28 May 2016. Mona Hatoum at Tate Modern

This was my second visit to this powerful exhibition. Hatoum is a Palestinian exile who left her family in Lebanon. One moving piece in the exhibition is her reading of letters from her mother that speak of the mother's sadness at not being with her daughter and having lost her home in Palestine. Another is 12 Windows - pieces of embroidery representing different regions and made by women in refugee camps.
The installations all seemed to me very strong and I was particularly struck by Light Sentence, an extraordinary room with stacks of mesh lockers and a light slowly rising and falling in the middle of them. This created an eery feeling and an extraordinary shadow effect. Also memorable was the amazingly simple but powerful + and - which consisted of two rotating blades on a sandpit - one creating ridges and the other rubbing them away.
The final piece Undercurrent was also extraordinary, consisting of a square red mat made from electrical cable with some 80 long tassles with light bulbs on the ends which slowly ebbed and flowed in their illumination.
Without going through every piece, this was for me a thoroughly worthwhile exhibition and a powerful demonstration of installations with merit.

27 May 2016. Frankenstein at the ROH

I thought this was generally excellent and was very glad I had not been put off by some critics. The star was, I thought, Steven McRae who portrayed 'The Creature' with real feeling. He was ably complemented by Federico Bonelli as Victor Frankenstein and James Hay as his friend, Henry. I thought Laura Morera was slightly less convincing as Elizabeth, Victor's eventual wife.
Much of the tale is contained in the first act that covers the birth of Victor's brother and the death of his Mother while giving this birth. Then we have Victor at University and creating the Creature. Much of Act 2 seemed more of a filler and vehicle for the lead dancers to demonstrate their abilities. However, it concludes with William's birthday party which leads on to his murder by the Creature and the false-accusation and hanging of Justine, the Housekeeper's daughter. Then Act 3 is taken up by the murder of Henry and Elizabeth and Victor's suicide. The curtain comes down on a thoroughly unhappy ending but with great applause for Mcrae and all the dancers, conductor Tom Seligman and the orchestra as well as the choreographer, Liam Scarlett.
I don't know why the critics took exception to this piece. It did seem slightly drawn out in parts but generally it moved at a good pace and needed its two plus hours. I would certainly go to see it again.  

4 May 2016. Another World at the National Theatre.

This was not really a play in the conventional sense but an animated rendition of the testimonies of people caught up in Western jihadists going to Syria. It was put across extremely clearly with a major message being the marginalisation of young muslims in the wider community. I guess this is not a profoundly original idea but it bears repeating with the spoutings of Trump and the recent unpleasant Tory tack to try to win County Hall.
Lasting around 80 minutes, that was probably enough time to reach satiation point. It was I thought an excellent initiative by the National Theatre and would do well to be screened for a wider audience.

27 April 2016. The Winter's Tale at the ROH

This somewhat unlikely tale seems to work so well as the subject for Christopher Wheeldon's choreography that disbelief is easily suspended for the evening. The opening and closing acts have the meat of the story with the middle act mainly a vehicle for showcasing the skills of the stars. These were considerable with Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae as the happy young lovers. In the first act, Edward Watson as Leontes gave the usual extraordinary demonstration of his ability to contort while accompanied by Lauren Cuthbertson as his wife.

The free programme/cast list helpfully gave the synopsis but the choreography and dancing were so clear that it was hardly necessary. All that I was unclear on was the chemistry between Polixenes (Federico Bonelli) and Hermione (Lauren Cuthbertson). By the time of one of their final meetings amongst the statues, it seemed more than adequate to stoke the fantasies of jealousy that had taken hold of the espying Leontes.

The sets were excellent, particularly the tree of Act 2 and all the principal dancers were more than worth the ticket while the orchestra too ensured a magical evening.