humans as animals’ and analysing their behaviour through an ethological lens. I read it Continue…
Anatomy of a Suicide/ by Alice Birch/ dir Katie Mitchell/ The Royal Court, London/ 03/06-08/07/2017// open the below in tabs. enable autoplay. leave to play over each other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBtVaHkJc4I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa4n_8EK3ig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsAnAQfdyKY 0 It’s a shit word for it. Sorry. If you were coming up with a new word for it today you’d want something to Continue…
Fatherland/ by Scott Graham/ Karl Hyde/ Simon Stephens/ Frantic Assembly/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ Manchester International Festival/ 1-22/07/17// Dads n tha I totally believe and have done for a whole while that theatre/art/whatever method we use to project each other’s brains at each other is about recognition. I think that if you want to use theatre Continue…
WMD Makes Everything Better/ WMD Comedy/ Kings Arms, Salford/ 1-3/07/2017// WMD Comedy are a stupid bunch of boys and their show, WMD Makes Everything Better epitomises everything you might imagine when told that a bunch of stupid boys have made a comedy sketch show which they’re performing tonight in a room above a pub. I Continue…
BEARS/ Powder Keg/ devised by the company/ The Royal Exchange Studio/ 14-18/06/2017// Exeunt interview w/ Emma & Josh from Powder Keg (Jan ’17) bearsisadream/whichistosayapieceoffictionwhichreverberatesheavilyinreality/arealbearwouldnotgiveashitaboutyou/whichisperhapsthepartwhichshowshowhumanthispieceis// BEARS is a dream, a poem. I’ve thought a lot and talked a lot since seeing Powder Keg’s wordless arctic ballet and what strikes me perhaps the most is its silence, Continue…
Persuasion/ by Jane Austen/ aptd Jeff James w/ James Yeatman/ dir Jeff James/ Royal Exchange Theatre/ 25/05-24/06/2017// HEY EVERYONE WOULDNT IT BE FUNNY AND ALIEN IF THERE WAS A WHOLE CLASS OF PEOPLE WHO NEVER WORKED AND WHOSE ONLY CONCERN WAS WHETHER IT WAS OK TO SHAG THEIR COUSINS SO THEY COULD KEEP THEIR DADDYS Continue…
Lessons in Leaking/ machina eX/ Transform 17/ West Yorkshire Playhouse/ 20-22/04/2017// As a game, Lessons in Leaking is largely a success. Another audience member compared it to an escape room and I think they’re exactly right. As a group, we are immersed in a fictional, interactive world and tasked with solving problems to further Continue…
Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers/ curated by Martin Parr/ w/ Barbican Centre (London)/ Manchester Art Gallery/ 25/11/16 – 29/05/17// It would need a bit of arrogance at least to assume that the eyes of the world are on our tiny island any more now than they have been in the Continue…
Wellness/ Florentina Holzinger & Vincent Riebeek/ CAMPO & Transform/ Transform 17/ Riley Theatre, Northern School of Contemporary Dance/ 19-20/04/2017// kim kardashian eyes tutorial// maybe I’m seeing Kardashians where they’re not intended but the female (/matriarchal) driver of the onstage dancers in Holzinger & Riebeek’s Wellness has an air of Kim about her. Not solely Continue…
The People Are Singing/ by Lizzie Nunnery/ dir Tamara Trunova/ Royal Exchange Studio/ 6-8/4/2017// The first analogy that comes to mind watching The People Are Singing is the idea of it being a sort of The Little Prince through a glass darkly, bumping up against Anthony Neilson’s The Wonderful World of Dissocia. It is Continue…
Ghosts Of My Life: writings on depression, hauntology and lost futures/ Mark Fisher/ Zero Books/ 2014// To lament death is often irresistible. In Ghosts Of My Life Mark Fisher writes about Anton Corbijn’s Ian Curtis/Joy Division biopic, Control, a film which, for Fisher, ‘didn’t really connect […] didn’t do enough to convey the group’s sorcerous Continue…
There is a Light: BRIGHTLIGHT/ Contact Young Company/ dir Adura Onashile/ SICK! Festival/ Contact/ 8-10/03/2017// We might not even notice where our love or distaste for something might come from but that won’t stop it from hitting us viscerally. We don’t always experience what we value consciously. When it comes to theatre, I’ve given myself Continue…
vew frm th 10th floor o th Tate Switch House/ or London/ Tate Modern/ 17/06/2016 – onwards// https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPsBFPX_yU4 one of London’s Tate Modern’s most notable acquisitions of 2016 is the vew from the tenth floor of the Switch House at the Tate Modern in London on th south bank. the most significant vew is Continue…
RITE/ Islington Mill/ 03/02/2017// RITE has all earthy about it, the grained barebrick surrounds of Islington Mill, the darkness of the night, the darkness of the interior and the effect like a warren of the mass of open-eyed inhabitants. There are things that pass by in the night, there are things which spark and Continue…
The House of Bernarda Alba/ by Federico García Lorca/ dir Yusra Warsama/ HOME/ 20/01/2017// (work-in-progress) this ‘revew’ is a collection of sketches/ less a ‘review’ even than usual// . Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba is bloody old by now . written in 1936 . ive noticed age in it before . or at least Continue…
Morale is High (Since we gave up Hope)/ Powder Keg/ HOME/ International Anthony Burgess Institute/ 16-18/01/2017// I am frightened for the future. I am frightened for the present. I am frightened because the past used to be something we were moving towards and now it’s something we have to learn from and suffer the Continue…
Sweet Charity/ book Neil Simon/ music Cy Coleman/ lyrics Dorothy Fields/ dir Derek Bond/ choreog Aletta Collins/ The Royal Exchange/ 3/12/16 – 28/01/17// roll up roll up come behold the amazing rotating emblem machine americas too big ive always felt americas far too big Is America sick/stuck? I’ve been feeling lately that to say Continue…
Lear/Cordelia/ by Ben Spiller/Farrah Chaudhry/ dir Ben Spiller/Louie Ingham/ design Eleanor Field/ prod Christopher Lydon/ 1623 theatre company/ Derby Theatre Studio/ 18-19/11/2016// The oldest have borne most: we that are young shall never see so much, nor live so long. In Shakespeare’s King Lear, the titular King is left to mercy. His tragedy is Continue…
Borderline/ dir Sophie NL Besse/ devised by the company/ prod PSYCHEdelight, VOILA Festival & The Cockpit/ The Cockpit/ 2, 3 & 6/11/2016// I’m not sure how many shoes I own. There’s a pair of boots I wear most of the time, I have some trainers for exercise, some smart shoes for when boots aren’t Continue…
The Preston Bill/ by Andy Smith/ prod by Fuel/ Martin Harris Centre, Manchester University/ 19/10/2016// /OR/: theatre as technology/hauntology and/or machine If your sense of self is tied to your physical body, then losing yourself requires some sort of alienation from that, perhaps through loss of agency over your labour power. Historically this has entailed Continue…
Return to Grey Gardens/ by Peaches Christ & Jinkx Monsoon/ prod Ben O’Callaghan/ Contact [UK première]/ 14-15/10/2016// Sometimes you go to see a show and know exactly what you’re getting and it’s just what you need and it stops you from worrying about the EU and your bank balance for an hour and a Continue…
Burning Doors/ Belarus Free Theatre/ Contact/ 10-12/10/2016// A hanging uses a body’s own weight against it. With the right length of rope measured according to the weight of the subject the neck can be broken and death near instantaneous. Two nooses hang on the set of Belarus Free Theatre’s Burning Doors. Bodies are suspended Continue…
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons/ by Sam Steiner/ dir Ed Madden/ Walrus Theatre/ HOME/ 4-8/10/2016// There are two things at stake in Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons: freedom of language and a relationship. Obviously that’s oversimplifying it a bit – there are more, smaller things – but these feel like the two driving forces. Continue…
O No!/ by Jamie Wood/ co-dir Wendy Hubbard/ prod Luke Emery HOME/ 3-5/10/2016// PAINTING FOR THE WIND Cut a hole in a bag filled with seeds of any kind and place the bag where there is wind. 1961 summer Would the wind plant the seeds, would you or would the soil they hit (if they Continue…
Wish List/ by Katherine Soper/ dir Matthew Xia/ The Royal Exchange Studio/ 24/9 – 15/10/2016// There is poison threaded through the air of Wish List. Tamsin lives with and cares for her brother Dean, who cannot leave the house, she works to targets she cannot hit in a packing factory and doesn’t know whether Continue…
Am I Dead Yet?/ by Jon Spooner and Chris Thorpe/ developed in collaboration with Dr Andy Lockey/ unlimited theatre/ The Royal Exchange Studio/ 21/4/2016// I don’t believe writing retrospectively about events ever ceases being an act of resurrection. And I do believe that language is a constant act of casual resurrection. Remember this, remean Continue…
A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer/ by Bryony Kimmings & Brian Lobel/ prod. Complicte Associates & National Theatre/ HOME/ 20–24/9/2016// The first half of Bryony Kimmings and Brian Lobel’s A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer is a very mediocre musical with some interesting bits of inflating set and some pretty Continue…
A Streetcar Named Desire/ by Tennessee Williams/ dir Sarah Frankcom/ The Royal Exchange/ 8/9 – 15/10/16// I’d hazard to say it was the most oppressive weather of the year. The crush had been building for the best part of two days before something deemed it fit to split the heavens, about ninety minutes before Continue…
Joan, Babs & Shelagh Too/ by Gemskii/ dir Oliver Senton/ Conscious Theatre/ 3MT/ 14-15/07/16// At times, Joan, Babs & Shelagh Too feels like a particularly animated conversation a stranger might have at you in a pub. There’s a lot to take in, they’re probably two drinks ahead of you and you’re not much able to Continue…
Schönheitsabend/ by Florentina Holzinger & Vincent Riebeek/ dramaturgy Eike Wittrock/ prod. CAMPO, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm & Theater Freiburg/ Northern Ballet/ Transform 16/ 23/04/16// Schönheitsabend A Beautiful Evening Maybe awe is the word. There’s a membrane thinner than thought that separates the inside of a show from the rest of the world. That there Adam Young Continue…
Rise to Vertex/ by Stitch Theatre/ Live Art Bistro/ Transform 16/ 22/04/16// The first paragraph explaining as objectively as musterable the base premise/point/object of the piece/play/performance being reviewed (this is an important part of every review). Stitch Theatre are Martyna Kozanecka and James Rowling, awarded the Lift Off & Transform award in 2015. They’re Continue…
The Beanfield/ by Breach Theatre/ dir by Dorothy Allen-Pickard & Billy Barrett/ HOME/ 31/03 – 02/04/16// exeunt revIew ‘Breach’s debut fringe show is both formally ambitious and explicitly political – an engaged, potent piece of theatremaking by a young company with a strong creative identity.’ – Natasha Tripney ‘It’s true! @breach_theatre’s The Beanfield *is* brilliant. Continue…
Husbands & Sons/ by DH Lawrence/ adapted by Ben Power/ dir Marianne Elliott/ design Bunny Christie/ prod National Theatre & Royal Exchange Theatre/ The Royal Exchange/ 19 Feb – 19 Mar 2016// Exeunt review 4 Essays I Won’t Write About Husbands & Sons That Monstrous Mother: earth and homestead in Husbands & Sons ‘when Continue…
The Solid Life of Sugar Water/ by Jack Thorne/ dir Amit Sharma/ design Lily Arnold/ prod Graeae Theatre Company and Theatre Royal Plymouth/ The Royal Exchange/ 9-13 Feb 2016// tour Exeunt review (or: on joying in suffering) You ever had something you’ve said repeated back to you and you wonder what your head was even Continue…
Everything I Bought And How It Made Me Feel/ by Harry Giles/ The HUB/ 8/2/16// tour dates [NOTE: Edited 24/07/2018, to respect HG’s pronouns] /while waiting in an armchair in the HUB for Harry Giles’s Everything I Bought And How It Made Me Feel to begin i looked down the side of the cushion Continue…
The Crows Plucked Your Sinews/ by Hassan Mahamdallie/ dir Hassan Mahamdallie/ prod Dervish/ performed by Yusra Warsama/ Contact/ 27-29/1/16// Exeunt review .reviewers could be likened to Crows, couldn’t they? poring over a corpse, swallowing the parts they like, working in a loose anarchic team to make sure all the morsels are snatched up. and Continue…
Cinderella/ by Mike Kenny/ dir Sarah Brigham/ Derby Theatre/ 04/12/2015 – 09/01/2016// in which our hero reflects on the words of an animated rabbit Am I an underdog? I’ve been thinking a lot about where I fit lately, about what systems hold me in place/allow me to wriggle, about where I go next. I’ve Continue…
How To Be Better/ by Contact Young Company/ dir Common Wealth/ design Russ Henry/ Contact/ 16-19/12/15// img_source It’s the end of the year. Which speaks swathes. Another block of past is elapsed and another series of plans have been altered or acted out, mostly the former. Writing this, I’m adding to a growing block Continue…
Impassioned Speech Ahead Of Syria Airstrikes Vote/ by Hilary Benn/ House of Commons/ 2/12/15// /video// A lot has already been said on the subject of Hilary Benn’s Impassioned Speech – but I’m a critic so that never stopped me before. I’m not particularly familiar with Benn’s previous work, except to the extent that he’s part Continue…
Confirmation/ by Chris Thorpe/ dir Rachel Chavkin/ Royal Exchange/ 26-30/5/15// <i> the first time i had </i> Confirmation <i> ruined for me was during last year’s fringe. i wasn’t at the fringe last year but i heard about the show several times from people who were. as it was i knew a good few things about the show before Continue…
The Funfair/ adapted by Simon Stephens/ director Walter Meierjohann/ designer Ti Green/ composer Dave Price/ HOME/ 14 May – 13 June 2015// reviewed for Exeunt
The Ghost Train/ by Arnold Ridley/ Told by an Idiot/ The Royal Exchange/ 14 May – 20 June 2015// reviewed for Exeunt
Rites/ Cora Bisset and Yusra Warsama/ dramaturg George Aza-Selinger/ Contact/ 12 – 14 May 2015// reviewed for Exeunt
The Rolling Stone/ Chris Urch/ dir. by Ellen McDougall/ designer Joanna Scotcher/ The Royal Exchange/ 21 Apr – 1 May 2015// reviewed for Exeunt
Back in April, I started reviewing for Exeunt and I’ve neglected to update this site in a while. Good news is that’s because I’ve been getting more proper reviewing jobs. Bad news is I’ve been doing less independent stuff as a result. Hopefully will soon see a change to that but for now here are links Continue…
Graeae/ Blood Wedding/ Federico Garcia Lorca/ adptd. David Ireland/ dir. Jenny Sealey/ Derby Theatre/ 25/03/15// I’m not familiar with the original Lorca, but that’s irrelevant. I’m not overly familiar with Graeae’s previous productions, I know that they are a company creating theatre which is accessible, but that’s not giving me much to go on. Continue…
Caroline Horton/ Penelope RETOLD/ dir. Lucy J. Skilbeck/ Derby Theatre/ 14/03/15// This is the theatre, in Derby, the studio, the audience gathers. Caroline Horton’s Penelope hides under sheets in her bed, Waiting for us to be seated, waiting to wake and to give her side, Waiting for, chiefly, Odysseus, who left, twice, and hasn’t returned Continue…
Mike Kenny/ Solace of the Road/ dir. Sarah Brigham/ Derby Theatre/ 14/03/15// written using techniques from these documents (Psychology Tools – writing therapy) ‘additional therapeutic techniques that involve writing may be helpful at particular times’ The set strikes me. because it’s gorgeously lit. Minimally lit. A series spiral of things I’m not sure what they Continue…
Daniel Bye/ Error 404/ dir. Alex Swift/ Polka Theatre, Wimbledon/ 07/03/15// co-written with Cleverbot Hello Cleverbot. -I am not a bot but I am clever. Glad to hear. Would you mind if I told you about a play I saw? -I don’t know. How about you? You’ve seen right through me, that’s Continue…
Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Rachel Parish/ Hellscreen/ Vault Festival, London/ 05/03/15// – went to see this play, think it fell a bit short . – was very pretty, like, right from the start we walked into this big vaulted underground chamber, there were lights and sounds and everything, projections, like light and airy and very pretty, nice Continue…
Hannah Jane Walker and Chris Thorpe/ I Wish I Was Lonely/ The Dukes, Lancaster/ 13/02/15// [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/191004531″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] twetin inna thater #IWishIWasLonely — James Varney (@mrjvarney) February 13, 2015 because i did genuinely like the form maybe not for this piece but if this is the direction theatre is headed Continue…
1623/ Hover through the Fog/ QUAD, Derby/ 31/10/14// first posted 5/11/14// The room is dark, and filled with fog as I shuffle in to find a seat. With the rest of the audience, I sit in wait, as more fog belches from a steel bin centre stage. The effect is only increased by it Continue…
Selina Thompson/ Chewing the Fat/ Derby Theatre/ 6/12/14/ first posted 7/12/14 Last night, I saw Selina Thompson‘s Chewing the Fat, in Derby Theatre’s Studio space. Unfortunately, it was the last night of a pretty wide ranging tour, so I can’t urge you to go see it. Hopefully, it will re-emerge somewhere in the future, Continue…
Josh Coates/ ROT/ Manchester Oxford Road Station/ 22/01/15/ /arrive/ i meet josh before the show/ hes enlisted me to give him a hand/ he gives me a hi vis jacket/ im to lead the audience/ but for all other purposes im in the audience too/ hes told me as little as possible about the show/ still Continue…