At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

Category: Race

• Aesthetics Authorship Blues Capitalism Commodity Community Culture Disco Exploitation Funk Hip Hop Jazz Power Race Soul

  

  The Stuff of Dreams and Exploitation: The Co-option of Black music by a White industry

  In which we outline a century of economic extraction dressed as cultural appreciation

  May 21, 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
• Aesthetics Ancient History Beauty Capitalism Colonialism Commodity Consumption Economics Empire Exploitation History Ideology Luxury Political Economy Power Race Sculpture Walter Benjamin

  

  The Stuff of Dreams and Exploitation: The White Marble Lie

  In which we confront the ugly truth that lies beneath.

  May 10, 2026
• art Comedy Culture Ghana Identity India Medieval Monarchy Painting Photography Physical Theatre Power Race Religion Technology Theatre UK

  Catching up (Part 7)

  July 2021 Out West – The Overseas Student – Blue Water and Cold and Fresh – Go, Girl – Lyric Hammersmith – 7th July – ***** Rachel O’Riordan, the AD at the Lyric Hammersmith, might be as good if not better at programming plays as she is directing herself. And…

  January 31, 2023
• Agency art Capitalism Class Community Culture Exhibition Friendship Language London Masculinity Photography Place Power Privilege Race Religion Theatre Wales

  Catching up (Part 6)

  June 2021 Oleanna – Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath – 28th June – ***** Finally an opportunity to scratch that travel itch. The SO was forced to drive the Tourist around some of the loveliest parts of Northern England in early June, but the attractions were almost entirely architectural and…

  November 28, 2021
• 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
• Colonialism Culture Empire London Race Theatre Victorian

  The Gift at the Theatre Royal Stratford East review ***

  The Gift Theatre Royal Stratford East, 8th February 2020 Another in the lengthening list of contemporary plays where the reach of ambition exceeds the grasp of execution. Janice Okoh has set her sights on “imperialism, cross-racial adoption, cultural appropriation … and tea” with her “outrageous” play set firstly, in Victorian…

  May 7, 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
• Culture London Power Race Theatre USA

  Fairview at the Young Vic review ***

  Fairview Young Vic Theatre, 11th December 2019 Fell like a bit of a fraud putting pen to paper on this. For, I confess, I did not completely understand Fairview. African-American playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for the play. The conceit is ingenious. A birthday dinner for…

  January 30, 2020