Does the Arts ever truly have the social impact its acolytes proclaim? Did 12 Years a Slave change our perceptions of race? Did The Vagina Monologues tear down the patriarchy? This is not a challenge of the merit or intellectual weight of the Arts. Rather, outside of the bubble/ivory tower/liberal arts graduates, does it actually…
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Runs until 27th August The RSC’s The Other Place, the Shakespeare Theatre’s equivalent of a hyperactive younger sibling, has reopened its doors to new and innovative performances. In a festival that calls on its plays to champion the inventive, and speak the unspeakable, The Other Place has welcomed a bevy of talent and provocateurs. The RSC seem…
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Runs until 13th August Revolt was a jumble of creative production which ranged from incredibly beautiful scenes, with detailed and elegant style, to a mess of overlapping and bewildering dialogue. The play serves as an examination of modern-day feminism, asking the key question: how can we change anything if our language remains the same? Birch…
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Runs until 27th August Fall of the Kingdom, Rise of the Foot Soldier, is a genuinely angry, eloquent, and important play, unfortunately hampered by the intensely pretentious production that housed this newly written piece by Somalia Seaton. The story of the hour details how Aisha (Donna Banya), a black schoolgirl, returns to college having been…
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Runs until 27th August For a play that was written to discuss ‘what is unsayable in the 21st century,’ Fraser Grace’s Always Orange was a frustratingly underwhelming hour from which we came away with little to say. The production was masterclass in mediocrity, but that’s not to suggest there weren’t moments of incredibly poignant prose,…
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Ahead of our trip to Stratford-upon-Avon for the RSC’s Making Mischief festival, Fraser Grace was kind enough to talk to us about his new play Always Orange, which was commissioned for the festival. Your play Always Orange started two days ago as part of the new Making Mischief Festival at the RSC – how’s the opening…
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