Features
theartsdesk in Brighton: Festival Beside the SeasideSunday, 23 May 2010
Site-specific theatre spread from artists’ studios to police cells with the realisation that all the city (and a wee chunk of neighbouring Newhaven) is a stage. Dreamthinkspeak’s Before I Sleep (pictured below), a promenade Festival commission based... Read more... |
Interview: Martin Amis on 'The Whole Book-To-Film Department'Friday, 21 May 2010
Martin Amis always had his own idea of who should play John Self, the anti-heroic slob narrator of Money. "The only regret I have in the whole book-to-film department,” he told me, “is that Gary Oldman never played John Self. We had a meeting with... Read more... |
Iram: Shalom Aleichem's shtetl life comes to LondonWednesday, 19 May 2010
Tonight at the Barbican's Pit, kicking off a run of ten performances, a rather unusual piece of theatre opens. It's not a big play, it probably won't make great waves and it does involve reading surtitles. Called Iram, it's an Israeli adaptation, in... Read more... |
The Cannes Film Festival: Stormy WeatherTuesday, 18 May 2010
This slot is always one of the trickiest to fill satisfactorily, though last year’s choice – Pixar’s delightful animation Up – was inspired. Coming on the same day as the film’s release date, alas, Robin’s rain-lashed, Ridley-less premiere felt like... Read more... |
theartsdesk in New York: Sondheim On Sondheim On BroadwaySunday, 16 May 2010
Broadway tends to go into overdrive in May, that time of the theatrical year when New York stages are at their buzziest in the run-up to the Tony Awards (to be awarded on 13 June). Heavyweight star vehicles (Denzel Washington back on Broadway after... Read more... |
The Seckerson Tapes: Sarah Connolly InterviewSaturday, 15 May 2010
Acclaimed British mezzo Sarah Connolly prepares for the title role in Donizetti's battle royal of rival queens Maria Stuarda. Her return to Opera North in the bel cantorole of her choice will be one of the highlights of the UK opera season and in... Read more... |
Fela Kuti, The One Who Emanated GreatnessFriday, 14 May 2010
With Fela Kuti's old band playing Brighton this evening fronted by his son Seun and on the same bill as Tony Allen, the drummer who co-created the increasingly influential Afro-beat sound, it seemed a good excuse to revisit the first interview I... Read more... |
Vincere Special 2: Interview with Filippo TimiThursday, 13 May 2010
Filippo Timi plays the young Mussolini of Marco Bellocchio's Vincere as a glowering, virile force of nature. Watching this and his other recent films, it was hard not to think of the Brando of the early 1950s. Timi, too, combines bullish masculine... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Chicago: Radical Invention in the Windy/Second CitySunday, 09 May 2010
On my previous trip to the Second City in 2009, the much-awaited Art Institute of Chicago extension wasn’t quite ready for visitors, but is now about to celebrate its first birthday, and it’s a treat. The Modern Wing adds 35 per cent more space to... Read more... |
The Seckerson Tapes: Catherine Malfitano InterviewSunday, 09 May 2010
She was the Tosca who played live to an audience of one billion in 107 countries; she is the director of English National Opera's new staging of the opera they once dubbed Puccini's "shabby little shocker". How times change. In this exclusive ENO... Read more... |
Unorthodox Jews: The Secret Worlds of Holy Rollers and Eyes Wide OpenFriday, 07 May 2010
Jews may or may not have built the pyramids, but we know for certain that they built Hollywood. The names of the men who founded MGM, 20th Century Fox and Paramount speak for themselves: Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B Mayer, Marcus Loew, Joseph Schenck,... Read more... |
Interview: Diane Birch Rises UpThursday, 06 May 2010
It's probably a bit early to start picking the best albums of 2010, but I would seriously consider a legal challenge if Diane Birch's Bible Belt isn't there or thereabouts when the votes are counted. Like a long-lost singer-songwriter classic, it... Read more... |
