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Great Apes at the Arcola Theatre review ****
Great Apes Arcola Theatre, 31st March 2018 I sort of lost track with Will Self the author after The Book of Dave. His sprawling, satirical fantasies with a lot of big words, unreliable narratives and narrators, drugs, mental dislocation, is never short of imagination and ideas, but aren’t always that…
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Vincent River at the Park Theatre review ****
Vincent River Park Theatre, 29th March 2018 I wonder if the 2070s equivalents of the Finborough Theatre or the Orange Tree Theatre, will be lauded for their Philip Ridley revivals. Mr Ridley’s subject matter and idiom means he is a nailed on certainty to get multiple airings in today’s theatrical…
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The Square film review *****
The Square, 27th March 2018 Ruben Ostlund’s last feature, Force Majeure, is one of my favourite films of the last few years. Now we have The Square to set alongside it. Longer, more ambitious, a bit baggier in places, it once again deals with the nature of embarrassment. This time…
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The Plough and the Stars at the Lyric Hammersmith review ***
The Plough and the Stars Lyric Hammersmith, 26th March 2018 One way or another I see a fair amount of theatre. Making up for lost time I guess. Anyway this requires a reasonable degree of organisation. Nothing a small child couldn’t cope with but I do need to be on…
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Murder She Didn’t Write at the Leicester Square Theatre review ****
Murder She Didn’t Write, Degrees of Error, Something for the Weekend Leicester Square Theatre, 25th March 2018 Flushed with success from our previous outing to the LST for a bit of class improv, BD, LD and the Tourist slope off to see Degrees of Error and Something for the Weekend…
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Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall review ****
London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Choir, Thierry Fischer, Neville Creed, Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), William Davies (treble) Royal Festival Hall, 24th March 2018 Igor Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms Violin Concerto in D Credo, Ave Maria, Pater Noster Leonard Bernstein Chichester Psalms I have banged on before about the virtues of Moldovan-Austrian-Swiss,…
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The Great Wave at the National Theatre review ****
The Great Wave National Theatre, 24th Mar 2018 Now theatre can do a lot of things. Delve deep into the psychology of characters and shed light on the human condition. Convey a passionate and heartfelt message. Put poetry into the mouths of actors. Dispense shock and awe through sound, light…
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From the House of the Dead at the Royal Opera House review ****
From the House of the Dead Royal Opera House, 22nd March 2018 Now this is it what opera is all about. Not just some portly punters, (though a couple of the chaps here were carrying as much timber as me), parking themselves mid-stage and belting out their arias. No here…
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Carducci Quartet at St John’s Smith Square review ****
The Carducci Quartet St John’s Smith Square, 23rd March 2018 This was the second time I had heard the Carduccis perform the first five Philip Glass string quartets, following their performance at Kings Place as part of the marvellous Minimalism Unwrapped year long festival in 2015. They are, along…