Friday, March 29Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Tag: 2017

RHUL hits the Fringe: Singing on Skid Row
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,...
The Politics Of Social Media
Lifestyle

The Politics Of Social Media

Victoria Chapman discusses how social media is used to engage people in current affairs and why it has become such an influence on modern day politics. A day doesn't go by where you don’t see a disgruntled socialist complaining about Theresa May’s cutbacks, or a Conservative supporter making yet another statement about Labour’s debt and denial. And whether you’re into politics or not, you have to agree it makes for an interesting debate on Facebook. But how exactly does social media have such an impact over politics? Everyone’s on social media now; politics can be accessed through every technological medium, allowing it to reach out to everyone rather than the select few. Anyone can get involved in a discussion or movement on Facebook, Twitter, you name it. Even Instagram had users ...
What Went Right at the Oscars?
Culture & Literature, Film & TV

What Went Right at the Oscars?

The Orbital’s Sumi Bal discusses the disaster that was the Oscars. As I’m sure you’ve heard, the 2017 Oscars were quite the event. We had milestones reached with the first Muslim to win an Oscar, and we had disasters like a performer savagely attacked by a prop, and of course presenting an award to the wrong film. It’s been interesting to say the least. Let’s go through the good, the bad and the oh so very uncomfortable. The highlight of the night was Moonlight’s Mahershala Ali being the first Muslim actor to win an Academy award. His hard earned success is being celebrated across the world, as not only is Moonlight centered around a black cast, but is also based on a gay relationship. This film breaks boundaries, and in doing so will be a source of inspiration for like minded people...
New Year’s Revolution
Opinion

New Year’s Revolution

Cemre asks for 2016 to be the push we need to bring more change As we are mostly aware and are constantly reminded on social media, 2016 was a year of tragedies. It’ll probably go down in history as the worst year our generation has seen so far, and while some scoff and move on - and good on you for being able to - others are shaken. Justifiably so. Sure, other bad years, 1939 or 1999 come to mind, were generational disasters for some still alive today. And it’s not just celebrity passings - which to mock is to be insensitive to the celebrity and the people who loved, were inspired by, or needed them -  but the endless acts of hatred, violence, bigotry. Probably because we thought those things were left in the 20th century. Last year, though but a month ago, was emotionally and mentall...