The month’s highlights were almost all musical, and they were all crammed into the last week. Scottish folkie Julie Fowlis sings entirely in Gaelic. Accompanied by her excellent small band, her Union Chapel concert was an absolute delight.
The free New Orleans Festival at O2 was a hit-and-miss affair – ambitious but badly organised – [...]
Archive for October, 2008
The Rest of October
Posted in Art, Classical Music, Contemporary Music, Design, Film, Opera, tagged Art, Classical Music, Contemporary Music, Design, Film, Opera on October 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Once and for all we’re gonna tell you who we are so shut up and listen
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on October 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
You might not believe this……
…..before it starts, you become increasingly irritated by a bunch of girls talking and shouting somewhere behind the scenes.
When it begins, the adolescent experiences of 13 Belgian teenagers unfold before you for 60 minutes in a scene which repeats itself in a series of themes and variations getting bigger, louder, wierder…..
The play is summed [...]
Oedipus
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on October 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I love Greek tragedies and I normally leave them emotionally drained but thrilled.
The problem with Oedipus is that, before it even starts, we all know what he doesn’t know yet and it takes an hour before he’s caught up! There has to be something about this hour that holds you.
Here we have a superb chorus [...]
West Side Story
Posted in Dance, Theatre, tagged Dance, Theatre on October 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
22nd October at the New Ambassadors Theatre, Wimbledon
Well, the second visit in Wimbledon was a mistake! Sad to say it has lost much of its sparkle.
The new touring cast are at best under-rehearsed and at worst under-cast. It feels cramped on the New Ambassadors stage, the dancing is a lot less slick and the orchestra [...]
Spyski
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on October 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Times gave it 5 stars and Time Out gave it 6; I think that’s a bit over-the-top, but it is inspired lunacy and an awful lot of fun – the perfect antidote to 24-hour news of global meltdown.
It starts as a performance of ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’ but when the surveillance officer leaves the theatre [...]
Northern Spain Wine Tour – October 2008
Posted in Art, Food & Wine, Travel, tagged Art, Food & Wine, Travel on October 21, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I enjoyed the February South American wine tour so much that here I am doing the same in Spain in October! This one is accompanied by wine writer Andrew Williams who hails from Pontypridd, 3 miles over the mountain from my home village of Abertridwr, and takes in 12 wineries in 7 wine regions (DO’s) [...]
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on October 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The great thing about the Barbican’s BITE international theatre season is that, for not much more than a cinema ticket, you can sample something intriguing from a far-flung place. Sometimes you come out thinking ‘worth a punt, but not a winner’ but then there are night’s like this uplifting one which you know you’ll never [...]
Waste
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on October 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s so re-assuring when you walk into a theatre and see a Victorian drawing room on the stage – ‘ah, a proper play!’…..
…..and so it is with ‘Waste’. Though the responses to the events presented here would be different & faster in 2008, the issues are timeless. It’s a little wordy for modern sensibilities (compare [...]
Alvaro’s Balcony
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on October 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
What would we do without the Landor? – it’s about the only place putting on new musicals.
This is an original piece that owes more to Sondheim’s Passion than anything else before it. Yet again, the Landor punches well above its weight in performances and production values. It’s an unusual story for a musical and it’s [...]
Born in the Gardens
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on October 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I saw this Peter Nichol’s play on it’s first outing in Bristol in 1979 when I lived there. I thought it was OK, but not one of this underated writer’s best. I was surprised that it survived in the West End as there were so many local references that I wasn’t sure anyone outside Bristol would [...]
