Africa
Dancing at Dusk: A Moment with Pina Bausch’s 'The Rite of Spring' review - an explosive African rite
Jenny Gilbert
There’s sun and sand, and both are golden – but this is no holiday beach. Distantly, out of focus, you can make out a man with a donkey and cart. Off-camera, some locals kick a ball. A square of sand about the size of a tennis court has been carefully raked in preparation for a performance – a unique performance, as it turns out.Early this year, 38 dancers from 14 African countries were assembled to mount a production of The Rite of Spring in the 1975 landmark version by the late Pina Bausch. It was due to premiere in Dakar in mid-March followed by an international tour. But then lockdown Read more ...
Matt Wolf
Can this weekly lineup really now be three months old? As we move towards at least some degree of relaxation on the social restrictions that have long been in place, the offerings of theatre online continue to afford many a reason not to leave your laptop. National Theatre at Home has a particularly weighty (and timely) entry in its capacious rendering of Lorraine Hansberry's rarely glimpsed Les Blancs, whilst the Old Vic down the road places the music industry under the microscope via the Joe Penhall play Mood Music. You get recipe cards if you tune into Toast, not to mention the Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The debut album from one woman outfit [MONRHEA] shows off the seriously impolite electronica that’s blossoming in East Africa. Electronic sounds from Africa are over-represented in Europe by jolly pop and elegantly faceless house music, but there’s a whole lot more going on. Via uber-producer and Killing Joker Martin “Youth” Glover’s Youth Sounds label, this album gives an exciting taste of the wild gumbo of dancefloor-friendly experimentation that’s on the bubble there.[MONRHEA] – and I’m going to lose the square brackets and caps from hereon – hails from Athi River, a town outside Nairobi Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Ghana was visited by two British musicians in the early Eighties. One was Mick Fleetwood, who recorded the Visitor album in Accra during January and February 1981. The other was Brian Eno, who came to the country in late 1980 to attend the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFAC). While in Ghana, he also produced The Pace Setters, the first and only album by local band Edikanfo.In the reminiscence Eno contributes to the new reissue of The Pace Setters, he says “having spent the previous few years immersed in Fela Kuti's early albums and the previous few months stuck into John Miller Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Outside his home country Madagascar, Damily was first heard via a couple of tracks on the 2004 French compilation album Tsapiky, Panorama D'une Jeune Musique De Tulear, an overview of the tsapiky dance music of the south-west of the island. He’d moved to France in 2003. His first internationally issued full-length album, Ravinahitsy, followed in 2007. Since then, there’s been three more albums: the last of which was 2018’s Valimbilo.The new compilation Early Years – Madagascar Cassette Archives soundtracks a previously untold backstory by revealing what Damily’s music was like on his Read more ...
Rachel Halliburton
Barber shops – as we are all starting to appreciate in this time of lockdown – fulfil an emotional as much as a cosmetic role: having a haircut can represent a new beginning, a moment for reflection, or even an informal confessional. As the hugely successful Barber Shop Chronicles becomes the latest high-profile National Theatre production to be streamed online, audiences are invited to listen to the dreams, confessions and arguments of black men for whom the barber is also a sanctuary.It’s the playwright himself, Inua Ellams, who describes the barber shop as a “safe, sacred space Read more ...
Matt Wolf
No one can accuse the gods of streaming of failing to cast a wide net. That's even more so with an array of streaming opportunities over the next week that ranges from Off West End Ibsen given a second chance to shine to an online encounter with, yes, The Encounter, and, should you wish, with its protean creator and leading man, as well. There's a reminder onhand of a time before the recent film of Cats when a furry Rebel Wilson wasn't yet a collective memory, while the National's much-traveled Barber Shop Chronicles journeys this time right into your home. For more on these various Read more ...
mark.kidel
Rituals of death call for music: to see the spirits of the dead off on their journey to the other side, to express the grief of those left behind or to celebrate the cycle of life and death. Fra Fra are a quartet from the predominantly Muslim northern part of Ghana - a much drier region than more forested areas of the south.They specialise in music that's performed at traditional funeralsAlthough claims are made for the links between the music of this region and the blues, it feels generally less familiar or connected to field hollers and country blues than the music of Mali. Percussion and a Read more ...
aleks.sierz
Queer people of colour face a double discrimination: racism and homophobia. Against this sickness of negation and stupidity one of the best antidotes is a culture of celebration. And in this theatre can play its part. At the Bush, last September, the revival of Jackie Kay's 1986 play, Chiaroscuro, in the form of a gig, injected a heady dose of lively music and poetry into a story about two young black lesbians. Now this venue is staging The High Table, a powerful and moving debut by new playwright Temi Wilkey whose plot revolves around a gay marriage. And it's great!Set in London, Lagos and Read more ...
Owen Richards
What’s the appeal of cinema? It can transport us to fantasy lands, or open our eyes to new perspectives. But one aspect that’s less discussed is how it brings people together. Going to the cinema is a social stimulus, a shared experience that sparks discussions and forges friendships. And as shown in Sudanese documentary Talking About Trees, its absence leaves a hole in the community.We follow the Sudanese Film Group (SFG), a collection of former filmmakers, as they try to reopen the Revolution Cinema in the city of Omdurman. It’s more than a hobby for them, it’s a calling. Since the military Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
We hear plenty of debate about climate change and its disastrous potential, but the ballooning growth of the world’s population may be the most critical issue facing humankind. Chris Packham thinks so (“it’s undeniably the elephant in the room,” he says, though lack of elephants is one of its many alarming symptoms) and in this documentary for BBC Two he criss-crossed the planet to show us the evidence.The earth’s population is about 7.7 billion now and is predicted to reach 10 billion by 2050. Packham touched down in Sao Paolo, Brazil, where the population is five times greater than London’s Read more ...
Barney Harsent
Music has never felt more important. While politicians debated our future, badly and in heated, farce-to-farce debates, the electorate went to war with each other – on social media mainly. The atmosphere is toxic and we’re surrounded by the bodies of those who chose to die on hills that wouldn’t trouble the contours of an OS map. As we navigate the fallout, I’d really recommend going the extra mile and splashing out on noise-cancelling headphones. It’s going to be a while before the bluster blows over.As for music recommendations, I’m going for releases that pretty much bookended the year. Read more ...