A striking double bill with a South African pedigree from Europe’s first black professional neoclassical ballet company, celebrating their 25th anniversary Dance is one of the most primal human urges, born out of a combination of raw emotion, atavistic response to rhythmic sounds and the urge of a community to move as one. There is […]
Marie and Rosetta at @sohoplace
A joyful story of musical kinship “Electricity ain’t nothing new,” says gospel-rock pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe as she swings a guitar amp onto the stage. Marie Knight, a wary church singer and Tharpe’s new protégé, looks sceptical. Tharpe is only half right. Yes, there are plug sockets all over 1940s Mississippi, but Monique Touko’s production […]
Ballet de Lorraine: Acid Gems and A Folia
High-energy double bill from France It’s perhaps not a good idea to approach the unknown with clear expectations, but having read the promotional material, I had very defined expectations of Acid Gems, the first piece in a double bill brought to the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, by Ballet de Lorraine. To wit: “Adam Linder’s Acid […]
Mary, Queen of Scots
Scottish Ballet’s Award-Winning Dramatic Work Scottish Ballet’s Mary Queen of Scots is nothing if not bold. It’s also challenging, mostly in a good way. What it deliberately is not is a literal, linear account of the life of Mary Stuart, the Scottish Queen imprisoned and eventually beheaded on the orders of her cousin, Elizabeth I […]
Broken Glass – Young Vic
Arthur Miller’s play resonates with our times Arthur Miller’s Olivier award-winning play, Broken Glass, does not appear regularly on the London stage. It played at the National Theatre in 1994, at the Tricycle (now Kiln) in 2010 and in Watford in 2018. The current run at Young Vic is bookended by the brilliant production of […]
Britain’s Bayeux Tapestry – Reading
1066 and all that – Elizabeth Wardle’s Arts and Crafts Bayeux Tapestry. What must it have been like for the women of Canterbury who embroidered the authentic Bayeux Tapestry? Imagine your country has just been conquered, and you have to spend the next few months making a celebratory embroidery for the enemy. The 70-metre embroidery […]
Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold – NEON at Battersea Power Station
A visit to Ancient Egypt through 180 objects Visitors to London have a unique opportunity to see an exhibition of ancient Egyptian artefacts gathered from museums and sites across Egypt. On loan from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, 180 priceless artefacts, many of which have never left Egypt, are on display in a beautifully curated […]
Neon Dance: Last and First Men
Futuristic Dance Piece Narrated by Tilda Swinton First things first: the Coronet Theatre’s determination to present new, ground-breaking, often challenging international work, some of which would probably never be seen in this country otherwise, is admirable. A look at this historic Notting Hill venue’s programme for any given season will reveal a cornucopia of poetry, […]
Patrizio di Massimo, Between Us
New Work by the London-based Italian Artist The history of art is the history of a continuum regularly shattered by revolutionary innovation, which in turn soon becomes absorbed into the continuum, and so it goes throughout the centuries. This process is evident in the new exhibition of works by the London-based Italian painter Patrizio di […]
Opera Locos – Sadler’s Wells
Opera does not do greatest hits albums, but if they did… Giuseppe Verdi meets Bob Marley in Opera Locos, a show that blends opera’s best-known and loved arias with a sprinkling of pop hits Let’s be honest: opera can be a bit of a hard sell. Perhaps not to those who know and love the […]