Cultural Life: Polly Stenham, playwright

Interview,Morgan Durno
Friday 18 March 2011 01:00 GMT
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(AFP/Getty Images)

Theatre: I loved E V Crowe's 'Kin' at the Royal Court last year. A crazy, dystopian vision of two 10-year-old girls at boarding school, it was dark and disturbing. The two actresses, Madison Lygo and Maya Gerber, put in phenomenal performances. There's something really transgressive about seeing young children live on stage when they should really be in bed.

Visual Arts: This year's exhibition of recent graduate artists from the University of the Arts, Future Map 10 hosted by the Zabludowicz Collection, was really interesting. There is so much emerging talent around: I love Dmitri Galitzine's sculptures.

Books: I recently read 'Lean on Pete' by Willy Vlautin, it made me cry my eyes out. It's simple, sad and very short: I like it too much to want to analyse it. I also really enjoyed Claire Keegan's 'Foster'; it's a very interesting short story about a small girl sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland.

Films: 'Winter's Bone' was incredible: stark, lovely, simple, well-shot and unfussy, it was the complete opposite of 'Black Swan', which I also saw on DVD recently. It's really frightening and Natalie Portman is fantastic. I wasn't wowed by the cinematography. I thought the first half was great but it unravelled into utter mayhem.

Television: I love 'Jersey Shore'! It's amazing. I heard about it and sought it out straight away. It's absolutely hilarious, you end up really liking all the cast. I highly advise anyone to watch it.

Music: I love the brilliantly dirty drum'n'bass on Chase & Status' new album, 'No More Idols', it's such an energiser. And the new Radiohead album, 'The King of Limbs'. They are my favourite band in the world.

Polly Stenham is co-director of Cob Studios & Gallery, London NW1 (020 7749 6850). 'The Divided Self' runs to 21 April

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