Alexander Hartley

In 1910 Chicago doctor William S. Sadler traveled to Europe to study under Freud. Like many early psychoanalysts, he developed a relish for debunking paranormal claims; nearly two decades of research later, he published The Mind at Mischief, cataloguing lies, hoaxes, and charlatanisms committed by so-called mediums and psychics. What makes the book interesting today, though, is not the many paranormal claims that Sadler debunked, but the one he believed was real.

ED2023 Reviews ED2023 Theatre Reviews Who doesn’t love to be beside the seaside? The bright lights, the flaking paint, the rotting cast-iron pier, the blasted promenades. Surely Chris, our host, with his crimson cummerbund and his rictus grin, will show us a jolly old time? But where’s the other half of this all-in-the-family double act – his mother Christine? No matter: Chris can keep the show going by himself, a joking, dancing, miming one-man band.

ED2023 Reviews ED2023 Theatre Reviews When his group of schoolfriends gets into trouble, Devonte gets suspended. His friends try to help him move past it, encouraging him to apply to university to ‘maximise his potential’. This is a drama of systems and bureaucracies, and some of the central characters are documents: brown envelopes with A-Level results, a missing passport.