Jo Gandon may not be entering the Olympics any time soon, but that doesn’t mean physical activity is a bad thing…
Are you like me and couldn’t give a rat’s ass about sport? Everybody has tried to bully me into taking the bloody thing up. Hockey, lacrosse, swimming, rowing – and if tiddly winks were on offer I’m sure somebody would try to convert me into a first-class winker. Even my Grandad has managed to drag his concentration away from The Six Nations to point out that I should do some sit-ups. I’m not sure why I’ve never been interested in sport. Don’t get me wrong…
The Durham Revue Comedyfest , 1st March 2010, Gala Theatre
I always thought that everyone loved a little bit of comedy. Certainly everyone in the Gala auditorium at the Durham Revue’s Comedyfest (with a bit of Oxford Revue and Cambridge Footlights on the side) was up for a laugh or two. And by and large the actors remembered to pick them up from…
Stevie Martin is enthralled by The Shape of Things, First Person Theatre Company, 28th – 30th January 2010
Having never seen Neil LaBute’s The Shape Of Things before, the genuinely shocking denouement was always going to come as a surprise. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was the incredible high quality of First Person Theatre Company’s production; it was sensitive, amusing, startling…
Emma Grimwood is pleasantly surprised by A Single Man, showing currently at the Gala cinema
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect of ‘A Single Man’. My desire to see it was based wholly on the rather cracking trailer, a few mixed reviews, and the somewhat surprising news that Colin Firth had…
Ian Church checks out Hadouken! live at the Newcastle University union…
‘Get Smash Gate Crash,’ is probably the best known tune from the Leeds based dance-punk band Hadouken. Judging by last night most people were indeed doing just that.
After emerging in the dungeon-like Student’s Union of Newcastle University the black painted…
Jo Gandon gives serious consideration to serious alcoholic beverage consumption…
Is getting wasted just a waste of time or have you mastered getting plastered? The concept that it is OK to turn down a Quaddie in Klute is not one that I’m very well acquainted with. My worst enemy is the barman who says “You know, it would be so much cheaper with another shot of vodka in there,” and the next thing I know…
Jonny Muir reviews the stage adaptation of Pratchett’s Guards! Guards!, The Assembly Rooms, 18th – 20th February 2010
Well, I have to admit, I’m kind of stuck. What can I possibly say about Ooook! Productions’ Guards! Guards!? I suppose for the sake of journalistic integrity (I have such precious little of it, after all) I should mention that it was poorly acted, sloppily paced and clumsily staged. I should probably…
Luke Turner considers the life of Friedrich Nietzsche…
The average man knows little about Nietzsche (1844-1900) beyond his infamous quote “God is Dead”. A fascinating figure, arguably no philosopher other than Marx has had a greater impact on the 20th century.
Born in Prussia into the Victorian era of
Jonathan Burton bloody loves Cornwall…
At the beginning of last year I remember reading several articles suggesting holidays at home rather than abroad on account of the recession. Now that we have, for the time being, crawled our way out of the longest and deepest recession since the Second World War, we are being told that we can once again venture abroad…
Donnchadh O’Conaill is underwhelmed by Equus, THIS Theatre Company, Assembly Rooms, 10th – 13th February 2010
The overall impression I left THIS Theatre’s production of Equus with was that I didn’t have one. I’m genuinely puzzled as to how a production with such excellent technical elements and genuinely thrilling set-pieces could also incorporate downright mediocrity at other points.
When I first saw a production of this play (not the Daniel Radcliffe revival, a student production in a different university), I thought it a superb piece of writing; on this viewing, it seems …
Jonny Muir falls for DULOG’s West Side Story, 26th 30th January 2010, Gala Theatre
For two years in a row, round about January, I have been going to the Gala Theatre to watch a production in which DULOG kick the ever-living crap out of every other DST show that year. Anything Goes and Guys & Dolls remain two of my favourite Durham productions, with standards of performance and professionalism that put most…
Lyndsey Fineran enjoys a little black comedy at HCTC’s prodcution of Friedrich Durrenmatt’s ‘The Visit’, 4th – 6th February 2010
“I can be best understood if one grasps grotesqueness”, wrote Durrenmatt of his theatrical style. True to this encapsulation, his 1956 tragicomedy, ‘The Visit,’ depends heavily on its interpretation. At once fairytale, parable, satire and farce, with a basis in realism yet moving into areas of the grotesque and the absurd, ‘The Visit’ is a play which demands a lot from its audience…
Paul Powell-Blake takes a straightforward, direct and no-holds-barred look at how the internet has affected the gay scene…
From coming out of the closet through to cruising gay websites for local sexual encounters, there is no denying that the internet has not only revolutionised the way the world as a whole connects, but has revolutionised and perhaps re-invented the queer world. For any…
Chris Wright tackles the latest round in the BNP-DUS debacle…
Facebook groups have proliferated, emails have been sent – I feel somehow compelled to contribute to these keyboard recriminations on the subject of the second DUS cancelled invitation to the BNP.
The stirring sound of ‘Rule Britannia’ blaring from a BNP truck outside the library the other day reminded me of the phone-call I made to a local BNP activist a couple of years ago: he had…
Jo Gandon wonders why V-day has suddenly turned into D-day…
it just me? Or does anybody actually look forward to Valentine’s Day? I don’t and I don’t know anybody who does. Our calendars illuminate the day in evil bright red writing. Everywhere seems to be caked in sickly pink fluffy hearts. The whole day is difficult to ignore and about as subtle as Amy Winehouse’s weave.
If you’re single then you spend it with your sad…
