Is God Is at The Royal Court: A fireball of rage and guilt September 17, 2021 A fireball of rage and guilt, Aleshea Harris’ Is God Is is a modern-day biblical epic on a small scale. It’s a play that actively shirks categorisation, inviting comparisons to both the Old Testament and the trappings of Jacobean drama, but also to Spaghetti Westerns, Afropunk, and hip-hop. The play begins with fire, both literally, [...]
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2021 is the best in years September 17, 2021 British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, coordinator of the 253rd Royal Academy Summer Exhibition has managed something extraordinary: he’s created a show that actually makes sense. Where the Summer Exhibition – once again shunted to the autumn thanks to Covid – is usually a maddening, overwhelming jumble of artworks, this year there’s a thread of urgency and [...]
Try fine German wine at fabulous Somerset House September 16, 2021 Eva Fricke’s wines are much sought-after, often going for as much as £3,000 per half-bottle at auction. Her Lorcher Krone Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese 2019 is the first wine to score 100 points from the respected American publication The Wine Advocate. Only eighteen bottles are in existence. Now you can sample some of her wares alongside those [...]
Prisoners of The Ghostland – more Nicolas Cage madness September 15, 2021 The poster for Prisoners of The Ghostland features a surprising quote – not from a critic or an enthusiastic viewer, but from the star Nicolas Cage himself, who calls it “The Wildest Movie I’ve Ever Made”. When you consider some of the offbeat choices the Oscar winner has made, that’s a powerful claim. He plays [...]
Rose Plays Julie review: A tense exploration of trauma September 14, 2021 Many films are about delving into the deep, murky lake of a character’s past, but few do it as intensely, or as uniquely, as this week’s Rose Plays Julie. Directed Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, collectively known as the creative partnership Desperate Optimists, Anne Skelly plays Rose, a young Irish woman training to be a [...]
Booze like Bond at this immersive dining experience September 14, 2021 Monte Carlo, the French Riviera, New Orleans, the Caribbean: these are the places we associate with James Bond. Portobello Road, not so much. But this stands to change, for over the next few weeks the bohemian enclave of Notting Hill will be aswarm with Sunspel polo shirts, Persol eyewear, Goodyear-welted Crockett and Jones Norwich boots, [...]
60 Seconds With… Fashion guru and placemaker Yasmin Jones-Henry September 14, 2021 Yasmin Jones-Henry works in the space where fashion meets finance, and where culture meets commerce. She has made her name describing the crucial role culture can play for the new generation of investors, and putting forward the business case for diversity in the fashion and culture sectors. Through her work with Futurecity, a ‘placemaking agency’, [...]
The Memory of Water at Hampstead Theatre review September 10, 2021 Some plays seem to never age, maintaining the feeling of newness and revelation in each subsequent staging. Recent productions of Under Milk Wood and The Dumb Waiter spring to mind, conjuring such a stark sense of otherness that they feel forever young. Others become period pieces before the ink dries on the script, such as [...]
Opportunity International exhibition is both harrowing and hopeful September 10, 2021 Tucked away in the secluded Southwood Garden of St James’s Church, just off Piccadilly, you will find a new outdoor photography exhibition hosted by the charity Opportunity International. It consists of a series of large, freestanding portraits of Ugandan refugees taken by the award-winning photographer Kate Holt. Each one comes with a harrowing story: artist [...]
Copshop movie review – a below par Dad Thriller September 10, 2021 It’s been a while since a Joe Carnahan movie has graced the big screen. The filmmaker brought who brough us Smokin’ Aces, The A-Team, and The Grey has been missing from the director’s chair for seven years following issues surrounding the release of 2014’s Stretch. After making March’s Boss Level for streaming service Hulu, he’s [...]