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Monet and Architecture at the National Gallery review *****
Monet and Architecture National Gallery, 14th June 2018 I am not the biggest fan of Monet’s later, post-Giverny work. Loved the actual garden, the white suits, the pipe, the spectacular beard, the repetition and the joy. But the colours make me queasy and the smudginess is disorientating. I know that…
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Beast film review *****
Beast, 14th June 2018 I can be pretty certain I am going to thoroughly enjoy a film in a cinema. I can go when pretty much no-one else is there, to a showing near the end of a run, which satisfies my misanthropy and intolerance of distraction, and I can…
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Leave Taking at the Bush Theatre review *****
Leave Taking Bush Theatre, 13th June 2018 I confess I had never heard of Winsome Pinnock’s 1987 play Leave Taking until this season’s announcement for the Bush. Shocking for someone who considers themselves to be a theatre obsessive. I still have so much to learn. Still theatre is always the…
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Tallis Scholars and Peter Philips at Cadogan Hall review ****
The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips (director) Cadogan Hall, 7th June 2018 Robert White – Domine, quis habitabit John Sheppard – Missa Cantate John Sutton – Salve regina Robert White – Magnificat Thomas Tallis – Spem in alium I just cast my eye over an article in the Guardian purporting to…
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Julie at the National Theatre review ***
Julie National Theatre Lyttleton, 9th June 2018 I am not sure if I like Strindberg’s play Miss Julie. The programme notes for this adaptation of the story by Polly Stenham explicitly deals with Strindberg’s rampant misogyny and class hatred. Whilst setting, plot and, to a certain extent, the bare bones…
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The Moderate Soprano at the Duke of York’s Theatre review ****
The Moderate Soprano Duke of York’s Theatre, 7th June 1018 There are a couple of weeks to go in the run of David Hare’s The Moderate Soprano at the Duke of York’s Theatre. There are plenty of (discounted) tickets left. You could do a lot worse than seeing this if…
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Translations at the National Theatre review ****
Translations National Theatre Olivier, 6th June 2018 At the end of the day it is all about the words. That’s theatre. The power of language. Which is exactly what Brian Friel’s play is all about. A modern classic, first seen in 1980, in Derry (with Stephen Rea, Liam Neeson and…