A review of The Collaboration at the Young Vic. A play which conjures up a key moment in the 1980s New York art scene and ponders questions about art and its commodification. The Collaboration Jean-Michel Basquiat is one of my favourite artists. I love the urgency of his works, the way the art leaked out […]
A review of The Best of Enemies, on now at the Young Vic in a co-production with Headlong. A slick and creatively-staged look back at the televised debates between two American men of letters illuminates the political present. William F. Buckley Jr. Vs. Gore Vidal Theatre, it is stated in the programme for this production, […]
A review of Hamlet at the Young Vic, directed by Greg Hersov and starring Cush Jumbo. This gender-blind production has some stand-out performances, but stops short of being my pick of this season’s theatre. Impressive Performances, Especially Cush Jumbo As Hamlet It’s maybe a small pandemic silver lining. As this production of Hamlet was significantly […]
A bold way for the Young Vic to reopen post-lockdown, Changing Destiny is a foray into storytelling, speaking to us across 4,000 years of history. The Story of Sinuhe Many of us have probably not heard of Sinuhe. He is a character from a story thousands of years old, from Egypt’s prosperous Middle Kingdom. The […]
Mad but brilliant. Beats you over the head with a theme but does it in style. Uses technology to satirise our addiction to technology. References German literature, Jewish folklore, Expressionist cinema of the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari vein and The Daily Mail. 1927: my new favourite theatre company. I go to a lot of theatre, […]
Something of a marmite production, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! uses all the tricks in the book plus some new ones to shake up this classic musical. Oklahoma! I do like approaching productions from a place of determined ignorance. Sometimes (like my annual outings to A Christmas Carol) I know the plot of the thing I’m […]
A review of Hamlet, on now at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe Theatre. Without a big name/crowd pleaser in the lead role, this production is able to mine much darker scenes in the text. Hamlet The day I was due to go and see Hamlet at the Globe (more specifically at the indoor […]
A review of several events at the 2021 Greenwich + Docklands International Festival (GDIF). Theatre, dance and light installations: merely tasters of the full programme. Greenwich + Docklands International Festival I’m so excited that arts festivals have had a slightly easier time getting off the ground this year. Up next after this post is Open […]
Ok, I almost need to draw you a diagram for this one. You know Shakespeare, right? Macbeth, with the witches etc? Well Verdi wrote an opera of it in 1847. And then it was staged by a South African company at the Barbican. But they staged it as if they were a group of Congolese […]
