A very long overdue exhibition at the Royal Academy, as Rose Wylie becomes the first female painter to have a solo retrospective with The Picture Comes First. A Surprisingly Late Milestone I didn’t actually realise while I was visiting the exhibition. It was only later when I was doing a bit of reading in preparation […]
A chance reunion is not as accidental as it seems in The Dawn of Reckoning, a quietly unsettling two-hander that lets its secrets surface slowly over the course of a long night. The Dawn of Reckoning Director Matthew Parker is a dab hand at two-handers (see Trestle at the Jack Studio Theatre, which also featured […]
Tate Britain’s exhibition Turner & Constable: Rivals & Originals brings two important English artists back into focus as contemporaries, each developing their own response to a changing world. Tate Britain After Hours Those who have visited my blog in the past may recall that I frequently find the scale of exhibitions at Tate Britain a […]
In Emergency Exits the Imperial War Museum tackle head on the British approach to independence movements in the 1950s, citing three different case studies to build a robust picture. Emergency Exits Flitting around London’s museums, as I do, it’s a useful exercise to think about their origins, and their position in the world (and the […]
With just one onstage performer and a great many ideas, Shallowspace proves that ambitious science-fiction theatre doesn’t need a blockbuster budget. Shallowspace I love small theatre productions with big ambitions. And what can be bigger than a timespan of thousands of years, an archive of humanity floating through space, pulled off with a single actor […]
In When We Were Us, new writing from Jade Winters at the Jack Studio Theatre, four friends meet for the first time in a long while, each bringing their own assumptions about what has changed, and what might still be left unsaid. Please Note: spoilers below.Content Warning: discussion of domestic abuse and coercive control. When […]
A lovely little (free) exhibition at the Wallace Collection shines a spotlight on Caravaggio’s cheeky cupid. More London Galleries With Free, Small Exhibitions? Don’t Mind if I Do! More like this please, London! I love a small exhibition. And a free one. Frequently, I go to the National Gallery for this purpose. They have a […]
In Trace of the Forgotten, writer-director Gabriela Torres Gil brings together live performance and digital media to explore what happens when memory, migration, and identity begin to blur. Trace of the Forgotten This week marked my second visit to Theatre Deli, which remains one of the more imaginative uses I’ve seen for an empty office […]
Suppliants of Syria is not just a play but an evening-long event, using Aeschylus’s ancient tragedy as a starting point for a discussion about asylum, testimony and hospitality today. Suppliants of Syria Like most of the (I imagine) fairly self-selecting audience for Border Crossings’ Suppliants of Syria, I arrived with an open mind – both […]
Two artists, two very different approaches to memory, and an unexpectedly clear favourite. It’s Yin Xuizhen: Heart to Heart and Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life, dual exhibitions on now at the Hayward Gallery. Yin Xuizhen: Heart to Heart Most people, I suspect, are here for Chiharu Shiota. Her looping webs of thread dominate the marketing […]
