Machinal at the Almeida review: Sophie Treadwell’s play is a wild, expressionistic ride through the Kafkaesque production-line of life June 15, 2018 Machinal opens in a loud and lairy 1920s office. Overlapping conversations about sex and romance are given a staccato rhythm by the clack and ding of a dozen typewriters. The question on everyone’s lips is: who’s sleeping with who? The juiciest gossip focuses on the girl who’s missing, her empty desk made all the [...]
Here are the nine biggest new game announcements from E3 2018 June 13, 2018 This year's E3 conference in Los Angeles ushered in some fresh announcements alongside a raft of previously revealed games. As the show draws to a close, here's a selection of the biggest trailers from E3 2018. CyberPunk 2077 Release date: 2019 on PS4, XBO and PC Polish studio CD Projekt Red is best known [...]
Translations at the National Theatre review – a smart look at British imperialism on the island of Ireland June 8, 2018 Calling on the fearsome technical resources of the National Theatre, Ian Rickson’s new production of Brian Friel’s Translations is accomplished if not revolutionary. Set in Ireland’s County Donegal in 1833, it deals with the overwriting of landscapes by empire and the entwining of language with identity. It’s the tale of a “hedge-school” in the community [...]
Irvine Welsh interview: Growing old disgracefully May 3, 2018 The image of a former enfant terrible growing up, moving to a big house by the ocean and living a life of manicured leisure is hardly novel. Even so, hearing Irvine Welsh – former heroin addict, guitarist with punk band The Pubic Lice, and author of Trainspotting – talk about his Miami pilates regime is [...]
Peter Rabbit review: Highly irritating bunnies ruin a charming rom-com loosely based on Beatrix Potter’s book March 16, 2018 From Paddington to the Big Friendly Giant, British children’s literature is killing it at the box office. It was only a matter of time, then, before someone snapped up the film rights to Beatrix Potter and her merry band of trouserless critters. It’s attracted some big stars, too; Sam Neill as the ultimate nimby Farmer [...]
Macbeth at the National Theatre: Rufus Norris’ stars fail to shine in this cautious production March 9, 2018 Rufus Norris, the artistic director at the National Theatre, isn’t having a great time right now. While his predecessor Nicholas Hytner is having a ball at the helm of the new Bridge Theatre down the riverbank, Norris has suffered a string of flops in the Olivier, from a sand-blasted Salome to the bafflingly coarse Common. [...]
Summer and Smoke at the Almeida: Tennessee Williams’ complex play is brought to heart-rending life in this fantastic production March 9, 2018 Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke is about opposing forces: the microscopic and the infinite, the physical and the spiritual, anarchy and order, sanity and madness, and the thankless task we humans have trying to work out where exactly we fit into all this. It tackles these swooping metaphysical questions through the prism of unrequited [...]
Picasso 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy at the Tate Modern: Exhibition focusing on a single year in the life of the great artist shows the sheer audacity of genius March 9, 2018 By the age of 50, Picasso’s days as a starving artist were long behind him. His paintings sold for fortunes despite the gathering economic gloom; he and his former-ballerina wife were courted by politicians and socialites; he was preparing to be celebrated by a major Paris retrospective, a rarity then for a living artist. [...]
Agadir review: Yto Barrada’s exhibition at the Barbican leaves out the hopeful part of the story February 8, 2018 The Barbican is the perfect location for this exhibition by Morrocan artist Yto Barrada. The utopian housing estate, built after the trauma of WWII, has much in common with it subject, Agadir, a modernist city that was rebuilt in a similar Brutalist style following an earthquake in 1960. It’s a shame then, that we only [...]
The 15:17 to Paris review: Casting real world heroes as themselves is the weirdest thing Clint Eastwood’s done since shouting at an empty chair February 8, 2018 How on earth did this film get made? The 15:17 to Paris is a retelling of the time three American men, two of them off-duty soldiers, beat a would-be terrorist senseless on a train to Paris. Directed by actor, filmmaker and renowned heckler of empty chairs Clint Eastwood, the film is notable for starring [...]