London
1984, Hackney Town Hall review - Room 101 shapeshifts into 2023, but remains as terrifyingly plausible as everTuesday, 31 October 2023
The day after I saw the show, as went about the mundanities of domestic life, I wondered how long it would take to come across a reference to 1984. My best bet was listening to an LBC phone-in concerning next week’s conference at Bletchley Park on... Read more... |
Manic Street Creature, Southwark Playhouse review - songs in the key of a traumatised lifeFriday, 27 October 2023
There’s an old-fashioned feel to the story at its outset: Young woman, guitar in hand, Northern accent announcing as much as it always did, who makes a new life in London, all the money going on a room in Camden. One recalls Georgy Girl or Darling,... Read more... |
Capuçon, Philharmonia, Bancroft, RFH review - enjoyable all-American classicsFriday, 27 October 2023
The Philharmonia’s current season, Let Freedom Ring, celebrates American music through some notably interesting programming. And although last night’s concert was very conventionally structured, with an overture, concerto and big symphony to finish... Read more... |
Powell and Pressburger's 'The Red Shoes' - art and nothing butSaturday, 21 October 2023
Nobody ever forgets The Red Shoes (1948) because it’s a movie that seems to change the way an audience experiences cinema. A story about a diverse group of individuals collaborating to make art, the film is itself a wonderful example of the process.... Read more... |
London Film Festival 2023 - mixed fortunes for film mastersThursday, 19 October 2023
The LFF's Best Film Award winner, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car follow-up Evil Does Not Exist, is a characteristic mix of extended takes and conversations, limpid beauty and dizzyingly intense dramatic incident, and just one of the festival's... Read more... |
The Flea, The Yard Theatre review - biting satire fails to stingThursday, 19 October 2023
A flea bites a rat which spooks a horse which kicks a man and… an empire falls?James Fritz has won writing awards already in his developing career, but he has set himself quite the challenge to weave a thread that can bear that narrative weight. Two... Read more... |
Blu-ray: BranniganTuesday, 17 October 2023
Brannigan begins in arresting fashion, Dominic Frontiere’s funky theme playing over leery close ups of the titular hero’s Colt revolver. Directed by Douglas Hickox and released in 1973, this was the only film starring John Wayne which wasn’t shot in... Read more... |
London Film Festival 2023 - Scorsese on ScorseseSunday, 15 October 2023
Martin Scorsese walks onstage to a hero’s welcome, shoulders a little hunched, with a touch of sideways shuffle or hustle, taking acclaim in his stride at 80. He has sold out London’s 2,700-capacity Royal Festival Hall for the BFI’s biggest Screen... Read more... |
Dead Dad Dog, Finborough Theatre review - Scottish two-hander plays differently 35 years on, but still entertainsSaturday, 14 October 2023
I know, I was there. Well, not in Edinburgh in 1985, but in Liverpool in 1981, and the pull of London and the push from home, was just as strong for me back then as it is for Eck in John McKay’s comedy Dead Dad Dog. Back in London for the... Read more... |
Thea Gilmore, Union Chapel review - after Afterlight, a challengeSaturday, 14 October 2023
Recently recovered from her fifth bout of Covid, Thea Gilmore last night made a return to London’s Union Chapel, a wonderfully atmospheric venue where the price to pay for a concert is a numb bum (unless you remember to hire a cushion). For the... Read more... |
Sunset Boulevard, Savoy Theatre review - Nicole Scherzinger stuns in an exceptional productionFriday, 13 October 2023
Jamie Lloyd has the gift that keeps on giving. Hot on the heels of recent productions on Broadway and at the National Theatre, the visionary director is back in the West End with a stupendous reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s modern classic... Read more... |
Album: Nitin Sawhney - IdentityFriday, 13 October 2023
Nitin Sawhney never fails to produce albums that draw on the talent of his brilliant friends, touch on issues of current urgency, and bridge musical styles with great deftness and in a way that avoids the frequent artifice of fusion.Perhaps more... Read more... |
