This concert featured an array of jazz talent, all of whom were playing as a consequence of their allegiance to the labour party. The changeovers were slickly organised and so we moved through the acts quite deftly but it still felt a bit like a tasting menu. With mainly two, sometimes one and mostly two pieces each, the artists had only just got into their stride before they were off.
It would be hard to single any particular outstander but the evening was rounded off well by Courtney Pine who invited back on stage many of the stars of earlier sessions.
All in all an enjoyable evening which only for a few moments after the interval with the appearance of John Prescott and Rachel Reeves risked feeling like a party rally.
Saturday, 28 February 2015
Sunday, 22 February 2015
22 February 2015. Self at Turner Contemporary, Margate
A quite extensive exhibition of the self image over the past four centuries. I must admit the logic of what was precisely where rather eluded me for some rooms but the overall effect of the exhibition was very educational in showing the range of self images.
Apart from the more obvious self-portraits including - for me - memorable and notable works by Van Dyck, Hockney, Freud, Warhol, Gilbert & George, Nicolson and Sutherland, there were a good number of sculptures, particularly those by Gormley and Bourgeois. There were also several videos, perhaps the most challenging being a record of a life including the diagnosis of cancer. This was in the one room where a theme was obvious - the self image of the artist with a known impending death.
The exhibition seemed to have a good appeal for families and provoked slight irreverence from some younger attendees confronted with the naked Gilbert and George.
Apart from the more obvious self-portraits including - for me - memorable and notable works by Van Dyck, Hockney, Freud, Warhol, Gilbert & George, Nicolson and Sutherland, there were a good number of sculptures, particularly those by Gormley and Bourgeois. There were also several videos, perhaps the most challenging being a record of a life including the diagnosis of cancer. This was in the one room where a theme was obvious - the self image of the artist with a known impending death.
The exhibition seemed to have a good appeal for families and provoked slight irreverence from some younger attendees confronted with the naked Gilbert and George.
20 February 2015. The Hard Question at the National Theatre
This new play by Tom Stoppard benefited well from advanced ticket sales but, by general consent, it did not live fully up to high expectations.
The play centres upon a research psychologist and is used to rehearse the age-old argument of whether we are 'just' a complex computer functioning according to a huge algorithm or whether our consciousness jumps us clean out of that pond. Overlayed with this materialist debate is whether we are simply the product of evolution or whether there is more to it than that. Transcending all this detail is, of course, the issue of whether there is a god/God of some sort that is necessary to explain our existence and our consciousness.
I found the arguments presented in a way that was easy to follow and I kept my attention/concentration throughout the 100 minutes. However, at the same time, I found all this earnest debate rather irritating as it felt so contrived and obtuse to deal with 'The hard problem' in a play rather than an essay. Still, it undeniably 'made one think', at least for 100 minutes!
On the other hand, the dramatic vehicle for this intellectual exercise was less satisfactory. The focal character worked for a research institute funded by a hedge fund manager. She was missing very much the daughter she had borne and had adopted some ten years before. The moment it was let drop that the hedge fund manager's daughter was adopted, we knew where we were heading. The same went for her boss's attempt to have a shag in Venice with her. Perhaps the adopted daughter was a chance to say something about nature versus nurture - with the inherited niceness winning through; perhaps the Venice incident was a chance to add comment on the overarching power of the sex drive. Whether so or not, the plot felt a bit thin.
So overall, the critics' median rating of three seemed to me about right.
The play centres upon a research psychologist and is used to rehearse the age-old argument of whether we are 'just' a complex computer functioning according to a huge algorithm or whether our consciousness jumps us clean out of that pond. Overlayed with this materialist debate is whether we are simply the product of evolution or whether there is more to it than that. Transcending all this detail is, of course, the issue of whether there is a god/God of some sort that is necessary to explain our existence and our consciousness.
I found the arguments presented in a way that was easy to follow and I kept my attention/concentration throughout the 100 minutes. However, at the same time, I found all this earnest debate rather irritating as it felt so contrived and obtuse to deal with 'The hard problem' in a play rather than an essay. Still, it undeniably 'made one think', at least for 100 minutes!
On the other hand, the dramatic vehicle for this intellectual exercise was less satisfactory. The focal character worked for a research institute funded by a hedge fund manager. She was missing very much the daughter she had borne and had adopted some ten years before. The moment it was let drop that the hedge fund manager's daughter was adopted, we knew where we were heading. The same went for her boss's attempt to have a shag in Venice with her. Perhaps the adopted daughter was a chance to say something about nature versus nurture - with the inherited niceness winning through; perhaps the Venice incident was a chance to add comment on the overarching power of the sex drive. Whether so or not, the plot felt a bit thin.
So overall, the critics' median rating of three seemed to me about right.
19 February 2015. Rachmaninov at the Barbican
The programme for the LSO under Valery Gergiev comprised three Russian pieces:
Tamara by Balakirev. In my ignorance I had never heard of him and although Tamara is said to be his masterpiece it left me rather cold. Indeed, I found somewhat irritating what the proramme noted described as "the syncopations and rythmic dislocations, the sheer frenzy, even hysteria, of some passages". However, my irritation might hasve also been provoked by the constant snuffling of the person next to me who seemed entirely unaware of her intrusiveness!
Gluzunov's Violin Concerto, played by Roman Simovic. This was a very different matter and I really liked the concerto and the playing of it. It is an altogether cleaner affair and again the prgramme notes capture it well as "a sort of exalted lyricism almost entirely dominated by the soloist". Roman Simovic was extremely well received by the audience and treated us to a quite lengthy encore.
Rachmaninov's Symphony No 1. Like the first piece, this surges through the emotions but it does so in a way that felt for me far more artful. Written when he was only 22 in 1895, the symphony was badly performed at its premiere under the possibly drunken baton of Glazunov. The resulting vavaging by the critics caused great self-doubt in the composer who only regained self-belief after hypnotherapy. Of course, Gergiev played his part in a far more supportive manner, fully jumping up and down on his podium in animation at one point and provoking a rapturous response from the audience.
Tamara by Balakirev. In my ignorance I had never heard of him and although Tamara is said to be his masterpiece it left me rather cold. Indeed, I found somewhat irritating what the proramme noted described as "the syncopations and rythmic dislocations, the sheer frenzy, even hysteria, of some passages". However, my irritation might hasve also been provoked by the constant snuffling of the person next to me who seemed entirely unaware of her intrusiveness!
Gluzunov's Violin Concerto, played by Roman Simovic. This was a very different matter and I really liked the concerto and the playing of it. It is an altogether cleaner affair and again the prgramme notes capture it well as "a sort of exalted lyricism almost entirely dominated by the soloist". Roman Simovic was extremely well received by the audience and treated us to a quite lengthy encore.
Rachmaninov's Symphony No 1. Like the first piece, this surges through the emotions but it does so in a way that felt for me far more artful. Written when he was only 22 in 1895, the symphony was badly performed at its premiere under the possibly drunken baton of Glazunov. The resulting vavaging by the critics caused great self-doubt in the composer who only regained self-belief after hypnotherapy. Of course, Gergiev played his part in a far more supportive manner, fully jumping up and down on his podium in animation at one point and provoking a rapturous response from the audience.
Thursday, 19 February 2015
19 February 2015. Rubens at the Royal Academy.
I think this exhibition is too large - unnecessarily so to convey incisively the legacy of Rubens. Indeed, it is almost self-defeating as the legacy gets lost in the volume of the legacees. To be honest, Rubens is not my cup of tea anyway and I kept having flashbacks of the incredible Rembrandt exhibition at the National Gallery. Rembrandt (1606-69) was surely noteworthy for the simple, clean compositions of often single figures, conveying with genius their mood and emotion - the daydreaming son, the stoic older ladies. In contrast, the Rubens (1577-1640) paintings in the RA exhibition are so baroque in their style that I find them quite daft.
No doubt his influence was vast, his technique masterful and his self-assurance supreme but this is not an exhibition I will be revisiting on a regular basis.
No doubt his influence was vast, his technique masterful and his self-assurance supreme but this is not an exhibition I will be revisiting on a regular basis.
18 February 2015. Jette Parker young artists at the ROH
A fairly brief recital by the young artists Kiandra Howarth and Samuel Dale Johnson. While both were excellent, Kiandra struck me as having the edge with her ability to slip convincingly into role.
The programme was dominated by Mozart (three from the Magic Flute; one from Don G) and also featured an except from Faust. Each piece and the singers were introduced by the pianist and artistic director, David Gowland and the recital was followed by drinks and sandwiches and a chance to mingle.
I did not know at all precisely what to expect when I booked for this evening and, to be honest, I thought there would be more in terms of both the number of artists and the range of repertoire. nonetheless, it was a pleasant evening within the slightly more inner core of the ROH, reinforcing some sense of belonging to a House apparently always more than grateful for extra funds.
The programme was dominated by Mozart (three from the Magic Flute; one from Don G) and also featured an except from Faust. Each piece and the singers were introduced by the pianist and artistic director, David Gowland and the recital was followed by drinks and sandwiches and a chance to mingle.
I did not know at all precisely what to expect when I booked for this evening and, to be honest, I thought there would be more in terms of both the number of artists and the range of repertoire. nonetheless, it was a pleasant evening within the slightly more inner core of the ROH, reinforcing some sense of belonging to a House apparently always more than grateful for extra funds.
14 February 2015. Marlene Dumas at Tate Modern
This exhibition did not quite live up to my high expectations. It had been quite strongly hyped in both the RA and Tate magazines including, in the latter, an extensive interview with the artist.
The work is all figurative but at the same time much is heavily conceptual. For example the opening room is taken up with Rejects 1994-2014, a collection of 20 portrait heads pinned to the wall. There is less need to scrutinise each one separately than take in the gestalt and ponder their collective significance. The same comment, in my view applies to Black Drawings 1991-2, a collection of some 98 portrait heads of black people.
There are, of course, plenty of individual works of individuals and clearly each is interesting and executed with considerable thought and in a thought provoking way. For example, the pairing of Naomi Cambell and Princess Diana, Osama bin Laden and his son, and the Crucifixion - Solo. There are also a few group works such as the large The Wall, showing Jews standing near the partition wall.
So, each work on its own, is interesting with a good deal of thought behind it and a need to be understood. Yet, to me, going round the exhibition felt like a bit of an intellectual exercise - Ah yes, I understand that one now; next.
I'm sure I'll go again but I'm not sure it is an exhibition that will stay with me - like the Richter did, for example.
The work is all figurative but at the same time much is heavily conceptual. For example the opening room is taken up with Rejects 1994-2014, a collection of 20 portrait heads pinned to the wall. There is less need to scrutinise each one separately than take in the gestalt and ponder their collective significance. The same comment, in my view applies to Black Drawings 1991-2, a collection of some 98 portrait heads of black people.
There are, of course, plenty of individual works of individuals and clearly each is interesting and executed with considerable thought and in a thought provoking way. For example, the pairing of Naomi Cambell and Princess Diana, Osama bin Laden and his son, and the Crucifixion - Solo. There are also a few group works such as the large The Wall, showing Jews standing near the partition wall.
So, each work on its own, is interesting with a good deal of thought behind it and a need to be understood. Yet, to me, going round the exhibition felt like a bit of an intellectual exercise - Ah yes, I understand that one now; next.
I'm sure I'll go again but I'm not sure it is an exhibition that will stay with me - like the Richter did, for example.
13 February 2015. Ballet Black at the Linbury
The programme consisted of three pieces:
The USP is that the company is for black and Asian dancers. This left a lingering thought in my mind as to whether the world of dance is so prejudiced that a ring-fenced company is needed. Sad if true and maybe the most important part about the show. It was quite clear that the audience was made up of a far higher BAME proportion than is usual at the ROH.
The works themselves were engaging and centred upon the last - Second Coming choreographed by Mark Bruce. This was probably the oddest of the three, being a supernatural tale of an immaculately conceived son who when called back by his father, preferred to stay on earth. It was set to an array of music ranging from Tom Waits to Elgar. Obviously, my summary of the synopsis transports one to the New Testament but the piece itself did not in the least, to the extent that I'd happily accept that my my ex post viewing linking is a red herring. It isn't, of course, but one would have been hard put to get the synopsis, let alone any links, from merely watching the piece.
The middle piece, Depouillement felt much more classical and simple with three pairs of dancers - two in black and one in white - performing to music by Ravel. As Charlotte Kasner on the Critical Dance website describes it:
It is the sort of work that requires more than one viewing to appreciate its intricacies fully, as the eye darts hither and thither following first this and then that movement, and possibly missing much in the meantime. Partnering was solid throughout. Although none of the dancers produced jumps or turns that wow, they are all strong, and some of the ports de bras were exquisitely fluid, arms floating agonisingly slowly into text-book-correct place with the women and creating the epitome of the beauty and perfection that is ballet from the men.
- To fetch a pail of water
- Depouillement
- Second coming
The USP is that the company is for black and Asian dancers. This left a lingering thought in my mind as to whether the world of dance is so prejudiced that a ring-fenced company is needed. Sad if true and maybe the most important part about the show. It was quite clear that the audience was made up of a far higher BAME proportion than is usual at the ROH.
The works themselves were engaging and centred upon the last - Second Coming choreographed by Mark Bruce. This was probably the oddest of the three, being a supernatural tale of an immaculately conceived son who when called back by his father, preferred to stay on earth. It was set to an array of music ranging from Tom Waits to Elgar. Obviously, my summary of the synopsis transports one to the New Testament but the piece itself did not in the least, to the extent that I'd happily accept that my my ex post viewing linking is a red herring. It isn't, of course, but one would have been hard put to get the synopsis, let alone any links, from merely watching the piece.
The middle piece, Depouillement felt much more classical and simple with three pairs of dancers - two in black and one in white - performing to music by Ravel. As Charlotte Kasner on the Critical Dance website describes it:
It is the sort of work that requires more than one viewing to appreciate its intricacies fully, as the eye darts hither and thither following first this and then that movement, and possibly missing much in the meantime. Partnering was solid throughout. Although none of the dancers produced jumps or turns that wow, they are all strong, and some of the ports de bras were exquisitely fluid, arms floating agonisingly slowly into text-book-correct place with the women and creating the epitome of the beauty and perfection that is ballet from the men.
31 January 2015. Percussion! at the Barbican
This concert was the British premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's Tutuguri. I did not know the piece at all but very much liked its complexities and discontinuities. I guess when I booked I had been expecting something more exclusively percussion. This only came in the second part, after a quite long interval necessary to re-set the stage. However, the break struck me as a pity (albeit one of necessity).
The concert was recorded by Radio 3 and broadcast about two hours after the concert began, precluding the possibility for the audience to listen again on the radio. This seemed a pity and rather self-defeating. The Barbican was not exactly full and one could imagine a large proportion of the radio audience were there.
As an alternative youtube provides recordings of the Stuttgart radio orchestra playing part 1 and part 2
The concert was recorded by Radio 3 and broadcast about two hours after the concert began, precluding the possibility for the audience to listen again on the radio. This seemed a pity and rather self-defeating. The Barbican was not exactly full and one could imagine a large proportion of the radio audience were there.
As an alternative youtube provides recordings of the Stuttgart radio orchestra playing part 1 and part 2
30 January 2015. The Wasp at Hampstead
I almost lost interest in this play at the outset because it seemed so implausible. Two school contemporaries (not friends) meet, at the instigation of the one (Heather) who has succeeded more in a material sense at least. However, she has not had a child. On the other hand her companion (Carla) has children very readily and is pregnant when they meet. Within minutes Carla is offering to have a surrogate child but this offer is rejected by Heather in favour of asking to kill Heather's husband.
After some playing hard to get, this deal is agreed. At this point the play takes a darker and more interesting series of twists as the hidden agenda come out. The to-be-killed husband has been unfaithful, first to a fantasy online mistress, the creation of his wife but more importantly to Carla who is a part-time prostitute. Not only that but the richer woman has a festering score to settle with the other who turns out to have been her tormentor at school. The two woman have it out in an apparently empty house (the husband supposedly having been finished off and put in the fridge). Heather sets up an ending in which Carla saves herself by stabbing Heather, only to be shocked at the close by hearing the supposedly dead husband enter the house. The audience members are left to complete the ending in their mids eye as they make their ways home!
After some playing hard to get, this deal is agreed. At this point the play takes a darker and more interesting series of twists as the hidden agenda come out. The to-be-killed husband has been unfaithful, first to a fantasy online mistress, the creation of his wife but more importantly to Carla who is a part-time prostitute. Not only that but the richer woman has a festering score to settle with the other who turns out to have been her tormentor at school. The two woman have it out in an apparently empty house (the husband supposedly having been finished off and put in the fridge). Heather sets up an ending in which Carla saves herself by stabbing Heather, only to be shocked at the close by hearing the supposedly dead husband enter the house. The audience members are left to complete the ending in their mids eye as they make their ways home!
27 January 2015. Leviathan at the ICA
Mammoth by name and mammoth by length, Leviathan charts a man's subjugation by the corrupt mayor of his depressing Russian town. It is a massive film that engulfs you in its gloom. The setting is a seaside town in east Russia, and the overall tone is grey and wintery. The mayor is clearly linked as a Putinist with the President's portrait prominent in his office.
The law is shown to be ineffectual in protecting the individual - no Magna Carta Clause 39 in operation there! - against the overweening power of the state and trumped up/contrived charges.
The law is shown to be ineffectual in protecting the individual - no Magna Carta Clause 39 in operation there! - against the overweening power of the state and trumped up/contrived charges.
25 January 2015. Capote at the ICA
I thought this was an excellent film. Released in 2005, it tells the story of Truman Capote's research that resulted in the book In Cold Blood. Directed by Bennett Miller, the film evokes brilliantly the conservative atmosphere of the Kansas where a farming family have been shot dead by two thieves. Into this walks Capote, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, a camp name-dropping New York socialite journalist.
The film is complex, recording how Capote was deft at relating to people very different from him in the present but perhaps less so in the past. In particular, he forms a bond with one of the killers Perry Smith, sharing a similar troubled childhood ("it was as if Perry and I grew up in the same house; he stood up and went out the back door; where I went out the front"). However, at the same time, Truman is prepared to dissemble to get the story from the killers and also to abandon them on death row as he heads to Europe with his partner for an extended vacation. The film closes with his attending the hanging, gruesomely and realistically portrayed, after an appeal, apparently engineered by Truman, has failed - though a side of Truman never wanted it to succeed as it would have undermined his work.
It is this sort of tension and the duplicities to which they give rise that are so brilliantly teased out in the film.
The film is complex, recording how Capote was deft at relating to people very different from him in the present but perhaps less so in the past. In particular, he forms a bond with one of the killers Perry Smith, sharing a similar troubled childhood ("it was as if Perry and I grew up in the same house; he stood up and went out the back door; where I went out the front"). However, at the same time, Truman is prepared to dissemble to get the story from the killers and also to abandon them on death row as he heads to Europe with his partner for an extended vacation. The film closes with his attending the hanging, gruesomely and realistically portrayed, after an appeal, apparently engineered by Truman, has failed - though a side of Truman never wanted it to succeed as it would have undermined his work.
It is this sort of tension and the duplicities to which they give rise that are so brilliantly teased out in the film.
24 January 2015. Aakash Odedra at The Linbury
The programme of Inked and Murmur were both solos featuring Aakash Odedra, the latter being co-choreographed by him also.
Inked has Aakash writhing on the floor on which a bottle of ink has spilled and leaving a physical trace of his movements so that gradually he builds up a complex record of the movements.
Murmur achieves its effects through a circle of electric fans that blow to order a curtain revealing and hiding the dancer. Later the fans contain a paper 'snowfall' within the stage.
Both pieces are highly inventive and technically accomplished and both are heavily autobiographical. Inked, the programme notes tell us, refers back to the scarification and tattoos that would have covered Aakash's grandmother's body to protect her and give a sense of belonging. Murmur refers to his dyslexia and conveys his frustration with words as a means of communication and his choice of dance in substitution.
In Aakash's own words, "Murmur and Inked are designed to convey a message that intelligence has multiple forms and that sensitivity of the body raises one's self-awareness. We will share a story that isn't only mine or that of a dyslexic, but a journey that is universal through its emotion."
The critic on the Critical Dance website found the technical wizzardry almost a distraction and maybe it did feel overdone and I can seem that one ended up watching it rather than purely focusing on the dancer.
Inked has Aakash writhing on the floor on which a bottle of ink has spilled and leaving a physical trace of his movements so that gradually he builds up a complex record of the movements.
Murmur achieves its effects through a circle of electric fans that blow to order a curtain revealing and hiding the dancer. Later the fans contain a paper 'snowfall' within the stage.
Both pieces are highly inventive and technically accomplished and both are heavily autobiographical. Inked, the programme notes tell us, refers back to the scarification and tattoos that would have covered Aakash's grandmother's body to protect her and give a sense of belonging. Murmur refers to his dyslexia and conveys his frustration with words as a means of communication and his choice of dance in substitution.
In Aakash's own words, "Murmur and Inked are designed to convey a message that intelligence has multiple forms and that sensitivity of the body raises one's self-awareness. We will share a story that isn't only mine or that of a dyslexic, but a journey that is universal through its emotion."
The critic on the Critical Dance website found the technical wizzardry almost a distraction and maybe it did feel overdone and I can seem that one ended up watching it rather than purely focusing on the dancer.
10 January 2015. Constructing Worlds at the Barbican
I popped into this exhibition between the Henry IV plays. It was an exhibition of the works of 18 photographers of architecture. However, even the flyer seemed a bit blurred as to whether the audience was primarily meant to evaluate the photographers or that which they had photographed i.e., were we to applaud a brilliant photograph of something ugly and how easy is that to do? Inevitably my view and engagement at least got contaminated with the subject.
Overall, I liked some of the works but few if any will stick in my memory. It was the closing weekend of the exhibition and I was not particularly sad that I had not been to it earlier.
Overall, I liked some of the works but few if any will stick in my memory. It was the closing weekend of the exhibition and I was not particularly sad that I had not been to it earlier.
10 January 2015. Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 at the Barbican.
I went to both parts of this RSC programme in a single day. I particularly enjoyed Part 1 as a play; part 2 struck me as concentrating too much on Falstaff with relatively little historical content. Still, of course, it is a penetrating account of the mutation of relationships (I know thee not old man).
Staged traditionally, the cast was dominated (though not overwhelmingly so) by Anthony Sher. The usual faultless RSC production had me engaged throughout and brought the plays and the history very much to life. I don't have much to add and was interested that the consensus of reviews (e.g., FT, Huffington Post) felt likewise.
Staged traditionally, the cast was dominated (though not overwhelmingly so) by Anthony Sher. The usual faultless RSC production had me engaged throughout and brought the plays and the history very much to life. I don't have much to add and was interested that the consensus of reviews (e.g., FT, Huffington Post) felt likewise.
8 January 2015. Golem at the Young Vic
I thought this was a terrific production. It was innovative and required a technical perfection.
The story centres upon a rather geeky young man who invents a robot named Golem. Golem takes care of much routine until one day it ceases to function; it has been superceded by Golem II. This is an altogether slicker proposition and the self-updating and general loss of control perfectly resonates with my experience of Windows.
The original golem is a rather homely clay automaton with a dangly penis; the mark 2 version is much miniaturised and machine-like. From helping out these machines rapidly start to help themselves, golem (1) setting the trend by staying up at night and watching TV.
There is a lot of animation and the cleverness of the Company is for the humans to merge and perfect their timing with the animation. If done badly, one felt it would be a shambles; as it was it was stunning.
Accompanied by live music, the show infused an energy and pace that kept the storyline bowling along. The Guardian was slightly sniffy about it; the Observer less so. I can see Michael Billington's point - my lasting memory is of the two Golems and a lot of the rest rather fades into the background. On the other hand, I just found it such a brilliant night of theatre.
The story centres upon a rather geeky young man who invents a robot named Golem. Golem takes care of much routine until one day it ceases to function; it has been superceded by Golem II. This is an altogether slicker proposition and the self-updating and general loss of control perfectly resonates with my experience of Windows.
The original golem is a rather homely clay automaton with a dangly penis; the mark 2 version is much miniaturised and machine-like. From helping out these machines rapidly start to help themselves, golem (1) setting the trend by staying up at night and watching TV.
There is a lot of animation and the cleverness of the Company is for the humans to merge and perfect their timing with the animation. If done badly, one felt it would be a shambles; as it was it was stunning.
Accompanied by live music, the show infused an energy and pace that kept the storyline bowling along. The Guardian was slightly sniffy about it; the Observer less so. I can see Michael Billington's point - my lasting memory is of the two Golems and a lot of the rest rather fades into the background. On the other hand, I just found it such a brilliant night of theatre.
5 January 2015. Tiger Country at Hampstead.
I enjoyed watching this play, set in an NHS operating theatre but I did not feel it had a lasting impact on me. The heroine, Vashti, a urologist played by Indira Varma, stands somewhat apart from her colleagues. She is somewhat OCD, reluctant to delegate. A key message of the play is that it is impossible to get emotionally involved in this environment. Patients, of necessity, are seen as lumps of meat and operating on them near an artery is going into tiger country. None of this is terribly shocking and so my lasting feeling is that the play was entertaining but not thought-provoking. The entertainment comes from watching the relationships among the characters play out in what The Guardian describes as a "classy soap". There is the junior doctor Emily whose boyfriend is also at the hospital; the senior doctor with a health issue; the somewhat foot-dragging nurses.
Emily's journey from being over-caring, trying overlong to resuscitate a dead patient for example, is one of the key evolutions in the play. She has as a foil her boyfriend who is much more resolved to the need for a matter of fact approach. On the other hand, Vashti makes the opposite journey, when her Aunt is admitted to the hospital and is the victim of mistreatment.
It is a fast-paced production with speedy scene changes, mimicking the sense of pace in the hospital itself. Satisfying at the time but easy to forget the detail.
Emily's journey from being over-caring, trying overlong to resuscitate a dead patient for example, is one of the key evolutions in the play. She has as a foil her boyfriend who is much more resolved to the need for a matter of fact approach. On the other hand, Vashti makes the opposite journey, when her Aunt is admitted to the hospital and is the victim of mistreatment.
It is a fast-paced production with speedy scene changes, mimicking the sense of pace in the hospital itself. Satisfying at the time but easy to forget the detail.
30 December 2014. Behind the beautiful forevers at the National Theatre
This high-energy production, set in the slums of Mumbai is centred on a story of jealousy and revenge.
The setting is a shanty town close to Mumbai airport where the inhabitants make a living from sorting through rubbish and breaking into the airport for thieving. One family (The Husains) is relatively successful with a son, Abdul, who is a particularly adept sorter. They are seen by their neighbours as suffering from hubris. The downfall comes when their shack extension provokes one neighbour, Fatima, to set fire to herself, blaming the incident on the Husains.
The local police are painted in the worst possible light. They inflict beatings up and extract bribes to effect a release. Particularly harrowing is the cracking down on the hands of the young man, thereby taking away his power to earn money from sorting. Also within the mix is a money lender - fixer - who provides sexual favours to the police.
Overall, the production, directed by Rufus Norris, is arresting and stays in the memory. So does the basic plot and the impression of the teaming hordes in the cast. The play evokes a life that its audience feels thankful not to be part of and yet conveys a sense of the human spirit prevailing in the worst settings. At the time of watching it, I felt there were too many people on stage, too much happening - but on reflection perhaps this was necessary to transport one into this life.
The setting is a shanty town close to Mumbai airport where the inhabitants make a living from sorting through rubbish and breaking into the airport for thieving. One family (The Husains) is relatively successful with a son, Abdul, who is a particularly adept sorter. They are seen by their neighbours as suffering from hubris. The downfall comes when their shack extension provokes one neighbour, Fatima, to set fire to herself, blaming the incident on the Husains.
The local police are painted in the worst possible light. They inflict beatings up and extract bribes to effect a release. Particularly harrowing is the cracking down on the hands of the young man, thereby taking away his power to earn money from sorting. Also within the mix is a money lender - fixer - who provides sexual favours to the police.
Overall, the production, directed by Rufus Norris, is arresting and stays in the memory. So does the basic plot and the impression of the teaming hordes in the cast. The play evokes a life that its audience feels thankful not to be part of and yet conveys a sense of the human spirit prevailing in the worst settings. At the time of watching it, I felt there were too many people on stage, too much happening - but on reflection perhaps this was necessary to transport one into this life.
11 November 2014. Allen Jones at the Royal Academy
This was an extensive exhibition at the RA, covering Jones's career from the 1960s to date.
In the exhibition his controversial works Chair, Table and Hat Stand were joined by a host of other 'sculptures' and paintings. Hat Stand is within a room of over a dozen other life-sized mannequins, which seem to be an ongoing obsession.
However, for me, it was the paintings that were a revelation. Large, complex canvases occupied two of the large rooms and revealed an lifelong preoccupation with sexual relationships. The paintings are however, more subtle than the sculptures and less likely to lead the artist to be seen as treating women as objects - a charge that The Telegraph believes has cause him to miss out on being recognised as the "most supremely gifted and consistently original artist" of his generation.
In the exhibition his controversial works Chair, Table and Hat Stand were joined by a host of other 'sculptures' and paintings. Hat Stand is within a room of over a dozen other life-sized mannequins, which seem to be an ongoing obsession.
However, for me, it was the paintings that were a revelation. Large, complex canvases occupied two of the large rooms and revealed an lifelong preoccupation with sexual relationships. The paintings are however, more subtle than the sculptures and less likely to lead the artist to be seen as treating women as objects - a charge that The Telegraph believes has cause him to miss out on being recognised as the "most supremely gifted and consistently original artist" of his generation.
10 November 2014. Far Away at the Young Vic
This brief play packed a lot into its 40 minutes. Written by Caryl Churchill in 2000, the play starts with a child, Joan, telling her Aunt Harper, that she has seen her Uncle loading children into a lorry. The Aunt persuades Joan that all is well.
9 November 2014. Polke at Tate Modern
I went to this exhibition several times. I must admit I knew nothing of Polke until this exhibition and cannot really understand how that was the case. Perhaps he was not a grade A innovator but his work is extensive and striking.
Starting with pop art and the intrusion of working through his German identity, the exhibition continued through to an extraordinary room of structures like a sort of conservatory with extensive use of potatoes. He then went into a druggy/hippy phase, marked firstly by some clever works such as tracing out his name in a constellation of stars. Then there are works from his trips to and in Afghanistan which included some striking and disturbing videos of bear baiting and dog fights as well as quite explicit sexual imagery.
The latter half of the exhibition was made up of large works, most memorably a room of watch towers, a triptych entitled negative value that resembled the negative of a photograph, and works made with soot. I was also struck by individual works like Paganini and Mrs Autumn and her two daughters, Britta's Pigs and the Illusionist.
All in all a really interesting exhibition though for me not quite on a par with the Richter exhibition.
Starting with pop art and the intrusion of working through his German identity, the exhibition continued through to an extraordinary room of structures like a sort of conservatory with extensive use of potatoes. He then went into a druggy/hippy phase, marked firstly by some clever works such as tracing out his name in a constellation of stars. Then there are works from his trips to and in Afghanistan which included some striking and disturbing videos of bear baiting and dog fights as well as quite explicit sexual imagery.
The latter half of the exhibition was made up of large works, most memorably a room of watch towers, a triptych entitled negative value that resembled the negative of a photograph, and works made with soot. I was also struck by individual works like Paganini and Mrs Autumn and her two daughters, Britta's Pigs and the Illusionist.
All in all a really interesting exhibition though for me not quite on a par with the Richter exhibition.
8 November 2014. Triple bill at ROH
The triple bill comprised:
I had been to a working rehearsal of the last named and so new it quite well by the time of attending the live performance. As a trio, the works were the ROH's Remembrance Day Programme. Aeternum, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon to music by Benjamin Britten, starred Marianela Nunez and Federico Bonelli and was most arresting for me in the breaking out of the female from a circle of dancers and the stage as an empty no man's land.
The opening piece, Ceremony of Innocence, again features Benjamin Britten's music but the choreography of Kim Brandstrup is very different. The cast features Edward Watson engaging with his younger self in an elegy to lost youth.
The Age Of Anxiety, a new work by Liam Scarlett, to the music of Leonard Bernstein had a cast that included Steven McRae, Based in a bar where three men vie for the attention of a woman, the work also featured the talents of Laura Morera, Bennett Gartside and Tristan Dyer. However, I must admit I never quite connected with it and I do not seem to have been alone in that response.
- Ceremony of Innocence
- The age of anxiety
- Aeternum
I had been to a working rehearsal of the last named and so new it quite well by the time of attending the live performance. As a trio, the works were the ROH's Remembrance Day Programme. Aeternum, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon to music by Benjamin Britten, starred Marianela Nunez and Federico Bonelli and was most arresting for me in the breaking out of the female from a circle of dancers and the stage as an empty no man's land.
The opening piece, Ceremony of Innocence, again features Benjamin Britten's music but the choreography of Kim Brandstrup is very different. The cast features Edward Watson engaging with his younger self in an elegy to lost youth.
The Age Of Anxiety, a new work by Liam Scarlett, to the music of Leonard Bernstein had a cast that included Steven McRae, Based in a bar where three men vie for the attention of a woman, the work also featured the talents of Laura Morera, Bennett Gartside and Tristan Dyer. However, I must admit I never quite connected with it and I do not seem to have been alone in that response.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)