Carolyn Burdett on The Work (2017) I’ve been interested in psychoanalysis for a long time. Freudian psychoanalysis, like literature, is committed to words, supremely interested not only in what is said but also in how it gets said. For Freud, the bodily symptom that makes
Joseph Brooker on The Tempest at the Barbican Like many people I think of myself as revering William Shakespeare, and also imagine that I know the outline of his late play The Tempest (c.1611). But a few minutes into the current RSC production at the
Professor Martin Paul Eve on The Ferryman Jez Butterworth’s previous play, Jerusalem, starring the irrepressible Mark Rylance, was a stage hit. After its gestation at the Royal Court, Jerusalem transferred to the West End and then to Broadway in the US, despite its main theme being
Isabel Davis on Yerma Last year I queued along The Cut at the Young Vic Theatre for returns to see Yerma, an adaptation of the Federico García Lorca play by Simon Stone. There weren’t any. But this week I had the chance to see it
Joseph Brooker on Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets An early sequence in this film sees the title character, special agent Valerian, on a desert plain dotted with people. Thanks to a hi-tech implant he is also experiencing what seems to be a
Joseph Brooker on Charles Townshend, Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion The Easter Rising of late April 1916 is regarded as the founding act of the modern Irish state, and stands as probably the most iconic event in Irish history. It has also been enduringly controversial:
Daragh Carville on Girl from the North Country Old Vic, August 2, 2017 On the night of August 2, it was impossible to watch Girl from the North Country, Conor McPherson’s new play incorporating the songs of Bob Dylan, without thinking of Sam Shepard, whose
Joseph Brooker on the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich Just to the North of the old centre of Munich is an expanse of land hosting several major art galleries. They include the Alte Pinakothek (apparently holding Old Masters, though I’ve not been in), the Neue Pinakothek
Joseph Brooker on Acting Out: the Fourth International Flann O’Brien Conference at the University of Salzburg Flann O’Brien is the best-known pen-name of the Irish writer Brian O’Nolan (1911-1966), who as well as five novels as O’Brien also published millions of words as a surreal and satirical
Daragh Carville in conversation with Ian Martin The Storey Institute, Lancaster July 7, 2017 Warning: may contain swearing Comedy writer Ian Martin first came to public attention as the ‘swearing consultant’ for Armando Iannucci’s political satire The Thick of It (2005 – 2012). There’s a