Some kind of way

In a thicketed boyish hideout
my tin compass spins and spins.

Even before there is a problem,
websites throng with solutions.

Pointless to ask questions,
to stand in the woods and wait.

I should just turn the damn thing
to where I want north to be

and let it come round.

Tom Phillips, December 2011

Exeunt round-up of the year

Including a small two pennyworth of mine: http://exeuntmagazine.com/features/exeunt-critics-picks-of-2011/

I Went To Albania

My one-man show about Shkodra, Tirana, Gjirokastra, Saranda etc gets a test-drive at Bristol Old Vic in January:

I Went To Albania
Tom Phillips
Wed 11th, 7pm

Why did Enver Hoxha build 700,000 concrete bunkers across the whole of Albania? Were beards illegal under his communist regime? Can you really buy a secondhand Kalashnikov on the streets of Tirana? And what’s any of that got to do with Lord Byron, Edward Lear and John Constable’s picture framer?

Part travelogue, part personal history, part practical experiment, I went to Albania is a haphazard journey in search of a failed utopia, a debunking of myths, and a work-in-progress by writer/performer Tom Phillips in collaboration with director Andy Burden.

Tom’s previous work for theatre includes Hotel Illyria, Man Diving and Arbeit Macht Frei.

There will be bread and salt. Go here for more info and how to book: http://bit.ly/fmx1Bn