• Blackkklansman film review ****

    Blackkklansman, 30th August 2018 Spike Lee is 61 years old. This photo is a few years old but there is still a twinkle in his eye if you ask me. That twinkle, the eye for mischief, has been in his films from the start. Now I can’t pretend that I have followed his career, after…

  • Aftermath at Tate Britain review ****

    Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One Tate Britain, 29th August 2018 Historians abhor teleology these days. It’s a tricky business identifying events that “changed the history of the world”. For us simple layfolk though the First World War must surely mark a defining shift in the human experience. The scale, (over 10…

  • The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Noel Coward Theatre review *****

    The Lieutenant of Inishmore Noel Coward Theatre, 31st August 2018 My regular reader, (hello), will need no reminding, (OK maybe they will), that I am a massive fan of Mr Martin McDonagh. Hangmen is the best new play I have seen in the last 3 years, indeed one of the best ever, and Three Billboards…

  • Home I’m Darling at the National Theatre review ***

    Home, I’m Darling National Theatre Dorfman, 29th August 2018 N.B. Home I’m Darling is transferring to the Duke of York’s Theatre from 26th January 2019 for 11 weeks and then toddles off on tour to Theatre Royal Bath, The Lowry and Theatr Clywd. Now I have to confess to a slight feeling of disappointment with…

  • Pericles at the National Theatre review *****

    Pericles National Theatre Olivier, 26th August 2018 So how do you like your theatre? Or more particularly how do your like your Shakespeare? Utterly faithful to the First Folio? Set in the time and place that big Will intended (however baffling)? All blokes in tights? Performed by elite, public school grandees plummily sing-songing the verse?…

  • The Silk Road at Trafalgar Studios review ****

    The Silk Road Trafalgar Studios 2, 23rd August 2018 The modern day Silk Road was the first major darknet marketplace, closed down in 2013 when the FBI arrested its alleged founder Ross Ulbricht and banged him up for life. I didn’t know that. As far as I was concerned it was the main trading route…

  • Imperium at the Gielgud Theatre review ****

    Imperium I Conspirator and Imperium II Dictator Gielgud Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, 18th July and 25th August 2018 I don’t read much. Don’t have the patience or the imagination. Much easier to get my kicks from the theatre, or from film, where other people can do all the hard work. Also suspect years of reading,…

  • Exit the King at the National Theatre review ****

    Exit the King National Theatre Olivier, 15th August 2018 My first Ionesco play, albeit in a version adapted by ubiquitous wunderkind Patrick Marber, (one day the image of Peter O’Hanraha-hanrahan that pops up at the mention of his name will pass), and, all things considered I liked what I saw and heard. I gather Exit…

  • London theatre recommendations as at September 2018

    One or two of you have ill advisedly remarked that I haven’t sent one of these out for a bit. Sorry I am just naturally indolent.  Details below but for those of you who can’t be arsed to wade through all of that and trying to avoid the outre stuff, not taking any risks and…

  • The End of the Pier at the Park Theatre review ****

    The End of the Pier Park Theatre 200, 2nd August 2018 Comic gold is not universal. We all have a different take on what is funny. The casting of Les Dennis in Extras (S1 E4) as a washed up, needy TV star in a pantomime, whose young fiancee is copping off with a stagehand, was…

At Home He Feels Like A Tourist