Every so often, a play comes along that changes the way that I think about theatre, and to me, that is one of the most exciting experiences of all. Having read but not seen Tim Crouch’s previous work, I came to An Oak Tree full of excitement but relatively unsure of what to expect; I […]

This powerful, affecting work interrogates the boundaries between man and machine through exploring Alan Turing’s life, achievements and eventual persecution based on his homosexuality. Best known for his instrumental role in cracking the German’s Enigma cipher during his time at Bletchley Park in World War 2, fiercely intelligent Turing also taught at Cambridge and developed […]

The room – part stage-set, part immersive installation – seems primed for a hoe-down, or a good long yarn-spinning session around a campfire. The air is pungent with mint and woodchips. An intimate space has been cleared in the forest, and live music softly welcomes us into the moment. Then the story begins, and with […]

Once upon a long ago in the faded ochre of a 1970s childhood I sat in the stalls of Edinburgh’s venerable Kings Theatre and saw my first instance of real magic – nothing to do with rabbits, or top hats, or cards, but the specific kind of magic that can only happen in a theatre. You […]

I love masks. They are among our most strange contrivances, and such a mystery for something so commonplace. In Greek tragedy the chorus masks were worn not merely as costume elements, but as resonance chambers for the ritual cries of the chorus. Their consequent mental transportation into the darkest inner realms were, effectively, masked from […]