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Ghosts at the Royal and Derngate review
Ghosts Royal and Derngate Theatre Northampton, 2nd May 2019 A little bit of back to back Ibsen action. First this Ghosts and then, a few days later, Rosmersholm at the Duke of York’s. And the Tourist’s first visit to the Royal and Derngate which, he has Benn rather slow to…
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Edmond de Bergerac at Richmond Theatre review ****
Edmond de Bergerac Richmond Theatre, 1st May 2019 Alexis Michalik is a loving looking chap. Oozes Gallic charm. The wunderkind of French theatre. So its good to know he is half-British. He kicked off as an actor but it is his plays, which have run to packed houses in Paris…
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Don McCullin exhibition at Tate Britain review ****
Don McCullin Tate Britain, 1st May 2019 The main event first. The astonishing work of Don McCullin, the renowned “war” photographer, though this epithet doesn’t get close to covering the depth of the work revealed in this retrospective at the Tate, (now finished, sorry). McCullin, now 83, left art college…
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Some quick notes on exhibitions visited so far in 2019
The Tourist has been shockingly remiss so far this year in documenting his adventures in the visual and plastic arts. Some plagiarised comments on the I Am Ashurbanipal survey of Assyrian art at the British Museum aside, I have failed to document any other exhibition visits. So, for the sake…
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Vice film review *****
Vice, 30th April 2019 It’s been a shocking year so far in terms of getting to the cinema for the Tourist. No excuses. He has the time, the wherewithal and the desire but the theatre and concert addiction, (there have also been a few notable misses on the exhibition front),…
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The Crucible at the Yard Theatre review ****
The Crucible The Yard Theatre, Hackney Wick, 29th April 2019 The latest instalment in the Tourist’s engagement with this year’s unofficial Arthur Miller season was director Jay Miller’s often insightful, occasionally daft take on The Crucible which for me, and I know this is not the aesthete’s choice, probably just…
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Creditors at the Jermyn Street Theatre review ****
Creditors Jermyn Street Theatre, 27th April 2019 I am still tiptoeing my way into Strindberg. A long history of ignoring him after an early dismissal many years ago was corrected with the companion piece to this, a version of Miss Julie, also translated by Howard Brenton, also directed by JST…
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Three Sisters at the Almeida Theatre review ****
Three Sisters Almeida Theatre, 25th April 2019 It creeps up on you this Three Sisters. As with her feted take on Tennessee Williams’s neglected Summer and Smoke last year, Almeida Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall is unafraid of letting the play take its time to unfold and delivers a similar, dreamy…
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Tartuffe at the National Theatre review *****
Tartuffe: The Imposter National Theatre Lyttleton, 24th April 2019 Top Girls. Downstate. Small Island. Follies which I can vouch for from the first run. And now this Tartuffe. All superb. If the NT is still going through a dodgy patch artistically then f*ck knows how good it is going to…
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Small Island at the National Theatre review *****
Small Island National Theatre Olivier If you know Andrea Levy’s Small Island either from the original 2004 book, (not me I confess), or the 2009 Two part BBC adaptation with script from Sarah Williams and Paula Milne and starring the inimitable Ruth Wilson and Naomie Harris then you will know…