I hope you're all outside in the sun... but if you ARE looking at your phone, now's the last chance to take advantage of Exeunt and The Crush Bar's HISTORIC offer 20 per cent off, babes! That's four quid a month! I mean!!! exeuntmagazine.substack.com/subscribe thecrushbar.substack.com/subscribe

And Love's Labour Lost (More or Less) - which was definitely less Shakespeare, more Venga Boys... Three stars: not totally my bag, this, but a brilliant cast really sell it and it's a fun and funny night out

Plus a couple of recent reviews: four stars for The House Party from me - Headlong and Frantic Assembly's update of Miss Julie

I, too, have written something about Meghan Markle. And trad wives. Oh yes! Although wrote this before the show aired, so it's less fine-grain, detail-heavy Meghan mockery, and more general "oh, the lies capitalism sells us about how about to a woman!!"

So pleased to publish this ace piece - feels like the sort of thing Exeunt can host that wouldn’t get space anywhere else Lora has written a thoughtful essay on being an migrant and being an artist - but it’s also a creative response, featuring its own instructions for an imaginary performance… 🔥🔥

Put on my most orange clothes and took my very orange paperback - half set in Sheffield- on a tour of other orange things around Sheffield! 🍊

It’s… PAPERBACK PUBLICATION daaaay! Excited that my slimmer, cheaper, but still very orange, book is now out in the world…

Great to see @waterstones.bsky.social doing a sweet deal on pre-orders - 25% off upcoming books! And that just about includes The Start of Something which is out in paperback THIS THURSDAY... meaning with the discount it's a mere £7.50 (giant elbows not included)

Well I think this is the first time I’ve been in a bomb scare at a theatre… tonight’s production of Mary and the Hyenas at Hull Truck evacuated, seemingly because of a ‘suspicious package’ in a neighbouring shopping centre www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It was a real pleasure to get to chat properly with @chrisbushwrites.bsky.social about her new play Otherland - eight years in the making, and both an unusually personal play for her, and also a typically expansive, theatrical one… exeuntmagazine.substack.com/p/i-wasnt-in...

Delighted to actually get commissioned to write about one of my minor grumbles about Sheffield… why does no one dress up here?? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy walking boots in the pub as much as the next Peak District fan, but I also miss a sense of sartorial flourish…

Belated sharing of my interview with Billy Nomates and Maureen Lennon about a new show on Mary Wollstonecraft - this was a fun one!

Belated repost for Friday's Exeunt piece, I'm chatting once more about my love for Sheffield but also how different reviewing work here can feel...

Had a frankly headspinning 48 hours of viewing over the weekend: the Strictly Live Show to Revenge: After the Levoyah to Calamity Jane to The Employees... variety is the spice etc Strictly was predictably slick, glittery entertainment:

So happy to have Rosemary Waugh doing this occasional series for us, going in deep in a kind of career retrospective exploring a designer’s work, their aesthetic, their collaborators, their development…

Mariupol Drama review — actors from a bombed theatre tell their story. This felt an odd thing to ‘review’ really… terribly moving, and important to hear

Love reading, don’t love expensive heavy hardbacks…? My novel THE START OF SOMETHING is now on kindle for a mere 99p! www.amazon.co.uk/Start-Someth...

Accents can be a last bastion of realism on stage. Why is that - and is it finally changing? @hollywilliams.bsky.social looks at what ditching accents might mean for cultural specificity, class assumptions, and releasing classic texts... But what do you think? Accents: 'In' or 'Out'?

They can certainly be tricky but I do think in-the-round theatres are some of my favourites - the New Vic, Royal Exchange, and Orange tree are all gorgeous…

Belatedly sharing this because I was too busy watching Hadestown, drinking fizz, and celebrating being another year older on the day we published it… Fun and helpful and more-varied-than-your-average theatre in 2025 recs, I reckon 🙂

Alexander Cohen writes about the perils of turning press nights into dates nights, and the search for that elusive spark - both on the stage and off

Merry Christmas, Chanukah sameach, and a great big festive THANK YOU to everyone who has supported Exeunt’s return this winter From @hollywilliams.bsky.social, and a bear bauble gifted in honour of our Exeunt mascot 🤶🐻

Always nice to get to suggest a bunch of stuff for these - this year, some of my faves that I got to write about included Till the Stars Come Down, Kenrex, The Buddha of Suburbia, A Doll’s House…

Loved the book, the tape, and now the play - a Christmas treat to get to think and talk and write about Ballet Shoes!

In today's free-for-everyone piece, Natasha Tripney explores endurance theatre, with an international bent: treadmills, heart monitors, running on the spot. How do you take care of yourself while performing these feats night after night? What's all this strain for? How does it feel to watch it?

In today's piece, @hollyomahony.bsky.social explores why so many British theatres have been silent on the conflict - and attends a workshop on how to talk about Palestine ‘in a way that’s meaningful and not defensive’

Although while I do have some bravery, I am also sometimes a small worm who is scared of being shouted at on the internet so let’s see

“Independent journalism feeds the conversation like flour feeds a sourdough starter” Great to see Exeunt getting a shout out in this piece!

Been working on this for a wee while, and I hope it feels balanced. We all know theatres are broke and trying to do a lot with v v little, and reading can also be career-boosting and deeply rewarding - but can all that justify the dismally low fees? I'm not sure...

"Once, I was convinced so last minute for a Snobs Wednesday (the student night), that I rolled out of bed and got straight in a taxi in my pyjamas." Love this piece by @anyaryan.bsky.social on the institution that is SNOBS!!

Those Devil Wears Prada reviews are depressingly predictable - I wrote a piece for @littlewhitelies.bsky.social recently about the problem with unnecessary, unimaginative film-to-stage adaptations...

Oh, this is exciting for Sheffield...

In which I confess to being a recovering musicals snob and Wicked ignoramus… and now a giddy new convert A question, though: Will I ever not have Defying Gravity playing in my head, or is this just my life now??

What is this feeling? Hailey Bachrach gathers a group of critics with backgrounds from the Wicked-positive to ambivalent for their reactions to the new Jon M. Chu adaptation, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Here they stand, in the light of day - our first paid article is not to be missed!

Yesterday's piece by @alicesaville.bsky.social is very lovely on her foray into shows made for babies - and also really interesting on the question of babes-in-arms performances, and how much of the content they pick up on

Don't say we're not good to you: our second Friday piece is free-to-read too... In return, we just want to hear your thoughts too - do cameras on stage make theatre feel even more live? Or are they becoming an overdone cliche?

It's our third-ever piece as Substack-incarnated Exeunt: featuring all the shows in December nationwide our writers are looking forward to, a reviews round-up, GOSSIP, and the fantastic Kate Wyver on beaming, befuddling clown Julia Masli. Dive in and subscribe for more:

And ENORMOUS thanks to the deeply magnanimous Fergus for featuring me in The Crush Bar: talking about Exeunt, but also more generally - and hopefully! - about wanting to foster new spaces for joyful theatre community and nerdery It’s going alright on here so far, I think?!

Very happy to have this piece by Tim Bano yesterday - super sharp and also very funny, it’s exactly the kind of thing I want Exeunt to provide space for ❤️

Thanks so much to @mobiustheatre.bsky.social for having me on their blog today - delighted to be over there, chatting more about Exeunt and The State of Journalism...

I always love this feature... gleefully awaiting it!

Fergus is the MOST MAGNANIMOUS and you must all subscribe to The Crush Bar and join us over on Substack... fast becoming the best place to be a theatre nerd, I'd say!

So here's a little something I've been working on... happy to say that Exeunt has found a new home on Substack