Arts – Page 2 of 8 – The Orbital

Trouble in Tahiti: The Gender Troubles of the ‘50s Still Following Us Today

20Mar

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Trouble in Tahiti: The Gender Troubles of the ‘50s Still Following Us Today

Trouble in Tahiti is a 1952 opera musical composed by Leonard Bernstein. Royal Holloway’s production of this renowned opera showed variety and skill in both acting and vocal performances. In a critique of 1950s patriarchal marriage norms, Jennifer Morafkova and James Gooding interpreted the two protagonists, Dinah and Sam. Accompanist Georgie Andrews, joined by Anna Caron, Zachary Smith, Phoebe Wakefield, Robert Murray, and Sebastian Stone as the chorus enhanced these marital gender inequalities through satire and dark humour. Director Kitty Cassey and Assistant Director Jennifer Hawthorn succeeded in taking their audience back in time to the post World War 2 period for the short seven scenes. The chorus introduces what is supposedly the perfect marriage through Bernstein’s Prelu...

11Mar

By Amber BrooksNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Music

Punk’s Not Dead

‘It's weird, on TV I see American high school bullies as the outcast punk kid, but every punk I've met has been the opposite of that. Violence is important, but we pick our battles wisely.’ Punk. It’s a movement that comes all the way from the throbbing heart of underground venues, where music becomes more than aesthetic expression. A culture that uses left-wing lyrics as scripture, and from there political presence as progressive change. Punk dwells loudly on the urban streets of anti-fascist, anti-establishment, and anti-consumerist action – the core values in which its anarchy is borne. It’s been fifty years since Punk became a fundamental part of the alternative scene, and still it resonates within contemporary society. Growing from its neo-liberal roots, Punk has now become a...

The Rise in Spiking (and Not Just as We Know it)

28Feb

By Beth McCowenNo Comments

News

The Rise in Spiking (and Not Just as We Know it)

What is Spiking? Drinks being spiked on nights out has been an issue for years. According to Better Health, drink spiking is putting alcohol or drugs into somebody’s drink without their knowledge or consent. It is illegal and is often related to other crimes like robbery and sexual assault. As women, we instinctively cover our drinks, never leave them out of our sight, don’t take drinks from strangers, and take every other precaution possible to keep ourselves and our friends safe. In late 2021, there was a frightening development in spiking. People are now being spiked not through drinks, but through injections. Incidents have mainly been reported in Nottingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Edinburgh. This type of spiking carries additional risks because dirty needles can carry infections ...

7Dec

By Bridget OSullivanNo Comments

Features, News, Opinion

ERICA OSAKWE: ‘I CHANGED THE LAW’

Trigger Warning: the following deals with themes of domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is defined across government as any incident of coercive, threatening or controlling behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 and over who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of their gender or sexuality. It wasn’t until Summer 2021 that the Domestic Abuse Act was introduced, creating the first ever statutory definition of domestic abuse in Britain. The bill was rushed through in response to increasing domestic violence reports since the onset of Coronavirus. In other words, it took a pandemic for British politics to formalise its definition of domestic abuse in law. This lack of consolidation only serves to feed the tragic reality that one in ten offences ...

7Dec

By A.L WalesNo Comments

Creative Writing

ET EGO BRUT

REBUTTAL I remember you magenta and idle, hiding in plain sight a fidget of rats in a man-suit. Did you not think I would notice? You tremble in polyester and I have no pity for the moths like you - they know what it is they do I imagine you taut and xeroxed stretched out on linoleum your saline drip defunct chewing on consonants like coaxial cables your world in laminate left-slant font

7Dec

By Alice ClarkNo Comments

Creative Writing

in sooth

in sooth, i know not why i am so sad i miss u in cerulean and orange emotional support jumper in full force one not to be reckoned with but dear god my intrusive thoughts are trying it’s not very late but i’ve got a tired ache brain ache self hate my favourite animal is you i am consumed with insatiability and itchy ankles when i open my mouth songbirds fly out which is actually very inconvenient my mouth is full of feathers and bird shit now damn that analogy i’m learning to exist soundly love vulnerably instead burn incense until the smoke makes it smell safe again i’m too afraid to leave the house most days anxious twitch anxious twitch ghost therapist dear god i feel pathetic in my bedroom tonight Image credit: Ph...

Canada’s First National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: is it enough?

7Dec

By Courtney BridgesNo Comments

News, Opinion

Canada’s First National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: is it enough?

September 30, 2021, marked the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada (Bill C-5, An Act to amend the Bills of Exchange Act, the Interpretation Act and the Canada Labour Code). This federal statutory holiday was passed through legislative amendments made by Parliament earlier this year, receiving Royal Assent on June 3. The aim for this holiday was set to ‘[honour] the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities’. Residential schools were ‘government-sponsored’ and created by ‘Christian churches’ to ‘assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture’. Their focus was placed on conversion and education. Over 130 schools operated in Canada between 1831 and 1996. They ‘disrupted lives and communities, causing long-term...

A Christmas Carol review: Does Christmas Actually Come from Books?

14Nov

By Charlotte RadcliffeNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

A Christmas Carol review: Does Christmas Actually Come from Books?

Every year, we belt it out to Mariah Carey and count down the days until we can justifiably put the tree up (November 1st, of course). But do we ever stop to consider when or how Christmas became Christmas? Of course, the holiday was originally a celebration of the birth of Christ, but Christmas as we know and love it has far more recent origins. You’ve most likely heard of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – maybe you studied the book at school, maybe you’ve watched The Muppet Christmas Carol so many times that you know the script by heart – but did you know that its publication in 1843 established a whole new literary genre: the Christmas book? Dickens’ fame and the advance in mass printing during the Industrial Revolution made the book a fast hit. Its cultural impact is still being...

Which Undergraduate are you: Miracle Child or Hustler?

18Oct

By Bridget OSullivanNo Comments

Features, Opinion

Which Undergraduate are you: Miracle Child or Hustler?

The ‘Are They Still Alive?’ One Whether you’re a halls resident plagued nightly by the 2am orchestral onslaught of returning Medicine and SU drunkards or living in a private house on the Shott where the thump of electro-beats is never far off, there’s no way you’re letting anyone interrupt your slumber. Throughout sixth form you were consistently deprived of sleep; you look back on those days and shudder. You’ll never take the bliss of an alarm-less morning for granted again. You’ll never feel anything but earnest gratitude on those cold, January mornings when you have the privilege of attending your lecture from bed (thanks to Royal Holloway’s adoption of the Open University model). You exploit the minimal university schedule for all it’s worth - midday begins to feel like 7am. When y...

18Oct

By Accalia SmithNo Comments

Opinion

Laurence Fox’s ‘Reclaim Party’

Laurence Fox used to be known more for his acting in TV Shows such asLewis and Victoria, and films such as Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Now he’sapparently a politician. Fox first politically came to the public's attention last January aftercontroversial interviews and debates on Good Morning Britain and QuestionTime over Sam Mendes' 1917's choice to include Sikh soldiers in the WW1 film.Fox claimed that it was 'forced diversity' and continued to comment on MeganMarkle's treatment by the press and the 'woke' generation as well as sayingthat he would boycott the British supermarket chain Sainsbury's after itannounced support of Black History Month. In April he ran for London Mayor after announcing in November 2020 that hewas founding 'The Reclaim Party' due to his disappointment in theC...