Mark Ludmon

Back in the 90s, I paid my parents rent in the same circumstances after uni. I had a job, albeit on a low wage, so of course I paid something. But then we didn’t have student loans to worry about.

Photo by Manuel Harlan showing members of the cast on stage.

My brain is brimming from all the ideas and insights in Stoppard’s Arcadia, brilliantly staged in Carrie Cracknell’s enthralling new production at the Old Vic. I can’t pretend to understand all the maths and science but, as Stoppard wrote, “It's the wanting to know that makes us matter.”

Who “he”?

Phoenix Arts Club appeals for £100k to stay open

The Phoenix Arts Club in the West End is mounting an urgent fundraiser to secure its continued operation, warning that it is facing an annual £100,000 shortfall 👇

There's a Grim New Expression: "AI;DR" The slang is a sign of how overrun the internet is with AI slop — and how the real humans using it are fed up.

“AI; DR.” Next up: “AI slop” as this year’s playground insult?

futurism.com/artificial-i...

Always intriguing to see job ads on LinkedIn where it clearly instructs applicants to apply only via the recruiter’s email address but still it shows many people have applied via EasyApply on #LinkedIn.

Interesting insights from Zinnie Harris here. (And, yes, toxic masculinity and male violence are clearly still highly topical!)

Surprised to hear that the Rolling Stones and Boney M and the estates of James Brown and Aretha Franklin endorsed this piece of MAGA propaganda.

I thought Mackenzie Crook’s Small Prophets on BBC2/iPlayer was a perfectly formed strange and magical gem but apparently there’s going to be more….
#SmallProphets

Such a tragedy. I first remember Eric Dane from Charmed over 20 years ago. He looks so young in it now.

Restructure the monarchy into the aristocratic insignificance it deserves?

I can’t resist a spooky tale so jumped right in with Australian series Playing Gracie Darling on Netflix and it turns out to co-star Dame Harriet Walter!

With a bushy greying beard and shaggy hair, Pearce Quigley stands on a path on a garden holding two large glass jars.

Mackenzie Crook’s new BBC Two comedy, Small Prophets, on BBC iPlayer is utterly enchanting. A wonderful and strange story with an excellent cast led by the brilliant Pearce Quigley.

Faces of fakery: More fake and AI generated experts con their way into media New research from Press Gazette has uncovered a fresh tranche of likely fake and AI-generated experts making their way into UK publications.

An interesting investigation by Press Gazette. I can’t believe anyone would think that AI slop is “progress” or useful, especially as it’s stealing from the work of real-life writers.

pressgazette.co.uk/news/faces-o...

I am finding this trend very strange. Pubs and bars were not designed to accommodate queues of people snaking back from the bar — and I say this as someone who notoriously finds it difficult to get served.

Amazing. I have actually been a spa reviewer and I can recommend it to him as a pleasant but not particularly well paid career path.

Seven women and a man singing in Ballad Lines

Finn Anderson’s new musical, Ballad Lines, at Southwark Playhouse Elephant is glorious. Beautiful & heartfelt, with haunting, spirited folksy tunes and stunning performances including Frances McNamee, Kirsty Findlay & Rebecca Trehearn. Now listening to the cast recording!

Did I need to see yet another production of Sondheim’s Into the Woods? Probably not but I enjoyed Jordan Fein’s at Bridge Theatre, with some great performances including Jo Foster as Jack, Jamie Parker as the Baker and Chumisa Dornford-May as Cinderella.
📸 Johan Persson
#Sondheim

Bridge Theatre in London behind a bare winter tree

Into the Woods and through the trees…

A puppet of a Renaissance man holding a red rose from Death of Gesualdo

Looking forward to seeing the Gesualdo Six & Bill Barclay’s new show, Death of Gesualdo, at St Martin-in-the-Fields tonight — about the early-modern composer, Carlo Gesualdo, who wrote incredible music but also got away with murdering his wife. Music, dance, theatre and puppets are promised.

A reminder from physicist and science communicator Abigail James that despite all the chat about “AI”, we don’t actually have AI (yet).
www.instagram.com/reel/DTgEbPd...

Mia McKenna-Bruce as Lady Eileen holding an alarm clock in a garden

Chris Chibnall’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s thriller, The Seven Dials Mystery, on Netflix is a proper ripping yarn, with some lovely performances. I’m not sure what Christie would think but I’d be up for a new adventure with Mia McKenna-Bruce’s plucky Lady Eileen.
#SevenDials

A moment that changed me: in the bombed-out ruins of an apartment block, I saw a book I’d translated The sight of my work, torn and singed but still legible, made me realise the importance of translating and protecting stories – so they remain when everything else falls away

“To translate is not just to haul stories across languages, but to help them remain when everything else falls away.” #translation

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

So it seems I’m now a Sicilian potter turned theatre producer

AND ANOTHER THING, WHILE I'M AT IT:

ENOUGH WITH THESE BULLSHIT CLAIMS THAT AI CAN REPLACE HUMAN TRANSLATORS!!!

Translation is *not* the science of finding the perfect definition of a word from a foreign language and putting that definition into the text.

Translators translate, of course. But!

Just write what you know. If you just write "what you know", you've got three words, and no matter how many times you repeat it, it's still going to be a crappy story.

I am left speechless whenever a 29-year-old comes out with things like, “I used to be so afraid of getting old, and now I just think it’s the best thing ever”.

Uncanny - Series 5 - Case 9: Christmas Casebook with Diane Morgan - BBC Sounds Danny Robins unpacks a Christmas hamper of horror with special guest Diane Morgan.

Like Diane Morgan, I’m not into Christmas but I am into ghost stories at Christmas — but why oh why have I just listened to this while I’m staying in a 300-year-old building on my own!
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... #uncanny

A copy of The Stage weekly newspaper on a wooden table in a cafe next to a flat white in a black cup and saucer.

Settling down to read what must be the last-ever weekly issue of The Stage before it goes monthly.

End of an era: I remember picking it up from newsagents in the West End when I first starting coming into London to go to the theatre in the 1980s.

#londontheatre #theatre #journalism

Poster at Angel tube of Kath’s book, A Mind of my Own

The Angel has been my stomping ground since before I learned to swear so this gives me immense fucking pleasure!