Total Theatre Magazine

06/02/2025

The latest post on Total Theatre Magazine: Never on a Sunday, written by Lisa Wolfe.

At the crossroads of puppetry, dance and theatre, Dimanche is an award-winning co-production by Belgian companies Focus and Chaliwaté. It is set sometime in the near future, when humanity has failed to adapt to the new environmental reality of climate change. Lisa Wolfe witnesses – and wonders: when will we ever learn?

Presented by Sadler's Wells at Peacock Theatre, in association with MimeLondon.

At the crossroads of puppetry, dance and theatre, Dimanche is an award-winning co-production by Belgian companies Focus and Chaliwaté. It is set sometime in the near future, when humanity has failed to adapt to the new environmental reality of climate change. Lisa Wolfe witnesses – and wonders: w...

22/11/2024

Blow Your Trumpets, Angels!

The 60th performance of Jeremy Goldstein's Truth to Power Café took place on 3 November 2024 in Vancouver Canada, as part of The Chutzpah! Festival: The Lisa Nemetz Festival of International Jewish Performing Arts. It was presented live with a simultaneous live-stream broadcast across the world.

Dorothy Max Prior tuned in from afar, and reports here for Total Theatre Magazine

The 60th performance of Truth to Power Café took place on 3 November 2024 in Vancouver Canada, as part of The Chutzpah! Festival: The Lisa Nemetz Festival of International Jewish Performing Arts. It was presented live with a simultaneous live-stream broadcast across the world. Dorothy Max Prior tun...

12/11/2024

A bit of self-promotion from TT editor Dorothy Max Prior:

Do you need an editor? I’m currently taking on extra work. Let me know if you think I might be the person for you! I specialise in performing arts, narrative non-fiction and memoir; but I’m open to offers on other work.

I can work on completed manuscripts, giving constructive feedback; or on works-in-progress as a developmental editor. I am happy to work on whole books, short stories, essays, magazine articles, or plays/performance texts. I am also happy to do a comprehensive line-by-line edit on a full-draft manuscript, giving detailed suggestions for change. I do not take on proofreading work – this is the last stage of the editing process, and should ideally happen only when the work is almost ready for publication.

I can work on an hourly or daily rate, or can quote on word count.

More about me:

I have worked as an editor for 25 years. I am the editor of Total Theatre Magazine www.totaltheatre.org.uk which was in print from 1989 to 2012, then online. I am the former editor of Animations magazine, Circus Arts News, and the User's Guide series of performance journals.

I have concurrently worked as a freelance editor and/or researcher on numerous books, journals, magazines and academic papers. My work has included regular commissions from the British Council Publications Department, the Universities of Brighton and Winchester, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and the University of Haifa. I also work with individual writers and artists as mentor and editor.

I teach non-fiction and memoir writing, writing for performance, arts journalism, critical writing, and editing for writers. I am a visiting lecturer at Queen Margaret University (Edinburgh), Rose Bruford College of Drama, University of Chichester, and UNICAMP (Brazil).

I’m a published writer of memoir and non-fiction stories, and very many articles and essays. ​As an arts journalist and cultural commentator, I have written about theatre, performance, art and music for the past 40 years. I am also an established theatre writer, dramaturg and director, with work performed at venues and festivals across the world.

If you feel you would like to discuss working with me as your editor, do please get in touch.

Max x

www.dorothymaxprior.com
[email protected]

23/10/2024

Earth-a-luljah!

Live art musical and eco-lutionary experience The Fabulous Unknown is the latest performance piece by New-York based radical performance collective Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir. Lorna Rees was at the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts in Brighton for Total Theatre Magazine.

"Billy Talen presents initially as a caricature of a Baptist preacher and yet he is truly sincere: this isn’t a comedy preacher act, he is all conviction and there’s nothing disingenuous going on here. The show starts with a singing procession into the auditorium and almost immediately I burst into tears at the sheer vivid joy of the music..."

Live art musical and eco-lutionary experience, The Fabulous Unknown is the latest performance piece by New-York based radical performance collective Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir (some of whom have been assembled here in the UK). Lorna Rees was at the Attenborough Centre for Creative Ar...

13/09/2024

The fabulous London International Mime Festival have a documentary coming out in early 2025...

01/09/2024

And that's a rap! The very last review from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 – the late-opening Show Pony, reviewed by Ellie Higgins.

Circus-theatre show Raven by Berlin-based Still Hungry was an enormous hit of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019 and the London International Mime Festival 2020. Now the company are back with Show Pony, again created in collaboration with Bryony Kimmings. Ellie Higgins was there for Total Theatre Ma...

26/08/2024

L'Addition: It All Adds Up

The acclaimed contemporary performance duo Bert and Nasi return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a new show, L’Addition, directed by Tim Etchells of Forced Entertainment.

John Dean was there for Total Theatre Magazine.

http://totaltheatre.org.uk/laddition-it-all-adds-up/

23/08/2024

The latest post on TT Magazine is a long, detailed and carefully thought through reflection on BATSH*T, as seen at the Traverse Theatre at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

She’s off her trolley. Nuttier than a fruitcake. A couple of kangaroos loose in the top paddock. She’s ‘crazy’.

For years women have been locked up, medicated, pathologized and silenced with the label ‘crazy’. Challenging these preconceptions, acclaimed Australian performer Leah Shelton makes her Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut with her solo show BATSH*T, directed by Ursula Martinez. Bianca Mastrominico was there for Total Theatre Magazine.

or years women have been locked up, medicated, pathologized and silenced with the label ‘crazy’. Challenging these preconceptions, acclaimed Australian performer Leah Shelton makes her Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut with her solo show BATSH*T, directed by Ursula Martinez. Bianca Mastrominico wa...

19/08/2024

Part social realism, part science fiction, with a healthy dose of dystopia’ – 1927’s new show Please Right Back is not quite what it first seems to be, as Dorothy Max Prior discovers at the Edinburgh International Festival 2024:

‘Part social realism, part science fiction, with a healthy dose of dystopia’ – 1927’s new show Please Right Back is not quite what it first seems to be, as Dorothy Max Prior discovers at the Edinburgh International Festival 2024

16/08/2024

More Ed Edinburgh Festival Fringe reviews!
It Takes Two: The two-hander is a staple of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but this can mean very many different things. Dorothy Max Prior reports back on some of the more unusual pairings seen at Fringe 2024, embracing circus, physical and visual theatre, and live art...

Machine du Cirque: Ghost Light: Between Fall and Flight, Circus Hub, 2-24 August 2024

Vyte Garriga/Flabbergast Theatre: Paper Swans, Pleasance Courtyard, 2-25 August 2024

EKBM: Heartbreak Hotel, Summerhall, 2-26 August 2024

Trick of the Light: The Suitcase Show, Summerhall, 1–25 August 2024

bambule.babys: My Home is Not My Home, Zoo Playground, 2-25 August 2024

Sh!t Theatre: Or What’s Left of Us, Summerhall, 2-25 August 2024

The two-hander is a staple of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but this can mean very many different things. Dorothy Max Prior reports back on some of the more unusual pairings seen at Fringe 2024, embracing circus, physical and visual theatre, and live art. Machine du Cirque: Ghost Light: Between Fal...

14/08/2024

http://totaltheatre.org.uk/all-together-now/

All Together Now!

Dorothy Max Prior sees three impressive ensemble circus shows at Edinburgh Fringe 2024 – Circa: Humans 2.0, Cassus: Apricity and Recirquel: Paradisum – all exploring what it means to be human

Dorothy Max Prior sees three impressive ensemble circus shows at Edinburgh Fringe 2024 – Circa: Humans 2.0, Cassus: Apricity and Recirquel: Paradisum – all exploring what it means to be human

11/08/2024

More from Ed Fringe!

Brian Lobel gives us alternate takes on Nick Cassenbaum’s Revenge: After the Levoyah, a ‘two-hander comedy heist that blows the roof off what it means to be Jewish in the UK. ’

Brian Lobel gives us alternate takes on Nick Cassenbaum’s Revenge: After the Levoyah, a ‘two-hander comedy heist that blows the roof off what it means to be Jewish in the UK. ’ Here’s our starting point: Twins Lauren and Dan meet ex-gangster Malcolm Spivak at their grandfather’s funeral. M...

11/08/2024

OK, we're back in business! Normal service resumed after a website blip!

Here's a round-up of solo shows seen at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024:

Gaby Muñoz: Julieta, Summerhall, 1-11 August 2024

Natalie Bellingham: Look After Your Knees, Pleasance Courtyard, 1-25 August 2024

Duncan Hodgkinson: Dante and the Robot, Zoo Playground, 1-25 August 2024

Sasha Krohn and Flabbergast Theatre: The Weight of Shadow, Assembly Checkpoint, 1-25 August 2024

Ashtar Muallem / Clement Dazin: Cosmos, Summerhall, 1-11 August 2024

ThisEgg: A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here, 1-14 August 2024

Dorothy Max Prior sees an interesting batch of solo shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024. Although some turn out to be other than what they first seem to be…

06/08/2024

Just to let you know that Total Theatre Magazine is no longer using TwitteX. Reviews from and other writings on www.totaltheatre.org.uk will be flagged up here on Facebook, and on our new Threads account. We urge other arts organisations to follow suit.

Photo of Circa, Humans seen at Circus Hub.

06/08/2024

Just so you know: Total Theatre Magazine is no longer using TwitteX. We urge everyone working in the arts to leave the platform. Yes, we know Meta are not perfect, but at least its owners are not openly supportive of fascists.

See you here, or on Instagram or Threads, for Edinburgh Festival Fringe updates and more.

PM’s spokesperson says ‘no justification’ for X owner’s comment under video of far-right disorder

05/08/2024

And we're off! First of a number of articles from Edinburgh Fests 2024:

Food glorious food – here’s Dorothy Max Prior with an Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 taster menu, featuring Sean Wai Keung with A History of Fortune Cookies, Traverse/Soho Theatre production My English Persian Kitchen, and Ugly Bucket’s Stuffed

Soul Food. Food glorious food – here’s Dorothy Max Prior with an Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 taster menu, featuring Sean Wai Keung with A History of Fortune Cookies, Traverse/Soho Theatre production My English Persian Kitchen, and Ugly Bucket's Stuffed

02/07/2024

Latest article on Total Theatre Magazine!

The Show Must Go On...
Bloodthirsty buffoons, a giant snail, a pit of fire-breathing snakes, an invisible orchestra, and a troupe of death-defying showwomen: Out There International Festival of Outdoor Arts and Circus 2024 had something for everyone, as Dorothy Max Prior discovered. Additional reporting by James Foz Foster

The Show Must Go On. Bloodthirsty buffoons, a giant snail, a pit of fire-breathing snakes, an invisible orchestra, and a troupe of death-defying showwomen: Out There International Festival of Outdoor Arts and Circus 2024 had something for everyone, as Dorothy Max Prior discovered. Additional reporti...