London Archives - Page 109 of 114

Philharmonia Sessions: Beethoven’s Prometheus – Battersea Arts Centre

6Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Philharmonia Sessions: Beethoven’s Prometheus – Battersea Arts Centre

Presented in the month of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra playing Beethoven's famous ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. In this version, each symphonic movement is punctuated by Stephen Fry explaining the part of the story about to be told, aided by animation by Hillary Leben and a script by Gerard McBurney. Beethoven wrote his hugely popular ballet score in 1801, in just 11 days and, as Fry tells us, the version of the ancient Greek creation story he used is not the most widely established one about Prometheus giving man fire. In this version Prometheus creates man with fire from Mount Olympus and then calls on Apollo, god of music and dance, the Muses, and a host of other deities to teach his Creatures what it is to ex...

The Fabulist Fox Sister – Southwark Playhouse

5Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

The Fabulist Fox Sister – Southwark Playhouse

The Fabulist Fox Sister is a 2020 musical that plays with the idea of lies and fake truth in a historical context. Yet the references to today are there. The Fox sisters were 3 siblings who claimed to converse with spirits, becoming star medium performers during their lifetimes and now being cited as some of the founders of the Spiritualism movement. Michael Conley is a smiley and natural performer, as is his character Kate Fox who is reminiscing to an audience about her life in 1892. Kate is intentionally un-mystical, raucously funny, and from the start an unreliable narrator. The narrative is fairly typical of an older character looking back on their life and taking the audience through the events they have experienced chronologically, in Kate’s case she details her and her sister’...

5Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

42nd Street – Theatre Royal Drury Lane

This show has it all - glitz, glamour...and of course, showtunes. Any fan of musical theatre - young and old - should see 42nd Street, a true celebration of the theatre and a masterpiece from start to finish. The plotline for this production is somewhat familiar - an age-old tale of the underdog done good. 42nd Street follows small-town girl Peggy Sawyer, whose one ambition is to secure a place in the chorus line of Pretty Girl, the hottest new show in town. Of course, to paraphrase Shakespeare, “the course of ambition never did run smooth”, so there was lots of obstacles for our young heroine to overcome to get there - but, thanks to her raw talent, she soon finds herself competing for the spotlight against theatre veteran and diva extraordinaire, Miss Dorothy Brock. It’s almost lik...

Magnetic North: Voices from the Indigenous Arctic

4Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London, REVIEWS

Magnetic North: Voices from the Indigenous Arctic

The British Museum teams up with Border Crossing’s ORIGINS festival’s latest offering to their series on climate change and indigenous people. Magnetic North: voices from the Indigenous Arctic sees art, technology, spoken word and music collide in an event dedicated to the culture of the indigenous people of the Arctic Circle. Here, artistic expression finds its groove in technology and shows us love of the planet, and of each other’s culture is a vital step in the race to save the environment. Only then can we begin to understand what we are fighting for. Ishmael Angaaluuk Hope’s spoken word introduction describes indigenous people using the concept of Shukat Khu.oo, a Tlingit word meaning people at the very front and at the very back of society. Knowing our earth so intimately, ...

In Search of a White Identity – The Actors Centre

29Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

In Search of a White Identity – The Actors Centre

This short play, filmed at The Actors Centre in Seven Dials, is written by Cliffordkuju Henry, who also stars as Patrick. As we find this black man in a holding area in a police station together with the white Mickey (played by Drew Edwards), we know we are in complex territory. Both have been arrested for their behaviour on a march that has turned violent, and although they were childhood friends, Mickey has become a right-wing white supremacist. Both come from the same background: violent father, a mother they couldn’t protect, a deprived inner-city estate. This is explored to some extent but fails to fully address the whys and wherefores of how such an upbringing may breed extreme views in later life. Years on, their former playground has been ‘gentrified', and Mickey in partic...

Death of England: Delroy – National Theatre Live

29Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Death of England: Delroy – National Theatre Live

The sequel to the play that went out earlier this year where Raef Spall played Michael, friend of Delroy. Death of England: Delroy is a new play that premiered and closed on 4th November this year and subsequently is now being streamed live on YouTube in order to give it the airing it deserves. And of course, adjusting to the social distancing measures that have rocked the foundations of theatre this year. A refreshing new play written by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams is at least getting to reach a wider audience tonight who may not be able to visit the Olivier Theatre in London or not think to watch it so there’s some positivity to be gleaned from this. The writer Dyer tells us that out of adversity, things happen, and enthuses there has been a shift in consciousness this year due ...

28Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

An American in Paris – Dominion Theatre

This S’wonderful, S’marvellous show was too short-lived in its West End run. The Broadway production of the musical opened in the Dominion Theatre in March 2017 to great acclaim. If you need a couple of hours to realise that although the world and the arts industry are in a terrible place currently, we’ve gotten through worse and we shall overcome this! Based on the film from 1951, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron as Jerry Mulligan and Lise DeSan, Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope take on the lead roles, with Haydn Oakley as Henri Baurel, David Seadon-Young as Adam Hochberg and Zoe Rainey as Milo Davenport and a strong supporting ensemble this show is bound to put a smile on anyone’s face. If you’re a fan of old school musicals, big show stopping numbers and large-scale productions, ...

Don’t Leave Me this Way – Voila Festival

25Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Don’t Leave Me this Way – Voila Festival

‘Don’t Leave me this Way,’ by Zoo Indigo is part of Voila Festival, an annual celebration of European theatre set in the shadow of Brexit which seems a million light years away in the current climate of the pandemic. As we know theatre and the arts have been severely compromised so they are having to adapt. Their performance was pre-recorded in the Cockpit Theatre in London's Marylebone. We are encouraged to turn up the brightness of our computer screens preshow as it is a little dark due to being recorded in a theatre. I felt uncomfortable when they told us what a watch party is as most people are aware of this. Rosie and Ildiko, are the Anglo-German duo who make up Zoo Indigo and explore their heritage tonight in a two woman show alongside the talented Rob the violinist. A fantasti...

21Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Falling Stars – Union Theatre

How can just two people command a stage and put on such a wonderful production in such a short time? Written and conceived by the male lead, Peter Polycarpou, who along with his female co-star Sally-Ann Triplett gave us a night and a show which will live on in the memory for a long time to come. Both are well established performers in their own right and their combined talents have resulted in an unforgettably entertaining history of the music from the glorious era of 1920’s musicals. The show has been put together in just three days and after the first day of rehearsals, Lockdown 2 was announced in England which put paid to many of the ideas for this production. The show’s title is taken from a Charlie Chaplin song and tells the story of the discovery of an old songbook found hidden aw...

16Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

We Missed You – Voila Festival

‘We Missed You’ is two clowns' interpretation and message of lockdown and a fitting homage to the general feeling that currently pervades. They want to tell us that they missed us and create a warm fuzzy feeling inside audiences. It’s part of Voila Festival or Voila Europe that runs annually at the Cockpit Theatre in London’s Marylebone. But of course, the pandemic has brought it to our homes via the digital world. The enigmatic clowns are Julia Masli and Viggo Venn from Estonia and Norway respectively and are not the circus ring bright wigged & make up of nightmares but a more refreshing (and less scary) Harlequino and Pierrot who have a huge variety of fun costumes and tell us they are more Commedia Dell Arte. This draws on a European tradition where clowns travelled from ma...