Few things are more infuriating than being interrupted at dinner by a ghost. I say this not from experience - at least, not in the spectral sense - but because I’ve spent a good portion of my life watching Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit with the growing suspicion that I, too, may one day be haunted … Continue reading Ectoplasm and Ego: Reflections on Coward’s Blithe Spirit
Tag: Theatre
Arthur Wing Pinero: The Magistrate of Mirth and Other Dastardly Dalliances – Part Two of Dandy Dick
Or, how one man in a cravat brought Victorian theatre out of its corset and into its knickers. Before Wilde minced in with cigarette cases and cucumber sandwiches, and long before Coward lit up the drawing room with his razor-sharp repartee and possibly questionable moustache, there was Pinero. Arthur Wing Pinero, to give him his … Continue reading Arthur Wing Pinero: The Magistrate of Mirth and Other Dastardly Dalliances – Part Two of Dandy Dick
To Thine Own Self..
This evening, while ruminating on a betrayal of a different nature, I found myself drawn to my well-worn copy of Hamlet. By sheer chance - or perhaps some mischievous cosmic design - the tattered old volume fell open at a particular page. The margins, already adorned with the scrawled remnants of a past attempt to untangle … Continue reading To Thine Own Self..
Pebbles, Prose, and Pointlessness: Beckett’s Molloy and the Art of Going Nowhere
Question: have you ever sucked a pebble? Samuel Beckett’s Molloy is often heralded as a towering monument of modernist literature, though whether it’s a lighthouse of enlightenment or an impassable granite slab is a matter of perspective. This novel, the first in Beckett’s famous trilogy, plunges us into a world where sucking stones takes on existential significance … Continue reading Pebbles, Prose, and Pointlessness: Beckett’s Molloy and the Art of Going Nowhere
Alfie: The Charm, the Consequences, and the Loneliness Beneath the Swagger
A few days ago, quite by accident, I found myself watching a movie that reignited memories of a play I had already delved into some time ago. As the familiar story unfolded on screen, I felt the urge to revisit and refine my previous thoughts. Out came the metaphorical polish for an old essay, and … Continue reading Alfie: The Charm, the Consequences, and the Loneliness Beneath the Swagger
Wording 