At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

  • The War Has Not Yet Started at the Southwark Playhouse review ***

    The War Has Not Yet Started Southwark Playhouse, 18th January 2018 I don’t really read that much anymore. Which means I take a rather circuitous route to the acquisition of knowledge and satisfaction of curiosity. The page has been replaced by the stage, the museum and gallery, visits, music and…

  • Antony and Cleopatra at the Barbican Theatre review ***

    Antony and Cleopatra Barbican Theatre, 18th January 2018 The last instalment, for me, of the Rome season at the Barbican, and so late in the run that it has been and gone. Sorry. Anyway I have to say this was my least favourite of the four productions, though there was…

  • My Mum’s a Twat at the Royal Court Theatre review ***

    My Mum’s A Twat Royal Court Theatre, 16th January 2018 I am a fat bloke with a dodgy heart and a sore back in his 50s. So I should not be swanning around London without a care in the world hoovering up culture to make up for lost time. I…

  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri film review *****

    Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, 16th January 2018 Best film of 2018. Settle down Tourist. We are only three weeks in. Well I am confident that nothing will come along to match this so I stand by my sensationalist claim. You see I spent all of 2016 waiting for a…

  • The Twilight Zone at the Almeida Theatre review ***

    The Twilight Zone Almeida Theatre, 13th January 2018 Based on my entirely objective reviews, (of which more to follow when I get round to it), I see that the Almeida has, over the last three years or so, consistently offered the best theatrical experience in London. No great surprise really…

  • Twentieth Century Masters: LSO at the Barbican review ****

    London Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle, Isabelle Faust Barbican Hall, 14th January 2018 Janacek – Overture: From the House of the Dead Elliott Carter – Instances Berg – Violin Concerto Bartok – Concerto for Orchestra Back to the Barbican for another round with Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO, though this…

  • Julius Caesar at the Barbican Theatre review ****

    Julius Caesar Royal Shakespeare Company, Barbican Theatre, 11th January 2018 The third instalment, (for me), of the RSC “Rome” season at the Barbican which originally aired at Stratford. And, as is so often the case with this idiotic blog, it is about to end and is sold out anyway. Et…

  • Rameau to Mahler: LSO at the Barbican review ***

    London Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle, Magdalena Kozena Barbican Hall, 11th January 2017 Schubert – Symphony No 8 Unfinished Mahler – Ruckert Lieder Handel – Three Arias Rameau – Les Boreades Suite Now I admit I hummed and harred about this particular gig. I am as excited as the next person…

  • Cell Mates at the Hampstead Theatre review ***

    Cell Mates Hampstead Theatre, 10th January 2018 This was my first experience of the work of prolific playwright/novelist/diarist/academic Simon Gray whose stage texts were so adored by luminaries such as Peter Hall, Harold Pinter, (who directed many of his premieres), and Alan Bates, (who starred in them). Cell Mates, of…

  • The Here and This and Now at the Southwark Playhouse review ****

    The Here and This and Now Southwark Playhouse, 10th January 2017 OK homo sapiens. Enough with the exceptionalism. There is nothing special about you. Maybe you are more “intelligent” than any species that has inhabited the earth so far but you have only been around for a couple of hundred…

  • Bomberg at Pallant House Gallery review *****

    Bomberg Pallant House Gallery, 9th January 2017 Best British painter of the twentieth century? The mighty triumvirate of Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and David Hockney from the second half of the century certainly would be in with a shout, though Bacon is easy to admire though sometimes hard to like, and Hockney…

  • My top 10 plays of 2017

    Message to self. Do not drone on. Nobody will read this. You are seemingly dispossessed of any edit function. And there are literally millions of other lists of best plays/theatre of 2017 produced by people who know what they are talking about. This may be your blog, intended to consolidate…