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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Mar 9

I hope you're all outside in the sun... but if you ARE looking at your phone, now's the last chance to take advantage of Exeunt and The Crush Bar's HISTORIC offer

20 per cent off, babes! That's four quid a month! I mean!!!

exeuntmagazine.substack.com/subscribe

thecrushbar.substack.com/subscribe

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Mar 5

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...?

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Mar 5

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

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?

www.thetimes.com

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Mar 5

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

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

www.thetimes.com

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Mar 5

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!!"

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".

www.bbc.co.uk

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Mar 1

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… 🔥🔥

Exeunt Magazine @exeuntmagazine.bsky.social · Feb 28

"How much do we change when we move to a new country? What do we embrace, resist, leave behind?"

Lora Krasteva made a show about applying for citizenship and if it's possible to 'become' British. Here, she expands her scope - asking what it costs to be a migrant within the British theatre industry?

Baked beans, cups of tea, and colonialism: the six-hour show about becoming British

Lora Krasteva's durational piece was inspired by applying for citizenship. Now, she reflects on what it means to be a migrant within the theatre industry

exeuntmagazine.substack.com

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Mar 1

Featuring the Hendos factory, natch.

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

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Mar 1

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! 🍊

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 27

"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

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 27

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

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 27

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

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 24

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)

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.

www.waterstones.com

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 18

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

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 18

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...

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.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 17

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

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 17

YES, glad to hear it!

Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 17

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...

'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

exeuntmagazine.substack.com

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 17

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…

Sheffield Tribune @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social · Feb 15

The perfect Saturday morning read doesn’t exist…yes it does!

Why is Sheffield so un-glam by @hollywilliams.bsky.social 👠
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/mirror-mirro...

Mirror, mirror on the wall: Who is the frumpiest of them all?

Northern cities are famous for glamming up. But in Sheffield, it’s Merrells on the dancefloor

www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 9

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

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Feb 1

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

Exeunt Magazine @exeuntmagazine.bsky.social · Jan 28

How do you put Mary Wollstonecraft - the 'mother of feminism', and also of Mary Shelley - on stage? With songs by Billy Nomates!

@hollywilliams.bsky.social discusses Wollstonecraft's radical legacy, sexism in the music industry, and being sick of the term Strong Woman

'She'd be buzzing!' Billy Nomates & Maureen Lennon on Mary Wollstonecraft

'It is important that the music has some guts, and a rawness ... I don’t think Mary listens to Ed Sheeran'

exeuntmagazine.substack.com

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Jan 28

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

Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Jan 27

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...

Exeunt Magazine @exeuntmagazine.bsky.social · Jan 24

From the pleasures of feeling part of a community to awkward conversations and hostile glares after a lukewarm review… @fergusmorgan.bsky.social, @traceysinclair.bsky.social, Frank Peschier and @hollywilliams.bsky.social on what it’s like to be a critic within a small theatre scene

'It feels like punching a pal'

Four writers on what it's like to be a critic in a close-knit theatre community

exeuntmagazine.substack.com

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Jan 22

A snippet!

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Jan 22

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

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Holly Williams @hollywilliams.bsky.social · Jan 22

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

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