This week our @erc.europa.eu project team met in Stockholm. One of the highlights was travelling to Gripsholm Castle to see Gustav III’s court theatre - an amazing survival from the 18th century. Scene cloths still hang above the stage that haven’t been lowered since the 1770s. Tantalising right?

Theatre and Performance Studies are delighted to have named one of our studios after our dear colleague Professor Jim Davis who passed away in 2023. His legacy in the department is significant. We’ll raise a toast to officially open it at the end of our 50th anniversary celebrations on 28 June 25.

We’ve had a remarkable two days at Craig-y-Nos castle assessing the condition of the theatre and its assets. We hope to be able to share our findings through the Society for Theatre Research, who generously funded the work. We’ll use the findings to advocate for funding to conserve the theatre.

Traitors withdrawal symptoms? I have the ‘coolest’ friends (term used loosely), who create a whole evening of missions, secret missions, Linda moments, cattiness and cries of ‘I’m 100% faithful’. And yes, below you will have it confirmed that there was a recreation of the stained glass challenge.

The start to the academic year has been busy, mainly because I had the pleasure of having a week in Oxford to do some archival research and to attend the #BSECS2025 @bsecs.bsky.social annual conference. It was a chance to share my research in a new forum.

Making the most of my time in Oxford for #bsecs2025 @bsecs.bsky.social by doing some archival research. Here’s an image I’ll mention in my paper tomorrow on eighteenth and early nineteenth century amateur theatricals.

I started reading about US flag history and it seems that in 1795 the number of flags was increased from 13 to 15. But designs and numbers vary for a long time. Here’s a design similar to the pub emblem from the later 19th century.

I went down a rabbit hole with this one. I think it’s something to do with a version of the US flag that has 13 stars around the edge and one in the centre. The below is dated 1831-3 and has a circular design of stars similar to your image. This emblem is lost in later images of the pub.

Yesterday started in the archives in Exeter. It ended up at a very Christmassy NT #Saltram for a meeting with curatorial staff about the property’s links to theatre and theatricals. We hope that we’ll be able to tell some of the stories being uncovered in the archives to visitors in the future!

This week I’m in the archives in Devon and Cornwall. Last night I stayed in Exeter in a hotel opposite this beauty - Tudor House. I caught up with Josip Martincic, a PhD student working on fin de siecle British theatre criticism, and had dinner with Kate Newey, fellow Victorianist.