Barbu review: A sexy, hairy and acrobatic exploration of the history of circus June 27, 2016 ★★★★★ | Spiegeltent, London Wonderground An acrobatic circus and dance act from the most hirsute recesses of Quebec, Barbu dismantles preconceived notions of masculinity and then rebuilds them into something new using hula hoops, see-saws, ribbons and swings. Several large, beautiful men cavort and spin about the stage, like lumberjacks trapped in a salad spinner, [...]
Painters’ Paintings at the National Gallery review: a thought-provoking exhibition featuring Freud, Matisse, Degas, Reynolds and Van Dyck June 27, 2016 ★★☆☆☆ | National Gallery Painters’ Paintings is a highly unusual exhibition in that it imposes a context onto its collection that many visitors may never have considered before; it is surprising to learn that the National Gallery possesses some 70 paintings that were owned by the other painters it displays. It takes as a starting [...]
Miss Revolutionary Idol Berserker at the Barbican review: An exotic explosion of cabaret that won’t be to everyone’s taste June 27, 2016 ★★★☆☆ | Barbican Fancy spending an evening in a sweltering sub-basement – where the room and all its furnishings are wrapped in plastic? How about if you are too? Kitted out in earplugs and a disposable plastic poncho, which acts as your own uncomfortably sticky sauna? And what if you’re screamed at, serenaded, spat upon, and [...]
New films out this week: reviews of Secret Life of Pets and Elvis Nixon June 27, 2016 Elvis Nixon | Dir. Liza Johnson | ★★★☆☆ A comedy about the real life meeting between Presley (Michael Shannon) and Nixon (Kevin Spacey) that resulted in the US National Archive's most requested photograph. The film makes no bones of the fact that this is a mostly fictional portrayal of how their meeting transpired, and so aims [...]
Richard III at Almeida Theatre: Ralph Fiennes puts the bunch-backed toad and the bottled spider into Shakespeare’s villain June 17, 2016 Richard III | Almeida | ★★★★★ Richard III is the ideal play for these post-facts times, where rhetoric is no longer anchored to reality and fear is the prevailing political currency. We approach a referendum whose result will be decided by whichever apocalyptic vision of the future the public chooses to believe. Across the pond a [...]
Tale of Tales film review: Salma Hayek is brilliant in this gory fairytale June 17, 2016 Tale of Tales | Dir. Matteo Garrone | ★★★★☆ Italian film maker Matteo Garrone, best known for his realist Mafia drama Gomorrah, makes a surprising choice for his English language debut in this 17th century fairytale. We follow the interweaving stories of three monarchs – an ageing ruler (Toby Jones) who acquires a strange [...]
Soul at Hackney Empire review: This play about the life of Marvin Gaye fails to hit any high notes June 17, 2016 Soul | Hackney Empire | ★☆☆☆☆ On April Fools Day, 1984, Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father in the house they shared. Gaye’s was a life ripe for drama, and Roy Williams’ new play explores it, seeking to answer the questions essential to understanding the man. Who was Marvin Gaye? Why [...]
Where You’re Meant to Be Film review: Arab Strap singer Aiden Moffat meditates on life, death, rivalry and the cultural importance of music June 17, 2016 Where You're Meant To Be | Dir. Paul Fegan | ★★★★☆ This wistful documentary about a folk-music tour by former Arab Strap singer Aiden Moffat starts out as a road trip but becomes a meditation on life, death, rivalry and the cultural importance of music. The voice-over, delivered in Moffat’s distinctive dry prose, is [...]
Long Way North film review: Beautiful animation hides an age-old story June 17, 2016 Long Way North | Dir. Rémi Chayé | ★★☆☆☆ Long Way North is at its best when nothing’s happening. The French-Danish animation, set in St Petersburg and voiced in English, unfurls languidly, idling over shots of the sun setting over the Winter Palace, or seagulls slowly circling a ship adrift in a blue ocean. The [...]
Late Night at the Barbican review: a surreal mesh of dance, sorrow and economic woe June 17, 2016 Late Night | Barbican | ★★★★☆ Three couples sit in the wreckage of a music hall. A song comes on and they start to dance, expressionless, waltzing in neat circles around each other. Every so often one breaks ranks to stand before a microphone and deliver opaque lines of dialogue. Europe has fallen. War and [...]