Author: Colin Cushion
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London Makes Pressure Look Invisible
in ColumnLife in London can look effortless. Coffee shops are full, queues stretch around attractions and the city rarely seems to stop moving. But beneath the surface, many people are quietly calculating every expense, balancing ordinary experiences against the rising cost of simply staying afloat.
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This Needs to Be Said Plainly
We say we need to talk about suicide more. But when we do, we soften it. This piece pushes back against that instinct, asking what gets lost when the truth is made easier to sit with.
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Oliver! Moves Fast and Feels Less
in ReviewsA visually striking and relentlessly dark revival of Oliver! pairs strong performances with impressive design, but moves too quickly to let its most powerful moments breathe.
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A Horror That Dazzles Before It Bites
in ReviewsVisually striking and atmospherically bold, this ambitious stage thriller comes tantalisingly close to something extraordinary, but struggles to keep its story as sharp as its scares.
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Leake Street Arches: A Canvas That Never Settles
in FeaturesBeneath Waterloo Station, Leake Street Tunnel operates as one of London’s largest legal graffiti spaces. Constantly repainted and never static, it raises a simple question: when everyone is free to create, what actually governs the space?
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Hercules Finds Its Nerve
in ReviewsAfter a run of cautious, overly faithful adaptations, Disney finally loosens its grip with Hercules. Bold, disciplined and genuinely theatrical, this is a production that prioritises storytelling over spectacle and is far stronger for it.
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The Devil Wears Prada and the Cost of Never Slowing Down
in ReviewsSlick, confident and relentlessly polished, The Devil Wears Prada knows how to move. What it struggles to do is stay still long enough for anything to mean something.
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The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and the Discipline of Restraint
in ReviewsThe Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry resists easy sentimentality, holding its audience at arm’s length and trusting them to do the emotional work. What emerges is not a story of transformation, but of movement, and the quiet danger of confusing survival with living.
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Phones, Safety and the Illusion of Control
in ColumnBeing on the phone in public is often framed as a matter of safety. But when connection becomes constant, it raises a different question. What is this behaviour really protecting us from?
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The Greatest Showman Is Loud, Empty and Built on Illusion
in ReviewsA film so terrified of scrutiny it turns the dialogue down and the spectacle up. The Greatest Showman is not revisionism for drama’s sake, but a moral abdication that ignores the truth because the real story is too complex and too human to sing along to.
Colin Cushion 