Introducing Jeremy O Harris—our Issue 10 cover star
Also: a film lover's guide to Valentine's Day, the modernist set design of 'Conclave' and an audience with Elyanna
Grown Folks’ Business: Jeremy O Harris
“I see going to these parties as a part of the artist’s journey… That sort of socialising has fuelled my practice in a grand way. I’m like a magpie.” For our Issue 10 cover interview, Deputy Editor Chris Cotonou writes a profile—in six parts—of the playwright, actor, screenwriter and filmmaker Jeremy O Harris. One of our most important living wordsmiths and thinkers, the creator of Slave Play and “Daddy” is a figure who straddles the line between influencer and an intellectual in the most serious sense of the word. Like one of his heroes, director and filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, he places himself at the centre of his work, excavating his individualism as a person in America for us all to witness—even if it is sometimes ugly. He is driven by a sense of responsibility (that can manifest as frustration) to influence change in the arts, and what he frequently calls the “canon”—his idea of an American cultural lineage, of playwrights, artists, and even musicians, that he demands to be a continuation of. “I want my legacy to be like Jordan Tannahill or Will Arbery or Rianna Simons. People who can point back and say: ‘Jeremy was working his ass off and creating a bunch of stuff. But this play wouldn’t exist if Jeremy hadn’t taken a second look at it, or produced it’—that’s the kind of artist I want to be.”
Poetic rhapsody: an audience with Elyanna
“My universe is here, it’s going to keep growing, and everybody is welcome to live inside it…” For our tenth issue, Features Writer Luke Georgiades visited Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, the last stop of her acclaimed WOLEDTO world tour, to discuss finding freedom on stage, writing music with her mother, and how she’s growing her own sonic universe. “With this album I wanted to draw from my own history. A lot of the lyrical content is ancient—they’re phrases that have existed for years in poetry back home that we wanted to melodise and put into songs.”
A film lover’s guide to Valentine’s Day—whatever your relationship status
Fancy your boss? Still single? In a co-dependent relationship? Happily married? For Valentine’s Day, A Rabbit’s Foot contributor Allegra Handelsman pens a handy guide to romantic films to match every relationship status.
Italian inquisition: The surprisingly modernist set design of Conclave
When Suzie Davies and Cynthia Sleiter first linked up in Rome in the summer of 2022, it was “as close to what you can call love at first sight,” recalls Sleiter. “The minute we first looked at the Conclave project together, our vision matched up. Everyone knows about the aesthetics of the Sistine Chapel, but we both wanted to draw inspiration from the modernist areas of Rome to show the extraordinary way that the Cardinals and the city actually live.” Now online, Amy O’Brien speaks to the production designer and set decorator of Conclave about creating a 21st-century version of the Vatican. “In Italy you may be sitting in the reception at your dentist and there’s a Le Corbusier couch, or a Flos arco lamp… It’s just the typically Italian way of dressing normal places where people do nothing special,” says Sleiter. “So the priests’ rooms are design, because Italy is design.”
