S
LightNews LightNews
banner
deviousmeans.bsky.social
S
@deviousmeans.bsky.social
56 followers 110 following 16 posts
York-based theatre maker/bricoleur/academic. Mystery Plays, medieval theatre, community performance. Makes a mess.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by S
scumbelievable.bsky.social
This orangutan can't be beaten at climbing up a tree. Imagine its skill and poise as our next secretary of education.
November 24, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Reposted by S
dermotdaly.bsky.social
These two make great friends.
Released a day apart, they’re almost twins.
Maybe putting both on reading lists and in libraries might be a good thing to do.
Maybe.
The front covers of ‘Do It Yourself: Making Political Theatre’ written by my good friends Common/Wealth and my edited volume ‘Being Black and British: Before, During and After Drama School’.
October 8, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Reposted by S
post-doc-club.bsky.social
Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...
September 29, 2025 at 3:27 PM
deviousmeans.bsky.social
R.I.P. Harrison's translation of the Mysteries remains potent, a reminder of the deep poetic voice of Northern England even now.
wokestudies.bsky.social Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · Sep 27
"Tony Harrison (30 April 1937 – 26 September 2025) was an English poet, translator and playwright. He was born in Beeston, Leeds and he received his education in Classics from Leeds Grammar School and Leeds University."
R.I.P.
September 27, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by S
greenleejw.bsky.social
A poem from this morning.
Humanities Who needs history? Literature? Languages? Art? Philosophy? These can only help you to better understand our humanity. Best to let machines read your books. And write your books. Do your art for you. You will never need to think. Never need to learn. You’ll learn to like it. And when the end comes you’ll have never burdened down your soul with any growth. Someone selling this sees profit in destroying your humanity. -- John Wyatt Greenlee
August 14, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by S
louiestowell.bsky.social
A very good interview on the reading crisis in the UK. Heartily endorse bringing back sure start or some version of it.
August 9, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Reposted by S
robertjbennett.bsky.social
golf is a very strange game because basically you're taking a huge amount of land and making it a weirdass obstacle course for a tiny ball. imagine holding a golf ball up to see the ~200 acres you have reshaped and whispering to it "this is for you. this is all for you"
June 15, 2025 at 10:14 PM
deviousmeans.bsky.social
The Mystery Plays are well underway in Toronto! Some beautiful moments and expressions... #yorkplays2025
Eve admires ladybird headpiece Lucifer tries on a crown, admired by other rebel angels Lucifer in green scarf watches Adam having a dance God and Noah present a finished paper boat
June 7, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by S
kradmacher.bsky.social
Wander by to check out what’s going on. Stay for one short play or stay for all 18 hours! Come and go as you please.
June 7, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Reposted by S
kradmacher.bsky.social
Check out the listing for full details on the. #free #familyfriendly event!

yorkplays2025.eventbrite.ca
York Plays 2025
Step Into Medieval York: A Spectacular Day of Family-Friendly Theatre!
yorkplays2025.eventbrite.ca
June 7, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Reposted by S
kradmacher.bsky.social
We roll at dawn! The day has finally come. It’s been 27 years since we mounted the full York Corpus Christi plays in 1998. We lost our original wagons to fire but we have shiny new ones built using new research. #yorkplays2025 #torontoevents #medieval #medievaldrama
June 7, 2025 at 12:45 AM
deviousmeans.bsky.social
Excitement building in Toronto... #yorkplays2025
Painted green dragon on red pageant wagon White York rose on yellow pageant wagon Yellow pageant waggon with blue sheets and furniture on top
June 5, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by S
kradmacher.bsky.social
🚨 The wait is almost over! 🚨
🎭 June 7 (June 8 if it rains): the full York Cycle is back for the 1st time in 27 years!
🌅 From sunrise "Creation" to midnight "Last Judgment"
🎟️FREE & open to all!
👟 Come for an hour or the whole epic!
🔗 yorkplays.ca
#YorkPlays2025 #FreeEventsTO #MustSeeTO
May 28, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by S
righttoroam.bsky.social
WE WON!

The Supreme Court has upheld the right to wild camp on Dartmoor. This is a huge win for access to nature.

But we're just getting started.

It was never just about Dartmoor.

We’re fighting to extend the right to roam, swim, and sleep under the stars - across all of England.
May 21, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by S
tomgauld.bsky.social
My latest @newscientist.com cartoon
Title: SOME GRAMMATICAL VOICES FOR USE IN SCIENTIFIC WRITING ACTIVE VOICE e.g. Our team collected samples and then we tested them. CLICKBAIT VOICE e.g. We collected some samples... You won't believe what happened next! PASSIVE VOICE e.g. Samples were collected and tested. HAIKU VOICE e.g. Quiet science lab. Workers arrive with samples. The testing begins. PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE VOICE e.g. We did all the collecting and testing. No need to thank us. Just doing our job. CONSPIRACY VOICE e.g. Mysterious "Samples" were harvested and covertly "tested" by so-called scientists.
April 28, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by S
norajw.bsky.social
Feels like a good day to share my favourite Columbus shade, thrown by seventeenth-century wife guy the Duke of Newcastle in a poem written for his wife - Margaret Cavendish - and her incredible work The Blazing World

"That Columbus guy just stumbled upon a continued but you MADE a WORLD, babe"
To The Duchesse of Newcastle, On Her New Blazing-World. Our Elder World, with all their Skill and Arts, Could but divide the World into three Parts: Columbus, then for Navigation fam'd, Found a new World, America 'tis nam'd; Now this new World was found, it was not made, Onely discovered, lying in Time's shade. Then what are You, having no Chaos found To make a World, or any such least ground? But your Creating Fancy, thought it fit To make your World of Nothing, but pure Wit. Your Blazing-World, beyond the Stars mounts higher, Enlightens all with a Celestial Fire. William Newcastle.
April 27, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by S
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
If you'd like to write to the Prime Minister's office about the Supreme Court ruling, you can do so here - contact.no10.gov.uk - 1000 character limit. I have just done so!
Contact Number 10 GOV.UK - The best place to find government services and information
contact.no10.gov.uk
April 25, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by S
goingmedieval.bsky.social
Since we are back at work in the UK today - it's a GREAT time to email your MP about the Supreme Court ruling and the threats to trans people as a result. I used this helpful guide to write to my MP. You should too.
www.translegalproject.org/post/urgent-...
URGENT ACTION: Write to your MP to protest the Supreme Court ruling and the EHRC's proposals to impose draconian bans on trans people from single-sex spaces.
The trans community is facing a major crisis in the UK after the Supreme Court ruled last week that for the purposes of The Equality Act 2010 sex should be classified as biological (i.e. as recorded a...
www.translegalproject.org
April 22, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by S
sigalsarah.bsky.social
I worked on an open letter with some fab playwrights in support of the trans community in the wake of the UK Supreme Court ruling last week. We have a whopping 1426 signatures and counting. If you're a UK-based writer & you'd like to add your name, click here:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
April 22, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by S
patburke.bsky.social
I doubt that I would have given this missive from Pope Francis my attention were it not for a steer from @bcdreyer.social, but I really can’t recommend it enough.
www.vatican.va/content/fran...
Letter of the Holy Father on the Role of Literature in Formation (17 July 2024) | Francis
Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis on the Role of Literature in Formation, 17 July 2024
www.vatican.va
April 21, 2025 at 11:05 AM
deviousmeans.bsky.social
I wrote to my MP a few days ago on similar (if less eloquent) lines; will have to send a further one here, clearly.
wangleberry.bsky.social Wangleberry @wangleberry.bsky.social · Apr 19
I have just sent the attached to the Chair of the EHRC, cc'ing my MP. Please feel free to use these arguments (put into your own words - there is little value in template or identical letters as they are all treated essentially as bulk correspondence) to help shape your own complaints, if helpful.
[Alt text is for all images in this post] Dear Ms. Falkner (cc [my MP]), I noted, with increasing alarm, your ill-informed comments on Radio 4’s Today programme on the ruling by the Supreme Court on the matter of the meaning of the word ‘sex’ in reference to the Equality Act 2010. Leaving to one side the bizarre and self-defeating nature of the legal opinion itself, which seems to directly contradict both the original intent of the legislation and established scientific and sociological academic consensus, your suggestion appeared to ignore, presumably intentionally, the clear direction from the Court that the ruling should not be used to discriminate against trans people. During the course of the interview, you indicated that “single sex services, like changing rooms, must be based on biological sex”, and you also suggested that trans people should “[use] their powers of advocacy” to ask for “neutral third space[s]”. Your suggestion is, of course, both morally indefensible and, more to the point in practical terms, completely unworkable. It could not be enforced except through either intrusive and offensive physical inspection by state-authorised figures, which (aside from the obvious and frankly horrifying privacy implications) would be vulnerable to significant abuse, or – equally as appalling a prospect – reliance on an unofficial, unregulated body of self-appointed gender police. As a cis woman, I am disgusted by any suggestion that my gender presentation can and should be enforced by any such unaccountable body of patriarchal control. Furthermore, your intention, as explicitly stated, is to create segregated ‘third spaces’, which will presumably be positioned as ‘separate but equal’ to existing facilities. We have seen where that leads. Indeed, your response to Jonathan Sumption’s highly critical and learned comments on your proposals, noted in The Independent, seems to confirm that your approach to the matter is based on ideological dogmatism rather than…
April 19, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by S
tristangrayford.scot
An important reminder as the Supreme Court makes its judgement - not a single trans person was heard from at any point during this case before them, even a trans judge who applied was refused.

This is, as usual, the British state acting as cis people to impose their will on trans people.
April 16, 2025 at 8:49 AM