At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

Category: England

• Ancient History Anxiety Architecture Britain Culture Drama England Identity Jacobean Nationhood Parody Problem Play Renaissance Shakespeare Theatre Wales

  

  Cymbeline: Shakespeare and the Search for National Identity

  A diversion in which we examine Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and its commentary on the conception of British nationhood.

  April 21, 2026
• Architecture Colonialism Empire England London London Buildings Nationhood Uncategorized Victorian

  

  The Line and the Circle

  Two formal languages run through the whole of British architectural history, and the tension between them is the engine of everything worth discussing.

  April 17, 2026
• Acting art Capitalism Classical Music Classics Comedy Concert Contemporary Classical Culture Electronics England Exhibition Feminism Fiction Film Fringe Gender Generations Identity Love Memory Monarchy Monologue Novel Opera Pantomime Photography Politics Poverty Power Race Satire Sexuality Shakespeare Space Theatre Truth War

  Catching up (Part 3)

  April 2020 to December 2020 In which the Tourist condenses down 2020, in and out of lockdown, mostly watching stuff on a screen. Don’t worry he also took walks, saw punters when permitted and growled at the state of his disappointing nation, but it is only now he is back…

  November 5, 2021
• Classical Music Concert Contemporary Classical Culture England Family London Memory Minimalism Mortality Piano Race Relationship Science Theatre Uncategorized

  Catching up (Part 1)

  February 2020 Yep. You read that right. February 2020. Just before you know what kicked off and the stages went dark. You would have thought that the last 18 months would have given the Tourist plenty of time and inclination to continue reporting on his cultural journey. But no. Despite…

  October 18, 2021
• Agency Culture Elizabethan England Gender History London Monarchy Patriarchy Power Theatre

  Swive at the Sam Wannamaker Playhouse review ****

  Swive Sam Wannamaker Playhouse, 3rd February 2020 I am very partial to the work of Ella Hickson. Precious Little Talent, Boys, Oil, The Writer, ANNA, all have met their, expansive, ambition. Splendid theatre with something powerful to say. With Swive she has collaborated with director Natalie Abrahami, (who marshalled cast…

  April 17, 2020
• Class Culture England Family London Race Relationship Theatre

  A Kind of People at the Royal Court Theatre review ****

  A Kind of People Royal Court Downstairs, 16th December 2019 Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti was a new playwriting name for me. No longer. A Kind of People takes a not uncommon subject, racism in contemporary Britain, and not uncommon set-ups, a mixed race marriage, friendships, a party, a workplace, and conjures…

  January 31, 2020
• Baroque Classical Music Concert Culture England London Myths Opera Restoration

  King Arthur by Henry Purcell at the Cadogan Hall review ***

  London Concert Choir, Counterpoint, Mark Forkgen (conductor), Rachel Elliott (soprano), Rebecca Outram (soprano), Bethany Partridge (soprano), William Towers (countertenor), James Way (tenor), Peter Willcock (baritone) Cadogan Hall, 7th November 2019 Henry Purcell – King Arthur Early afternoon spent in the company of Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Phillips’s Joker before an…

  December 4, 2019
• Culture England Ideology Masculinity Nationhood Race Theatre

  Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads at the Spiegeltent Chichester

  Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads Spigeltent, Chichester Festival Theatre, 17th October 2019 There are a few candidates for my favourite play of 2019. Lynn Nottage’s stunning Sweat at the Donmar Warehouse, or either of the revivals of the Miller classics at the Old and Young Vics respectively, All…

  November 26, 2019