• Echo and the Bunnymen at the Royal Albert Hall review *****

    Echo and The Bunnymen: The Stars, the Ocean and the Moon Royal Albert Hall, 1st June 2018 Rescue Villiers Terrace – (Roadhouse Blues) All That Jazz Stormy Weather The Somnabulist Nothing Lasts Forever All My Colours Angels and Devils Bedbugs and Ballyhoo Lips Like Sugar Rust In The Margins Bring On the Dancing Horses Seven…

  • Mood Music at the Old Vic review ***

    Mood Music Old Vic Theatre, 30th May 2018 Joe Penhall is definitely on to something with his new play Mood Music. But having found it I am not entirely sure that he then took the time to develop it. Well worth seeing, some fine performances and some thoughtful debate, but, after a terrific set up,…

  • Lessons in Love and Violence at the Royal Opera House review ****

    Lessons in Love and Violence Royal Opera House, 26th May 2018 Here is an extract from an illuminated manuscript showing Eddy II getting a crown. Or more precisely a second crown. Not sure what that is all about but given he was by reputation a high maintenance sort of fella maybe two crowns makes sense.…

  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Greenwich Theatre review ****

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream Greenwich Theatre, 24th May 2018 This was the third and final leg of Lazarus Theatre’s hitherto excellent season at the Greenwich Theatre. The previous productions, Edward II (Edward II at Greenwich Theatre review ****) and The Lord of Flies (Lord of the Flies at Greenwich Theatre review ****), both showed off…

  • Beethoven symphony cycle from Britten Sinfonia and Thomas Ades at the Barbican review *****

    Britten Sinfonia, Thomas Ades (conductor), Nicholas Hodges (piano), Joshua Bloom (bass) Barbican Hall, 22nd and 24th May 2018 Beethoven – Symphony No 4 in B flat major Op 60 Gerard Barry – Piano Concerto Beethoven – Symphony No 5 in C minor Op 67 Gerard Barry – The Conquest of Ireland Beethoven – Symphony No…

  • Van Gogh and Japan exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum review ****

    Van Gogh and Japan Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, 18th May 2018 There is an episode of the recent excellent BBC series Civilisations, on the history of art, where the presenter Simon Schama explores Japanese woodblock prints from the C!8 and C19 and shows their impact on the Western art canon. We often assume that the…

  • Describe the Night at the Hampstead Theatre review ****

    Describe The Night Hampstead Theatre, 23rd May 2018 In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Describe the Night hasn’t gone down too well with the London critics. The SO and I think they might have missed a trick. It is ambitious, ranging…

  • Mayfly at the Orange Tree Theatre review *****

    Mayfly Orange Tree Theatre, 21st May 2018 A play set in a rural location about a family processing grief. Not a million miles away from the not entirely successful Nightfall at the Bridge Theatre I hear you clamour. (Nightfall at the Bridge Theatre review ***). Well yes after a fashion. Joe White’s debut play though…

  • Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at the Barbican Hall review ***

    London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Michael Tilson Thomas, Camilla Tilling (soprano), Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano), Toby Spence (tenor), Luca Pisaroni (bass-baritone) Barbican Hall, 20th May 2018 Beethoven – Missa Solemnis Hard to believe that the scruffy scrawl above is from the hand of the greatest ever composer in one of his greatest ever works. At…

  • Life and Fate at the Theatre Royal Haymarket review ***

    Life and Fate Maly Drama Theatre of St Petersburg, Theatre Royal Haymarket, 20th May 2018 The Maly Drama Theatre of St Petersburg was founded in 1944 and is one of just three European theatre companies to have been awarded the title Theatre of Europe from the EU. (No I didn’t grasp the geography of that…

At Home He Feels Like A Tourist