The Norwich Radical - March 2026 Issue
Welcome to the March 2026 Issue of The Norwich Radical! The horrors persist, but so do we. After a leaner issue last time, we come back with a fully stocked arts-centred issue this month, as our community of writers proves that there are (still, always, and forever) pockets of joy, creativity, and resistance in the face of the bastards trying to grind us down. And trying to grind everyone and everything down they are.
We space between various incarnations of the arts this issue, with four pieces from across the UK and beyond. Kasper Hassett follows the band Ashbury Heights on tour in York, Glasgow, Manchester, London, and Bristol, and reaffirms his love for live performance; new contributor Greta Santagata reviews, discusses and interviews the creatives behind Cal de Cabaret, and the subversive nature of the show; Eve Hilton returns with an extremely graphic look at New French Extremity cinema, and how visceral horror and thrillers are born of politics of austerity; and finally, Carmina Masoliver stops by the Hackney Gallery to bring us a review of multi-artist exhibition Viennese Whirl.
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March 2026 Issue - Contents
A CERTAIN WEIRDNESS - ASHBURY HEIGHTS TOUR DIARY
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CABARETS AS ACTS OF RESISTANCE: BUILDING COMMUNITIES IN A TIME OF DIVISION
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NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY AS AUSTERITY CINEMA
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VIENNESE WHIRL, HACKNEY GALLERY - REVIEW
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A CERTAIN WEIRDNESS - ASHBURY HEIGHTS TOUR DIARY
By Kasper Hassett
When goth synthpop messiahs Ashbury Heights announced a five-stop UK tour to mark their 20th anniversary, it took very little deliberating to commit to following the entire tour.
But perhaps it’s dishonest to say I made that decision when the band announced it. Six months prior, I came across a stray listing for their York show online, completely by accident. With it was a picture of the entire tour poster. I started making plans - but as the months went by, I worried a little about the radio silence from Ashbury Heights themselves – would the shows go ahead?
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CABARETS AS ACTS OF RESISTANCE: BUILDING COMMUNITIES IN A TIME OF DIVISION
By Greta Santagata
It’s not every day that you sit in a pub, and find yourself sandwiched between a 60-something-year-old local with a pint and a half of bitter and a man dressed as a naughty archangel Gabriel, whilst watching a drag act of the most fabulous and outrageous kind take place - mere centimetres from your face. At a first glance the pub appeared too small to contain such a variety of peoples, ages, genders and outfits. But somehow, against all odds, it worked. It really worked.
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NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY AS AUSTERITY CINEMA
By Eve Hilton
CW: Mentions of rape, surgery, torture and graphic violence
New French Extremity has frequently been perceived as a cinema of excess, owing to its graphic and protracted depictions of sexual assault and torture. Film historian James Quandt, who in fact coined the phrase ‘New French Extremity’ in his 2004 essay ‘Flesh & Blood: Sex and Violence in Recent French Cinema’, utilised a particularly baroque turn of the phrase to outline the genre: one “determined to break every taboo, to wade in rivers of viscera and spumes of sperm, to fill each frame with flesh, nubile or gnarled, and subject it to all manner of penetration, mutilation, and defilement.”
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VIENNESE WHIRL, HACKNEY GALLERY - REVIEW
By Carmina Masoliver
Viennese Whirl featured artists AUSJIÄNDER, Siobhan Binaghi, SMAIBLUE, Paul Doherty and Epona. With non-alcoholic cocktails, a tour of the exhibition, and live sounds, there was a sense of vitality that ignited a feeling of potential.
The exhibition was inspired by Ubu Roi, a radical 1896 play by Alfred Jarry, which when first shown in Paris, caused a riot. It shocked audiences from its very first word: “merde”. Through the character of Père Ubu, the satirical play explores greed, power, corruption, and absurd authority. The exhibition aims to reimagine the pataphysics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the present day, with pataphysics being the branch of philosophy that deals with imaginary solutions.
Read moreWe're hoping you are safe, and loved, and in as much health as you can muster. We keep ourselves safe, and as this month's issue proves, create communities where we can.
Solidarity,
The Norwich Radical Team
