Henry V at Barbican, theatre review: The RSC’s production lacks emotion but it’s riotously funny November 13, 2015 Barbican | ★★★★☆ The RSC’s production of Shakespeare’s Henry V is curiously lacking in drama, but more than compensates with a brilliant injection of humour. Serious passages often lack emotional clout, but traditionally straight characters are successfully played for laughs. The Archbishop of Canterbury, for instance, becomes an ecclesiastical Sir Humphrey and the Dauphin is a [...]
Theatre review: Waste at the National Theatre November 13, 2015 Lyttelton Theatre | ★★★☆☆ “The road to hell is paved not with good intentions but with high ideals”; it’s a statement delivered as a sardonic zinger but it turns out to be sadly prescient for the hero of Harley Granville-Barker’s 1906 play. This dense, long-winded story focuses on the political intrigue surrounding a bill to disestablish [...]
Steve Jobs review: Fassbender carries a poignant biopic of Apple’s dysfunctional tech messiah November 13, 2015 12A | ★★★★☆ You can’t code, you’re not a designer, you’re not a programmer,” says exasperated Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogan). “But every day I read that Steve Jobs is a genius. What do you actually do?” This is the billion-dollar question asked by Danny Boyle in his follow-up to the London 2012 Opening [...]
Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture at the Tate Modern November 13, 2015 Tate Modern | ★★★★☆ Alexander Calder is said to be the man who introduced mobiles to the art world in the 1920s (the things that hang over babies’ cribs rather then the phones). The first room in the Tate Modern’s retrospective of his work is dedicated to his early, figurative pieces. Deceptively complex wire sculptures dangle [...]
Theatre review: As You Like It, National Theatre November 6, 2015 Cert: 15 | ★★★☆☆ With its rambunctious female lead and sketch-show skits, As You Like It must be one of the easiest Shakespeare plays to modernise. Which makes it all the more surprising that this is the first time in 36 years the National Theatre has staged the lovestruck comedy. And what a surprise it [...]
Kill Your Friends is a shallow imitation of American Psycho November 5, 2015 “To make money sometimes we have to make art,” muses Nicholas Hoult’s oily A&R man Steven Stelfox. There’s an irony to be found here, given that Kill Your Friends, which rides shamelessly on the coat-tails of The Wolf of Wall Street and American Psycho, appears to have been made by people who share that exact [...]
Hairy Ape is a visually stunning revival of Eugene O’Neill classic November 5, 2015 How annoyed would you be if someone called you a hairy ape? Slightly peeved? Seriously irked? How about so apoplectic that you’d plot murder and then free a gorilla from the zoo? If – like me – you fall into the latter category, you’ll love the Old Vic’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s macho 1922 play, [...]
The weekend’s movies: The Vatican Tapes, Do I Sound Gay and Outcast October 30, 2015 The Vatican Tapes | ★★☆☆☆ There’s a dearth of horror movies to see you through this Halloween weekend, and The Vatican Tapes is a rather hollow token release. Californian twentysomething Angela (Olivia Tyler Dudley) is admitted to hospital with all the signs of a demonic possession, which your GP will be happy to talk you through. [...]
Husbands & Sons is a deeply evocative Welsh drama October 30, 2015 Dorfman Theatre | ★★★☆☆ Throughout his novels, poems and plays – though hardly in real life – DH Lawrence would return to the murky Midland mining village of his youth: a community of dour, drink-sodden colliers and their hard-nosed, long-suffering wives. The men flaunt their masculinity, but are unable to express much else about themselves; the [...]
Under Milk Wood is a raunchy, filthy, surreal take on Dylan Thomas’ epic radio play October 30, 2015 Cert: 15 | ★★★★☆ Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas’ masterful radio play, doesn’t easily lend itself to film. The twisting, languid structure of the poetry means the visuals inevitably feel tacked on, like a montage in a music video. In director Kevin Allen’s adaptation they bray for your attention, all saturated colours and vivid, nightmarish imagery. [...]