mrdavidjays.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Leigh Bowery’s New Year’s Resolutions 1980, the year he arrived in London.

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"It strikes me that while our conversation rests upon Brown’s death, its sights are set on life. That seems right: in the dance field Brown made waves when she was alive, but each life must itself finally break – & when it does, its water ripples outwards & returns that life to the world." Beautiful

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How To Win Against History returns! Loved it first time round - very camp, very history. Bristol Old Vic & Edinburgh Underbelly this summer

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First wild garlic of the year. Spring, despite everything, is springing.

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A heartrending listen: about a life falling through the the cracks, and about tenacious attempts to honour that life.

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Acosta Danza review: fantastic dancers, patchy choreography www.standard.co.uk/culture/danc...

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Roses are red Lemons are tarter On Valentine's I took my love To see tanztheater www.standard.co.uk/culture/danc...

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Had a tour of brand spanking new Sadler's Wells East. I always thought the rule about not letting new buildings loom behind St Paul's Cathedral was an urban myth - but it's real, so @sadlerswells.bsky.social had to redesign their original plan www.standard.co.uk/culture/danc...

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

Had a tour of brand spanking new Sadler's Wells East. I always thought the rule about not letting new buildings loom behind St Paul's Cathedral was an urban myth - but it's real, so @sadlerswells.bsky.social had to redesign their original plan www.standard.co.uk/culture/danc...

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Catching up on my recent bits - here's a review of Belarus Free Theatre's KS6 at the Barbican www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/f...

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Doubt and the known unknowns... review of starchy Maxine Peake in the Ustinov's revival in Bath www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/f...

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Oedipus review! Spectacular dance creates the world and its terrors here. Rami Malek will get some stick, but it's an interesting physical performance - and I'd blame text/direction rather than celebrity casting for any lack of conviction www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/f...

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Oh we can't let this happen! The Prince Charles Cinema is a London essential. Brilliantly curated, with passion and imagination. Do sign the petition! you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

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The Save Audio Drama petition, launched to save Radio 3's one remaining drama slot, has just passed 7,500 signatures. Next target 10,000. Please spread the word. www.change.org/p/save-audio...

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

Exeunt on form again: on reviewing in a tight theatre scene. I often feel this on Planet Dance. Despite being international, it can be small-pond - esp when I encounter the same companies as critic/interviewer/editor. Being supportive yet rigorous, maintaining respect + integrity: not always simple.

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January is grim, so sink into misfiring romance & endless regret. My review of Onegin at Royal Ballet. Marianela Nunez at her most heartfelt, & my favourite Reece Clarke performance (my pal sagely noted he plays Onegin as a dick, but dishy: that's how they get you) www.standard.co.uk/culture/danc...

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On previews, I wrote this last year, talking to Rachael Stirling, David Eldridge, Rilwan Abiola Owokoniran and more. So fascinating to hear them describe the crucial chance to understand audience response, to tweak or make huge cuts & changes www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/a...

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Really interesting long read in @thestage.bsky.social about UK theatre directors working abroad. Surprised to learn that theatres in Europe, Japan don't do previews - the first public show is opening night. Which sounds terrifying... www.thestage.co.uk/long-reads/t...

submitted 36 days ago • 2 comments

Well, Revenge: After the Levoyah @theyardtheatre.bsky.social is very much fun. Virtuoso full body performances by Gemma Barnett & Dylan Corbett-Bader. Bad bad Jews. Bad everyone else tbh. Horseradish as weaponry. What's not to enjoy?

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My dad was watching Kelly's Heroes on tv while I was working. Only caught glimpses, but enough to say: young Donald Sutherland. What a peach of a performer he was

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Still on BBC Sounds, this is a treat for an icy day - Jamie Parker wonderfully witty in Damon Runyon's tales of barflies and shady doings. Made me HOOT. Beautifully produced with a bonus croonsome song & also suggests the perfect cold cure - "rock candy and rye whisky, without the rock candy"

submitted 49 days ago • 1 comment

Catching up with @fergusmorgan.bsky.social's truly excellent History of Scottish Drama podcast. Thoughtful & illuminating on a fitful history lurching between creative flourish & official neglect. Ep on Ena Lamont Stewart & Men Should Weep is both inspiring & saddening podfollow.com/scottishdram...

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Horrible it came to this but the rare instance of someone who loves his country, loves the theatre, knows one is vital to the other, & sticks his neck out for it. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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2025 will have to work hard for a visual wonder more boggling than the onions in Japan House's exhibition of replica food. The textures! The dry outer skin, the fine inner skin! Love them

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Really enjoyed the RSC 12th Night yesterday; some lovely things & many touching, INTERESTING moments. Michael Grady-Hall (Feste) is glorious, warm, wild, mellifluous, proper clowning, great audience interaction. (If you've seen it: the boy who ended up with the Nose wore it for the second half💛) 1/7

submitted 56 days ago • 3 comments

Wonderful review this - even the parentheses are packed with horrid gems: "Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård, coated in prosthetics and with a voice that sounds as though he’s gargling with rotten meat)"

submitted 61 days ago • 1 comment

Late posting, but I enjoyed chatting to 3 Sugar Plum Fairies about the role's late appearance ("the preparation takes longer than my time on stage"), its exacting demands, excited Nutcracker audiences, how to embody magic & the sisterhood of the sugar plums www.thetimes.com/culture/thea...

submitted 61 days ago • 1 comment

'Rose is a ferociously selfish parent, but she loves her children with an intensity she had been deprived of as a child. When you get to Rose’s Turn it is devastating — not because she is a monster but because she is a wound.' Great essay by Adam Moss on Wolfe's Gypsy www.vulture.com/article/how-...

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Charge your glasses and get ready to celebrate - it's Exeunt's Alternative Theatre Awards!

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Here's an article on Edward Carey in the Guardian by @mrdavidjays.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/books/2024/d...

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Wept happily through It’s A Wonderful Life at the beautifully refurbished @phoenixcinema.bsky.social. Surely the best xmas movie, it still feels unflinching and true. Happy holidays, bluesky pals!

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Ghost: they lied about my death!! #InkyCloak #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Griffith Jones as the Ghost and Ben Kingsley as Hamlet in the 1975 RSC Hamlet in The Other Place, dir. Buzz Goodbody. I love the simplicity of the design, the father-son mirroring, the shadow...

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

Couldn't be less festive, but the Young Vic's cold hard take on The Little Foxes worked for me. Especially Anne-Marie Duff's performance: always interesting when an actor with a gift for warmth turns the temperature right down.

submitted 70 days ago • 0 comments

"So many shows could be improved by the addition of hot potatoes and vodka." Essential takeaway from Natasha Tripney's round up of European theatre natashatripney.substack.com/p/angels-and...

submitted 70 days ago • 0 comments