Ink Pellet

Heading into our 25th year of publication, all at Ink Pellet wish you all a far more settled and hassle-free term ahead! Just when the theatre industry and live events were settling down to a busy festive period, the latest wave swept through and we

Macbeth is a full-scale, gripping, 90-minute production in the Globe Theatre created specifically for young people, but is also a perfect introduction to Shakespeare for all ages and stages. This year marks the 16th anniversary of the Playing Shakesp

They are rehearsing in an additional understudy. And I sit at the back of the empty stalls and watch the meticulous work until there’s a short “tea break” and Isobel is free to come and chat to me. Her co-director, Simon Harvey, hospitably pops off t

The cast includes 150 students, studying on Chickenshed’s inclusive Further and Higher Education courses. Paul Morrall, Chickenshed’s Director of Education Training and Outreach, explains: “By inclusive we mean that education and performing arts, stu

It’s always a pleasure to visit Sylvia Young Theatre School. Its astonishingly attractive building is a light, bright, lofty former church just off Edgware Road. Complete with stained glass, pillars and grandiloquent staircases, it has been converted

There is a dark depth in Mark Farrelly’s work which has struck me each of the three times I’ve seen him on stage. And it’s worryingly intriguing. That’s why I wanted to talk to him in real life to find out where it all comes from. And I got rather mo

As is traditional now for me in Ink Pellet, wishing you new year’s greetings for 2022, it gives me great pleasure to bring you the best of the year ahead in art. It’s another bumper year, back to the good old days it seems, pre-Covid, of BIG shows up

I live in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is, I learned recently, London’s most diverse borough. And that is one of the many things I love about it. When, five years ago, I moved back to my native borough after many decades of living in Kent, the

by Traci N. Todd Published by Scribble Nina Simone was born in North Carolina and showed musical promise from babyhood, encouraged by both parents although her preacher mother did not approve of secular music. This account – which is evocatively illu

by Elif Shafak Published by Viking/Penguin We’re in Cyprus – or at least thinking back to how it has been there – from the point of view of a teenager in a London school in the late 2010s. Her parents had married across the Greek/Turkish divide which

It’s often forgotten that the British Library is a repository of manuscripts not just books and this enlightening exhibition (postponed from 2020 which was the 250th anniversary of his birth) shows what a surprisingly wide range of Beethoven texts ar

A surreal play, dating from 1974, Habeas Corpus is farce without the clutter. Director Patrick Marber and his team know how to make vintage Bennett sing. The piece makes no attempt at realism. The set consists of a coffin, identities are continually

Usually listed rather uneasily as a comedy, Measure for Measure is actually a pretty serious play although it descends close to farce in Acts 4 and 5, which is why it’s often dubbed a “problem play”. Blanche McIntyre’s 1970s-set version plays it for

How did you get into drama? When I was about seven, I took part in several week-long drama parties. A bit like summer school but our parents organised it and brought in directors. It was basically dressing up and having fun! What about school? I went

25% off as £30 Just £22.50 per year! Your annual Ink Pellet subscription includes: • Six issues per year – bringing you the latest from across the arts world, with useful advice for English & Drama teachers and students looking to further their studi