Thursday, November 21

Tag: Taylor McClaine

The Lieutenant of Inishmore – Liverpool Everyman
North West

The Lieutenant of Inishmore – Liverpool Everyman

Martin McDonagh’s darkly satirical exploration of violence, extremism, and the cyclical nature of retribution resonates as much with today’s challenges of nationalism, radicalism, and unchecked ideology as it did to Ireland’s troubled past when, having been written in 1994, it eventually premiered in 2001. For all the talk of good luck when a black cat crosses your path, Donny (Alan Turkington), Davey (Taylor McClaine) and wayward Republicans Christy (Cameron McKendrick), Brendan (Michael Tient), and Joey (Jason Kelly) are about to discover what ensues when you cross a black cat belonging to Donny’s son, Padraic (Julian Moore-Cook) – a man so mad that much to his chagrin, most mainstream terrorist organisations won’t have him as a member. Throw in a wannabee rebel in Davey’s sister, Mai...
Orlando – Jermyn Street Theatre
London

Orlando – Jermyn Street Theatre

One can’t help but wonder what Virginia Woolf would make of the Kardashians, porn ogling MPs, and rising transphobia. She’d surely be a lively wag on Twitter, but likely view TikTok as ghastly and common.  Her most popular work, Orlando, is the poetic Magna Carta of subversive queerness, wry feminism and trans magic. On Brexit island in 2022, Empire is celebrated with dim blindness, but in 1928, Woolf used her most joyful literary turn to skewer British imperialism with withering disdain.  Due to its fantastical spirit, people often overlook the book’s political satire. Orlando is a transgressive free spirit, but the English patriarchy proves a persistent prison, regardless of epoch, and despite wealth, beauty and mystical eternal youth.  After Orlando’s male-to-fem...