At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

Category: London

  • Frozen at the Theatre Royal Haymarket review ****

    Frozen Theatre Royal Haymarket, 8th March 2018 I see the Theatre Royal Haymarket is up for sale. Or rather a 70 year odd lease from the Crown Estate, a pernickety landlord, but one who has preserved the beautiful Nash terraces around Regents Park, and is slowing upgrading the built environment…

  • Napoleon Disrobed at the Arcola Theatre review ****

    Napoleon Disrobed Arcola Theatre, 7th March 2018 Here is JL David’s preposterously heroic painting of Napoleon Bonaparte Crossing the Alps. The Napoleon of Simon Ley’s alternative history The Death of Napoleon, is of a somewhat different hue. Ley’s novella, his real name was Pierre Ryckmans and he was a Belgian…

  • Modigliani at Tate Modern review ***

    Modigliani Tate Modern, 5th March 2018 One Modigliani nude or one Modigliani portrait is a thing of not inconsiderable beauty. Less so, one hundred, or what feels like hundreds. The elongated bodies, the mask-like faces, the blank, almond-shaped eyes. Look beyond the USP’s though and the influences, from which Modigliani…

  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the ENO review *****

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream English National Opera, 4th March 2018 Out of a long list of wildly inappropriate events that I dragged BD along to when she was younger perhaps provocateur Christopher Alden’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in this very house was the most egregious. Not because the…

  • The Weir at Richmond Theatre review ****

    The Weir Richmond Theatre, 2nd March 2018 I am jealous of anyone who has never seen Conor McPherson’s 1997 play The Weir. They have something special to look forward to. I last saw it at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh at the beginning of 2016 in a fine production directed…

  • Smile Upon Us Lord review at the Barbican Theatre review ***

    Smile Upon Us, Lord Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre of Russia, Barbican Theatre, 1st March 2018 OK. Sometimes you just have to accept that an artistic endeavour is a bit beyond your reach. For whatever reason it just doesn’t click. That is what happened here with Smile Upon Us, Lord. There…

  • Curtains at the Rose Theatre Kingston review ****

    Curtains Rose Theatre Kingston, 1st March 2018 Stage comedies don’t always stand the test of time too well. Comedy is elusive enough in the first place and may often be more rooted than tragedy to specific times, places or events. Comedic fashion chops and changes and what is acceptable shifts…

  • Julius Caesar at the Bridge Theatre *****

    Julius Caesar Bridge Theatre, 28th February 2018 I had really, really been looking forward to this. Julius Caesar is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. Contemporary relevance of course, but Shakespeare always has relevance. My appetite whetted by the excellent RSC production I saw at the Barbican last month, (Julius…

  • Satyagraha at English National Opera review ***

    Satyagraha English National Opera, 27th February 2018 Finally I have got to see all three of Philip Glass’s seminal operas, Einstein on the Beach (the science-y one), Akhnaten (the religious one) and now this Satyagraha (the political one). Einstein on the Beach was a recreation of the original Robert Wilson…

  • Picnic at Hanging Rock at the Barbican Theatre review ***

    Picnic at Hanging Rock Barbican Theatre, 24th February 2018 Picnic at Hanging Rock is an Australian cultural icon. Joan Lindsay’s novel, published in 1967 and Peter Weir’s 1975 film, (and all manner of subsequent examinations, interpretations and meditations), is a metaphor which gets to the very heart of the making…

  • Mortal Voices: Academy of Ancient Music at Milton Court review ****

    Academy of Ancient Music, Christian Curnyn (director and harpsichord), Keri Fuge (soprano), Tim Mead (counter-tenor) Milton Court Concert Hall, 15th February 2018 Corelli – Concerto grosso Op 6 No 1 in D major Handel – Cantata HWV 230 “Ah! Che troppo inequali” Handel – Cantata HWV 82 “Il Duello Amoroso”…

  • Gundog at the Royal Court Theatre review ***

    Gundog Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, 15th February 2018 Always a tricky business knowing what to pick out when booking in advance for productions at the Royal Court. Obviously if it is a big name playwright, or someone with previous form, probably best to get in there sharpish and buy…