A blog about art and the soul
By Joy Martin
It must go further still: that soul must become its own betrayer, its own deliverer, the one activity, the mirror turn lamp. (W. B. Yeats)
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23 August 2017. It just so happened that my last day of seeing shows in Edinburgh this year was entirely mermaid-themed. My middle name is Lorelei, which is the name of the siren who enchants sailors on the Rhine in 19th-century German songs and poetry, so siren stories have always…
20 August 2017. Wild Bore, the new show created and performed by Zoë Coombs Marr, Ursula Martinez and Adrienne Truscott, is creating a bit of a stir at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. I felt an intriguing, ironic frisson personally as I took my seat and pulled out my pen and notebook to…
18 August 2017. I felt as if, having come to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to drink from the magic fountain of Art, that at the end of my second day I was still en route to the metaphorical fountain at the centre of the festival, and still thirsty... Then I…
14 August 2017. When I walk into the small room where the play is showing, the stage is set with period furniture from the 1940s: an armchair, a desk holding a neat pile of white paper, a small, black manual typewriter, a liquor glass half-filled with amber liquid, hardback books,…
13 August 2017. A part of me would like to structure my review of Hammerhead by Joseph Morpurgo as a fan letter to him, such are the grateful, admiring and affectionate feelings fluttering around in my heart after seeing his solo hour of character comedy. ‘Dear Joseph Morpurgo, I just want to…
13 August 2017. The rise of technology as an artistic material in performance has facilitated a new sort of kaleidoscopic theatre in which each individual audience member, via an interactive format similar to a video game, has a different and unique shake of the show. Ancient Shrines and Half Truths by New Zealand…
2 December 2016. The Theatre on the Lake in Keswick, Cumbria sits on the shore of Derwentwater, encircled by the snowy peaks of the Lake District National Park. On Saturday night I went to see their new Christmas show, The Emperor and the Nightingale, written by award-winning playwright Neil Duffield and directed…
14 April 2016. I have always been curious to see Little Bulb Theatre Company, because I have noticed that whenever their name comes up, people who have seen them perform will pause for a moment, put their hand on their heart, close their eyes briefly, take a deep breath and…
15 December 2015. Snow White and Rose Red, one of the lesser known fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, has two sisters as the heroes, making it a natural choice for RashDash. The result is entertaining, brilliant and feminist alternative panto. In the original story, the sisters welcome a friendly bear…
6 November 2015. Jon Brittain’s Rotterdam is a play which makes you contemplate the nature of labels – ‘gay’, ‘queer’, ‘lesbian’ and ‘transgender’ – and the way language clusters around our self-definition, the different ways we say ‘I am this’ or ‘I am not that’, and the fixity or fluidity of actually being or becoming…
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A Room for All Our Tomorrows Albrecht Durer Ann Liv Young Antigone Bämsemble Company Beauty Blanch and Shock Cambridge Arts Theatre CJ Mahony Dan Canham Daniel Pitt Don Quijote Edinburgh Fringe Festival Emma Frankland Gym Party Joseph Morpurgo Kenneth Grahame Kim Noble Lisa Dwan Live Art Lucy Ellinson Lucy McCormick Luke Wright Marhsmallows Marie-Claire Blais Miguel de Cervantes Nightwatch Festival Robert Wilson Rosalind Bouverie Rowan James Royal Court Theatre Samuel Beckett Sleepwalk Collective Sophocles Stand Up Comedy Stefanie Mueller Still House Swagga The Cube Theatre 503 Theatre by the Lake Ultimo Comboio Ursula Martinez Walking Yvan Göll