Picture this (pun intended): it’s a cold Monday evening. There is a selection of disparate artworks in both A&V and Thornlea Rannoch, our studio space opposite The Impy. We have approximately one hour to get them all to our venue in town before the exhibition kicks off. We’re going to use our social secretary’s car […]
Review: ShakeSoc’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Things I like: Shakespeare, glitter (sorry, environment), and Soft Cell’s 1981 hit ‘Tainted Love’. Something I therefore liked by extension: ShakeSoc’s 48-hour production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For theatre novices who may have been previously unfamiliar with the concept of a 48-hour play (i.e. me), it’s very self-explanatory: it’s a production rehearsed, staged, and […]
From prejudice to pride?
In 1967, after nearly ten years of campaigning, “private homosexual acts” between men aged 21 and over were decriminalised as part of the Sexual Offences Act. As the fiftieth anniversary dawns on this landmark piece of legislation, it begs the question: is changing the law enough when it comes to making progress? is changing the […]
“It’s what you feel, not what you know”: an evening at Exeter Contemporary Open
On a chilly evening in mid-September, Exeter Contemporary Open opened its doors for the preview of its fourth year at Exeter Phoenix, transforming the venue’s gallery space into a hive of contemporary art and a much needed burst of colour, shape, and texture after a day of persistent rain showers. An annual exhibition open to submissions […]
In with the new (but not out with the old): the V&A’s new Exhibition Road Quarter
The Victoria & Albert Museum has always been one of my favourites due to its hybridity of old and new – from historical artefacts to contemporary cultural exhibits, everything from early modern royal portraiture to the history of underwear. So, fittingly, the new Exhibition Road Quarter is also a hybrid of old and new. Visitors […]
Album Review: Lorde – Melodrama
It’s been four years since the release of Lorde’s debut album, Pure Heroine. A long time, especially for someone so young, but one listen to Melodrama is enough to realise that this time and space was necessary for this album to bloom in the way that it has. In the words of Lorde herself, “it […]
The ‘Bland and joyless’ English school curriculum
Both the head teacher and the deputy at a primary school in Hampshire that was rated ‘outstanding’ by Oftsed recently decided to resign, citing their reason as the government’s educational policies. According to The Guardian, Alex and Peter Foggo were “profoundly opposed to recent changes in England’s schools” and resigning was “the only morally honest […]
Spinning out of control
Recently, it was revealed that Game of Thrones would be receiving not one, not two, not even three, but four spin-off series. There could definitely be potential there, but four separate projects? HBO is going to need a lot of objectified, unnamed female extras. It’s also been announced that a Big Bang Theory spin-off series […]
Review: Big Little Lies
When you finish watching a TV series feeling pleasantly surprised that its female characters were consistently well-written from start to finish, you realise just how low the bar is when it comes to writing fictional women. However, the bar is now a few centimetres higher thanks to Big Little Lies, an HBO miniseries centring around […]
Shotgun Theatre’s crowdfunder success
Shotgun Theatre, the University of Exeter’s musical theatre group, raised a total of £2,000 in just four days after the crowdfunder to get their production of Godspell to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe launched on 2nd April. After the musical’s sell-out run in Exeter last November (Exeposé gave the production four stars), the group wants to […]