Bryony Kimmings is talking to her critical inner voice. ‘Haven’t we seen enough theatre shows about metal mothers?’ it says with a leer. It’s a man’s voice, specifically the voice of a male theatre producer with a slightly northern lilt. […]
The Heroine and her Double: Summer and Smoke
In many ways, director Rebecca Frecknall’s retelling of Summer and Smoke, which recently ended its west end run at the Duke of York’s Theatre, was masterful. Frecknall took a rarely staged work by Tennessee Williams and created a beautiful, […]
Illness as metaphor II: Ear for eye
I ended last month by suggesting that we need works of art which strip illness bare of its metaphors and give truth value to both its social conditions and the testimonies of those affected. A couple of weeks later at […]
Illness as Metaphor I: The Wild Duck
The first in a series of posts considering the metaphorisation of illness in contemporary performances. In 1978, Susan Sontag famously warned her readers of the dangers of treating illness as metaphor. Reflecting on the metaphorisation of tuberculosis in the nineteenth […]
‘How shall I speak again?’ Deafinitely Theatre’s 4.48 Psychosis
Waiting at the bar in the New Diorama Theatre before seeing Deafinitely Theatre’s production of 4.48 Psychosis I am presented with the first difficulty I will have reviewing this play. There is a hubbub in the bar as the crowd […]