At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

  • Woyzeck at the Old Vic review ***

    Woyzeck The Old Vic, 27th May 2017 One day soon the Old Vic under the aegis of its ambitious Artistic Director, Mathew Warchus, is going to come up with an absolute stonker. The strategy of taking a classic play, or new work from a top flight current playwright, stuffing it…

  • Don Juan in Soho at the Wyndham’s Theatre review ****

    Don Juan in Soho Wyndham’s Theatre, 22nd May Get this. The programme says that since a Spanish dramatist, Tirso di Molina, first brought Don Juan to the world in around 1620 he has appeared in at least 1,800 plays, operas, novels, films and poems. And I bet he appeared as…

  • The Handmaiden film review ****

    The Handmaiden, 19th May 2017 I don’t read too much fiction these days. I prefer theatre, the visual arts and music. I have also found much of the contemporary fiction that I have read in the last few years a little underwhelming. I have a long list of classics I…

  • Howard Hodgkin at the National Portrait Gallery review ***

    Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends National Portrait Gallery, 18th May 2017 I haven’t really known what to make of the work of Howard Hodgkin who sadly passed away just before this exhibition began (having been involved in its creation). And I am still not sure what to make of it. This…

  • Some ideas for the culturally inclined in London

    Here is a very brief round-up, (apparently I can drone on a bit so have tried to be disciplined), of the current and forthcoming major theatre and exhibition events in London that have caught my eye (and ear). I have a list of classical concerts which is still good to go…

  • London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican review ****

    Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sir Mark Elder, London Symphony Orchestra Barbican Hall, 7th May 2017 Modest Mussorgsky, arr. Rimsky-Korsakov – Prelude to Khovanshchina Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto in D major Op.35 Shostakovich – Symphony No.15 in A major Op.141 Who’d be a Russian composer eh. Mussorgsky drinks himself to death at 42…

  • The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Donmar Warehouse review ****

    The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Donmar Warehouse, 18th May 2017 I see a lot of theatre now. Which means I read a lot of press reviews. Which is about the only time I ever step out of my Guardian reading, liberal, metropolitan elite cocoon. And that means reading reviews…

  • The Cardinal at the Southwark Playhouse review ***

    The Cardinal Southwark Playhouse, 16th May 2017 Scary picture huh. Southwark Playhouse is a constant whirr of activity serving up all manner of delights across the theatrical spectrum. I just never know what to expect. I am not so shallow as to buy a ticket on spec based on a…

  • Othello at Wilton’s Music Hall review ****

    Othello Wilton’s Music Hall, 17th May 2017 I think Othello is my favourite Shakespeare tragedy. And it follows, therefore, that it is my favourite Shakespeare play since the tragedies generally kick the most arse. And it therefore also follows that it is probably my favourite ever play since no-one bests…

  • Obsession at the Barbican Theatre review ***

    Obsession Barbican Theatre, 13th May 2017 In retrospect there were warning signs. This was an adaptation of Luchino Visconti’s 1943 debut film, Obssessione, itself based on a book by James M. Cain, the Postman Always Rings Twice, which in turn was later made into an American film in 1946 (Lana…