After a lengthy gestation (who knew hand printing the covers would take so long?) Exeunt’s 2nd zine, Rites of Spring, is in the post to members of our Friends Scheme. It’s a collection of essays, illustrations, collages and group pieces exploring the shock of the new, violence, and the role of confrontation and iconoclasm on stage, through the lens of theatre we’ve seen this Spring.

Contents include: 

Rites, Riots and the Shock of the New – Rosemary Waugh explores the notoriously riotous response to the premiere of ‘Rites of Spring’.

How can you talk about theatre at a time like this? – A Twitter-stream of consciousness, prompted by 2017’s
onslaught of real world crises.

We Didn’t Like Your Favourite Show – Micro-hatchet jobs of some of 2017’s biggest hit plays.

Vacuum Cleaner: Mental – Maddy Costa’s collaged response to an autobiographical performance by the artist
and mental health activist.

Dear Sirs – a selection of our favourite letters of complaint.

And because we didn’t want to just blindly transpose an online site into a zine, we’ve gone  step further with the design this time round – each page is determinedly lo-fi, with hand-drawn illustrations, woodblock printing and cut-up text.

We’ve produced a limited run of 100, most of which are already on their way to members of our Friends Scheme. But if you’re not a Friend and want one, fear not: we’ve got 20 extra zines that aren’t spoken for.

Sign up here by the end of Friday to get your copy

You’ll get three zines a year in the post. But you’ll also be helping Exeunt survive in an increasingly tough landscape for theatre criticism.

Earlier this month, Exeunt’s editor, Alice Saville, wrote an article for the British Council on Why the theatre industry needs to support critics, before it’s too late. Have a read, and do consider joining. This could be as an individual. Or if your theatre company or organisation benefits from Exeunt’s work, why not devote a tiny portion of its budget to supporting us?

As an unfunded, volunteer-run site, our Friends Scheme is essential for our survival. It’s already helped us move towards paying writers, and diversifying our writer pool. With your support, we could go much, much further.