London
Sam Riviere: Dead Souls review – whip-smart literary satire with a techno tingeThursday, 13 May 2021
In 1992 Martin Amis published a story, “Career Move”, in which the writers of sensational screenplays with titles like Decimator and Offensive from Qasar 13 read their work to empty rooms in shabby pubs. Meanwhile, wealthy and fêted poets pen verses... Read more... |
Europe Day Concert, St John's Smith Square online review – celebrating in styleMonday, 10 May 2021
We may not be in the EU any more, but geographically and culturally we can celebrate being part of Europe as much as we jolly well like. For Europe Day, the European Parliament Liaison Office, the Camōes Institute, the Embassy of Portugal and the... Read more... |
Rachel Whiteread: Internal Objects, Gagosian Gallery review - apocalyptic shedsThursday, 06 May 2021
Sheds have flourished in lockdown: they’ve always been places to escape to and in the past year, when spruced up as home offices, even more so. They’re also emblems of isolation. Poltergeist (main picture) and Doppelganger, the works that... Read more... |
Tarantula, Southwark Playhouse online review – spine-tingling love and traumaMonday, 03 May 2021
I think I can safely say that polymath playwright Philip Ridley has had a good lockdown. In March last year, when The Beast of Blue Yonder, his new show for Southwark Playhouse, was closed due to the pandemic, he came up with an idea called The... Read more... |
Booth, Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall online review - contemporary music programme lacks diversityWednesday, 28 April 2021
Wigmore Hall does not dish up a great deal of contemporary music, preferring a menu of mainstream chamber music. But this programme by the Nash Ensemble offered a different kind of mainstream: within the world of contemporary music this was a middle... Read more... |
Blu-ray: To Sir, with LoveTuesday, 27 April 2021
To Sir, With Love is a very loose adaptation of ER Braithwaite’s autobiographical novel. Reflecting on his experiences as a teacher in London’s East End in the late 1940s, Braithwaite’s commentary (one of two provided here) advises us that “as you... Read more... |
Album: AJ Tracey - Flu GameFriday, 16 April 2021
AJ Tracey is one of Brit rap’s aristocracy now. Along with the likes of Stormzy, Dave, J Hus and lately Headie One, he is massively bankable, with streams in the tens of millions for singles, sellout shows in Alexandra Palace, and radio ubiquity. It... Read more... |
Too Close, ITV review - capable cast struggles with unrewarding materialWednesday, 14 April 2021
What may have happened here is that an intriguing book has been turned into a not so great TV series. Too Close was Natalie Daniels’s well-received first novel, and she has adapted it for this ITV three-parter under her real name of Clara Salaman.... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Catch Us If You CanSunday, 11 April 2021
Catch Us If You Can, the 1965 road movie starring Barbara Ferris and the eponymous drummer and guiding force of the Dave Clark Five, proved a more trenchant satire of capitalism in the embryonic Swinging ‘60s than did the box-office smash it was... Read more... |
Living Newspaper, Edition 3, Royal Court online review – bleak news, sharp wordsSaturday, 03 April 2021
“The crocus of hope is, er, poking through the frost.” When he uttered that dodgy metaphor back in February, Boris Johnson probably didn’t predict that it would become the opening number of the third edition of Living Newspaper, the Royal Court’s... Read more... |
Assembly, Donmar Warehouse online review - the future is coming, ready or notWednesday, 24 March 2021
“Your task is to imagine the future.” That’s what the citizens of Assembly, a new streamed production performed and devised by the Donmar Warehouse’s Local Company, are told. It can be anything they like, so long as they make it together – which is... Read more... |
‘The Healing Power of Music’: composer Nigel Hess on great-aunt Myra’s wartime concertsMonday, 01 March 2021
It has been well-documented over the last few months that there has been an upsurge in listener numbers for many radio stations offering classical music – notably BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and Scala Radio – and, during these unprecedented times it... Read more... |
