-
Recent Posts
- The Play That Goes Wrong lives up to its name: how Tier 3 closed the last big theatre show standing
- Andrew Lloyd Webber: ‘Theatres had to close, but the vaccine will make things dramatically better’
- Dull girl power speeches and wild sex do not make Bridgerton a feminist triumph
- Best dance in 2021
- Manchester theatre head: Easter warnings are ‘frightening’
Tags
Archives
Follow me on Twitter
- RT @thbrogan: into every generation, a slayer is born https://t.co/NyE9GGlASx 3 hours ago
- RT @TheAmandaGorman: Thank you! I would be nowhere without the women whose footsteps I dance in. While reciting my poem, I wore a ring with… 3 hours ago
- RT @chrisfluming: klobuchar today https://t.co/BPkU4zmMcM 4 hours ago
Links
Tag Archives: writing
Sex with Strangers, Hampstead Theatre
This is pure titular titillation – a strategy that backfires with this dated, laboured and distinctly unsexy piece. “Serious” writer Olivia (Emilia Fox) at one point bemoans the fact that her failed first novel was falsely marketed as a chick-lit … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Theatre
Tagged author, book, broadwayworld, divergent, emilia fox, hampstead theatre, laura eason, london, love, peter dubois, publishing, review, sex, sex with strangers, theatre, theo james, writer, writing
Leave a comment
Listed: Precocious Writers
Once upon a time… Storytelling is an integral part of all human cultures, and a central pillar of an enlightened education. Some children get the hang of it quickly – they are, as the phrase has it, natural storytellers. This … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Journalism, Theatre
Tagged anne frank, book, bronte, caitlin moran, child, children, daisy ashford, diary, dorothy straight, drama, how to build a girl, how to talk to girls, Jane Austen, john kennedy toole, kid, Malala Yousafzai, novel, novelist, play, playwright, published, royal court, teenager, the arts desk, the chronicles of narmo, the young visitors, theartsdesk, theatre, virginia woolf, writer, writing, young
Leave a comment
Stop! The Play, Trafalgar Studios
The play’s the thing, once again, in the latest backstage comedy, an affable if limited dig at luvvie pretensions. Noises Off still reigns supreme in this genre, with successors unable to match the bravura precision of Michael Frayn’s masterful multitasking … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Theatre
Tagged acting, actor, actress, art, artist, backstage, banksy, behind the scenes, chaos, comedy, director, disaster, drama, farce, london, michael frayn, noises off, parody, play, play within a play, playwright, protest, reduced shakespeare company, rehearsal, review, sex, sketch, stand-up, stop the play, the arts desk, the play that goes wrong, theartsdesk, theatre, trafalgar studios, writer, writing
1 Comment
Stevie, Hampstead Theatre
Writing about writers: exploring what you know, or the very definition of stifling egoism? Either way, it can be a terrible trap for the playwright, with craft becoming not just the subject of a work, but its defining feature. Hugh … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Theatre
Tagged chichester festival theatre, christopher morahan, commute, death, drama, hampstead theatre, london, mitford, morbid, not waving but drowning, novel, novelist, palmers green, play, poet, poetry, review, stevie, stevie smith, suburban, suburbs, suicide, the arts desk, theartsdesk, theatre, write, writer, writing, zoe wanamaker
Leave a comment
10 questions on Chekhov for playwright Simon Stephens
Fresh from global domination with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, currently garnering rapturous reviews on Broadway, inexhaustible playwright and adaptor Simon Stephens has swapped Mark Haddon for Anton Chekhov and a new version of The Cherry Orchard, … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Theatre
Tagged a doll's house, adapt, adaptation, anton chekhov, aristotle, birdland, book, brecht, carrie cracknell, chekhov, christmas, christopher hampton, comedy, david lan, drama, fiction, first world war, ibsen, interview, ivanov, john donnelly, katie mitchell, leonard cohen, london, lyric hammersmith, mark haddon, michael frayn, play, playwright, q and a, raymond carver, royal court, russia, russian, russian revolution, sean holmes, shakespeare, short story, simon stephens, story, the cherry orchard, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, the seagull, theatre, three sisters, tom stoppard, tragedy, uncle vanya, white bear, world war one, write, writer, writing, ww1, young vic
Leave a comment
School of hard knocks
Writing is not a spectator sport. Theresa Rebeck’s wryly cynical 2011 play sets out to disprove that fact by focussing on the hoopla surrounding the act of putting pen to paper, from battling personal demons to the grim pragmatism of … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Theatre
Tagged alan rickman, america, book, charity wakefield, class, drama, hampstead, hampstead theatre, hollywood, literary, london, new york, novel, novelist, play, review, roger allam, seminar, student, tamara drewe, teacher, terry johnson, theatre, theresa rebeck, writer, writing
Leave a comment
Life after death
Sonali Deraniyagala’s Wave is not an easy read. I’ll say that again (it definitely bears repeating): Sonali Deraniyagala’s Wave is not an easy read. It is, however, an important one. An exceptional one. And a profoundly moving one. We often … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction
Tagged alcohol, book, children, death, depression, family, grief, leonard cohen, life, london, loss, memoir, novel, read, review, sonali deraniyagala, sri lanka, sylvia plath, the bell jar, therapy, tsunami, wave, writing
2 Comments
