#The royal exchange

[theatreocelot]

Shed: Exploded View, by Phoebe Eclair-Powell

A review

Date of viewing: 19/02/24 (Mon 19 feb 2024)

Place of viewing: Royal exchange theatre

Story rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cast rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Design rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Heavy trigger warnings for discussions and depictions of domestic violence, child loss, depictions of dementia, depictions of grief, allusions to eating disorders, allusions to mental health issues and sexist language.

Shed: Exploded view is a masterclass in theatre that I cannot in good faith recommend to anyone. Following the story of Lil (Haley Carmichael), Abi (Norah Lopez Holden), Naomi (Lizzy Watts) and their partners, Tony (Wil Johnson), Frank (Jason Hughs) and Mark (Michael Workéyè) it is an awareness piece on relationships and domestic violence. Spoilers ahead, trigger warnings will apply in part to this review.

I found the most pleasant story to be that of Lil and Tony, an older couple who married in 1995, as they navigate their relationship, with both of them being married before, as well as Lil’s frustration as Tony loses himself to dementia. I found their relationship to be sweet, compelling and heartbreaking, Lil especially was amazingly played, Haley Carmichael did a fantastic job, however I feel the story does hit one of its sticking points here that keeps getting hit throughout all 3 of the parallel stories, it plays it’s dark themes far to much for shock value, when Lil shouts in frustration at Tony who doesn’t understand why he can’t leave the house (the play jumps around in time from between 1995 and “now” (2024) so parts are set during lockdown), it is shocking and distressing to watch, however as a tragedy, it misses the emotional catharsis, as well as this, it is mentioned that before Tony, Lil was married to an abusive man, however this plot point is mostly brushed over (being mentioned only a couple of times, most notably in Lil’s final monologue (which was brilliant btw, I love this cast so much)), serving mostly to act as a parallel to Abi’s abuse and eventual murder at the hands of Mark, this left it feeling like there was missed potential in Lil’s story, however as a whole she was a good character.

The second plotline follows Naomi and Frank, a middle aged couple who married in 1995 and encountered Lil and Frank on their honeymoon and later go on to have a daughter- Abi. Naomi is by far the stand out character of the show, with the best of the stage time being given to developing her relationship with Abi. Overall, Naomi’s relationships with both Abi and Frank feel realistic, however it suffers from a similar problem, when Naomi performs her final monologue at the end of the play (another brilliant monologue, I find myself wondering if this play would’ve been better if viewed as a collection of disconnected monologues), the energy stays very heightened, like the story is tripping over itself to make you feel something, to the point where it only leaves you feeling overwhelmed. Frank was very well played and his relationship with Naomi was believable to how a marriage when one of the partners is disloyal (however as I have never been in a relationship, I cannot attest to that).

Abi and Mark’s plotline is where the story trips over its own feet the most, from the starting monologue, the story foreshadows that Abi is going to be violently murdered, so when she meets Mark at university and has dubiously consensual sex with him, it becomes quite obvious that it will be by his hand. The play goes out of its way to show the good times that Abi and Mark have in their relationship, showing that abusive partners are not always the stereotype of abuse, however these moments can sometimes fall a bit short, as it shows them seemingly only having nice couple times, then takes a drastic turn near the end, the idea was good but the execution was a bit heavy handed. Abi and Naomi’s relationship is by far my favourite, their moments are some of the only reprieve the audience gets from the constant distress the characters are in, however the play does seem to want to portray Abi as having some resentment towards Naomi, but this does come across as teenage angst. A major area Abi’s characterisation falls a little bit flat for me is her past history of eating disorders, while Mark does make fun of her for being fat and we do have one scene of her running up to her room as a child (followed by Naomi and Frank talking about food and a doctor), it feels glossed over in a similar way to Lil’s abusive ex, like the story expects us to see this in Abi’s character, without actually having her react in a way that would be consistent with this.

In conclusion, Shed: Exploded view is a beautiful play with brilliant actors that acts as a masterclass of shocking your audience, however the characterisation can sometimes fall short and the story lacks the emotional catharsis it needs to be a truly compelling tragedy, I think it would be interesting to watch it again, to see if it would be different when it can’t shock me.

[travel-journal-from-shirokane]

The Royal Exchange, Tourist Attraction(London, England) 王立取引所★★

I visited Royal Exchange (^o^)

Inside, people were enjoying Fortnum ＆ Mason tea (^o^)v

王立取引所に行って来ました(^o^)

中では皆さんフォートナム＆メイソンのお茶を楽しんでました(^o^)v

[zonjy]

Watch "The Royal exchange Where King Charles iii Proclamation The City Of London Vlog" on YouTube

The Royal exchange Where King Charles iii Proclamation The City Of London Vlog

[pqk-jhonsy001]

[seanchaidh7]

RWRB New Year Gift Exchange

To @jmagnabo92 Happy New Year! I hope you enjoy your prompt fill of Henry & Alex's first Anniversary. ❤️❤️❤️

@rwrbnygiftexchange

[yrsonpurpose]

[princessanneftw]

Princess Anne talks about where she was best at athletics, with a telling comment from her nephew Prince William, on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast.

[puppetdaily]

Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors at Manchester Royal Exchange

[uglygreenjacket]

[raayllum]

2x06 / 2x07

+ Bonus:

[groenendaelfic]

A year and a bit ago, I was procrastinating on Reddit as one does, scrolling through r/television's weekly What are you watching and what do you recommend? post, when one of the comments caught my eye.

Young Royals. It's gay and no one has aids.

It said.

That was it, nothing else.

Somehow at that moment that was enough for me to check it out, in a right time, right place kind of way, or maybe it was simply fate. It's certainly not how I've been recommending the show, and yet it worked.

I proceeded to binge Young Royals that night and the following day, giggling and crying and clutching my pillow telling my so that this this is the show I've been wanting all my life, and then I watched it again and again and wondered how I'd ever survive waiting over ten days for season 2 to come out. (cute, right?)

The solution was of course writing fic. And so over the next two days Their Own Medicine was born.

362,194 posted words later, and many more waiting in assorted wip documents and my dtf fic ideas notebook, we've reached the one year anniversary of me posting my first Young Royals fic.

And what a year it's been! Thank you so much everyone for this wonderful journey. I know I'm not always the best at answering comments or reblogging stuff (mostly because I'm shy and want to do it properly and plan out novel length replies in my head which then weirdly enough don't write themselves down), but words cannot express how much I appreciate all of you and how much the Young Royals famdom has come to mean to me.

I've met so many wonderful people and had so many thought provoking discussions, mused over a lot of fic ideas and chatted over what-ifs, it's truly enriched my life (and turned my procrastination time into fic writing time, which has certainly been much more enjoyable, sorry not sorry Reddit).

You all rock and I hope we have many more happy years full of fics and gifs and polls ahead of us. I for one can't wait for what's to come.

Cheers and I hope you have a nice Christmas!

[sometimeslondon]

Royal Exchange Clock in the City of London

[redrobin-detective]

You ever start reading over your WIP and it ends on a completely wild sentence you had completely forgotten about and go, how did I write that and just?? stop

[fiomide]

My part of the @h2g2-gift-exchange for @geoffreytoday !!

Honestly this promt was so open-ended I had a lot of fun with it!! My original idea was just the poster but I went down a rabbit hole making logos eheehee. I hope you like it! <3

[sturmhondsdemjin]

"Hello?"

"Baby."

"Alex? Oh my god. A-Are you all right?"

"I'm hanging in there. Are you okay?"

"No. No, I'm not okay."

"You know what, I'm coming to London tonight. Just hold on until I get there. We'll figure this out."

"Hurry. Please."

"I'll break the sound barrier for you."

[beetaur]

Summer night date in the middle of winter

(or, alternatively - when your girlfriend shines so brightly you have to close your eyes while reading a poem to her)

This my gift for @palaemonfire for @eah-exchange featuring OC Polina Stellaris and Hopper Croackington date<3 Have a good holyday!