Reviews
Mies Julie, Riverside StudiosTuesday, 12 March 2013
Snow flurries outside, steam heat within. Writer-director Yael Farber’s transposition of Strindberg from a 19th-century Swedish estate to a contemporary farm in South Africa’s Karoo region on the eve of a storm is so painstakingly evocative that all... Read more... |
Shetland, BBC OneTuesday, 12 March 2013
Apparently on a clear day in the Shetlands, you can see Norway and Iceland. And from about halfway through the first instalment of this Caledonian murder mystery, you could see all the way to the final reel and take a well-educated guess about who... Read more... |
ShellTuesday, 12 March 2013
As a finely drawn portrayal of loneliness and solitude encouraged by bottled-up emotions, Shell would be noteworthy enough. But it also contains two scenes – father and daughter interactions - that are deeply uncomfortable viewing. First-time... Read more... |
Mr Selfridge, Series Finale, ITVMonday, 11 March 2013
Watching Mr Selfridge has been like one of those whirlwind tours with the refrain, “It’s Tuesday, so it must be Rome”. Episodes have been defined by the drop-in appearances of Blériot and his aeroplane, Conan Doyle and the séance, Mr FW... Read more... |
Wilko Johnson, KokoMonday, 11 March 2013
What fire and grace on display last night at what he and we assume will be Wilko Johnson’s final London gig. It’s been a while since ticket touts were out in force outside one of his gigs (£200 for you, sir) although his career has been floating... Read more... |
Beyond the HillsMonday, 11 March 2013
The Romanian New Wave continues producing cinema with a visceral power that’s hard to match anywhere in Europe, though to say it was alive and well would hit the wrong note, given the bleakness of the world it goes on depicting. Cristian Mungiu won... Read more... |
Imago, Glyndebourne OperaMonday, 11 March 2013
Imago, Glyndebourne’s latest Community Opera exercise, putting the cap on 25 years of pioneering educational outreach, is one of those operas where you need to read the programme synopsis first. Or maybe not. Its complications are outweighed by... Read more... |
Russian Ballet Icons Gala: Celebrating Vaslav Nijinsky, London ColiseumMonday, 11 March 2013
What does _ _ _ _ mean to you? What does _ _ _ _ mean to us all? Questions asked every day by all kinds of people the world over. These same questions were posed last night at the London Coliseum about the doyen of 20th-century dance and... Read more... |
BalletBoyz, The Talent 2013, Sadler's Wells TheatreSunday, 10 March 2013
Fifteen years ago two male ballet dancers took the awesome risk of leaving the Royal Ballet with an idea in their head about independence. Their first venture was a new Japanese ballet company, which quickly lost their interest as it hit a... Read more... |
Treasures of the Royal Courts: Tudors, Stuarts and the Russian Tsars, Victoria & Albert MuseumSunday, 10 March 2013
Jewels, gold, silver, arms and armour, silks, embroideries, tapestries and lace: the world of the very rich and very powerful royals – and merchants – in Russia and Britain half a millennia ago is set out in glittering array in the V&A’s latest... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Del Shannon, The Stark Reality, The Deviants, Mighty MightySunday, 10 March 2013
Del Shannon: The Complete UK Singles and More (1961-1966)The plaintive, urgent drama of Del Shannon’s debut single, 1961’s “Runaway”, will always identify him. But amazing 45s like 1965’s crunching “Break up” and the ferocious garage-punk of “Move... Read more... |
Simon Boccanegra, English Touring OperaSaturday, 09 March 2013
Simon Boccanegra has, as English Touring Opera’s director James Conway points out, never quite made the running outside Italy amid Verdi’s output. It went through three to five different versions in a short space of time. Despite the Romeo and... Read more... |
