Bildungsroman narratives can often seem overdone, retracing the struggles of adolescent identity for the umpteenth time before the protagonist solves their problems, gets the girl and drives off into the sunset of adulthood and the rest of their life. Refreshingly, Ben Lerner’s The Topeka School provides a break from this stultifying mould, offering such an […]
Meg, the protagonist of Maria Goodin’s novel Nutmeg, was brought up on whimsical stories told to her by her cookery-obsessed mother, Valerie – stories of being bitten by crab cakes, and floating to the ceiling with the lightness of her home-baked meringues. Now, Meg is 21 and having renounced fairy tales following derision in the […]
“That morning, Jim Sams, clever but by no means profound, woke from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a gigantic creature.” It just so happens that quoting the very first sentence of The Cockroach, brand new novella by Ian McEwan, is the best way to start a conversation about it. The satirical work of […]
Amidst the modern renaissance of poetry, Ellen Renton’s Within Sight joins a wave of young voices discussing representation of marginalised groups. The show focuses on Renton’s experience living with albinism, her narrowly missing out on being picked for the 400m Paralympic team and her subsequent struggle in coping with failure, pain and daily social interaction. […]
‘Confusing yet predictable’ is the perfect way to describe Wardrobe Ensemble’s latest play, The Last of the Pelican Daughters. At the end of the show, everyone in the audience has the same question: couldn’t they just settle for just the one theme? On their late mother’s birthday, the Pelican sisters – Joy, Storm, Sage and […]
In Spectres of History, Deborah Levy speaks about her recently published book, The Man Who Saw Everything. The event is mainly a question-and-answer session led by the chair about the book, focussing on analysing the protagonist, Saul Adler. Adler is a narcissistic bisexual historian who has a strained relationship with his late communist father. As […]
The circus is given a dark, mournful twist in Limb(e)s, created by and starring Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes. Their experimental show combines spell-binding movements with artistic lighting and an evocative soundscape to produce an innovative new mode of storytelling that is both striking and expressive. Martin and Hughes rely on their physical strength as […]
The creative debut work of Contingency Theatre, GEORGE is an interesting work of experimental theatre that attempts to draw light towards the mentally unhealthy attitudes of the workforce. We watch as the titular protagonist, George (Barbara Blanka) succumbs to her mother’s desire to be ambitious and her eventual transformation into a monster. Mesmerizing and unexpected, […]