At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

Category: Culture

  • Giulio Cesare opera at Hackney Empire review ***

    Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Parts 1 and 2 Hackney Empire, 7th October 2017 The more opera I see, the less I want to see. Yet this does not mean I don’t enjoy opera: on the contrary, when it works, it can match the best that theatre can offer in terms…

  • The Seagull at the Lyric Hammersmith review ***

    The Seagull Lyric Hammersmith, 9th October 2017 Right where I come from seagulls are a bloody menace. There are times when I feel the same way about Chekhov. You sit there thinking all his people are self-indulgent, lovelorn whingers who just need to lighten up and get a grip. But…

  • Ninagawa’s Macbeth at the Barbican Theatre review ****

    Macbeth Barbican Theatre, 8th October 2017 When I was a young’un, come to make my fortune in the Big Smoke, I was lucky enough to secure free or cut price tickets to productions at the Barbican and NT. But then, as now, I am afraid I was more “Dick” than…

  • My Name is Rachel Corrie at the Young Vic review ****

    My Name is Rachel Corrie Young Vic, 6th October 2017 I have raved about actor Erin Doherty in the past. She was the lynchpin in the excellent ensemble for Jack Thorne’s Junkyard (Junkyard at the Rose Theatre review *****), and was unbearably poignant in Katherine Soper’s excellent debut play Wish…

  • Soul of a Nation exhibition at Tate Modern ****

    Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power Tate Modern, 5th October 2017 I seem to have taken an age to get around to seeing Tate’s survey of African American Art through the vital twenty year period from 1963. There are a couple of weeks left to…

  • Angel at the Arcola Theatre review ****

    Angel Arcola Theatre, 4th October 2017 I had been hoping to get an opportunity to see Angel after reading a review of the premiere at the Edinburgh Festival last year. I had read of the very sad death of the actor, Filipa Branganca, who had played the role of the…

  • Mother! film review *****

    Mother! 28th September 2017 What the dickens was that all about. My guess is that director Darren Aronofsky, as with his previous films, is not entirely sure himself. And that is no bad thing. Here is a chap who seems to have a happy knack of selling multi-layered, grand, quasi-surreal…

  • After the Rehearsal at the Barbican Theatre review ***

    After the Rehearsal Barbican Theatre, 28th September 2017 So what was this going to be? Another flawed, portentous (pretentious?), langourous stroll through a story which might better have been left in its original format, like Obsession here at the Barbican earlier this year in the Toneelgroep Amsterdam Residency? Or a…

  • The Wipers Times at Richmond Theatre review **

    The Wipers Times Richmond Theatre, 27th September 2017 The Wipers Times has been knocking about for a couple of years know having morphed from the TV drama written by Ian Hislop and regular partner Nick Newman (which I didn’t see) into the play version at Newbury and then the Arts…

  • The Best Man at Richmond Theatre review ****

    The Best Man Richmond Theatre, 2nd October 2017 N.B. The Best Man has, as I confidently expected, found its way to the West End, to wit the Playhouse Theatre where it opens on 24th February and runs through until 12th May. Well worth a visit and not ridiculously priced, though…

  • Doubt, A Parable at the Southwark Playhouse review ***

    Doubt, A Parable Southwark Playhouse, 26th September 2017 Once again a review of a play whose run is over. Apologies. This revival of Doubt, A Parable, by US playwright JP Shanley, was efficiently directed by Che Walker, but turned out to be a little slighter in form and content than…

  • The Judas Passion at St John’s Smith Square review ***

    Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, Nicholas McGegan, Brenden Gunnell, Roderick Williams, Mary Bevan, Choir of the OAE St John’s Smith Square, 25th September 2017 The Judas Passion is a new work commissioned by the OAE and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra San Francisco, and was composed by Sally Beamish with…