Ellen Cheshire

World Premiere of David Haig's new play, Magic, at Chichester Festival Theatre, Directed by Lucy Bailey. David Haig as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Hadley Fraser as Houdini David Haig’s Magic brings together two towering figures of early 20th-century imagination and belief, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, in a story shaped by illusion, grief and competing ideals. Set in a world still enthralled by spiritualism and spectacle, the play traces their unlikely friendship a

Here’s the 26th batch of #52FilmsByWomen watched since taking the pledge in 2016. This set of 52 films (1302–1353), watched between February and May 2026, continues the project’s ongoing exploration of women’s filmmaking across decades, genres, and formats. It includes 20 feature films, 1 full-length documentary, 1 event cinema screening, 21 shorts and 9 television entries, ranging from early experimental animation and classic rewatch favourites to recent releases and long-fo

In March, I was drawn to the body as a site of pressure, something shaped, disciplined and ultimately consumed by performance. In April, that focus shifted. The body remained central, but now as something more unstable, a threshold rather than a vessel. The Gothic moved outward into blood, desire and transformation. April’s theme, Vampires: Desire, Identity and Transformation (Part I), was shaped by a new stage reimagining of Dracula at the Noël Coward Theatre, adapted by Mor

With Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada in cinemas now, let’s take a quick voyage through boats, time slips and strange currents where nothing quite behaves as it should. There’s something about boats and time travel that just works. Maybe it’s the isolation, the sense of being cut off from the world or the way the sea itself feels timeless, vast, unknowable and slightly threatening. Whatever it is, films that trap characters on the water and bend time around them tend to linger lo

Shakespeare's Birthday on 23 April has become my annual excuse to dip into Shakespeare, but this year I went slightly off piste. Instead of the “big” plays in their usual form, I opted for a triple bill of films that do something far more interesting: they hand the story to the people usually stuck at the edges. Three films, three very different tones, but all circling the same idea, what happens when Shakespeare’s minor or marginalised characters finally get their say? I sta

I first drew this up in January 2022, as the world was emerging from the long shadow of lockdowns. I realised how easy it is to take experiences for granted, and I didn’t want to keep putting things off “for another time.” So, I began a bucket list - part wish list, part reminder - and since then I’ve been adding to it and crossing things off as I go. It’s a mix of theatre, film, concerts, museums, places and the occasional wild card. Some items are big dreams, others are mor

What I’ve so liked about my bucket list is that many of the items are achievable if I put my mind to it, rather than continually returning to favourite places. It was a day about heading further afield once again, incorporating the new while reflecting on how places shift, evolve over time and, comfortingly, sometimes stay the same. I began on the 123 bus towards Ilford, a route that once felt routine from North London round to the east, a regular journey in the 1970s and 80s

Bognor Picturedrome (screen 1) Nestled innocently within my main bucket list are four entries that could each stand as their own separate quests. Since they all share a similar goal - exploring the UK and Ireland through their cinematic venues - I’ve combined them here for convenience. These are: visiting the other six cinemas in the small chain that my local Bognor Picturedrome belongs to; ticking off all independent cinemas in Sussex; seeing films or concerts at venues wit

Over the years, I’ve occasionally ventured into the world of theatre reviews, but a covert assignment with The Spy in the Stalls reignited my passion for this undercover craft. Since then, I’ve been regularly donning my disguise and stepping into the shadows, where every review is a stealth mission—uncovering the brilliance (or the flaws) hidden within each performance. This page serves as my secret dossier: a direct link to the operations I’ve carried out in the name of the

In February I was lingering in the shadowy rooms of haunted houses. In March I found myself drawn onto the stage. Here the Gothic no longer belongs to architecture but to the body itself. Performance becomes the threshold and crossing it comes at a cost. March’s theme, Obsession and Art: When Performance Takes Possession, was shaped by seeing The Red Shoes at the Mayflower Theatre. Seeing this ballet adaptation, choreographed by Matthew Bourne, of the 1948 Powell and Pressbu

I had only ever seen A House for Essex once before — glimpsed from the path across the marshes at Wrabness, its striking tiled exterior rising like something between a chapel, a fairytale house and a monument. Even from a distance it felt extraordinary. So the chance to stay there felt like an essential bucket-list must-do. And in March 2026, that item was ticked off. Created by artist Grayson Perry with FAT Architecture for Living Architecture, the building is conceived as

A recent day in Kingston upon Thames made for a perfect cultural double bill. The morning began at Kingston Museum to see the Eadweard Muybridge collection . Muybridge, born in Kingston, was a pioneer of motion photography, and the museum holds an impressive selection of his work. Seeing the original handpainted glass and of galloping his horses and gaining an insight into the man and hisprocess was fascinating – the very beginnings of what would become cinema. Worth poppin

Few novels have cast a longer cinematic shadow than Frankenstein. Since its publication in 1818, Mary Shelley’s story of creation, rejection and responsibility has generated hundreds of stage and screen interpretations, most of them circling the same familiar narrative: Victor Frankenstein creates life. The creature is rejected. Tragedy follows. Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley in The Bride! When the trailer for The Bride! appeared, I admit I had some reservations. It seeme

Looking back over the past few years, I have set myself annual challenges that combine theatre and film in ways that push me to see work I might not ordinarily seek out. In 2024 I undertook a project revisiting all the productions I had seen at the theatre and cinema in 1984. In 2025 I focused on filling in gaps in my Sondheim knowledge, watching musicals live and exploring his top forty films. Both years encouraged me to view familiar works differently, to take risks and to

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is directed by Baz Luhrmann, so it was never likely to feel like a quiet trawl through archival material. Instead, it plays out as a full-scale sensory experience - immersive, kinetic, and unapologetically heightened. There was this one sequence in particular which draws on never-before-seen footage from Elvis’s first Las Vegas shows and in rehearsals. In Baz’s hands, it isn’t simply presented; it’s orchestrated. Flash and frenzy give way to ti

After January’s journey into the dark forest — where fairy tales unravelled and wishes carried consequence — February moved indoors. The Gothic lens shifted from tangled woods to enclosed spaces, from external threats to the unease that seeps through walls and settles into floorboards. February – It Walks Around the House at Night Venue: Chichester Festival Theatre Theme: Haunted Houses It Walks Around the House at Night is a contemporary ghost story rooted in one of the mo

Here's the 25th batch of #52FilmsByWomen watched since taking the pledge in 2016. This batch of 52 films, 1250-1301, are those watched between November 2025 and February 2026. They included 26 feature films, 1 full-length documentary, 1 event cinema, 23 shorts and 1 TV episode. Read about films: 1 – 52, 53 - 104, 105 - 156, 157 - 208, 209 - 260, 261 - 312, 313 - 365, 366 - 417, 418 - 469, 470 - 521, 522 - 573, 574 - 625, 626 - 677, 678 - 729, 730 - 781, 782 - 833, 834 - 885,

For the first screening of Wuthering Heights at my local cinema, my mum and I settled into our favourite seats, surrounded by around sixty other people ready to watch the latest interpretation of Emily Brontë’s novel. We had both enjoyed Saltburn , and I had been particularly taken with Promising Young Woman , so expectations were high. The trailer promised something bold, stylised and unapologetically Gothic. The heightened aesthetic, anachronistic music and costuming did n

In 2026, I’m exploring theatre, film, and fiction through a Gothic lens. Each month revolves around a key stage show, paired with films and novels that echo, extend, or twist its themes. The goal is to step outside my usual choices, dive into stories that unsettle, delight, or surprise, and see familiar genres in a new light. From fairy-tale forests to shadowed halls, the year promises a journey through imagination, consequence, and a little delicious darkness. Read more abou

It’s January 2024, and time to rewind back to 1976 as I watch seven films from that year that I’d never seen before. Alongside them, I revisited a long-standing favourite, Murder by Death , to see if anything new might challenge its place at the top. The Seven Films: The Bad News Bears (1976, Michael Ritchie) ★★★½ Walter Matthau is in fine grumpy form as a washed-up ex-player drafted in to coach the worst little league team in town. What starts as pure cynicism slowly soften