Arts REVIEW: The Village of Eight Graves by Seishi Yokomizo The book is a delight, twisting and turning in gothic wonder in your mind, bringing to life place and character with deft prose and the narrative grips from the off. I really enjoyed the grip of the tension and adored the slow in relentless discovery of the awful truth by the fun detective Kindaichi By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: The Fake-Up by Justin Myers This is a lovely exploration of people struggling to have it all and realising that perhaps it’s just each other that they really want, and managing their own, and others expectations of what love can, and should be about. By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: tick..tick..Boom! On Netflix Brian Butler is enchanted by Jonathan Larson’s fateful bio-musical By Brian Butler • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune It’s about people finding ways to make the most of the time they have, and finding the power to enable themselves to change, and love being worth the risk of huge change. Throw in a ghost doggy, an impish spectral Grandad and a rather swish tearoom at the end of existence and this is an uplifting, By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: The Play that goes wrong @ Theatre Royal Building up into an entirely daft crescendo of madness the entire play, cast, set and night literally starts to fall apart. It’s done with such wit and well-rehearsed charm that it looks random and ad hoc a real testament to this tightly worked and skillfully directed groups of actors who all work v By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: Gangsta Granny Theatre Royal What’s not to like about a fun, silly, life affirming show like this with a strong moral message about appreciating our older relatives before they’re gone, sharing our wild and wonderful stories from life all mixed up with some hearty farts! By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts REVIEW: ‘In the Dream House’ by Carmen Maria Machado The book is astounding, but with its clarion call of authentic experience it shows us the author not only growing stronger in a world determined to undermine and destroy, but learning, navigating and finally breaking free to document, share and convince. Machado redefines what a memoir can be and gi By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: Bright Poems for Dark Days by Julie Sutherland Sutherland has amassed an eclectic group of poets here, from uber modern like Carol Ann Duffy & Maya Angelou to weathered classics from John Donne & Emily Dickinson, the range is impressive. Some fun, frivolous and fancy, others profound & pertinent. It touches the spot. By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: The Perfume Thief by Timothy Schaffert At its heart it’s a love story, a passionate scream for intimacy in the face of barbaric hate and a rather thrilling romp thought the demimonde world of the Parisian underground Queer resistance . Fabulous escapism in more ways than one. By Eric Page • 1 min read
Arts REVIEW: The Dresser @ Theatre Royal Clary can make us laugh, and did so, with the right amount of wit, throw away and melancholic observations, the audience adored him. This part calls for some bitter spitting viciousness and here there was no mean, just sweetness curdled, no claw or nail, just bitterness and empty threat. A camp mise By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: Children of the Sun Max Schaefer An explicit exploration of 1980s south London gay neo Nazi’s mixed in with the head-spinning occult narratives and gay narrators and the authors rather charming seriously precise documenting of Skin Head fashions. A heady brew. By Eric Page • 1 min read
Arts REVIEW: The Midnight Bell New Adventures Mathew Bourne Superb and with a lot to recommend it, The Midnight Bell is a wonderful show to enjoy in the Theatre Royal with enough flair to impress the dance aficionados, more than enough to satisfy the Bourne fans in the house, and enough real passion for your average audience member to enjoy. Its overflowing By Eric Page • 5 min read
