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 /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 for a pen id lost/ and i 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// 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 in count me in but im 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…