Literature & Theatre


Current Articles


A Gothic Novel with a Twist

Maile Chapman

Maile Chapman is that rare breed of writer who, despite not having previously published a novel, already has a loyal following based solely on her short stories. This is testament to the quality of her writing and the originality of her voice, which are in evidence in her outstanding debut, Your Presence is Required at Suvanto, a gothic mystery set in a remote rural convalescent hospital in Finland, in the early part of the 20th century. Suvanto is a women’s sanatorium, where the lower floors operate as a medical hospital for the local Finnish women, but the top floor is given over to an array of eccentric and enigmatic characters who suffer from emotional and physical afflictions, who mostly treat the hospital as a refuge and a means of escaping their lives and themselves...


A New Kind of Theatre: Play in Public Spaces

The Games of Nonchalance

In an increasingly digitised world, the needs of audiences are changing. Everyone is familiar with the democratic approach to entertainment advocated by the internet, where all are free to create content, post a video on YouTube or have their music heard on MySpace. This has resulted in a generation that is not happy to sit passively in the dark stalls of a theatre, but demands interactive elements in performance. In response to this, revolutionary entertainments have emerged. The flash mob is a prime demonstration of the type of new, audience-created performances that people desire in the multimedia age...


A Story of Marriage and Escapism

Adam Ross

Mr Peanut is the debut novel from American author, Adam Ross. It is an elaborate study of marriage with a structure that mirrors the qualities of a Möbius strip and layers of narrative that echo the twisted perspective of an Escher print. Fans of Hitchcock will notice the big influence his films have on this book, while readers of Murakami and Calvino will appreciate Ross's grasp of the surreal. His dissection of marriage, more specifically marriage in crisis, takes the form of three stories; one of which is the overarching narrative which drives the plot, while the second and third, as well as being tied into the first storyline, provide two further angles on Ross's unifying themes of love, identity and escapism...


Town and Theatre: An Experiment with Narrative

For Mountain, Sand and Sea

You are not likely to be familiar with Barmouth. Situated on the west coast of Wales, on the corner of Snowdonia, it's a popular destination for tourists from Manchester and Birmingham, but its influence beyond these cities is limited. At first glance, it's surprising that this small town (population 2,230) attracted the attention of acclaimed Welsh performance artist Marc Rees (b. 1966)...

 

Archived Articles


 

In conversation with


Aifric Campbell talks about 'Loss Adjustor'
Andrew Porter talks about 'The Theory of Light and Matter'
Attica Locke talks about 'Black Water Rising'
Clare Jay talks about 'Breathing in Colour'
Eleanor Catton talks about 'The Rehearsal'
Gemma Weekes talks about 'Love Me'
Gina Ochsner 'The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight'
Michèle Roberts talks about 'Mud: Stories of Sex and Love'
Neil Forsyth talks about 'Let Them Come Through'
Tiffany Murray talks about 'Diamond Star Halo'
Simon Curtis Talks about his film, televison and theatre

 

2010 articles


Danza Contemporaranea de Cuba Revolutionary Dance
Justine Kilkerr Lessons on How to Tame your Inner Lion
Paul Murray A crash course on bullies, boredom and power structures
Rufus Wainwright Musical Journeys from Pop to Opera

 

2009 articles


Blood Wedding Immersive Theatre Now
Chika Unigwe
The Luxury of Shame
Colson Whitehead Pop Culture & Larger Concerns
Danny Moynihan When art takes on a life of its own
In the Spirit of Diaghilev Innovation for 21st Century Ballet
Keith Donohue
Re-enchanting Everyday Life
Love & Loss in Palestine I Am Yusuf and This Is My Brother
Miriam Toews
A journey into The Flying Troutmans
Nicolas Dickner Searching for Nikolski
Simon Robson Emotional Journeys to the Self
Observer Morality in a Fledgling Democracy
Over There Mark Ravenhill & Ramin Gray's collapsing ideologies
Sophie Cooke
Questions of Truth
Spill Festival Challenging elitism

 

2008 articles


Alex Wheatle Holding up a mirror to society
Belarus Free Theatre Performing against censorship
Bloodaxe Celebrates 30 years with a groundbreaking new collection
Born in Bethlehem Theatre that tackles a 60 year conflict
Daljit Nagra
Writing about the real world
Faiza Guene Untold stories, contrasting worlds & dreams
Forced Entertainment Experimental Theatre: Provoking Ideas
Hounding of David Oluwale Eclipse Theatre
Irvine Welsh Exploring controversy & exposing reality
Jonny Steinberg Journeying through an epidemic
Mark Doty The personal & the universal
Mashirika Theatre against genocide
Peter Ackroyd The intriguing blend of fact & fiction
Sadie Jones Journeys, enthralling narratives & recent success
Sarah Waters Writing through the lens of history
Sean O'Brien Social, cultural & political
Stella Duffy Diversity, creativity & charisma
Tom Lee Sacrifice to the novel

 

2007 articles


Benjamin Zephaniah Interview
Carol Birch Writing the past
Caryl Phillips filling in the gaps
Circus: The Forgotten Art
David Mitchell The Art Of Writing Fiction
deciBel 2007 Anansi Storytelling
Helen Oyeyemi Interview
Jack Mapanje Truth and Alternative History
Jackie Kay Interview
Julian Gough Winner of the National Short Story Prize 2007
Linton Kwesi Johnson The Father of Reggae
Mary Gaitskill Talking about her book Veronica
Ngugi wa Thiong'o Tackling issues of colonialism and postcolonialism
Patience Agbabi Pop Poet
Sandra Newman Cake
Sophie Woolley When to run

 

Reviews



A World History of Art (7th edition) Ed. Hugh Honour
Audrey Niffenegger Her Fearful Symmetry
Art and Electronic Media Ed. Edward A Shanken
Billy Cowie Passenger
Catherine Millet Jealousy
Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art Ed. Karlheinz Essl
Chika Unigwe On Black Sisters' Street
Colson Whitehead
Sag Harbour
Contemporary Art in The Middle East: Artworld
Ed. Paul Sloman
Contemporary Art Book Charlotte Bonham-Carter & David Hodge
Cradle to Cradle: Re-making the way we make things Michael Braungart & William McDonough
Dimitri Verhulst Madame Verona
Essential Art: The History of Western Art Herbert Press
Empire Strikes Back Zehra Jumabhoy
Fred Tomaselli Ian Berry and Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson
George Orwell Narrative Essays
Günter Grass The Tin Drum
James Lasdun It's Beginning to Hurt
Jane Feaver Love Me Tender
Jeffrey Rotter The Unknown Knowns
Julia Franck The Blind Side of the Heart
Keith Donohue Angels of Destruction
Lichtenstein Posters Jurgen Doring
Linden MacIntyre The Bishop's Man
Marilyn Chin Revenge of The Mooncake Vixen
Max Schaefer Children of the Sun
Max Schaefer Children of the Sun
Miriam Toews The Flying Troutmans
Natural Affinities Ed. Buhler Lynes, Phillips & Woodward
New York in the 70's Allan Tannenbaum
Oxfam Books Water, Air, Fire, Earth
P. Robert Smith Sunday Daffodil and Other Happy Endings
P. Robert Smith Up a Tree in the Park at Night with a Hedgehog
Patrick DeWitt Ablutions: Notes for a Novel
Sadie Jones Small Wars
Sarah Moss Cold Earth
Sequences Ed. Paul St George
Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture Intro by Meghan Dailey
Sheila Rowbotham Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love
Young Chinese Artists: The Next Generation Ed. Christophe Noe, Xenia Peich & Cordelia Steiner
Velvet Underground Jim DeRogatis
Woodstock: Three Days that Rocked the World Ed. Mike Evans


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