Culture & Literature – Page 17 of 35

20Sep

By Beth CarrNo Comments

Learning French with Kimmy Schmidt

When I got a free trial of Netflix, it was because I wanted to finally watch some of the Netflix Original Series and also because you can watch endless episodes of Doctor Who without having to swap the DVDs around. What I didn't expect to gain from Netflix was the ability to learn a language. You may well have heard of a programme called Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. It's a very funny comedy series about a woman named Kimmy Schmidt living in New York, with a premise that I won't elaborate on too much because it was a very funny surprise for me. One thing that stands out about the programme is how easy it is to watch. Hours can fly by in the company of Kimmy and her friends and there's good, light-hearted stories that you can easily follow, whether you binge watch a season or dip in and out...

RHUL hits the Fringe: Singing on Skid Row

15Sep

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

RHUL hits the Fringe: Singing on Skid Row

Ethereal Theatre Company held auditions at Royal Holloway months ago, choosing the best of the best to go with them to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to perform the cult classic ‘Little Shop Of Horrors’. As the other audience members and I stood in line to enter The Grand Theatre at Surgeons Hall in Edinburgh for their last performance, two of the show’s crew greeted us in hazmat suits and stamped us all with Skid Row barcode ‘tattoos’, a key component of the direction in which the production has gone in. Director Mahmoud Zayat took Howard Ashman’s script and incorporated dystopic themes of “control”, “surveillance” and “innovate science”. This production thus has Skid Row under surveillance, as they are an experiment in determining a person’s level of greed. For those who don’t know,...

Doctor Who’s regenerating – in more ways than one…

21Jul

By Beth CarrNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Doctor Who’s regenerating – in more ways than one…

The casting of a new Doctor is actually a reflection of the intended audience, writes Beth Carr. Months of speculation and waiting ended at the weekend: not only did Federer win Wimbledon in straight sets but the identity of the next Doctor in Doctor Who was revealed. A hood was dropped and the secret of Jodie Whittaker’s casting was out. You might know her from Broadchurch, working with Doctor Who’s new showrunner Chris Chibnall, or from playing ditsy Beverley in St Trinian’s. She’s also no stranger to sci-fi after starring in 2011 film Attack the Block. Despite this success under her belt, Whittaker’s casting has caused a tsunami of response from both fans and non-fans of the show. The reason? She is a woman taking over a role traditionally and exclusively played by men, a Time Lor...

4Jul

By Beth CarrNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Losing It: Reshaping Sex Education

CONTENT WARNING: Rape. Beth Carr shines a spotlight on alumna Nina Lemon and her play ‘Losing It’. Watching a musical about sex education isn’t the most usual Friday activity for students, but that is exactly the theme of the latest play by Peer Productions, written and directed by Royal Holloway alumni Nina Lemon. ‘Losing It’ follows a group of school friends as they look back on their seven years at secondary school and the questions they had about sex and relationships, as well as examining what went well and what went wrong in their love lives. The play fits with Peer Productions’ vision “to use theatre to genuinely change young people’s lives” and is being toured around 30 local schools to tell pupils what they really want to know about sex and relationships. It was develop...

14Jun

By Georgia BeithNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

And The Winner Is…

“Acting is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and that doesn’t need to be separated into two different categories.” These were Emma Watson’s words as she accepted the MTV Award for “Best Actor in a Movie” as a result of her role as Belle in Beauty and the Beast. Her acceptance speech not only expressed her gratitude for receiving the award, but also her joy at it being the first ever gender neutral award for acting. While the MTV Awards are not renowned for being the most prestigious, in comparison to awards like the Oscars or the Emmy’s, the 2017 awards mark a milestone for gender equality in Hollywood. Many, like Watson, expressed their approval of the move. Billions’ actor Asia Kate Dillon, who presented Watson with the award, perfectly summed up the motivation b...

Medea: a monster, a mother, or a murderer?

13Jun

By Victoria BastableNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV, Literature, Theatre & Performance

Medea: a monster, a mother, or a murderer?

‘A bride of hate to me and death / Tigress, not woman’ (Euripides, Medea) Medea: a monster, a mother, or a murderer? Victoria Bastable reviews her week with By Jove Theatre company and how their ‘Season of Violent Women’ has made her question the dehumanisation of violent women in culture from Ancient Greece to the 21st century. I Googled ‘violent women in art’ and the results were dominated by articles titled ‘Violence Against Women in Art’. To me, this demonstrates how in art we often attempt to distance women from being portrayed as the perpetrators of violence, perhaps because of cultural expectations of the ‘ideal woman’ as either the nurturing mother or passive victim. But what about the violent women who do appear in art and literature? By Jove Theatre Company have been a...

Flood of tears from laughing and an actual flood – wetting ourselves for the sake of comedy

6Jun

By Josip MartincicNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Flood of tears from laughing and an actual flood – wetting ourselves for the sake of comedy

Read Arts Editor, Josip's, review of Drama Society’s production of Noël Coward’s ‘Hay Fever’. As part of the Drama Society’s 130th anniversary of Quad Productions, Amber Lickerish directs this light-hearted classic 1920’s farce focusing on family values, age and class issues and seduction, something us students can all resonate with. The first thing that an audience member experiences is the immersive improvised interaction between the actors on stage, with music from the era serving as a soundscape which transports the audience back in time. This is heavily aided by the immaculately executed costume by Molly Stapleton and set design by Cassie Boyce, which is both simple and effective. The wacky Bliss family are at the same time bizarrely distant and irresistib...

6Jun

By Beth CarrNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Is audio killing the TV star?

Beth Carr discusses the new Doctor Who spin off content that is for your ears only. ‘Torchwood Series 5 confirmed!’, ‘Billie Piper returns to Doctor Who’ and ‘Fourth Doctor gains new companion’ are just some of the headlines that have graced the websites of TV news providers CultBox and Digital Spy over the last month. Add in a new series on BBC One full of twists and turns and it is enough to make any Doctor Who fan faint with joy - or is it? The headlines, above all, relate to new audio adventures released by Big Finish, a production company which began its life creating audio dramas based on Doctor Who novels while the show was off air in the 1990s. And it seems that, with the rich television content that fans are enjoying now, audio has vastly fallen in favour. Take the anno...

13Apr

By Joanne ArcherNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Music

Coffee House Sessions: Sonia Stein

The Orbital’s Arts Editor, Joanne Archer, reviews Sonia Stein’s performance at Coffee House sessions. If you are still unfamiliar with Coffee House sessions, you need to rock up at Tommy’s at 5pm on a Monday, order yourself a burger, sit back and enjoy. Each week, a new, up-and-coming artist sets up their makeshift stage on the staircase in the SU. You may not know these artists now, but with most signed to major record labels, they are bound to get big. The brand that organises the intimate gigs, Coffee House Sessions, promise to serve up “a fix of #newmusic ones to watch, & live acoustic tours”. To give you an idea of what this means in the industry, the likes of Izzy Bizu began their careers by touring universities with Coffee House Sessions. This month, Sonia Stein graced...

Absolute Harmony Spring Concert: A Bright and Breezy Treat

12Apr

By Rachel Perry-WattsNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Music, Theatre & Performance

Absolute Harmony Spring Concert: A Bright and Breezy Treat

On the 11th of March, RHUL’s resident acapella choir, Absolute Harmony, treated us to their Spring Concert in the Boilerhouse lecture theatre. For those not familiar with the choir, their website explains that they ‘sing a wide array of original arrangements, ranging from pop hits to film soundtracks, all sung in at least four (usually five or more!) part harmony’. This range was certainly displayed in their concert; from ‘Raise Your Glass’ by P!nk, to ‘Jolene’ by Dolly Parton, there really was something for everyone. The evening was in support of two different charities, Dementia UK and The Children’s Trust, both of which were of special significance to the choir. A collection was made after a member of the choir gave a short introduction; it was really inspiring to see how passionate AbH...