Holly Sewell, Author at North West End UK

31Oct

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

The Line of Beauty – Almeida Theatre

Alan Hollinghurst’s 2004 novel The Line of Beauty takes its title from William Hogarth’s work on the empirical analysis of aesthetics. Its protagonist, Nick Guest, is obsessed with this idea of beauty; he drifts from gorgeous lover to gorgeous lover, coming alive only for sex and conversations about Henry James; he is enticed by the lifestyle of the wealthy, but doesn’t quite belong in their world. The Almeida's adaptation of the novel grapples with Nick’s struggle between his aesthete sensibilities and impossibility of life as a young gay man during Thatcherism and the AIDS crisis. Michael Grandage’s production captures the ‘80s zeitgeist deliciously. There’s ‘80s pop anthems throughout, booming from the radio onstage and smoothing over scene transitions; and, conversely, there’s the e...

13Oct

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

Da Vinci’s Laundry – Riverside Studios

What gives a piece of art its value? Is it purely aesthetic? Is it arbitrary, decided in reverse once a piece’s price is set? Why did Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog sell for nearly $60 million? These are the questions grappled with by auctioneers Christopher and Milly in Da Vinci’s Laundry when they are forced to go through with a $450 million sale of a recently uncovered Da Vinci that they know is a fake. Keelan Kember's’ choice of high-end art as a subject is full of potential. He paints a picture of a world run by the dirty rich, where art experts’ opinions are reduced to box-ticking exercises that can in any case be overruled by those with enough power. Christopher, the timid auction house representative, is threatened with a 100-foot plummet from a gangster's balcony if he refuses to sell...

3Oct

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

Bacchae – National Theatre

Nima Taleghani’s Bacchae is an explicitly pro-women reading of the Euripedes’ tragedy, if one that feels slightly dated (and not because of the Ancient Greek setting). It flips the focus of the play to its Greek chorus: the women of the Bacchae narrate, while the traditionally leading Dionysos, Agave and Pentheus become funnier, more ridiculous and more pitiable characters. The chorus of Bacchae is led by Vida, brought to gritty and sparkling life by Clare Perkins. Dionysos’ foster mother, she guides them through the mountains to arrive at Thebes, where they plan to liberate every woman from patriarchy, join their cult, and drink, suck and fuck to her heart’s desire. Indhu Rubasingham’s production and Taleghani’s script are both undeniably fun. The atmosphere in the Olivier is joyful...

18Sep

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

Romans: A Novel – Almeida Theatre

Three brothers are born to daughterless parents sometime in the eighteenth century. Each is uniquely traumatised by his upbringing: the beatings of boarding school, the horrors of war, the witnessing of his father’s suicide by a gunshot to the roof of the mouth. And yet each must go on with life. Romans: A Novel is a story of three men, spanning 150 years, trying to answer the question of what it means to be a man - in other words, what it means to live. Alice Birch’s study of masculinity is focused, among other things, on the importance of the written word in deciding who gets to have a voice. Its structure is informed by the development of the novel: we begin with Jack Roman narrating his own life alone onstage, wandering into the fog and meeting his long-lost uncle, presumed dead fro...

The Pitchfork Disney – King’s Head Theatre

3Sep

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

The Pitchfork Disney – King’s Head Theatre

“Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear / and fear is the most divine emotion.” Zora Neale Hurston’s sermon-like words, which open The Pitchfork Disney’s epigraph, paint fear as a sacramental rite in the pursuit of wisdom. Fear allows us to know truth; it is holy because it is the realest thing there is. Pitchfork’s characters live in the realm of dreams, but their words are devastating precisely because they touch the darkest knowledge each of us carries in our gut: we are afraid, and we are right to be. Philip Ridley’s debut play is often credited for sparking the ‘90s ‘in-yer-face’ British theatre movement. Its influence extends to the likes of Sarah Kane and Jez Butterworth: the blood, guts, sex and violence that is so unflinchingly depicted in Ridley’s script carries over i...

19Jul

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

Four Play – King’s Head Theatre

If you’re queer and living in London in 2025, chances are you know someone in an open relationship. You might think it’s a fad; you might think it’s the only reasonable response to widespread capitalist ideas about love. Either way, it feels like monogamy is increasingly followed by a question mark in discussions around modern dating. Monogamy, non-monogamy and their common downfalls are the subject of Jake Brunger’s Four Play. A couple of seven (and a half!) years strong start to feel the itch. They believe that a one-off arrangement with their friend Michael will solve the problem: one shag each, questions answered, book closed. Michael’s relationship governs that he cannot sleep with friends, but a discussion with his partner gives him the green light. The arrangement proceeds, and t...

9Jul

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

The Constant Wife – Swan Theatre

W. Somerset Maugham’s The Constant Wife, written and set nearly half a century after A Doll’s House, transforms Ibsen’s critiques of marriage into a sparkling 1920s comedy of manners. It’s hard not to compare with Ibsen’s masterpiece, but the purpose here is different: less a rallying cry, more a pragmatic question. What should you do if your perfect husband has an affair? The eponymous Constance is married to the right kind of man, with the right kind of job, in the right kind of house. Unfortunately, the man in question is having an affair with Constance’s best friend. By a stroke of (bad?) luck, Constance catches the two of them in the act - but decides to keep it to herself. Over the course of the next year, she hatches a plan to gain economic independence from her husband in secret...

STARS: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey – Brixton House

11Jun

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

STARS: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey – Brixton House

STARS: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey fulfils and surpasses every inch of its title. It’s the odyssey of one woman’s life on Earth and her need to go beyond, and encompasses everything from Monday mornings at the laundrette to primordial, ancestral spirits from the stars. It is asintimate as sex and as enormous as the cosmos. It made me feel seen, uplifted and part of something bigger than myself, and I cannot recommend it enough. When her husband dies, Mrs (Debra Michaels) decides to take matters into her own hands and have her first orgasm. She’s not sure where to start, but space travel seems as good a place as any. Woven into the first half of the play is the story of the Nommo, an ancient hermaphroditic people from a star called Sirius B, beautifully illustrated by Candice Purwin. M...

31May

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

Failure Project – Soho Theatre

Yolanda Mercy’s Failure Project is a sharp, cathartic and touching story of a woman who just can’t seem to catch a break - professionally, personally or creatively. It’s a sobering reflection of the theatre industry for emerging and mid-career writers, and the realities that face anyone trying to forge a career in the arts. The story follows a 33-year-old playwright, Ade, who is commissioned by a London theatre to write a script about her time on a scholarship at a posh private school. Over six months, her story is distorted beyond recognition by a production team that sidelines her as soon as the script is done. She is dismissed as an actor, interrupted and ignored. Still, the commission stands. To the outside world, Ade is a success. Mercy digs into failure in every facet of Ade’s...

19May

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

Diagnosis – Finborough Theatre

Athena Stevens commands the stage in the world premiere of her new play, Diagnosis, playing at the Finborough Theatre. In a dystopian London police station, a woman with a disability, S/he (Athena Stevens), is questioned about an alleged assault against a stranger. In accordance with new procedural law around ‘vulnerable individuals’, she is taped, watched by an audience through a one-way mirror, and forced to be taken seriously - or that’s the idea. In reality, the endless red tape acts less as a support system than as a distraction from the truth of her story. The set is immediately eerie. There is one window, blinds drawn, through which an ominous red glow seeps into Juliette Demoulin’s dark interrogation room. A camera on a tripod records and projects onstage the entire questioni...