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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.…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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Christoph Sietzen and the Wave Quartet at the Concertgebouw review ****
Christoph Sietzen, Wave Quartet (Bogdan Bacanu, Vladi Petrov, Emiko Uchiyama, Christoph Sietzen) Het Concert-Gebouw, Recital Hall, 16th May 2018 Emmanuel Séjourné – Attraction for marimba, vibraphone and tape Iannis Xenakis – Part B (from ‘Rebonds’) for percussion J.S. Bach/Brahms – Chaconne (from Second Partita in D, BWV 1004) (arr. B.…
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Spira Mirabilis at the Queen Elizabeth Hall review ****
Spira Mirabilis Queen Elizabeth Hall, 15th May 2018 Beethoven – Symphony No 7 in A Op 92 Spira Mirabilis is a group of talented young musicians from around the world who play in various European orchestras. They hole up in Formigine in Northern Italy near Bologna to learn from each…
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An Oak Tree the Orange Tree Theatre review ****
An Oak Tree Orange Tree Theatre, 13th May 2018 Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree has been on my theatrical wish list for a little while now. First performed in 2005 at the Edinburgh Fringe it was, I understand, inspired by Michael Craig-Martin’s, (he of the day-glo technology), seminal work of…