UoE Shakespeare Society’s staging of Much Ado About Nothing opens with verve: May Macleod, who plays Audrey, sings in the dim red-purplish light of what could be the club room or dining hall of Hotel Messina, where the action takes place. The stage is minimally set and the band is in view, a red ‘Messina’ […]
Interview with Will Jarvis on ‘Sealed’
A new play produced by Katie Jenkins of Exeter’s own Theatre With Teeth, written and co-directed with Niamh Smith by Will Jarvis, Sealed is an original play that opened to animated reviews in Exeter about seven strangers who find themselves invited to a house under dubious circumstances, knowing nothing of each other or why exactly […]
General Election roundup: Conservative disaster and deals with the DUP
In an extraordinary blow to the Conservatives, the election has ended in a hung parliament. Despite burgeoning pre-election confidence and a staggering 17-point lead when the Prime Minister called the snap election back in April, the Conservatives have failed to form a majority — securing just 318 seats of the required 326 in the House […]
Manchester Arena suicide bombing: what we know & resisting the forces of hate
On Monday night at 22:30 BST Salman Abedi, aged twenty-two, detonated a home-made bomb in a suicide attack in the foyer of Manchester Arena following an Ariana Grande concert. Twenty-two people were killed in the explosion, including an eight-year-old girl. A further sixty-four people, twelve of them under sixteen, were injured and taken to hospital by […]
Feminist Friday: Responding to Kellyanne Conway’s rejection of feminism
At the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), one of the largest right-wing annual political conferences, Kellyanne Conway – currently serving as Counsellor to President Donald Trump, and formerly his campaign manager – rejected feminism to great applause, saying: “It’s difficult for me to call myself a feminist in the classic sense because it seems […]
Punishment or rehabilitation: does Dylann Roof deserve to die?
O n January 10th 2017, Dylann Roof, a white supremacist terrorist guilty of murdering nine parishioners in an historic Charleston Church, was sentenced to death. He showed no emotion as the sentence was passed. In a written manifesto and prison journal, Roof acknowledged the innocence of his victims and confessed to committing the shooting in the hope […]
Techno or no-go: does technology damage Shakespeare’s legacy?
Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary was on the 23rd of April this year, bringing with it a fresh wave of theatrical innovation. On this occasion The Royal Shakespeare Company has gone further than any before, partnering with Intel and The Imaginarium to render a fully digital 3D character – Ariel the sprite from The Tempest – on […]
Exeter students cause ‘eight years of hell’ for elderly residents
Residents of Kilbarren Rise, off New North Road, allege that they must sometimes sleep in night shifts to protect their property from student theft and record antisocial behaviour. Supported by evidence from a CCTV system they installed in 2014, Delia and John Blatchford claim to have suffered “eight years of hell” because of unruly Exeter […]
Feminist Friday: The petition against Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship system
Saudi women are not free to make any major life decisions without assent from a male guardian. Under the guardianship system, it is impossible for women to enter employment, begin university, rent a flat, marry or travel abroad without consent from a male guardian, usually their father or husband. A petition to end guardianship, the first […]
Every minute counts: Maintaining a work-life balance
There’s a certain irony in the fact that I’m writing this article in my pyjamas, having never gotten properly dressed, and only a few hours before the deadline. But haven’t we all been in a similar position? Occasionally for some, perhaps all of the time for others and never for a blessed few, work gets […]