It was 2008 when Jon Brittain first started working on his play Rotterdam, about a lesbian couple where one half transitions to being a man. He had several friends who were transitioning gender, and was suddenly struck by how few trans stories ever got told. Continue reading “How Rotterdam has led the way for transgender stories on stage”
Latest writing
The woman who could ‘draw’ music
Few people know Daphne Oram, but she helped shape the sounds, and songs, we listen to today. A pioneer of electronic music, she wrote Still Point – thought to be the world’s first composition which manipulates electronic sounds in real time – in 1949. In 1957, she set up the famous BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Review: Richard III, The Arcola
Greg Hicks’ supple, detailed performance is by far the best thing in an otherwise rather pedestrian production by Mehmet Ergen.
‘It’s about exploring the male and female that everyone has inside them’: on playing Salomé as a man
Salomé: one of the most dangerously seductive female figures ever, often considered the original femme fatale. Yet in a new production of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 play at the RSC, Salomé is to be played by a man.
‘My body shall be all yours’: the startling sex letters of Joyce, Kahlo and O’Keeffe
“I did as you told me, you dirty little girl, and pulled myself off twice when I read your letter.” He might be celebrated for his epic and allusive novels, but James Joyce came straight to the point when writing to his partner, Nora Barnacle. This was the opening salvo of a letter from 1908 […]
Review: The Braille Legacy, Charing Cross Theatre
The story of Louis Braille is an inspiring one, and musicals have certainly been based on stranger source material. But this dire musical entirely fails to do the man justice.
Sophie Okonedo: ‘My body is my barometer – my instincts are physical’
Sophie Okonedo was born in 1968 in London and studied at Rada. She is currently performing alongside Damian Lewis in Edward Albee’s 2002 play The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?; she plays Stevie, a woman who discovers her husband is having an affair with an animal.
Review: Nuclear War, Royal Court
‘A series of suggestions for a piece of theatre.’ So says the introduction to Simon Stephens’ new play, a short piece directed by choreographer Imogen Knight.
Welcome to the Places of my Life
I wrote a piece for Oh Comely about a project with pals: Welcome to the Places of My Life, named after the Alan Partridge guide to Norwich, sees us visiting each other’s our hometowns, and reliving our teenage experiences.
Review: The Philanthropist, Trafalgar Studios
First staged in 1970, Christopher Hampton’s comedy gets a revival stuffed with comic actors off the telly. You can see why: this groaning period piece, directed by Simon Callow, needs all the comedic help it can get. It’s not enough.