At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

Category: Fiction

• Aesthetics Albums art Capitalism Classical Music Culture Fiction Film Frankfurt School Jazz Literature Novel Painting Performance Political Economy Pop/Rock/Indie Spectacle

  

  Chameleons or Charlatans: The Art of Reinvention

  Six artists. Six art forms. One century. One question: did any of them actually escape the machinery before it sold them back to us?

  June 25, 2026
• Aesthetics Architecture Baroque Beauty Concerto Consumption Credit Culture Empire Exploitation Fiction Film Government History Italy Luxury Markets Money Novel Painting Performance Political Economy Politics Power Renaissance Republic Sea Spectacle Venice Walter Benjamin

  

  The Stuff of Dreams and Exploitation: The Case Study – Venice

  Empire, trade, beauty, corruption, the sublime, the long death, and the circle closing

  May 24, 2026
• Aesthetics Agency Alienation Anxiety Authority Authorship Bureaucracy Capitalism Colonialism Commodity Critical Theory Culture Debt Democracy Economics Enlightenment Feminism Fiction Frankfurt School Gender Government Ideology Language Luxury Marx Morality Philosophy Political Economy Politics Power Race Science Shakespeare Structuralism Theatre Truth Violence Walter Benjamin

  

  What’s the Big Idea

  A list of thinkers whose ideas do most to inform this blog.

  May 20, 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 Colonialism Comedy Concert Concerto Culture Family Fiction Film Generations Italy Jacobean Literature London Love Manchester Morality Novel Parody Performance Physical Theatre Power Relationship Revenge Satire Technology Theatre Tragedy

  Catching up (Part 2)

  March 2020 First week of March 2020. I see that I was still out and about but I also see that I avoided a few entertainments before the cancellations started in earnest and the first lockdown kicked in. I remember feeling a little nervous but obviously no precautions taken apart…

  October 25, 2021
• Culture Fascism Fiction Film Germany History Ideology Literature London Memory Novel Theatre Uncategorized War

  The Tin Drum at the Coronet Theatre review *****

  The Tin Drum The Coronet Theatre, 24th February 2020 I know. This is ridiculous. Posting some comments on something the Tourist saw over 18 months ago. But I started. So I’ll finish. And with some cracking live theatre now under his belt, the Tourist’s cultural mojo is back with a…

  October 1, 2021
• Acting Comedy Culture Fiction Film London Mime Performance Physical Theatre Piano Theatre

  The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel at Wilton’s Music Hall review ****

  The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel Wilton’s Music Hall, 16th January 2020 I was much taken with one of Told By An Idiot’s previous productions Napoleon Disrobed, which featured its co-founder and AD Paul Hunter alongside Ayesha Antoine, whose career unsurprisingly has gone fro strength to strength…

  March 6, 2020
• Age Ballet Beauty Classical Music Culture Edwardian Fiction Film Literature London Love Opera Venice

  Death in Venice at the Royal Opera House *****

  Death in Venice Royal Opera House, 3rd December 2019 Fresh from the superlative semi-staged version of Peter Grimes from Ed Gardner, the Bergen PO and assorted chums and straight into this. A top drawer new version of Death in Venice from David McVicar. I have fond memories of seeing Deborah…

  January 26, 2020
• Acting Culture Dreams Fiction London Myths Stories Theatre Truth

  The Antipodes at the National Theatre review ****

  The Antipodes National Theatre Dorfman, 23rd November 2019 I’ll tell you what. That Annie Baker backs herself. Here is another long play, near 2 hours straight through, where, visually, nothing much happens, bar a properly weird interlude, and dense with word. And this time it is a story about stories,…

  January 14, 2020
• Acting Agency Authorship Class Comedy Culture Fiction Literature London Love Theatre

  The Watsons at the Menier Chocolate Factory review *****

  The Watsons Menier Chocolate Factory, 16th November 2019 Fannyed about and failed to book this when it came to Chichester. Wasn’t about to make the same mistake again so quick off the mark when the transfer to the MCF was announced and a three line whip to include the SO…

  December 10, 2019
• Acting Crime Culture Family Fiction Film Literature London Theatre Thriller

  The Lovely Bones at the Rose Theatre Kingston review *****

  The Lovely Bones Rose Theatre Kingston, 26th October 2019 The Lovely Bones, co-produced by Birmingham Rep, Royal and Derngate, Northern Stage and Liverpool Everyman, is just to wrap up its tour in Chichester. If you saw it good on you. If you didn’t then make sure you sign up for…

  November 27, 2019
• Classics Culture Education Fiction Greece Literature London Novel Theatre

  Jude at the Hampstead Theatre review ***

  Jude Hampstead Theatre, 8th May 2019 I am guessing if you are the playwright responsible for The Churchill Play, Epsom Downs, The Romans in Britain, Pravda, Paul, 55 Days and Lawrence After Arabia you can get to write pretty much what you like. Especially if you plainly have a history…

  May 21, 2019