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  1. revew: Crystal Pite & Simon McBurney – Figures in Extinction

    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…

    26/02/2025
  2. revew: Caryl Churchill – Escaped Alone and What If If Only

    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…

    19/02/2025
  3. Indicator Species 001

    I’ve been thinking about criticism. I’m emerging from a period of being very jaded and drained when thinking about theatre and cultural criticism and in an act of optimism I’ve decided to write a newsletter. Welcome. I am thinking in public. I will think my way into connections between the things I have been reading Continue…

    14/02/2025
  4. On a white background, three wire frame drawings of cubes of different sizes, red stripes border the left and right of the image. Black text underlaid with orange reads 'untitled fuck miss saigon play, Kimber Lee.'

    revew: Kimber Lee – untitled fuck miss saigon play

    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…

    01/11/2023
  5. A black and white image, drawn in biro. The top third is a portrait of Bertolt Brecht, showing only the eyes, the lower two thirds is a Hollywood street scene. On either side are symmetrical patterns of stripes. A black border at the top and bottom bears the text, 'interview, Sam Fairbrother.'

    interview: Sam Fairbrother

    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…

    02/10/2023
  6. A white square with white lines coming off at diagonals, patches around the square are filled in black or white. Red and white text reads 'Julius Caesar, Atri Banerjee'

    revew: Atri Banerjee – Julius Caesar

    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…

    05/07/2023
  7. revew: Alistair McDowall – all of it

    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…

    03/07/2023
  8. revew: YESYESNONO – we were promised honey!

    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…

    21/06/2023
  9. revew: Marieke Hardy – No Pay? No Way!

    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…

    29/05/2023
  10. A blown-out photograph of the Royal Exchange Theatre module, in pink and white. Overlaid text reads, 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof', Roy Alexander Weise

    revew: Roy Alexander Weise – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

    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…

    17/05/2023
  11. revew: Yusra Warsama – Of All The Beautiful Things In The World

    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…

    21/04/2023
  12. A white square, with black feathers scattered, clustered in the top right corner. Pink text reads: 'Too Much World at Once, Billie Collins.'

    revew: Billie Collins – Too Much World at Once

    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…

    10/04/2023
  13. revew: Simon Stephens & Mark Eitzel – Song From Far Away

    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…

    07/03/2023
  14. A grayscale image of a burger, a knife stuck through it and dripping with red sauce. Text the same red as the sauce reads 'Graceland, Ava Wong Davies'

    revew: Ava Wong Davies – Graceland

    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…

    06/03/2023
  15. A red leaf on a green background. Yellow text reads 'Dramaturgy of Autumn 2022'

    Dramaturgy of Autumn 2022

    Dramaturgy of Autumn 2022 Dramaturgy of annihilation I get deep into Nick Drake’s Pink Moon LP for a few days. When I’m cycling through his discography, writing something or other, the lyrics of the album’s eponymous track jump out at me. ‘Saw it written and I saw it say/ Pink moon is on its way./ Continue…

    07/02/2023
  16. A background of brightly coloured overlaid images of pills. Pale pink text in blood-red boxes reads 'WASTELAND, Gary Clarke Company'

    revew: Gary Clarke Company – Wasteland

    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…

    03/02/2023
  17. revew: Maxine Peake & Seiriol Davies – BETTY!

    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…

    13/12/2022
  18. Dramaturgy of Summer 2022

    Dramaturgy of Summer 2022 Dramaturgy of the end of the world The world ended in 2020. The world ended on Monday 18 July 2022. The world keeps ending. It’s too hot. Summer has been very hard for me, actually. I have struggled getting work and I have consequently struggled to find time for the things Continue…

    28/11/2022
  19. revew: David Cronenburg – Crimes of the Future

    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…

    16/09/2022
  20. Dramaturgy of Spring 2022

    Dramaturgy of Spring 2022 Dramaturgy of a raspberry bush I ate the first of the summer’s raspberries from my garden. It was a little under-ripe but on seeing it I couldn’t help myself; it was ready enough and I waded through the wildflower patch, ducked under the bush’s heavy canes and took it. We haven’t Continue…

    15/09/2022
  21. revew: Atri Banerjee – The Glass Menagerie

    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…

    14/09/2022
  22. revew: RashDash – Oh Mother

    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…

    26/05/2022
  23. revew: Tim Foley – Electric Rosary

    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…

    03/05/2022
  24. revew: Color Out of Space – Richard Stanley

    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…

    22/04/2020
  25. revew: Sarah Weston – The Salford Docker

    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…

    31/07/2019
  26. revew: ThisEgg – dressed.

    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…

    06/06/2019
  27. revew: Hofesh Shechter – Grand Finale

    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…

    24/05/2019
  28. embedded critic: Forest, afterword

    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…

    21/02/2019
  29. embedded critic: Forest, #2

    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…

    23/01/2019
  30. embedded critic: Forest, #1

    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…

    15/01/2019
  31. embedded critic: Forest, introduction

    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…

    11/01/2019
  32. revew: Travis Alabanza – Burgerz

    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…

    21/11/2018
  33. revew: Xavier Velastin and Hannah Mook – Me & My Whale

    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…

    23/10/2018
  34. revew: Maxine Peake – Queens of the Coal Age

    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…

    16/07/2018
  35. revew: Breach – The Drill

    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…

    21/06/2018
  36. revew: RashDash – Three Sisters

    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…

    08/06/2018
  37. the pickled giant

    crown of five sonnets, first published in Billingtron 5000 ed by Megan Vaughan/ summer 2017/ https://meganvaughan.co.uk/portfolio-item/billingtron-5000/   i The pickled giant in his bog, lying under peat, flesh preserved, beneath the world but not retreated. Now, easing against the soil that sucks at him, he heaves his bulk skywards, out, then across the land. He Continue…

    27/04/2018
  38. revew: Annie Baker – Circle Mirror Transformation

    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…

    26/04/2018
  39. revew: April De Angelis – Frankenstein

    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…

    26/04/2018
  40. revew: Miranda July – No one belongs here more than you.

    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…

    09/03/2018
  41. revew: Mary Jean Chan – A Hurry of English

    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…

    06/03/2018
  42. revew: Kneehigh – Brief Encounter

    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…

    22/02/2018
  43. revew: Charlie Brooker – Metalhead

    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…

    15/01/2018
  44. ten texts from 2017

    ten texts from 2017 2017’s been a long year. In a world where I have far more time and motivation, each of these items I would have written 1000 word longform revews on. As it happens, this list will have to do. I’ve selected these texts for the impact they have had on my year, Continue…

    20/12/2017
  45. revew: Michael Buffong – Guys And Dolls

    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…

    19/12/2017
  46. revew: Walter Meierjohann – Uncle Vanya

    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…

    22/11/2017
  47. revew: James Fritz – Parliament Square

    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…

    20/11/2017
  48. revew: People Zoo – Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness

    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…

    04/11/2017
  49. revew: Christopher Brett Bailey – Kissing the Shotgun Goodnight

    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…

    09/10/2017
  50. revew: Scottee – Bravado

    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…

    04/10/2017
  51. revew: Thornton Wilder – Our Town

    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…

    21/09/2017
  52. revew: Alice Birch – Anatomy of a Suicide

    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…

    17/09/2017
  53. revew: Frantic Assembly – Fatherland

    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…

    07/08/2017
  54. revew: WMD Comedy – WMD Makes Everything Better

    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…

    23/07/2017
  55. revew: Powder Keg – BEARS

    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…

    10/07/2017
  56. revew: Jeff James/James Yeatman – Persuasion

    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…

    02/06/2017
  57. revew: machina eX – Lessons of Leaking

    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…

    21/04/2017
  58. revew: Martin Parr – Strange and Familiar

    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…

    21/04/2017
  59. revew: Florentina Holzinger & Vincent Riebeek – Wellness

    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…

    21/04/2017
  60. revew: Lizzie Nunnery – The People Are Singing

    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…

    08/04/2017
  61. revew: Mark Fisher – Ghosts Of My Life

    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…

    03/04/2017
  62. revew: Contact Young Company – There is a Light: BRIGHTLIGHT

    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…

    20/03/2017
  63. revew: vew frm th 10th floor o th Tate Switch House

    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…

    20/02/2017
  64. revew: RITE

    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…

    18/02/2017
  65. revew: Yusra Warsama – The House of Bernarda Alba (WIP)

    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…

    21/01/2017
  66. revew: Powder Keg – Morale is High (Since we gave up Hope)

    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…

    18/01/2017
  67. revew: The Royal Exchange – Sweet Charity

    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…

    09/12/2016
  68. revew: 1623 theatre company – Lear/Cordelia

    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…

    21/11/2016
  69. revew: PSYCHEdelight – Borderline

    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…

    03/11/2016
  70. revew: Andy Smith – The Preston Bill

    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…

    01/11/2016
  71. revew: Peaches Christ & Jinkx Monsoon – Return to Grey Gardens

    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…

    18/10/2016
  72. revew: Belarus Free Theatre – Burning Doors

    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…

    13/10/2016
  73. revew: Walrus – Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons

    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…

    09/10/2016
  74. revew: Jamie Wood – O No!

    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…

    07/10/2016
  75. revew: Katherine Soper – Wish List

    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…

    06/10/2016
  76. revew: Jon Spooner and Chris Thorpe – Am I Dead Yet?

    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…

    26/09/2016
  77. revew: Bryony Kimmings & Brian Lobel – A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer

    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…

    23/09/2016
  78. revew: Sarah Frankcom – A Streetcar Named Desire

    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…

    19/09/2016
  79. revew: Gemskii – Joan, Babs & Shelagh Too

    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…

    15/07/2016
  80. revew: Florentina Holzinger & Vincent Riebeek – Schönheitsabend (Transform 16)

    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…

    26/04/2016
  81. revew: Stitch Theatre – Rise to Vertex (Transform 16)

    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…

    24/04/2016
  82. revew: Breach Theatre – The Beanfield

    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…

    10/04/2016
  83. revew: Ben Power – Husbands & Sons

    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…

    28/02/2016
  84. revew: Graeae – The Solid Life of Sugar Water

    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…

    18/02/2016
  85. revew: Harry Giles – Everything I Bought And How It Made Me Feel

    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…

    08/02/2016
  86. Adventures in Accessibility – Working with BSL

    Paula Garfield on Signing Shakespeare Amelia Cavallo on disability arts and the ‘mainstream’   Back in March last year, I attended a workshop at Derby Theatre that totally changed the course of my year. The workshop was delivered by Jenny Sealey and Graeae Theatre Company and had a pretty simple aim: exploring how theatre practice Continue…

    04/02/2016
  87. revew: The Crows Plucked Your Sinews – Dervish

    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…

    03/02/2016
  88. revew: Cinderella – Derby Theatre

    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…

    19/01/2016
  89. revew: Contact Young Company – How To Be Better

    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…

    24/12/2015
  90. revew: Hilary Benn – Impassioned Speech Ahead Of Syria Airstrikes Vote

    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…

    05/12/2015
  91. Belarus Free Theatre’s networks of dissent

    The repeated violations of subordinate aerial spaces by U.S. drones constitute one of today’s most striking examples. Just as sovereignty is no longer flatly territorial but instead volumetric and three-dimensional, so too are the ways to challenge or deny it. – Grégoire Chamayou, Drone Theory “Tonight we are live-streaming. We hope that people online could Continue…

    17/11/2015
  92. Reading as Faith?

    [dont expect a coherent argument or whatev from this] [at time of writn i dont kno what to excpect] [written partly to Moondog] Andrew Latimer has written two pieces over on his site about Writing As Hope.* To uselessly summarize, there’s a primacy (partic. in academic writing) given to Knowing What You’re On About and Continue…

    28/09/2015
  93. Internet Theatre – who needs stages?

    Last time I posted up on here I rambled and bambled about postcapitalism and art and hit upon the idea of ‘postspacial’ theatre. Want to try and elaborate on that idea here. First off, I hate using ‘post-’ as a prefix, so let’s drop the term ‘postspacial’ right now and hope by the bottom of Continue…

    18/09/2015
  94. Postcapitalist Art + Postspacial Theatre

    this is a response to Paul Mason’s Guardian article on ‘Postcapitalism’: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/17/postcapitalism-end-of-capitalism-begun Marek Horn’s response to that article: http://exeuntmagazine.com/features/post-capitalist-theatre-a-thought-experiment/ and Paul Mason’s response to that response: https://medium.com/@paulmasonnews/postcapitalist-theatre-f5963f260f7d this will make a lot more sense if you’ve read those (particularly the second two if you don’t want to read the big initial article – that’s less Continue…

    09/09/2015
  95. Dramaturg is:

      1) Noun: as in ‘what’s a dramaturg?’ 2) Verb: as in ‘let’s dramaturg this mother!’   insisting on the presence of crayons in the rehearsal room/ Having an idea and wanting to make it into a piece of theatre is like taking K’NEX, Meccano, LEGO and Stickle Bricks and sellotaping them all together into Continue…

    01/09/2015
  96. revew: Chris Thorpe – Confirmation

    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…

    02/06/2015
  97. revew: Simon Stephens – The Funfair

    The Funfair/ adapted by Simon Stephens/ director Walter Meierjohann/ designer Ti Green/ composer Dave Price/ HOME/ 14 May – 13 June 2015// reviewed for Exeunt

    02/06/2015
  98. revew: Told by an Idiot – The Ghost Train

    The Ghost Train/ by Arnold Ridley/ Told by an Idiot/ The Royal Exchange/ 14 May – 20 June 2015// reviewed for Exeunt

    02/06/2015
  99. revew: Cora Bisset & Yusra Warsama – Rites

    Rites/ Cora Bisset and Yusra Warsama/ dramaturg George Aza-Selinger/ Contact/ 12 – 14 May 2015// reviewed for Exeunt

    02/06/2015
  100. revew: Chris Urch – The Rolling Stone

    The Rolling Stone/ Chris Urch/ dir. by Ellen McDougall/ designer Joanna Scotcher/ The Royal Exchange/ 21 Apr – 1 May 2015// reviewed for Exeunt

    02/06/2015