I Fought The Law, But The Law Won After its successful run at the Lyttleton, National Theatre, Olivier Award-winning writer Suzie Miller’s legal drama Inter Alia is back for a new run, this time at Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End and with Rosamund Pike reprising her role as London Crown Court Judge Jessica Parks. Miller made a […]
The Authenticator
In The Authenticator, the act of proving what is real becomes inseparable from uncovering what has been deliberately hidden Some years ago, I travelled to Antigua to cover Sailing Week, an extravagant festival held every year at the end of the Caribbean sailing season with exclusive champagne parties, mega-yachts with professional crew and massive events […]
My First Ballet: Cinderella
English National Ballet Dances for Young Audiences The target audience may be children, many very young and some attending the first ballet performance of their short lives, but that doesn’t mean stinting on production values. On the contrary, one of the many remarkable things about English National Ballet’s ‘My First Ballet’ programme is the consistently […]
Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Lyttelton Theatre
Wicked little letters Guest Post by Natalie York The National Theatre’s much-anticipated production of Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses coincides with the playwright’s 80th birthday and just over 60 years of writing for the stage. Hampton’s adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 1782 epistolatory classic retains the original’s outrage at a calcified and predatory aristocracy […]
Mayerling, The Royal Ballet
A Royal Scandal at the Habsburg Court Few choreographers have the skill to probe the darkness of the human soul like Kenneth MacMillan; few, if any, works in his extensive oeuvre probe it quite so disturbingly as his Mayerling, created for The Royal Ballet in 1978. MacMillan’s three-Act reading of the events leading to the […]
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding – Hammersmith Lyric
Joyful, award-winning Broadway play makes its UK debut, revealing touching individual stories underlying the immigrant experience This timely play by Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh premiered on Broadway as part of the Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2023–2024 season and quickly caught the public’s attention. Its run was extended twice during its limited season, and a series of […]
Easter at Bread Ahead
If you have no daughters, give them to your sons; what it takes to bring Bread Ahead’s famous Hot Cross Buns to market. These magic morsels have been enjoyed on British and Commonwealth tables for over half a century, and their popularity shows no signs of waning. Bread Ahead, who are difficult to miss in […]
John Proctor is the Villain – Royal Court
A special kind of witchcraft In a wonderful coincidence of staging at the Royal Court, John Proctor is the Villain opens 70 years after Arthur Miller’s The Crucible had its UK premiere in the same theatre. The play written by Kimberly Belflower derives its name from the protagonist of Miller’s much-lauded play. John Proctor is […]
Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House
Bravado and Bravura in this barnstormer of a production Oliver Mears’s Rigoletto is back at the Royal Opera House with a revival of his production of Rigoletto. The story of Rigoletto is adapted from Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’Amuse (The King Amuses Himself). Rigoletto’s librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, replaced the king with the Duke of […]
Konrad Mägi – Dulwich Picture Gallery
Step into a world of bold colour to discover the greatest Nordic modernist painter you’ve never heard of Think about Modernist painters and I’ll bet the usual suspects come to mind: Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Munch, Seurat. But one name that probably does not leap to mind is Estonian artist Konrad Mägi, despite being a contemporary […]