Culture & Literature – Page 13 of 37

26Feb

By Helena KeebleNo Comments

Rushdie and ‘the Joker’

On 23 October, the London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre hosted the novelist Salman Rushdie in conversation with Erica Wagner on his thirteenth novel, The Golden House. Rushdie is a British Indian novelist, well known for his 1981 novel, Midnight’s Children, which won both the Man Booker Prize during its year of publication. Wagner opened the conversation, pondering on the character, ‘the Joker’ in The Golden House, asking why Rushdie didn’t call him Donald Trump. Rushdie wittily responded, ‘I didn’t want the name of the 45thpresident to be in my book. I thought it would pollute it in some way, and so I thought, in a deck of playing cards there’s only two cards that are unusual to play. One of them is the Trump, and the other is the Joker’, to which the audience broke into ...

26Feb

By Niamh Hollis-LockeNo Comments

Culture & Literature

Jealousy

Her lipstick bruises your cheek again - cheap pharmacy purple, of all narcissus' blooms. In the year's twilight my hands, cold with longing, bury themselves in dead words, hoping to find love pressed, like some rare flower, between the pages. In the space between the music and lights she turns, oozing glitter, spiraling in the crush of sweat and lust. She is fool's gold, forest-fire, ice-queen; snagging drinks for the promise of a kiss never given. Outside, in the frost-stunned night, leaves are falling like hope.

25Feb

By Phoebe HaganNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Music

Punk’s Not Dead

Well, last time I spoke to you, I was just about to head off to my final two festivals of the season - Reading and End of the Road - and boy, were they brilliant. I caught a number of bands I hadn’t gotten the chance to see before (The Orielles! Iceage! Thee Oh Sees!) and at Reading, we chatted to a huge number of incredible artists including Sunflower Bean, Yonaka, Sports Team, King Nun, and Bad Sounds! But, festival season is now but a distant memory, the nights are drawing in, Halloween has come and gone – but that doesn’t mean that the steady stream of gigs and artists releasing music has stopped. In fact, quite the opposite. I told you in my first column that I’d be bringing you the greatest and latest music news in every issue, and believe you me, I have a whole bunch to tell you....

Highbrow Horror: Our Current Golden Age of Scary Cinema

22Feb

By Noah KeppenNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Highbrow Horror: Our Current Golden Age of Scary Cinema

Something strange is happening in the film industry today: horror, the longstanding recipient of film critics’ harshest vitriol, is experiencing its very own renaissance. The genre, which for decades has been derided as only a source of schlocky thrills and cheesy plotlines, is finally gaining positive attention thanks to a new wave of horror films garnering rave reviews. Films like The Babadook, The Witch, It Comes At Night, and Hereditary are challenging viewers’ suppositions of what a horror movie is, and how good it can be. These films eschew common horror tricks, like numerous jump scares or gratuitous gore, instead choosing to find horror in more thought-provoking places. It Comes At Night in particular foregoes the inclusion of a supernatural entity or crazed serial killer at all...

7Feb

By Noelle SpillmannNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Horses, Brains and Apples at Midnight

Having had mixed experiences with Midnight At The Boilerhouse in the past, I found myself feeling a cocktail of excitement and dread attending this term’s Student Workshop’s Original Theatre Night. Should you have never attended a MATB – as it is so lovingly called - it is in essence a night of original, student written theatre performed in the Boilerhouse theatre by students for students. Pieces range between five to ten minutes and cover a variety of genres - from conventional comedy to thought provoking physical theatre pieces. That being said, from my own experience there tends to be a slight focus on theatre of a certain nature every MATB. The last one I attended (which was not last term’s I must confess) heavily leaned towards physical theatre whilst this MATB seemed more inclined to...

13Dec

By Insiyah AdamjeeNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

When The Clock Strikes 00:00

Engaging, thought-provoking and transparent are some of the adjectives that come to mind thinking back on the brilliant performance at The Packhorse, ‘00:00’, a play put on from the 7th to the 9th of December by ‘from (a)basement theatre collective’. The plot involves an exploration into the lives of employees of the Network Rail and is a conversation starter for tough and heavy topics such as mental health, suicide and social conventions. The small cast of four manage to tackle these serious and controversial topics in an empathetic yet frank way, unapologetically showing the audience the truth of the lives and struggles of those who run the behind-the-scenes of England’s Rail system. The cast are not given names, but instead letters of the alphabet, which further reiterates how unreco...

A Midsummer Nightmare: A Dream of a Performance

5Dec

By Abel FenwickNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

A Midsummer Nightmare: A Dream of a Performance

Comedy. Tragedy. Star crossed lovers. Deceptions, donkeys and a play within a play. All of the above sound tremendously Shakespearian until I mention the Post-it notes, don’t they? Like any adaptation of the Bard worth its salt, the RHUL Shakespeare society’s original production ‘A Midsummer Nightmare’ contained all of the above and more, with the audience invited to peer behind the scenes of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and watch Tarquin-Ann Richardson the Third and troupe attempt to make it to opening night without unlearnt lines, gargantuan egos and a four-person Swedish pop band destroying all of their hard work. With choreographed dance numbers, acting tips and actual passages of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ performed throughout, on paper the play seems in danger of feeling a litt...

Through The Lens of a Camera: Comedy Virgins

30Nov

By Lina PavlovaNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Through The Lens of a Camera: Comedy Virgins

On Thursday November 15, Royal Holloway’s very own Comedy Society had their first show of the year, and what a blast it was! Going to a comedy show is always exciting, and a great night full of fun and laughter is almost always guaranteed. But what happens when you’re not just there as an audience member? I attended as a videographer to film the event, and while you might assume the excitement would be pretty much non-existent due to the mere fact that I was there to do my job and be ‘professional’, this was not the case! Just seeing the enthusiastic faces of the people performing on the stage, even if only from behind my camera, was enough to make me happy for days and days to follow. From the name of the performance itself - ‘The Comedy Virgin Show’ - which immediately stirs up cur...

25Nov

By Samantha DavisNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

You’d Be Wilde To Miss It

With a pre-existing collection of beautiful and comedic Wildian plays to choose from, I can’t deny I was surprised to hear that these options had been axed for the adaptation of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. However, upon leaving the performance I can without a doubt understand the decisions that compelled this magnificent choice. The Picture of Dorian Gray stands alone as Oscar Wilde’s only novel and tells the tale of the conflicting relationship between morality and pleasure which aids to the corruption of the the once beautiful soul of Dorian Gray. It is clear that the production team had this complicated motif in mind and executed it fantastically. Upon entering the hall, Basil Hallwood (Sean Simmons-Barry) is rotating between admiring his artwork and dabbing at the canvas w...

Mind the Gap: Good Enough to Make Even a Londoner Smile

19Nov

By George WhiteNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Mind the Gap: Good Enough to Make Even a Londoner Smile

It's easy for an abstract drama production, while aiming for a profound, almost philosophical execution, to slip unwittingly into turgid verses of stilted disarray. Entering the Student Workshop’s latest production, Mind the Gap, whose social commentary, I had heard, bubbled at the surface of the show, I was convinced it would follow the same conceited creed. While watching the opening scene, I chuckled sombrely to myself, having found another esoteric piece to lambaste relentlessly. However, come the dropping of the figurative curtains, I had come to the resolute conclusion that my initial interpretation was entirely and profoundly incorrect. Anton Ego had his taste of ratatouille. The cast radiate a comforting exuberance throughout the show, allowing it to narrowly avoid the classic t...