Claye Bowler’s Top at Queer Britain transforms the artist’s seven-year wait for gender-affirming surgery into an unflinching archival installation. Content warning: lots of representations of breasts, mentions of surgery, medical care. The exhibition itself contains human tissue, bodily fluids, and images of surgery. Top Top by Claye Bowler is on now at Queer Britain. It’s […]
A horror influencer turns playwright in Bog Body, Olivia Cordell’s solo show that mixes lecture theatre with supernatural scares. Bog Body Are bog bodies having a moment? It would seem so, with two different shows currently on the fringe circuit with that title. I saw Olivia Cordell’s version last night at The Glitch, a one-off […]
On today’s walk we trace the Fleet from one of its sources on Hampstead Heath, through centuries and city streets all the way to Blackfriars. London’s Lost Rivers: It’s Been a While! It sure has. “The years start comin’ and they don’t stop comin’,” to quote a key touchstone of millennial culture. And so the […]
I took a slightly more reasonable approach to exploring Open House London 2025 than I did last year, but nonetheless managed to see historic treasures, contemporary living, and some real oddities as well. Sea cadets in a tin tabernacle, anyone? What Did Open House London 2025 Have in Store? If you’re new here, welcome! If […]
Oscar Wilde’s rarely-performed first play Vera; Or, the Nihilists receives a sympathetic revival in this production at the Jack Studio Theatre in Brockley. Oscar Wilde’s First Play Now here’s a question. If a play by a relatively popular playwright is rarely performed, why is that? Surely some are criminally overlooked. Others might be… how shall […]
One particular magnetic performance overcomes limitations in the writing in Born With Teeth. And it might not be the Elizabethan playwright you’d first think of. Born With Teeth One thing’s for sure: Ncuti Gatwa has charisma in spades. His Kit Marlowe is confident, flirty, and absolutely mesmerising. Having not seen any of his high profile […]
Not Your Superwoman at the Bush Theatre is a moving new play by Emma Dennis-Edwards (co-created with director Lynette Linton), exploring the bonds and fractures between three generations of Black women, and what it means to carry or resist the weight of inherited expectations. Not Your Superwoman You know you’re at a powerful piece of […]
A serendipitous visit to Petersham’s Open Gardens revealed the grand houses and hidden lanes of a village rich in layered history. Visiting Petersham with a Purpose I recently (AKA a couple of months ago) visited Petersham for the first time, drawn by two separate Open Garden events happening on the same Sunday. Not that this […]
Vernon, written and performed by Gary Bates, is a heartfelt monologue about a funeral director whose work forces him to face his own grief. Blending dry humour with an emotional core, it’s a simple but powerful piece of new writing at SE Fest. Image credit: Gary Bates. Vernon Vernon is a one-man play about a […]
Black Power Desk at Brixton House is a new Black British musical that blends family drama, politics, and a vibrant and varied soundtrack to tell a story of resistance rooted in real history. Black Power Desk I can just about remember enough of my high school history classes to have a conversation about Rosa Parks. […]
