The English Guide to...

Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are well-known for their controversial use in modern warfare , but in recent years similar technology has been employed by humanitarian operations to assist in disaster situations. A crash-landed UN MONUSCO drone in the DRC. Image Source  The concept of re-purposing military-born technology for peaceful, civilian tasks has existed for thousands of years. In the ancient analogy, the ploughshare represents a productive tool that benefits humanity while the sword, although superficially similar, has a quite contrary purpose. Drone use in the humanitarian sector has been growing rapidly. In disaster situations, drones are used to assess damage to structures , find survivors in remote or dangerous locations , transport medical equipment and rapidly map disaster zones . Image source Drone creating GIS data in an earthquake zone.  Source Notable examples of future applications include the Ambulance D...

I don't think I was the only one in the auditorium not expecting a play about the last man to be hanged - (or is that hung?) in England to be as funny as this. Perhaps, you say, I should have looked it up beforehand- but who wants to risk accidentally reading something that skews their perspective or forces them to notice a tiny hole in the plot? In this case my strategy paid off - who wants to struggle through a couple of hours of a playwright's quiet contemplation on  a rainy Monday night ? We are introduced to Harry Wade (David Morrissey), England's second-best hangman and now pub landlord. He gives an interview to a London journalist visiting Oldham for the day (queue plenty of North/South jokes), adding to his local celebrity status and boasting in his talents as an executioner. When Harry's daughter goes missing he quickly suspects Peter Mooney ( Johnny Flynn),  a loud, charming yet rather creepy southerner who has recently turned up out of the blue.  Se...

An AC/DC riff jangles through my head as I leave the Cambridge junction following the penultimate performance of an 18 month UK tour of Grounded. It is an hour long journey in the hands of a reluctant UAV pilot from the US Air Force which leaves us with more than a few questions about the reality of modern warfare. Director Christopher Haydon brings us up close to The Pilot, played by Lucy Ellison, as she comes to terms with being a member of the "chair-force" - a phrase she repeats with plenty of sarcasm and distaste. As a fully-fledged female Top Gun, our hero is full of all the bravado you'd expect from a highly trained military asset. She regales us with stories of her time out in the wide open "blue" (sky) as a fighter pilot, clearly smart and skilled and without an ounce of humility. Following a break from the war, she finds herself pregnant and somewhat excited about the prospect despite the risk of having to let go of her plane and "the blu...

I read a review of John from the Daily Mail which called it a " National DISGRACE". Which mostly served to make me want to see it more. Hannes Langolf performing as John It's brought to us by the physical theatre group DV8 , whose name alone is probably enough to put off the average daily mail reader. It's a piece of verbatim theatre which means that the words are taken directly from real situations - in this case interviews with a number of people. The play begins by focussing on the title's John with the tragic, painful story of his upbringing. The script, taken directly from the words of real people is made into a visual display by the graceful yet powerful movement of the dancers (should that be actors? ).  One thing that works very well and feels incredibly fresh is how the dancers are not silent during their pieces. We are so used to dancers becoming mute the moment they enter the stage, that it is exciting (and pretty impressive) to hear them ...

Golem is a thoroughly modern play which probably isn't for everyone (I saw at least 6 people get up  and leave before the first half hour was up). It runs for 90 minutes with no interval, and showcases dance, music and performance art in an original way.  At one point the  characters perform in an 80s synth-punk band called Annie and the Underdogs, which I can't get out of my head a week later. There are moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity mixed in throughout the play. I can't fault the script or storyline but I can understand how the style of the performance could grate on people. In fact there were moments where, despite my fondness of quirky theatre, I felt on edge from the offbeat pacing and (deliberate) awkwardness of the characters. However, if you can get past those minor points, Golem is a brilliantly original piece of theatre. The play is all about technology, and an impressive amount of digital technology is used by animator Paul Barritt in realising t...

[I wrote this post back in January following the second night of the performance's original two week run at the Royal Court. The tour of this play continues into 2015.] Samuel Beckett, I have begun to realise, is quite a big deal for those who know theatre. An Irish playwright who spent much of his adulthood in Paris writing in both French and English, he is a figurehead of something called 'theatre of the absurd'. The only previous knowledge I had of Beckett's work is a rather well known play called 'Waiting for Godot' of which knowledge, the majority comes from Sesame Street's version of the play renamed 'Waiting for Elmo' which you can see here ( http://youtu.be/ksL_7WrhWOc ) Waiting for Godot is a play about basically nothing at all (except perhaps the writer's own existential crisis) and features two characters called Vladimir and Estragon (or Grover and Telly Monster) as they wait for Godot (or Elmo) endlessly and fruitlessly wh...

I wasn't sure what to expect of the performance on Thursday evening. A form of 'verbatim' theatre involving a leading climate scientist and directed by Katie Mitchell, who previously explored the future of human life on Earth through the lens of a scientist in Ten Billion with scientist Stephen Emmott. Will there be acting involved? Will we be subjected to corporate-style PowerPoint presentations?  The play seeks to ask what legacy we as a species are leaving for future generations, whether we are responsible, and what- if anything- can be done to slow the (literally) rising tides.  In this performance Chris Rapley, professor of climate science at UCL takes centre stage, alone, to deliver what is essentially a lecture. But it is more than that. The set is simple, a dark stage containing a simple chair to the right hand side, a glass of water on the adjacent table. As our scientist humbly takes the stage there is no fanfare, the lights are dim and we can truly see t...