Holly Williams

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Did leave me puzzling more generally about the point of Shakespeare North... I don't wanna be some boring traditionalist and insist on ruffs and candlelight or whatever - but is it is getting a bit odd that a replica Shakespearean theatre only really stages comic, contemporary updates...?

Love’s Labour’s Lost review — is this Shakespeare or a Nineties club comedy? Goofy performances save this Ibiza-set take on the Bard, but why does a Shakespearean replica theatre seem to trust the playwright so little?

And Love's Labour Lost (More or Less) - which was definitely less Shakespeare, more Venga Boys... Three stars: not totally my bag, this, but a brilliant cast really sell it and it's a fun and funny night out

The House Party review — this Strindberg update crackles with energy Laura Lomas’s contemporary take on Miss Julie is a zesty tangle of desire and resentment, brilliantly acted

Plus a couple of recent reviews: four stars for The House Party from me - Headlong and Frantic Assembly's update of Miss Julie

With Love, Meghan and the unstoppable rise of the 'domestic goddess' From Martha Stewart to Meghan: Why there's no stopping the TV celebrity homemaker – and why "we're in a retro domestic goddess moment".

I, too, have written something about Meghan Markle. And trad wives. Oh yes! Although wrote this before the show aired, so it's less fine-grain, detail-heavy Meghan mockery, and more general "oh, the lies capitalism sells us about how about to a woman!!"

So pleased to publish this ace piece - feels like the sort of thing Exeunt can host that wouldn’t get space anywhere else

Lora has written a thoughtful essay on being an migrant and being an artist - but it’s also a creative response, featuring its own instructions for an imaginary performance… 🔥🔥

Featuring the Hendos factory, natch.

(And art direction from @tommofowler.bsky.social)

Put on my most orange clothes and took my very orange paperback - half set in Sheffield- on a tour of other orange things around Sheffield! 🍊

"Real, raw, funny and hopeful – The Start of Something had me hooked" - Rosie Price

"Effortlessly fluid. Moving and surprising" - Lily Lindon

"Brilliantly clever" - Anoushka Warden

"Original, addictive and so much fun" - Roxy Bourdillon

"Challenging, inspiring and finely wrought" - Helen Mort

Self-promotion is gross - here's what other people say!

"A total joy. I loved it" - Stylist

"A big-hearted, thought-provoking read about the search for connection” - Marie Claire

"An elegant novel of sex and intimacy" - The i

"Skillfully explores situationships in all their messy glory" - Grazia

It’s… PAPERBACK PUBLICATION daaaay! Excited that my slimmer, cheaper, but still very orange, book is now out in the world…

The Start of Something by Holly Williams | Waterstones Buy The Start of Something by Holly Williams from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

Great to see @waterstones.bsky.social doing a sweet deal on pre-orders - 25% off upcoming books!

And that just about includes The Start of Something which is out in paperback THIS THURSDAY... meaning with the discount it's a mere £7.50 (giant elbows not included)

Sad to miss the show! Glad not to be exploded!

But in all seriousness, this rather weird situation (didn’t know quite what was going on, just that there were A Lot of police cars around) was handled calmly and brilliantly by the staff at Hull Truck - bravo

Bomb squad called to 'suspicious package' found in Hull People are advised to avoid the area around St Stephen's Shopping Centre until further notice.

Well I think this is the first time I’ve been in a bomb scare at a theatre…

tonight’s production of Mary and the Hyenas at Hull Truck evacuated, seemingly because of a ‘suspicious package’ in a neighbouring shopping centre

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’m impressed at you scaling the hills in heels! 👏🏻

YES, glad to hear it!

'I wasn’t interested in writing just a trans play - Otherland is about womanhood' Chris Bush talks about her own experience as a trans woman for the first time - and explains why her new show is actually so much bigger than that

It was a real pleasure to get to chat properly with @chrisbushwrites.bsky.social about her new play Otherland - eight years in the making, and both an unusually personal play for her, and also a typically expansive, theatrical one…

exeuntmagazine.substack.com/p/i-wasnt-in...

Delighted to actually get commissioned to write about one of my minor grumbles about Sheffield… why does no one dress up here??

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy walking boots in the pub as much as the next Peak District fan, but I also miss a sense of sartorial flourish…

this is so helpful, thank you! (also: waves shyly, as a novelist and book reviewer)

Belated sharing of my interview with Billy Nomates and Maureen Lennon about a new show on Mary Wollstonecraft - this was a fun one!

No indeed - you’ll need to pay for journalism you want to read 🙂

Belated repost for Friday's Exeunt piece, I'm chatting once more about my love for Sheffield but also how different reviewing work here can feel...

A snippet!

It was all I could think of to the extent I put in my review!!

I have more thoughts about The Employees than fit here but:
- loved total vision of it, the intensity, atmosphere
- amazing performances
- fascinating source material, if not fully explored
- too slow/ponderous = too long
- wished we'd been let in more: video SO well done, but distancing

Calamity Jane review — who can resist a thigh-slapping hoedown? A goofy and good-humoured cast led by Carrie Hope Fletcher gives us an entirely traditional, jolly and uncomplicated Wild West romp at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

Actually I'm afraid I could resist: this dead-straight Calamity Jane was not really for me. Surely this musical is crying out for a radical intervention (make it dark and weird! Play that queer subtext! Or any subtext!)

But I also accept not everyone wants subversion, so...

Very much enjoyed Revenge: After the Levoyah at @theyardtheatre.bsky.social (as mentioned in this week's Exeunt) - very funny, very silly, and subtly very smart on lots of complicated stuff. I also enjoyed how hard @tommofowler.bsky.social laughed at the pivotal role chrain played in the getaway...

Strictly Come Dancing Live! review — a glitzy victory lap for the TV show The 2024 winner Chris McCausland may not be part of the live stage tour, but the runners up revisited their routines with infectious glee at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham

Had a frankly headspinning 48 hours of viewing over the weekend: the Strictly Live Show to Revenge: After the Levoyah to Calamity Jane to The Employees... variety is the spice etc

Strictly was predictably slick, glittery entertainment:

Design can sometimes be overlooked in reviews - and critics certainly don’t often get the space to take a long view or write about a whole career… I hope these can do that. And also celebrate the incredible talent of lots of our designers!

AND Rosemary just writes beautifully about it ✨

So happy to have Rosemary Waugh doing this occasional series for us, going in deep in a kind of career retrospective exploring a designer’s work, their aesthetic, their collaborators, their development…