At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

  • My pick of forthcoming London culture

    I am told by friends (and enemies) that I have a tendency to drone on. And I am like the proverbial kid in the sweet shop when it comes to London culture. So the below is an attempt to distil the best of what is on now and what is…

  • Girl From the North Country review ****

    Girl From the North Country The Old Vic, 20th September 2017 (Girl From the North Country is transferring to the Noel Coward Theatre from 29th Dec 2017 through to 24th Mar 2018) I am afraid there is a bit of a rant coming. If the Old Vic is going to…

  • Knives in Hens at the Donmar Warehouse review *****

    Knives in Hens Donmar Warehouse, 21st September 2017 Now I guessed I was going to like this. All the clever folk who know about plays and stuff had raved about it. Written in 1995 by David Harrower it is considered a classic of British modern theatre. Its ostensible subject matter,…

  • Oslo at the National Theatre review *****

    Oslo National Theatre, 19th September 2017 Well I’ll be damned. I didn’t book Oslo at the earliest opportunity, as is my wont for most of the NT output, and only took a swing at it because of the NYC reviews. And even then I wasn’t sure. I mean how could…

  • Mosquitoes at the National Theatre review ****

    Mosquitoes National Theatre, 18th September 2017 Two sisters. Some sad stuff happens to them. Sciencey backdrop. There you go. That’s Mosquitoes. Except that is isn’t. Lucy Kirkwood is not the type of playwright to let us off the hook that easily. She chucks a lot into this pot, brings it…

  • Man to Man at Wilton’s Music Hall review ***

    Man to Man Wilton’s Music Hall, 15th September 2017 I am confused about this. Is it an expressionistic masterpiece that explores the nature of gender identity and German history through devastating poetry, or a piece of pretentious fuck-wittery which couldn’t be bothered to serve us up a coherent story? Was…

  • Thebes Land at the Arcola Theatre review ****

    Thebes Land Arcola Theatre, 14th September 2017 Thebes Land was a hit last year at the Arcola, winning a Best Production Offie, and is back for another run as part of a short festival of Latin American theatre. Director Daniel Goldman has created a new English translation of Franco-Uruguayan playwright…

  • Loot at the Park Theatre review ****

    Loot Park Theatre, 14th September 2017 There has been a lot of progress in the last 50 years in this country. Good people are more tolerant and accepting of the identity of others (though there are still plenty of bigoted d*ckheads to be found polluting the discourse), The fairy tales…

  • Encounter drawings at the National Portrait Gallery review ***

    The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt National Portrait Gallery, 7th September 2017 Short, sweet and eclectic. The exhibition of 50 or so portrait drawings at the NPG contains works by some of the greatest draughtsmen revered by art history from the Renaissance and Baroque, but blink and you might…

  • Cat On a Hit Tin Roof at the Apollo Theatre review ***

    Cat On a Hot Tin Roof Apollo Theatre, 13th September 2017 Hmm. I was expecting so much more of this production. It’s Tennessee Williams. An all star cast. The imprimatur of the Young Vic. And Benedict Andrews, who was responsible for the, by all accounts, revelatory A Streetcar Named Desire…