Fiction

Press for Ideas Above Our Station:

"The contributors' brief for this anthology of short fiction - the latest in a lively series - was to write stories to appeal to travellers. That was unlikely to promote thematic coherence, although it has encouraged several writers to feature journeys in their pieces....The heroine of Alexis Clements's sweetly droll "Aubrey" spends her free time phoning old acquaintances, and achieves a triumph when the museum where she is a ticket seller agrees to devote a display to the aubergine...The standard is high throughout. Ideas Above Our Station would be a diverting travelling companion."
—Nicholas Clee, reviewing Ideas Above Our Station for The Guardian, Saturday December 16, 2006

Theatre

Press for The Interview

"Cleverly constructed and exceedingly well performed, this smashing little play by Alexis Clements teases out a near-future world where everything is controlled by an unseen, all-beneficent company... The balance of power shifts and moves subtly between the two under Sarah Norman's precise and perceptive direction."
—Thom Dibdin, The Stage
(read the full review online here or view a PDF here)

"Skilfully executed, with humour and self-depreciation...finely played by Katharine Peachey and Tom Foster."
-Ed Witcomb, SkinnyFEST

"Oh, this show is so Fringe. Two people, a man and a woman (called Man and Woman) in a white space. An interview is happening but who is interviewing whom? And what sort of a Kafkaesque world is this?...Sarah Norman's tight direction kept it lively and...the performances make it worth an hour of anyone's time."
—Victor Hallett, OnStageScotland.com

Multi-Disciplinary Projects

Press for New Acquisition

New Acquisition's first project, Your Own Personal Apocalypse, took part in the One Million Forgotten Moments project, from 12-16 September 2007, organized and directed by Yehuda Duenyas, commissioned by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council:
"On Wednesday, opening night, the performance had the extemporaneous feel of a happening. Actors in costumes -- a 1920s-style bathing suit here, a bearded man wearing a single in-line skate there -- wandered in and out...There is no narrative structure. Some scenes last a few seconds, others a few minutes. Famous New York City characters -- Jacqueline Onassis, Spider-Man, "On the Town" sailors, the couple from the Times Square V-Day kiss photograph -- make appearances. The acrobatic dancers make especially good use of the space, clambering on the scaffolding in front of the building...Perhaps the most visually arresting moments came when there were performers on the sidewalk in front of the space, on the median in the middle of the street and in front of City Hall Park across the street. As they wove their way to the theater, dancing and singing through traffic and pedestrians, it did look like a kind of poetry."
—Melena Ryzik, The New York Times, September 15, 2007 (read the article here)

New Acquisition's first project, Your Own Personal Apocalypse, launched with an installation and performance that ran at chashama's 217 East 42nd Street space in New York:
"File this under the Only In New York category: the first issue of New Acquisition, a literary pamphlet (that's also online). This issue is all about apocalyptical goings-on, and has got a deadpan essay by Alexis Clements called "Your Own Personal Apocalypse" and a funny, tongue-in-cheek poem by Beth Royer called "Sure Signs of the Apocalypse." If you are in NYC, check out the New Acquisition performances that seem to combine readings, videos, artwork and chicken farming. Yes, that's right. Chicken farming."
—Minus Spine, September 7, 2007 (read the article here)

Return to Projects & Writing page