Rebekah King

@rebekahking

Writer/researcher Articles on magic, theatre, horror etc here

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Rebekah King@rebekahking· 18d

I've officially found the best line in any play ever:

Proximus: Ha, ha, ha, (stage direction: A stone falls and kills Proximus)

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Jun 1

"The scariest painting I've ever seen." open.substack.com/pub/rebekahk...

"The Scariest Painting I've Ever Seen" Rebekahkingwriter.substack.com Dr King's Curiosities

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Apr 23

Happy Shakespeare’s birthday everyone! In VERY exciting news, I’ve been asked to adapt The Tempest for a 60-minute performance on The Golden Hinde, a floating museum moored on the Thames. If you’re in London this September, come and see a (shortened) Shakespeare play on an actual ship!

Poster superimposed over a painting of the Hinde, a sixteenth century ship. It reads 'Happy Shakespeare's Day: The Tempest aboard The Golden Hinde Tuesday 8 & 22 September 2026.'

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Mar 25

Last Friday a short libretto of mine about rival épée fencers premiered at the Royal Academy of Music as part of their Opera Makers course 2025-6 with amazing music by Ruben Doda. This has been such a fun project - I never thought I'd be asking singers to sing and duel at the same time!

Two singers, one in white and one in black, pose opposite each other in the stance of epee fencers: knees bent, sword hand forward. They are in a studio with a grand piano where a pianist sits and plays the accompaniment.

The two singers sit facing the audience, they have towels and sports bottles as if they are in a changing room.

The conductor, composer, singers, pianist and librettist pose smiling for a photograph in the same room where the performance took place.

The same room, a large group of all the teams for the four short operas smiles for the camera. In the centre is Sophie, the director, who has white hair and is looking relieved that everything went well.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Jan 16

“Behold!” He said “I will smite thee sore with that moste wicked devil, he who is called commonly ‘OneDrive Syncing Error,’ he who will snatch thy very wordes and tumble them into oblivion.”

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Dec 25

Someone who knows me very well got me my very own mogwai. He’s already befriending the cat, now to keep him away from the leftovers after midnight…Merry Christmas everyone!

Gizmo doll from the movie ‘Gremlins’ a small furry creature with big ears and a cute face, white and brown splotches.

The same doll perched on the back of a black fluffy cat with a white nose, a white chest and big golden eyes. The cat looks faintly annoyed.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Dec 14

Don’t worry, the Kate Bush Christmas version of Babooshka can’t hurt you.’ The Kate Bush Christmas version of Babooshka:

Kate Bush dances in front of a green screen which is showing an enormous creepy face which (I think) is supposed to be a Christmassy moon.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Dec 2

I impulse-bought one of those overnight face masks and it’s all gone a bit Georges Franju Eyes Without a Face (1960)

Close up shot of the young female protagonist of wearing her white face mask.

The film poster where the staring eyes stand out alarmingly from the white blankness where a face should be.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Nov 28

Had an unexpected friend on our garden shed this morning in central London. What a lovely last glimpse of autumn!

An urban fox sits curled up on the roof of a garden shed in amongst a last scattering of fallen autumn leaves.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Nov 27

In our version, the pig wins the day and traps the wicked owner in the oven, Hansel and Gretel style. Enjoy my mad scribbled lyrics and the sight of an extremely talented singer called Jasmine pretending to be a pig… (2/2)

A notebook covered with notes under the title 'Pig opera' they sketch out a story 'buying the pig' 'preparing the dinner' and 'pig triumphs' and there are snatches of lyrics 'you are tender, you are sweet, you are plump and good to...cuddle.' And so on.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Nov 27

This week, I’ve been working as a librettist on some intense but incredible Opera Lab workshops at the Royal Academy of Music. On our final day we had 24 hours to write a mini opera based on a news headline. Our group was given ‘Couple Adopts Pig from a Sanctuary only to Cook and Eat Her.’ (1/2)

Brightly lit photo of the Royal Academy of Music seen from the street over the decorative iron railings. The building is red brick and grand.

A small concert room where two singers are performing in front of a cellist, a flautist and a pianist. One of the singers is pretending to be a pig eating out of a bowl, the other is patting her ominously on the head. No one is in costume, this is a plain clothes performance.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Nov 12

SHOCKING photos show before and after the feminisation of academia

Senate house, Cambridge but with a big cartoon bow, eyelashes and lips

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Nov 10

My new business cards have turned out great

Sixteenth century woodcut of a monster which looks a bit like a demon sheep. It just says 'A strange and terrible wonder'

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Oct 23

It’s good to know that, no matter how bad my drawings are, if I write something important enough beside them they might be on the cover of a book one day.

Cover of the Penguin Classics 'The Apocryphal Gospels' with a photo of a manuscript on he cover. The text of the manuscript is decorated with a very poorly drawn Jesus and two criminals being executed. Apart from anything else, the legs of Jesus have been accidentally attached to the cross itself instead of his body.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Oct 22

Anyone in the London area want to do the greatest group Halloween costume with me?

Screenshot from The Village of the Damned (1960), four golden haired children with glowing eyes.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Oct 4

Tour dates here:

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Oct 4

Nice little interview about my Van Gogh play in the Linlithgow Gazette and another here (falkirkherald.co.uk/art…) from the Falkirk Herald.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Aug 11

So pleased to have received my gorgeous copy of 'At the Change of the Moon' by Bernard C Blake, newly edited and published by @johnnymains.co.uk for Mislaid Books. An underappreciated gem! Hardback available here: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FKH9GMF8

Cover of the novel with a bat flying past a full moon.

Acknowledgements including one to Rebekah for scanning the book for Johnny.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Aug 11

When you wake up from a nap to hear that your neighbour’s child has started learning the recorder.

Early cinema depiction of a man waking from a hypnotised slumber, opening his eyes slowly and staring directly at the camera with a haunted look. When you wake up from a nap to hear that your neighbour’s child has taken up the recorder (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920)

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Aug 8

Today I learned that Herman Melville is responsible for the world’s meanest description of penguins.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Jul 30

Ooh this looks great! That chapter on bowls is responsible for one of my all time favourite sassy footnotes

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Jul 24

If anyone is in London this October, I’ll be speaking about horror on the early modern stage as part of Beyond Shakespeare’s ‘Wyrd Revels’ season. What better way to celebrate the spookiest (i.e. the best) month? Early bird tickets here, my panel is on 25th: www.ticketsource.co.uk/beyondshakes...

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Jul 12

Every time I hear someone say that AI takes the misery out of writing

Mrs Doyle from Father Ted saying 'Maybe I like the Misery.'

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Mar 8

Happy International Women's Day to all who celibate

The nuns from Sound of Music stand together, hands clasped in prayer

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Feb 20

One of the many difficulties faced by medieval women was having to leave bad dates via castle windows.

A medieval illustration of a woman falling from a window in a tower. In the other window, a man is leaning as if mid-conversation.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Feb 7

The real mystery about vampires is how they managed to do their make up so well without mirrors.

A vampire woman with black hair, pale skin, and fangs, snarls between mounted candles in a castle setting. Her eyes are perfectly made up with dusky eye shadow and a feline flick to her eyeliner. The photo is of Pia Degermark in The Vampire Happening (1971).

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Feb 4

Just finished recording my second ever horror commentary for an upcoming release of ‘Lisa and the Devil', or ‘the film Mario Bava made when he was given carte blanche.’ Absolutely bonkers and lots of fun.

A colourful poster for Lisa and the Devil. Lisa, a beautiful young woman with blonde hair, is wearing a short blue skirt and open-buttoned green blouse. She is screaming as the face of a man looms larger than life from the red and purple at her back.

The head and shoulders of the devil, played by Telly Savalas, is shown encircled with filigree. He is bald and dressed like a butler. His eyes have been painted over so that they blaze bright red and yellow.

At a dinner table in a mansion, five corpse turn their heads and stare down the camera. One is a skeleton shrouded in a black veil. They have been positioned on one side of the table to resemble the Last Supper.

Lisa, in green and blue, looks nervously at a set of man-sized mannequins with painted faces and unfinished clothes.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Feb 2

It's six more weeks of winter, everyone! #groundhogday

A groundhog on a red cushion is consulted by a circle of men wearing top hats and black suits. One of the men holds a cane which allows him to speak in groundhogese.

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Feb 2

There has just been a special groundhog day shoutout to the military. I feel like I'm learning so much about American from watching this livestream... #groundhogday

Rebekah King@rebekahking· Feb 2

Now four men are singing Twist and Shout into the still-pitch black Pennsylvania morning. No groundhog-themed lyrics this time. #groundhogday