Besotted from first glance, the untameable Alfredo Germont (Alexander Gebhard) says of his love for Violetta Valéry (Seljan Nasibli) that it is “both cross and delight of the heart”—a telling turn of phrase, given the lustful ecstasy of Act I and the subsequent tragedy of the opera’s conclusion. Under the baton of Hannah Schneider and the direction of Sean Kelly, however, this adaptation of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata was fortunately far more delight than tragedy. Directed by Sean Kelly, Oxford Alternative Orchestra’s adaptation took as its setting the ‘modern Northeast United States,’ seekin ..read more

At the Edinburgh Book Festival in August 2017, author Zadie Smith sparked off a round of internet criticism by suggesting that makeup and attention to appearance were a ‘waste of time’ for young girls and women. Smith told the crowd she had chosen to limit her young daughter’s time in front of the mirror, and called women who spent too much effort on their face ‘foolish’. Commentators alternately applauded her for teaching her child to reclaim valuable time, or criticised her oversight of how many women truly enjoy the rituals and effects of wearing makeup. Smith’s comments touched a nerve and ..read more

‘Narrative cannot order experience, but only register something about the quality of experience.’ A tale of multi-layered, multi-faceted maturation, Jan Fortune’s This Is The End Of The Story (Liquorice Fish Books, 2017) revolves around a central and formative friendship.  Set between the seventies and the nineties of the previous century, with chapters separated by months, then years, then decades, the novel’s structure imbues Fortune’s coming-of-age narrative with an intriguing metafictional quality, its chronology as subjective and incomplete as memory itself. By repeated telling ..read more

From a career perspective, the middle initial is the would-be sci-fi writer’s greatest asset. Especially if you also hope to maintain a career in the Literary Sphere, a good middle initial can demarcate your science fiction from the ‘real world’ stuff, while still reeling in your inbuilt audience. Hence Iain M. Banks, Jenny T. Colgan, and the subject of today’s review, Naomi A. Alderman. Now world-famous as the author of 2016 bestseller The Power, in 2011 Alderman was “only” a very successful and respected literary novelist, known for titles including Disobedience and The Lessons. Apparen ..read more

I hesitate before I answer one particular question that I am regularly asked: what do you write? I write memoir. My reticence is indirectly related to the idea that memoir ranks quite low in the hierarchy of creative literature — there is something about the very premise of the genre that can cause a knee-jerk reaction in some readers. Apparently memoir is too personal. It’s self-involved. It’s exhibitionist, egotist, self-indulgent, and unsophisticated. Even the success of Eat, Pray, Love was not enough to shield its author from accusations of being ‘spoiled’ and ‘navel-gazing’. I disagree wi ..read more

12 May 1299. The day of the sentencing. Bompietro of Giovanni and Giuliano of Salimbene, both pursemakers from the parish of San Martino dell-Aposa, are publicly condemned for the crime of heresy. They stand in front of a large crowd gathered in Bologna’s main square. The bones of Rosaflore, an old lady, posthumously condemned for the same crime, are sentenced to burn alongside them. Upon hearing the sentence the younger man, Bompietro, cries out a final request. He wishes to receive ‘the body of Christ’ – a last Holy communion, and final chance at redemption. Unmoved, the inquisitor refuses t ..read more

If you’re reading this in 2018, you probably don’t need reminding of the dangers of national pride. Countries around the world seem to be succumbing to the temptations of a divisive, vainglorious, and illiberal patriotism. In the Philippines, president Rodrigo Duterte has made it a crime to sing the national anthem unenthusiastically. The government of India has warned its citizens that ‘antinational’ criticism of the country will not be tolerated under free speech laws. And in Europe, the far-right is once again garnering strong support in local and national elections. At times it can all fee ..read more

Earlier this year, The Sun ran a story about a new edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, with the headline “FLAKENSTEINS: Snowflake students claim Frankenstein’s monster was ‘misunderstood’ — and is in fact a VICTIM.” The article was mainly a thinly-veiled excuse to sneer at, among other things, the concept of human rights, but the story was also picking up on a similar article in The Times earlier that week: “Frankenstein’s monster? He was stitched up, say millennials.” The Sun piece caused a predictable round of social media guffaws thanks to its reactionary tone and apparent ignorance tha ..read more

When the Viking Thorolf arrived in Iceland in the ninth century, he saw pure beauty. The primordial landscape was, in his eyes, an image of paradise. He and his family settled on the Snaefellsnes peninsula, home to a vast, intimidating mountain, Snaefeljokull, and a more minor, serene looking mountain named Helgafell, both of which loom over large green fields. At the end of these fields lies a precipitous drop to the ocean, which thunders against the sheer basalt cliffs. No doubt to Thorolf, this landscape evoked the world at the moment of its creation; timeless, shapeless, and devoid of man ..read more

Four Seven Two’s production of Brave New World begins and ends with a tree. In the beginning the tree is illuminated — the white silhouetted branches provide a visual centre to the set, and a canvas for Seb Dows-Miller’s projections as the futuristic tones of John Paul’s sound design plays. When the tree first pulses with blue light, it suggests the tree of life. But as the play progresses, the tree comes to symbolise the tree of knowledge. In the final, disturbing stage image, a noose swings from the tree’s branches — John, the ‘noble savage’ who is introduced partway through the story, hangs ..read more