Rocketman is an explosively imaginative biopic charting the life of the iconic piano man May 23, 2019 Take the John Lewis Christmas ad that made your sherry-drunk Aunt Pauline cry into her sprouts and stretch it out over a hundred or so minutes and you’ve got yourself Rocketman, the Taron Egerton fronted musical biopic charting the life and travails of bespectacled piano man Elton John. The setting is a booze ‘n’ drugs [...]
Anna at the National Theatre review: A brilliant play about the Stasi that makes you wear headphones May 23, 2019 It’s Stasi-era East Germany and a young woman prepares for a dinner party while a hidden group of shadowy men and women wearing headphones listen in to her every move. The twist? You’re one of them. Anna casts the audience as collaborators in this tale of a young woman caught up in a surveillance operation [...]
Debate: As National Vegetarian Week ends, will this group outnumber meat eaters in the next decade? May 17, 2019 As National Vegetarian Week ends, will this group outnumber meat eaters in the next decade? YES – Sophie Lewis is chief strategy officer at marketing agency VMLY&R. If you’d asked me two years ago, my answer would have been in the negative, but we’ve reached a cultural tipping point when it comes to both vegetarians [...]
Death of a Salesman at the Young Vic review: Casting black actors adds a new dimension to Arthur Miller’s classic May 16, 2019 Such is the power of the racial divide in America that simply casting a black family at the heart of Arthur Miller’s 1949 masterpiece presents it in a dark and troubling new light. The Wire’s Wendell Pierce plays Willy Loman, the titular travelling salesman weighed down by economic hardship, social anxiety and a crippling desire [...]
A German Life at Bridge Theatre review: Maggie Smith shines in this examination of Nazi fervour May 10, 2019 “Everything that is beautiful is also tainted, and whatever’s horrible also has its bright side. Nothing is black and white.” These words, at first glance a truism, become morbidly fascinating when spoken by Brunhilde Pomsel, the wizened former stenographer to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and subject of the award-winning documentary A German Life. Maggie [...]
Three Sisters at the Almeida: This most Chekhovian of Chekhov’s plays flatters to deceive May 10, 2019 After last year’s superlative Summer and Smoke, the pairing of director Rebecca Frecknall and young star Patsy Ferran is an irresistible proposition. This time they combine to drag Chekhov’s fin de siècle play Three Sisters into an unspecified time and space somewhere between pre-revolution Russia and present-day King’s Road. But despite another fitful, engaging performance [...]
Days Gone review: Biker gangs and bounty hunting in Sony’s zombie infested apocalypse May 3, 2019 At times the plot of Days Gone can be difficult to track. You play as Deacon, a hardass biker navigating a zombie-infested open world. For the most part you’re on a quest to find your missing girlfriend Sarah. However, your motorcycle parts are nicked early on (Deacon’s bike functions as the game’s second lead character; [...]
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile review: A well-intentioned but discomforting exercise in glamourising a serial killer May 3, 2019 Is it possible to make a genuine anti-war film? Francois Truffaut famously thought not; you might set out with the purest of intentions, but the spectacle and grandeur of cinema means that even the most ardently anti-war director will end up glorifying what he seeks to condemn. While watching this new biopic of Ted Bundy, [...]
Rosmersholm review: A gripping revival of Ibsen’s masterpiece political drama May 3, 2019 The suffocating weight of dead generations looms over Henrik Ibsen’s 1886 political drama, in which Rosmer, an enlightened young aristocrat, defies his upper class status and risks alienation to pursue his newfound socialist ideals. Quite literally, the portraits of his ancestors hang over the stage like silent accusers, revealed in a flourish by his companion [...]
Stagecoach dropped as Turner Prize sponsor after just one day over LGBT rights concerns May 3, 2019 The Turner Prize has severed ties with Stagecoach South East, just one day after the sponsorship was announced. Read more: Stagecoach: Pension risks 'exceeded £1bn' for blocked rail franchise bids The prestigious arts award rejected its sponsor following criticism of the chairman of Stagecoach's parent company's support for a ban on teaching LGBT issues. Stagecoach and [...]