Review: A Season In The Congo July 18, 2013 THEATRE A SEASON IN THE CONGO Young Vic | By Xenobe Purvis Four Stars THE Young Vic stage is transformed into a busy Congolese bar at the opening of A Season in the Congo, Aimé Césaire’s play about the African country’s first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba. Out of the muddle emerges a beer salesman – [...]
Review: Breathe in July 18, 2013 FILM BREATHE IN Cert 15 | By Steve Dinneen Four Stars BREATHE In is an almost unbearably tense drama about first, lost and forbidden love that will drag memories of every bad thing you’ve done in a relationship from the pit of your stomach. Guy Pierce plays Keith, a high school teacher in [...]
Review: The World’s End July 18, 2013 FILM THE WORLD’S END Cert 12a | By Alex Dymoke Three Stars MORRISON’S car parks, Kit Kats, national rail services from Leicester to Coventry – it’s easy to hate the banal rubbishness of small-town Britain. But as a spate of offbeat British comedies have shown, it’s easy to love it too. Hot Fuzz, [...]
Review: Timber! July 18, 2013 THEATRE TIMBER! Southbank Centre | By Alex Dymoke Three Stars CIRQUE Alfonse isn’t afraid to eschew the conventions of family entertainment. Its new show Timber! features Michael Jackson-style baby dangling, worryingly inept axe juggling and lots and lots of drinking. The bottles may not contain real booze, but the show is as much [...]
Review: Mama February 26, 2013 FILM MAMA Cert 15 *** AFTER producing the deliciously terrifying The Orphanage and directing the superb horror fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth, you would bet your house on Guillermo del Toro nailing what is essentially a stripped down, monster-in-the-house horror movie. This is why I’m not a gambling man. It starts off convincingly enough. The plot – [...]
Review: Money The Game Show February 26, 2013 In Clare Duffy’s new play, Money The Game Show, two ex-bankers, Queenie and Casino (Lucy Ellinson and Brian Ferguson), explain the financial crisis through a series of audience participation games. Two halves of the audience face each other and in the centre is a platform, complete with cartoon noises and colourful flashing lights that combine [...]
It’s a pop hit February 22, 2013 ART LICHTENSTEIN: A RETROSPECTIVE By Alex Dymoke | Tate Modern **** IS HE the worst artist in the US?” asked Life magazine about Roy Lichtenstein in 1964. The primary colours and thick, innocent lines are too much – or too little – for many. However, his paintings are some of the most familiar images of [...]
STK does a belter of a rib eye – if you can stand the club atmosphere February 6, 2013 Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie once said: “All vowels are fascist, man, everyone knows that”. It’s a sentiment that obviously chimed with the owners of US steakhouse chain STK, which has just arrived at the ME London hotel. This isn’t just any old steakhouse, though. Oh no, this is a “female friendly” steakhouse. Female friendly. [...]
The sustainable food argument is flawed – we just need more variety February 5, 2013 Head chef, Paternoster Chop House The recent news that the Marine Conservation Society has removed mackerel and gurnard from its list of “sustainable” fish is an ironic sign of the times. Responsible diners avoid some foods in a bid to protect a species, only to find that everyone else has done the same and now [...]
Celebrate Chinese new year in real style February 5, 2013 1. HKK HKK is the ultimate destination for Chinese aficionados. The restaurant, which is one of the most recent openings of the Hakkasan group, is already gaining a reputation for offering some of the best Chinese food in the City. Michelin-starred chef Tong Chee Hwee has created an impressive eight- and 15-course banqueting menu that’s [...]