London
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's Globe review - busy production overflowing with new ideasThursday, 25 May 2023![]() Two years on from Sean Holmes’ production and seven on from Emma Rice’s (both of which featured diverse casts), Elle While takes a turn with the old warhorse’s lovers and fairies, its sparring couples and its Morecambe and Wise-like shambles of a... Read more... |
Album: Steel Banglez - The PlaylistMonday, 22 May 2023![]() There is a truly fascinating story to be written about the hidden Punjabi influence on UK bass music. Maybe it’s natural for kids growing up with the huge booming sounds of dhol and tabla drums to gravitate to big bass speakers, but some of the most... Read more... |
The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare's Globe review - comedy and confusionSaturday, 20 May 2023![]() Shakespeare drew on Plautus’s Menaechmi for this early short comedy. Was it his competitive streak that made him up the ante with not one set of identical twins but two?Imagine that you have newly arrived in a place that you have never visited... Read more... |
Brokeback Mountain, @sohoplace review - emotionally inert take on acclaimed tale of queer loveFriday, 19 May 2023![]() For a masterclass in expansive adaptation, one could do worse than turn to Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain, based on American author Annie Proulx’s 1997 short story of the same title. Proulx’s restrained but searing tale of the queer... Read more... |
Songlines Encounters, Kings Place review - moments of magicFriday, 19 May 2023![]() These encounters are ones that may lead to lifelong relationships, with the halls at Kings Place this coming weekend filled with music from Mali, Colombia, Turkey, Georgia, Estonia, Tibet and a woodland in Sussex.Friday’s double-headed line-up... Read more... |
Sarah Sze: Metronome, Artangel at Peckham Rye station review - an installation of visual complexity and physical simplicityThursday, 18 May 2023![]() One of the great things about Artangel is the interesting sites which they seek out for the artworks they commission. The latest find is the disused waiting room at Peckham Rye station, a once gracious space with a vaulted ceiling, arched windows... Read more... |
The Circle, Orange Tree Theatre review - acerbic reflections on the price paid for loveFriday, 12 May 2023Tom Littler opens his account as artistic director of the Orange Tree Theatre with one of the more radical choices one can make in 2023 – directing a 102 year-old play pretty much how it would have been done in 1921.It’s all very period (... Read more... |
Album: SBTRKT - THE RAT ROADThursday, 04 May 2023![]() Aaron Jerome has always cut his own path through British music. After a few jazzy, groovy experiments under his own name in the 00s, he came dramatically to prominence at the end of that decade as SBTRKT. He was always associated with the post-... Read more... |
It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure, Soho Theatre review - disability-led comedy hits hardMonday, 01 May 2023![]() Just when you’ve relaxed a little, privilege duly checked and confident that you won’t be guilt-tripped for nipping into that disabled loo a few years ago at the National (c’mon, the interval was nearly over and needs must), FlawBored drop a bomb... Read more... |
The Diplomat, Netflix review - can London's new American ambassador prevent World War Three?Saturday, 29 April 2023![]() Does the “special relationship” really exist? Judging by Netflix’s sparky new political drama, yes it does, with London-based CIA agent Eidra Graham (Ali Ahn) going out of her way to spell out the unique intelligence-sharing arrangements between the... Read more... |
Jules and Jim, Jermyn Street Theatre review - a bohemian love triangle ends badlyFriday, 28 April 2023![]() It’s apt that this new play, with characters moving in and out of Paris either side of World War I, is staged at this intimate theatre, one that always has the ambience of a below-ground oubliette. These bohemians are not penniless and cold as were... Read more... |
Album: Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good!Friday, 28 April 2023![]() “If you’re going to do it, do it well” goes a chanted refrain in the opening title track here. And it’s words Jessie Ware clearly lives by – she is not someone who has time to do anything rubbish. From featuring on the cream of post-dubstep... Read more... |
