Connections 2024 comes to Washington and wraparound events for Underdog
Plus what I did on my holidays
Hello and welcome to my Substack! This will be a shorter one than usual as I am just back from beautiful Belgrade, and then off to Edinburgh, so things are a little hectic around here…
[Image description: Hotel Moskva]
Theatre to book now
Northern Stage is doing a whole load of events centred around its big spring show, Underdog: The Other Other Brontë. The play has garnered quite mixed reviews – some reviewers loved it, some really did not – but everyone I know personally who has seen it enjoyed it, so I am looking forward to checking it out in June.
One such wraparound event is Fifteen Wild Decembers, exploring Emily Brontë with author Karen Powell, while another sees folk band The Unthanks sharing work from their Emily Brontë song cycle.
While I can’t quite figure out the Brontë connection (maybe it’s just that Faber members get a discount for Underdog tickets?), local author Eliza Clark will be celebrating the paperback publication of Penance (which I have heard very good things about, though I admit it is currently on my enormous TBR pile) in a New Writing North / Faber event chaired by Jessica Andrews.
The theatre is also hosting a pop-up book market through Underdog’s run, as well as the free exhibition All The Women We Could Have Been, featuring work by members of the In/Visible National Disabled Women’s Art Collective.
If all that is a bit staid for your tastes, then Wuthering Nights – a Kate Bush club night – sounds like an absolute riot. Particular props go to the Stranger Things styled logo…
Connections 2024 at Arts Centre Washington
Arts Centre Washington is hosting a range of plays as part of National Theatre’s annual nationwide youth theatre festival. It’s this week so get on it!
Back in The Day by Yasmeen Khan sees a bunch of schoolkids transported back to the 80s (no, it’s fine that my youth now counts as the distant past, really it is).
In Wind/Rush Generation(s) by Mojisola Adebayo, university students are haunted by Britain’s colonial past after messing around with a Ouija board, while Shout by Alexis Zegerman tackles anxiety and mental health issues in teens.
Other shows include Age is Revolting by Abi Zakarian, The Periodicals by Sian Owen and Orchestra by Charlie Josephine.
Read more about the festival here.
What I have been reading
As I have been away, it’s been very much a ‘holiday reading’ week, with my default setting of reading crime books on the train / plane. I’m still very much enjoying Mick Herron’s taut and twisty Slow Horses books, about a group of washed up spies in London; on the other end of the grittiness scale is Claudia Gray’s series set in the world of Jane Austen, which features Jonathan Darcy (yes, the son of) and Juliet Tilney (daughter of Northanger Abbey’s Catherine and Henry) solving murders. First up is the most deserving of victims, in The Murder of Mr. Wickham.
It’s a fun idea, and while writing about Jane Austen characters always risks unflattering comparisons with the originals (there’s a pretty full roster of favourites featured), I enjoyed this enough to read the rest of the series.
Beautiful Belgrade
The reason for no Substack last week was because a friend and I were visiting Belgrade in Serbia, to catch up with theatre critic (and good friend, obvs - I don’t randomly drop in on theatre critics around the world, honest) Natasha Tripney, of Café Europa fame (which you should all totally subscribe to, really you should). I’ve never been to the city before so wasn’t sure what to expect, but I loved it.
A cool European vibe, friendly people and plenty of great bars and restaurants (with a surprisingly excellent vegetarian selection everywhere we went) made for a great trip. I do love a city you can cover on foot, and there’s lots to look at wherever you go. It’s a city with interesting architecture, lots of nice parks, beautiful churches and plenty of culture (I particularly liked the Museum of Contemporary Art). There are also a ton of bookshops, including this one, which had not only a load of chandeliers but a bar… (neither, um, pictured).
[Image description: interior of bookshop cluttered with bookish goodies]
Of course, having a local as tour guide always gives you the inside track, and particular highlights were Riddle, a speakeasy style cocktail bar where instead of ordering off a menu, they quiz you on your tastes and make something they think you’d like, and Smokvica, a chain of restaurants that specialises in taking over buildings that have generous courtyards for laidback outdoor dining.
My tip: order the bread with everything, everywhere you go. It is DELICIOUS.
Sargent and Fashion
While in London, I managed to fit in a trip to the Tate Britain, and went to see the Sargent and Fashion exhibition. While I had forgotten how insanely expensive London exhibitions are (22 QUID! 22 QUID!), I did really enjoy it. It was fascinating to see some of Sargent’s best-loved portraits alongside the outfits that were worn in them, and see how these clothes were often tweaked to make a more interesting painting. (22 QUID, though…)
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Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.