Jim Cartwright’s Road is regarded as a cult classic. First performed at the notorious and politically subversive Royal Court Theatre in 1986, it is an angrier, edgier, homage to the angry-young-men plays of the 1950s, complete with the defining class satire and explicit, shocking content. In the 1980s it did for theatre what John Cooper Read More →
Bonnie Robert’s adaption of The Shadow Box was not an easy play to watch. ‘At its core about people’, it unapologetically submerged the audience in a world where the tragic has, for the most part, become the everyday. The play sees three families attempting to wrestle with a tentative grief, living in the shadow of Read More →
To celebrate this years World Book Night on the 23rd of April, Arts editor Rebekah McDermott reviews Ken Dornstein’s shocking memoir. Ken Dornstein’s non-fictional memoir The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky is not about what happens when your brother dies. It is about what happens when your brother is killed in a terrorist attack and Read More →
In an exclusive interview, Birmingham-based photographer Alex Dean reveals his intentions behind his controversial new project ‘Birmingham is a Paradise’. Through exposing the city’s seedy under belly, with glimpses of a humorous silver lining, Dean shows how laughter can question a grimy reputation. Vice magazine is often difficult to describe to those unaware of its Read More →
The Awakening is the exciting debut novel from the University of Birmingham’s own Stuart Meczes. With the book reaching #126 at its peak on the Amazon Kindle chart and placing in 3 top ten best seller charts, Laura Megatli sat down with Stuart to talk about his novel and his passion for writing. What is your Read More →
Meine Damen und Herren, Mesdames et Messieurs, Ladies and Gentlemen . . .GMTG are proud to present Cabaret as our Summer musical of 2012. Performances are May 1st – 5th at 7.30pm, with a matinee on the Saturday at 2.30pm. Cabaret is based on a number of stories from Christopher Isherwood’s 1939 short novel Goodbye Read More →
Check out our debut Redbrick Arts Podcast featuring performance poetry from Writers’ Bloc at their event last term at the Bristol Pear. Poets featured: Elisha Owen, Ben Norris, Rosie Brown, Eva Hibbs, guest stand-up/poet Sam Skinny Additional interviews with: Alana Tomlin, Jack Blume For even more poetry keep up to date with Writers’ Bloc’s events Read More →
With the cast of Article 19’s latest accomplishment, The Shadow Box, suggesting that it offers a ‘realistic view of death and terminal illness’ and ‘a look at relationships and families through tough times’, it is evident from the off that this production is not going to be all sweetness and light. However, to write it Read More →
Modern re-settings of Shakespeare’s plays are common: a sad reality of an age where we have essentially run out of original plots, however total theatrical re-imaginings are somewhat rarer to come by. This was not so much a rendition of Romeo and Juliet containing scenes of street dance, but a physical theatre version of the Read More →
Who would have thought a schizophrenic, with only one personality; a pyromaniac; an insomniac; an obsessive compulsive, and a bipolar sufferer, would make for such a formidable cast? The audience are welcomed into the office of the Warden of the Atomicus Lunatic Asylum, which has been commandeered by these patients for one night, to celebrate Read More →
As De Montfort’s opening act joked – they are not from a university in the south of France but from Leicester and they brought a burst of energy to the stage in Selly Oak’s very own TC’s. This night of stand up comedy was moved from joke to anecdote by the charming comperes; Matt Saull Read More →
Last Sunday saw Watch This’ latest instalment: an adaption of probably the most quotable teen film to emerge in the last ten years – Mean Girls. However, there were some additions, including unlikely comic narrator ‘Nigel Thornberry’ played brilliantly by Joe Belham and a rendition of The Lion King’s ‘Circle of Life’ part way through. Read More →
Daffodils bringing colour back to campus as Spring reveals its regenerative face have rekindled a certain dislike for the world’s most notorious artist; Damien Hirst. Hirst will soon be exhibiting a retrospective of his life’s work at the Tate Modern, promoted as a map of the artist’s life. It may reveal a mellowing of the Read More →
Romeo and Juliet has to be one of the world’s most loved and enduring tragic love stories, and yet 3BUG’s reimagining of it will be unlike any production of it you’ve seen. Redbrick Arts spoke to director Tom Everatt and choreographer Jake Nwogu about how they have set about how they have convincingly modernised the Read More →
With British politics divided between a middle-of-the-road, pragmatic third way – a politics seemingly too inane to excite mockery – and an absurd fanaticism, so hysterical as to place itself beyond parody (e.g. the BNP or the EDL), one might well ask if the future of political satire and political cartoons is precarious. Before I Read More →
There is perhaps nothing more pathetic than that sickly, lachrymose laughter that intersperses those mid-day replays of ‘Animals do the funniest things’. It’s as odious as it is patronising, and, as it turns out, wholly misguided – animals don’t do the funniest things. Luckily, the Birmingham Footnotes have found a cure to this abomination in Read More →
Global Brigades is the largest student-led global health and sustainable development organisation in the world. It began as a collaboration between an American medical student and one Honduran man, but the charity spread rapidly throughout America and Canada. In 2009, 1,819 volunteers travelled with Global Brigades, serving 124 communities in Central America and helping over Read More →
The jazz scene in Birmingham is certainly thiriving, but often even those keen to experience this music are unsure of where to go to find it. As part of a jazz special, Anna Lumsden recommends her top 5 jazz venues across the city. The Jam House Best known to students for the phenomenon Read More →
As the curtains open and the 25 piece orchestra begins to play the overture of South Pacific, the silence from every member of the audience speaks volumes for the emotive and engaging reinvention of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic 1949 musical. Set during the Second World War, this is a story of a Nellie Forbush, a Read More →
Annabelle Collins and Pieter Colpaert attend the launch of the Ikon gallery’s new exhibitions, and speak to artists Sarah Browne and Hamish Fulton about their influences and inspirations and the relationship between art and society. This month, three new exhibitions are opening at Birmingham’s excellent Ikon Gallery. Redbrick Arts had the honour of being guided Read More →
Ahead of this week’s performances at the Old Rep Theatre (to get 2 for 1 tickets simply quote ‘redbrick offer’ at the box office, or enter promo code ‘redbrick’ online) Redbrick Arts speaks to Theatre Unlimited’s artistic director Rupert Wickham. Performed as monologues, both Defying Hitler and Stalin’s Favourite are true stories about real people. Read More →
Alexander Ostrovsky’s satirical comedy A Family Affair illuminates the secret of comedy. With bawdy, fabliaux humour, the Birmingham School of Acting unashamedly revealed Ostrovsky’s dark examination of the nineteenth century Russian Mercantile class. A Family Affair is a farcical tale of a nineteenth-century Russian family whose debt leads them to resort to fraudulent bankruptcies Read More →
Pugin, Dürer and the Gothic is an exciting new exhibition at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts revolving around the works of Dürer that Pugin owned and took inspiration from for his architectural work. The exhibition also contains a Hans Holbein print entitled Design for a Glass Paintings, dated to about 1520. The pieces are Read More →
Suited, booted and right in the middle of touring the UK with their new album Elements of Truth, Empirical are set to perform at mac this Saturday night in a collaboration with Birmingham Jazz. The vibrant young quartet is alto saxophonist Nathaniel Facey, drummer Shaney Forbes, Lewis Wright on vibraphone and Tom Farmer on bass, Read More →
Stuart Whipps’ exhibition at the Ikon could not have come at a more poignant time. The current debate surrounding the scheduled demolition of Birmingham Central Library has caused many to question whether we will lose a significant part of our city’s heritage. In Why Contribute to the Spread of Ugliness? Whipps has explored the changing Read More →
Lovesick? Moon struck? Starry eyed? If none of these words describe you in the slightest, and the thought of romance leaves a sour taste in your mouth, then help is at hand. Love-Scrooges of the world unite, and take comfort in this cultural guide to the worst Valentine’s Day ever… Take your beloved to a Read More →
Friday saw a performance at mac of an original play Imaginary Friends, which included a lead role for our very own Language lecturer Geoff Barnbrook. Upon entering the hexagon, the audience was greeted with the sight of a purple-haired woman in paint-strewn overalls and an elderly man in a suit miming the building of a Read More →
Richard Higgs speaks to Josie Long about her Edinburgh Award-nominated The Future is Another Place, a show consisting of the story of a near-fatal car crash, UK Uncut, The Mitford Sisters, The Black Panthers, Harvey Weinstein, a one-person play – ‘The Life and Times of the Bronte Sisters’ and of course, righteous political ire – Read More →
Josie Long’s Edinburgh Award nominated The Future is Another Place is a show consisting of the story of a near-fatal car crash, UKUncut, The Mitford Sisters, The Black Panthers, Harvey Weinstein, a one-person play The Life and Times of the Bronte Sisters and of course, righteous political ire – Let’s start a 1980’s tribute government! Read More →
Tucked away in the neighbouring street of The Jam House and looming eye of the BT Tower is the understated Royal Birmingham Society of Art gallery, the current home to a collection of art work by local artist and RBSA member, Peter Shread. Shread’s work features prints of true-to-life landscapes, alongside the incorporation of harsh Read More →
The CBSO’s 2011-12 season has been a triumph so far, and last Wednesday’s concert was no exception. The programme began with Tchaikovsky’s lesser known Symphony No.1. Without doubt ‘romantic’, Tchaikovsky’s work can still surprise and challenge with its noisy dissonances, and parts of his fourth movement demonstrate a bold move towards the modern, with strings Read More →
Charles Dickens was undoubtedly a great observer of human nature. The vivid characters and dark, complex plots he created have demonstrated an understanding of the abuses within society and resulted in an enduring popularity of his publications. Although many would associate eccentric names and ornate language with the work of Dickens, the reoccurring themes of Read More →
Amongst the many Dickensian characters that haunt the popular imagination, there is one image more vivid than the rest; a sunken woman in a shrivelled bridal gown, sitting majestic and terrible at her decayed wedding feast. Great Expectations‘ Miss Havisham lingers in the public consciousness, cultural shorthand for the jilted lover driven mad, a spurned Read More →
With the bicentenary of the birth of the inimitable Charles Dickens, considered the greatest novelist of the Victorian period, Redbrick Arts takes a look at his ties with the city, his social legacy, and his characters. Think of Dickens and you evoke images of hunched misers, the dark alleys of London doused within a Victorian Read More →
As a person unacquainted with the work of Tom Stoppard and less than familiar with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, I took my seat in the audience on the second night of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead without preconceptions. There was a great turnout but in the comparatively small Amos Room, the atmosphere was relaxed and intimate. The Read More →
For its sheer size, and its staggering expansiveness, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin – located one block south of the Brandenburg Gate, only a stone’s throw from Hitler’s bunker – is notably unassuming. It’s drab, droll and grey; entirely reminiscent of that grey torpor that seems to colour all of Read More →
Staging a full-length classic novel with just three actors and few props is no easy task, but director Chris Cooper may just have pulled it off with his production of Frankenstein at mac. Happily, the production shied away from all the old clichés associated with Frankenstein films; gone was the creepy dungeon setting, elaborate makeup Read More →
Stuart Whipps’ exhibition at the Ikon could not have come at a more poignant time. The current debate surrounding the scheduled demolition of Birmingham Central Library has caused many to question whether we will lose a significant part of our city’s heritage; the Central Library is arguably an architectural icon which symbolises post-war confidence. In Read More →
Ahead of the opening night in Birmingham at the Alexandra Theatre this Friday, Redbrick Arts spoke to two cast members of the anticipated, award-winning musical feast Over the Rainbow – The Eva Cassidy Story for their thoughts on the artist herself and what it was like re-telling her tragic, yet unforgettable story. Eva Cassidy’s work Read More →
If you’ve ever been to one of the University of Birmingham comedy society’s events, you’ll know that highbrow wit and good taste are not on the agenda. Instead what you’ll find is the ability of a group of talented students to delight, entertain, and frequently shock their audience; their first sketch show of the year Read More →
Primo Levi was an ordinary man with an extraordinary story; his book If This Is A Man recounts his experiences in Auschwitz and is known to be one of the greatest literary insights into the shocking fate which befell so many guiltless men and women at the hands of the Nazi regime. Levi was an Read More →
There has been an influx of the period dramas gracing our screens in recent months, but what of the books that many of these dramas are based on? How many people, after watching an adaptation of a classic novel, declare their intent to read the original; and how many carry out this intention? Classics are Read More →
Theodor Adorno famously stated that writing poetry after Auschwitz would be barbaric. Nevertheless, decades after the horrors of the Holocaust, the event keeps inspiring great artists and writers. In the last couple of years, a new generation of popular Jewish American writers seems to have arisen, trying to find new, inventive ways of reimaging and Read More →
Their Wonderlands, curated by multi-disciplinary collective They Are Here, is the latest international group exhibition to grace mac. An exploration of childhood fantasy and imagination, it provides a perfect opportunity for escapism into a world of the bizarre and beautiful. From the outset it is clear this exhibition is just as about the experiential connection Read More →
Birmingham’s musical history is perhaps lesser known than that of London or Liverpool but over the years it has been no less vibrant and vivacious. After the first musical festival in 1768, held to raise money for the General Hospital, and the subsequent construction of Town Hall in 1834, many musicians, such as Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Grieg, Read More →
In their avant-garde interpretation of debatably Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy Article 19 gave a commendably bold performance. Under the direction of Jack Robertson, the intricacies of the plot were captured and communicated with an impressive level of clarity and without compromising the integrity of the original. Hamlet’s spiralling descent into darkness was portrayed with great Read More →
The Shortlist 2011-2012 John Burnside – Black Cat Bone Carol Ann Duffy – The Bees Leonita Flynn – Profit and Loss David Harsent – Night Esther Morgan – Grace Daljit Nagra -Tipoo Sultan’s Incredibe White-Man-Eating Tiger Toy-Machine Sean O’Brien -November Bernard O’Donoghue – Farmer’s Cross First awarded in 1993, as a celebration of the 40th year of Read More →
The Birmingham Footnotes’ Don’t Be A Dickhead events are on track to fast become a student cult classic. The third one of the term, the varying degrees of facial fuzz on display from committee members, this Don’t Be A Dickhead was aptly subtitled Merry Movember, with the proceeds of the evening going to the Movember Read More →
Let’s face it, we as a generation are easily distracted. With the internet, social media, over 1000 channels of digital tv, it’s easy enough to- my teeth feel weird. Should I get them checked up? Maybe it’s normal swelling. Like an ibuprofen could fix it. Or maybe if I- God it gets dark early this Read More →
“Somehow, this has been allowed to happen!”, the gleeful declaration by writers Chazz Redhead and Jack Robertson perfectly encapsulated the two hours of merry haphazard insanity that followed. The premise of the performance, one of Watch This’s infamous “48 Hours” was simple: the cast met on Friday night and have just two days to learn Read More →
On the strength of Watch This’ most recent production, Thicker than Water, original student theatre is often denied the level of recognition it deserves. Writer and director Mike Brownlee’s play is a humorous, heartfelt and purportedly veracious depiction of the dichotomy at the core of family life. That those with whom we form the closest Read More →
As Birmingham’s SHOUT festival draws to a close, Birmingham Conservatoire played host to an evening with one of the most iconic figures in the transgender community, April Ashley. Ashley reached acclaimed success, becoming Vogue’s number one underwear model until, for the price of £5, a former friend outed her as being transgender in 1961. As Read More →
The stage was a 1950s radio station, and we were the avid listeners waiting for the sound of Texas’ new music sensation. However country fans were about to be disappointed as this was a show about a young man who wanted to revolutionise music; rock and roll was the only thing on the cards tonight. Read More →
The name’s Davis. Carl Davis. The conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra gave, yet again, another night of truly fulfilling entertainment. The Friday Night Classics: Best of Bond, featured BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing’s dapper vocalist Lance Ellington and elegant soprano singer Mary Carewe. The performance, marking the 50th anniversary of Dr. No and Read More →
As part of the exciting autumn program from Birmingham Jazz, on Saturday the CBSO Centre was host to esteemed jazz bassist Steve Swallow and his quintet. Swallow is one of the most notable jazz composers of the last 50 years, something left undisputed by the beauty and intricacy of the evening’s performance. After a warm Read More →
Wolverhampton’s Light House played host to Judy Garland and her entourage in the classic film The Wizard of Oz. Met by a very authentic Tin-man, Scarecrow and Dorothy in the bar, this certainly promised to be an entertaining evening. Host Barbara Nice warmed up the audience with a few rounds of Follow the Yellow Brick Read More →
Article 19′s latest production, Rattigan’s After the Dance, tells the story of the shattering of the illusions and pretences of a group of socialites trapped in a hangover from the ‘Roaring Twenties’, and their wrestling with their years of miscommunication and bad decisions, in a last ditch attempt to forge themselves a future. Director Nathan Read More →
Saturday’s promise of an alternative view on life in Birmingham was music to the ears of anybody sick of being dragged to the same old Broad Street clubs. As with any other major city, Birmingham has so much more to offer than is usually visible to the unguided eye and Saturday’s tour sought to highlight Read More →
It is always strange encountering the stage performance of a work that has enjoyed the silver screen success and cinematic recognition of Noel Coward’s classic, Brief Encounters. Whilst the original script, that of short play Still Life, has been faithfully adapted in Brief Encounters, the text functions differently under the glare of Hollywood than it Read More →
With its diverse array of events over a weekend, including three fixed artistic exhibitions and a handful of original one-off events, Redbrick Arts looks at the cultural extravaganza that is the Ikon gallery’s Autumn Almanac. ‘Ikon’ is the perfect name for this hidden gem, located in Oozells Square, off Broad Street. The Gallery has recently been Read More →
Last Saturday, Birmingham was host to GLI.TC/H, a physical and online one-day art event that celebrated “glitches” and technological failure. The event formedpart of a wider international festival that took place in Chicago, USand Amsterdam, NL.The day included workshops, lectures, video screenings andperformances from artists from more than a dozen countries. I caught up with Read More →
Since the book’s release over 50 years ago the disturbing world of A Clockwork Orange has become a major part of British popular culture. However, Volcano Theatre Company were unfortunately not able to maintain this disturbing world throughout their performance of the play. However, it all started-off promisingly. At the door the audience were offered Read More →
Having gone with premeditated expectations of delicate verse akin to that of Keats and Coleridge, the immediate atmosphere of this poetry slam presented a dramatic contrast in terms of style and content. The well-acquainted crowd gathered to spectate what would turn out to be the showcasing of raw talent featuring a plethora of unique contemporary Read More →
A ‘modern day-fairytale’, Rose and the Seven portrays an emotional, hard-hitting insight into the lives of eight young people in their first week at university, each carrying with them the burdens of their past life. At first, innov8′s portrayal of student life could be a glimpse into any fresher household: Cassie has a nervous breakdown Read More →
To commence Redbrick Arts’ search for UoB’s favourite fictional character, we take a look at some of the all time greats. Tyler Durden Fight Club co-founder and all round mentalist Tyler Durden is one of the greatest literary creations of the twentieth century. A product of the nameless protagonist’s schizophrenic mind, Tyler is the creator of Read More →
As one of the stars of Grumpy Old Men, Arthur Smith certainly nailed grumpy but whether he was actually funny is debatable. The consciously bracketed target audience of the middle class over fifty year-olds led his humour in an extremely predictable direction and left everyone else behind in a state of an occasional chuckle. Fortunately for Read More →
Lost in Lace, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s latest exhibition portrays lace in a way that will make you look at it as much more than the musty, off-white and partially stained material hanging feebly at the window of your Gran’s living room. The exhibition, of which the majority is based in the Gas Hall Read More →
What do you need to know about Dave Gorman? He’s 40, he’s married to Mrs Gorman, he’s 5’9” and, contrary to popular belief, he’s not Jewish. It’s difficult to express in words how humorously Dave Gorman conveys the trials and tribulations of modernity through the ever popular medium of powerpoint presentation. Who ever said it Read More →
With its average of thirty walkouts per night, the RSC’s production of Marat/Sade re-ignites the age old question of whether boundaries can be pushed too far. We debate the use of barbarity in modern theatre. The production of Marat/Sade by the Royal Shakespeare Company came adorned with the tagline ‘the play that changed British theatre Read More →
Something that was certainly visible in Hannah Phillips’ interpretation of Sayan Kent’s moving play, Invisible, about three women and their struggle with their sexuality, was raw emotion. Throughout the play, the audience was captivated by every word, and Bharti Patel (playing Mira, a character who described the day of her marriage as ‘the day I Read More →
The New Queen Elizabeth Hospital may not be considered your average setting for a visual art exhibition, but that is exactly what the outpatients waiting area has temporarily become for Living My Life, a photography display presenting images of people who culturally associate themselves as trans. SHOUT festival is working in partnership with several Read More →
Innovative, original and intensely thought-provoking, the young artists from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design were set the task of ‘re-interpreting, reconstructing and reinventing’ works which are already on display at the Barber. Many old and iconic masterpieces have been transformed and updated, not through masterful strokes of a paintbrush, but rather via the Read More →
Anyone familiar with any of their previous productions will know that Article 19 have an impeccable reputation for delivering excellent and thought-provoking student theatre. This week’s performances of After the Dance starts off the new term for the drama societies. Ahead of opening night, Redbrick Arts spoke to director Nathan Crossan-Smith and actor Sope Dirisu, Read More →
Following the success of its first showcase at the beginning of term, the Birmingham Footnotes Comedy Society returned this week with a second instalment of comedy entertainment, Don’t be a Dickhead 2: Electric BOOgaloo. Compered by the enthusiastic and engaging Matt Saull and Jack Toop, a variety of fresh, innovative and outrageous comedians were welcomed Read More →
As one of Shakespeare’s best-known plays, The Crescent’s production of Macbeth had a lot to live up to. Performed in-the-round inside the black walls of the Ron Barber Studio, the set was stripped back to a mere triptych of stone arches suspended from the ceiling. On arrival the smoky room first appeared somewhat predictable but Read More →
With reference to his perspectivism – that no way of seeing the world can be taken as definitively ‘true’, and that we must dissolve the idea of objective knowledge – it is often Nietzsche, the German philosopher, poet and composer, who is cited as anticipating the tenets of postmodernist thought. Yet, over a hundred years Read More →
Another year of the Turner Prize brings with it yet another ‘but is it art?’ debate. This has been the immortal response that the annual award has been deemed to create since it was established in 1984. It provokes differing opinions on both the importance and value of conceptual art – innovative and cutting-edge, or Read More →
Earthfall held their 3rd performance of the ‘At Swim Two Boys’ tour at the mac this week and it was a show unlike anything else. They have the art of physical theatre perfected and this combined with superb musicality created an awe inspiring performance of love, anger, intimacy and confusion. Earthfall explored the difficulty of Read More →
Since the reopening of Birmingham Town Hall in 2007, Silent Movie Screenings have been an infrequent but consistent part of their calendar. This year’s Halloween special was dedicated to a classic of the genre: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Furthermore, the pictures were to be accompanied by Nigel Ogden, renowned composer and organist of Radio Read More →
‘I felt like I was inside her brain,’ was my companion’s comment as the lights came up on Melanie Wilson’s The Autobiographer. The intimate staging, ‘surround sound’-effect of the excellent sound design and the use of direct address to the audience certainly had the effect of making us feel more than passive spectators. The play, Read More →
A way of certifying experience, taking a photograph is also a way of refusing it. Susan Sontag. The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery stages a collection of photographs by the name Little Brothers, that is exploring the subjects of homelessness in British Society. The exhibition is an important photographic and social event, for poverty is Read More →
The performance of Oscar Wilde’s: The Importance of Being Earnest at the Old Rep theatre is an almost perfect portrayal of an ironic comedy. This is a light-hearted but extremely clever play: Wilde manipulates relatable human characteristics, such as shallowness and pride, in order to make a truly enlightening story. The focus of the performance Read More →
What could be more fun than watching some great sketches from your university’s comedy society? Watching them compete with other hilarious pieces in a feisty “sketch off” of course! Thursday night saw Birmingham’s ‘Footnotes’ society take on a London-based duo, ‘The Awkward Silence’ in a battle of wits. The evening showcased a lot of young Read More →
Move over Michael Bublé, Anthony Strong is about to take your crown as Jazz Premier! Strong’s sound is characterised by a voice and arrangement similar to Buble, but with a far less mainstream feel. With a nod back to well-known greats such as Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong, Strong firmly places himself at the end Read More →
The greatest case in proving Oscar Wilde’s wit as a writer must arguably be that no matter how extensively society changes, the themes expressed so eloquently within his work always remain relevant to a contemporary audience. ‘A Woman of No importance’ is no exception to this, brilliantly showcasing Wilde’s understanding of shifting gender relations within Read More →
Admittedly spending four hours in a stuffy theatre, listening to readings of W.S. Gilbert’s “Engaged” and Tom Stoppard’s “After Magritte”, is not necessarily everyone’s idea of an ideal Sunday afternoon. The readings were not polished theatrical performances. No props, costumes, backdrop, or rehearsed acting. Just a row of eight seated, bemused looking actors, wielding heavy Read More →
Controversial, intense, and thought provoking. These are just some of the words that can be used to describe the BSA’s latest student production; The Revenger’s Tragedy. The play is a English Jacobean revenge tragedy, but was given a contemporary twist by the cast who brought the play into the twenty first century, setting it in Read More →
The Turner Prize is awarded each year to a British artist under the age of fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding. The Prize fund of £40,000 is divided between the shortlisted artists with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 to each of the other Read More →
Symphony Hall played host to a visually stunning multimedia production as the Philharmonia Orchestra – conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen – presented Béla Bartók’s ground-breaking opera, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. The one-act opera made up the second half of a programme that began with Claude Debussy’s ‘Prélude Á L’Après-midi D’un Faune’. Salonen indulged Debussy at his impressionistic Read More →
Admittedly, my expectations for a Thursday night listening to a talk on race, identity, and its relevance in the 21st century weren’t high. Indeed, even when armed with a bag of chocolate raisins, hopes for the evening weren’t elevated any further by the vacant rows of seats. Luckily, frequent visitors to The Drum seem to Read More →
Fusing together comedy and poetry, ‘pomedy’ is Jamaica’s aptly named and most recent export. Still in its infancy, it is tipped (albeit by its creators) to be the next big thing to hit the arts scene of Great Britain. By the evening’s end it is very hard not to agree with them. For the most Read More →
Upon entering a concert venue, it is always important to gauge the crowd. When the average hairstyle of the clientele is departed as opposed to spiky, it was apparent that this was a gig you would definitely take your grandmother to. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain present a perplexing sight for the average concert-goer. Read More →
When I was ten, I broke my arm, and quite frankly, after a summer spent up trees and down wells, I’d had it coming. After enduring a painful day of reassurance, the delicate shade of purple it had become finally convinced my Mother that maybe it was, ‘a little bit broken,’ and I was swept Read More →
London’s Southbank has undoubtedly been developed into an exciting cosmopolitan area in which many people enjoy spending time. Instead of demolishing old buildings to make way for this improvement, such as The National Theatre, they have instead been conserved. In contrast to this, Birmingham Central Library has been scheduled for demolition. If this goes ahead Read More →
Yet again the Glee Club echoes with the sounds of laughter, capturing perfectly the atmosphere of a 1980s vaudeville show. The alcohol is flowing long before the acts begin and, sufficiently lubricated, the crowd grows impatient with an overlong wait and painfully specific count-down to ‘kick-off’. First to burst from the stalls is white Jamaican Read More →
Birmingham Jazz are an outfit concerned with promoting some of the most exciting names on the contemporary jazz circuit, and this performance was no exception. It started with saxophonist Jason Yarde and pianist Andrew McCormack, some of the circuits’ most promising young fixtures. The set’s undoubted highlight was their performance of new track ‘Hill Walking Read More →
Those theatre-goers who, come panto season, hunch miserably in their seats in dread of the Dame’s eagle eye, might be horrified to learn that productions incorporating audience participation are fast becoming the latest theatrical trend. More shows are blurring the boundaries between performers and spectators to offer a different experience from the traditional onstage actors/offstage Read More →
On Tuesday last (18th October), Julian Barnes was announced as the 2011 winner of the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sense of an Ending, and for this the prolific English writer received £50,000 in prize money. To take nothing away from Barnes, indeed The Sense of an Ending is an interesting read, he Read More →
As part of Birmingham’s annual Book Festival, admirers of the 2004 Man Booker Prize winner Alan Hollinghurst were offered a chance to see the writer in an intimate interview about his latest novel The Stranger’s Child last Friday at the Ikon Gallery. In academic circles, Hollinghurst’s literary style has been described as reminiscent of Henry Read More →
