Murder, muses and mayhem; just another week of culture...

This week has been a bit of a cultural marathon.

Tuesday took me to The Royalty Theatre in Sunderland to see their production of Amanda Whittington's "The Thrill of Love" - the story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK.

Wednesday was Writers' Group at the library -  this week using signs as prompts. Since most of the signs I had hurriedly printed off were the Danger! Warning! type, it's perhaps hardly surprising that they inspired a surfeit of dead bodies...It's fair to say the bloodthirsty members of the group were in their element! Hopefully they will tidy up the blood and limbs and send me some samples for the group blog. (hint, hint writing group people!) Prompts are strange beasts. Sometimes they lead you to the
obvious, and other times they lead you a dance bringing you out somewhere unexpected. I thought I was writing a story about high jinx in the chemistry lab but ended up going in a completely different direction with a poem inspired by the growth in a petrie dish.

Thursday brought more drama with a visit to Arts Centre Washington for "Odyssey" - Theatre Ad Infinitum's fabulous dramatic re-telling of the legend. It had seductive nymphs, blinded cyclops, jealous gods and, of course, a great hall filled with blood and dead bodies... Quite a week so far.
Saturday will hopefully see me at The Blacklight Engine Room in Middlesbrough. I have no idea whether there will be dead bodies involved in that, but it is compered by a guy called Morbid...


You can read my review of The Thrill of Love here.

Find out what else is on at Arts Centre Washington .

Read more from the Hartlepool Writers' Group at The forms of things unknown .

Comments always welcome.