About

About the website

There are plenty of fantastic theatre blogs on the internet already (although less for London than I expected) so before getting underway I had to ask myself before beginning on this venture is ‘what am I trying to do differently?’

Well for a start, as the name suggests, this is written by someone who is peering through the looking glass. I am not ‘in the biz’, an ‘actor’, a ‘luvvie’ or even someone ‘following the craft’. However I am someone who has seen and read an awful lot of plays in my time, who is interested in what theatre means and what theatre can do. Some of my most abiding memories come from the theatre; a spellbinding performance by David Suchet as Salieri in Amadeus. Enjoying Rupert Goold’s rich and textured productions of Macbeth and Six Characters in Such of an Author, whilst being left feeling entirely alienated by the same director’s take on King Lear with the (greatly missed) Pete Postlethwaite.

This site will be my personal reflections on plays I have been out to see; thinking about what they mean and how they go about telling us. It will be informed by dipping into the archive of my memory and supplemented by the fauxdemia that I have picked up along the way.

Ultimately it is to entertain and inform. Over time I hope to widen its focus; start to introduce articles, maybe a few interviews, add a sprinkling of news and rumour.

Above all I would like this to be a forum for ideas and comment. Don’t like what I have to say, let me know what you think. Got an idea about an article, want me to review your play or have a story worth telling – again just let me know.

About the author

I have lived in and around London all my life. The furthest north I’ve made it was the four years spent living in Colchester, where time was spent in pursuit of greater truths to be found in academia and beyond.

I was lucky enough to be brought up by parents who instilled an appreciation of the theatre from an early age, and I can still remember one of the earliests proper plays I was taken to – a production of Wind in the Willows at the National’s Olivier. The site of the stage revolving to reveal Toad Hall is one I am unlikely to ever forget.

Returning to London I have picked up the habit of theatre-going with gusto; the only things standing in my way are the sky-high prices of West End theatres and the occasionally lack of time as other pressures intrude.

One day I hope that the cultural world will find a space for my talents – although in the current financial climate this looks ever more doubtful. But until that day arrives, I shall continue to be standing on my tiptoes with my nose pressed firmly against the glass, trying to make sense of the carnival of colour and sound coming from the other side.

Contact me

If you would like to get in touch for any reason; if you have an idea for an article, want to tell me about an upcoming play, have some news or would like to write something yourself and don’t want to leave a comment on the site, then please get in touch.