Born in Surrey and raised in Scotland, Vicky Featherstone gained an MA in theatre directing from Manchester University before working in venues including the West Yorkshire Playhouse (now Leeds Playhouse), Northern Stage and the National Theatre of Scotland. She was appointed artistic director of the Royal Court in 2013, where she has been praised for her radical and inclusive programming. Featherstone and Audrey Sheffield are co-directing Jonathan Freedland’s first play, Jews. In Their Own Words, which runs at the Royal Court from 19 September to 22 October.
1. Festival
I first went to the Edinburgh festival when I was 18, as a student, and I’ve been going on and off every single year since. The thing is, everybody’s going to lose money, nobody’s going to sleep, everybody’s going to get ill – it’s a real example of our need for entertainment and performance and storytelling. The fact that this year so many people are going to be together, after Covid, feels extraordinary. There’s a show there by actor and songwriter Maimuna Memon called Manic Street Creature, which starts with songs and ends up with her talking about trauma, but in a joyful way.
2. Book
None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary by Travis Alabanza
I saw Travis’s show Burgerz a few years ago and I’m taking this book with me on holiday. I was a real fangirl about it – I got a signed copy from Gay’s the Word bookshop. It’s reflections on all the things people have said to Travis about being non-binary and about being trans and the conversation around what is different and what is “normal”. I think we are obsessed with categorising and putting people in their place in order to understand and define them. Travis is an incredible thinker, philosopher and human being, so I’m really looking forward to it.
3. Politician
Over the last week, he seems to be the only person speaking really clearly about the recession that we’re heading into, about living standards, about food poverty. And it feels really important that we have somebody who we can trust, who is thoughtful, who has real experience of the economy of this country. I really respect that he’s using his voice and his knowledge to speak up again about the crisis that we’re heading towards.
4. Theatre
This is a play by Dawn King, directed by Natalie Abrahami, about a group of young people putting adults on trial because of what’s happened with the climate. It’s got an amazing cast and it feels really important that we are getting theatre that puts young people’s voices at the centre of it and asks important questions. It’s such a clever idea. That’s going to be on for two weeks at the Donmar over August and I’m really excited about it.
5. Bar/shop
Just up the road from me there’s a new wine and food shop, which is run by this couple called Holly and Dan, and it’s got an amazing selection of wines that Holly as a young woman and a sommelier has selected. She makes incredible food to go with it. It’s only got about six tables. Every time I go past I’m really jealous of everyone that’s in there. And when I’m organised enough, I book a table and me and my husband and my grownup children go and sit outside and drink too much wine and squabble over food.
6. Art
Cornelia Parker’s Folkestone mermaid
Folkestone has got masses of free art – it’s sort of turned the town into a free art gallery. One of the pieces is this sculpture of a woman sitting on the beach. She’s naked and she’s got large dangly breasts, looking quite tough, with her hair scraped back. She looks like a real woman. I just love the idea that Cornelia Parker, who is extraordinary and really expands our minds with so much of the work that she does, has put this on the beach at Folkestone.
