Where to Drink September 12, 2013 From NYC to London EVERY so often in a major metropolitan centre, one venue will achieve supremacy as the foremost spot to see and be seen in, and Ian Schrager’s new hotel, nestled in Fitzrovia on Berners Street, bears all of the hallmarks of one such opening. Famed for founding the zeitgeisty Studio 54 in [...]
A well-produced morality play for the modern age September 12, 2013 THEATRE THE RITUAL SLAUGHTER OF GORGE MASTROMAS Royal Court | By Xenobe Purvis Four Stars PLAYWRIGHT Dennis Kelly creates a morality play for the modern age in The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas, his enthralling debut at the Royal Court. Its premise is simple: an affable everyman is offered the opportunity to succeed, a Faustian [...]
You’ll feel like you’ve been here before with this time travel rom-com September 5, 2013 FILM ABOUT TIME Cert 12a | By Daniel O’Mahony Three Stars FOR ME, it was always going to be about love.” That’s the reaction of Domhnall Gleeson’s Tim upon discovering he can travel through time. A knowing line from writer-director Richard Curtis, whose Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually trademarked the [...]
A third installment that’s as Riddick-ulous as the first two September 5, 2013 FILM RIDDICK Cert 15 | By Daniel O’Mahony One Star IN A heated standoff with bounty hunters Vin Diesel’s Riddick offers some ominous advice: “Forget about the start; it’s the end you want to think about now.” Say what you want about Vin Diesel, he clearly knows his audience: I had forgotten all about the [...]
Review: What Maisie Knew August 23, 2013 FILM WHAT MAISIE KNEW Cert 12A Four Stars Maisie is six years old and already more emotionally mature than her flaky, dysfunctional parents. Her saucer eyes are wise – and sad – beyond her years. We stumble with her from scene to scene, placed in her shoes, trying to work out exactly what [...]
Theatre review: The Picture of Dorian Gray August 22, 2013 THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY | ★★☆☆☆ | thealchemicorder.com The location of The Alchemic Order’s production of The Picture of Dorian Gray is so secret I almost couldn’t find it. Eventually, on ringing the bell of an unassuming Greenwich townhouse, I was greeted by a moustachioed man in Victorian butler’s attire, who ushered me into [...]
Where to drink August 22, 2013 If the Notting Hill Carnival isn’t your cup of tea, there are plenty of interesting venues across London at which to drink away the bank holiday. In Fitzrovia, for instance, the perennially popular Sanderson is keeping its courtyard terrace fresh with an especially a la mode pop-up. Named Sanderson Green, it’s serving laid-back, haute fast [...]
An era-spanning masterpiece August 15, 2013 THEATRE THE PRIDE Trafalgar Studios | By Xenobe Purvis Four Stars ALEXI Kaye Campbell’s award-winning The Pride gets a powerful revival as part of Jamie Lloyd’s Trafalgar Transformed season at Trafalgar Studios. The play’s protagonists Oliver, Philip and Sylvia exist in two time periods, the 1950s and now, and respond to the social pressures encountered [...]
Where to Drink: King’s Cross: London’s new cocktail capital August 15, 2013 WHETHER it’s down to the two hour shuttle to Paris or the imminent Google HQ arrival, the costly regeneration of King’s Cross means it is quickly becoming a terminus for more than just passengers, especially with its glut of new cocktail joints. Following on from Booking Station, Gilbert Scott Bar, VOC and Shrimpy’s, it boasts [...]
Review: Only God Forgives August 1, 2013 FILM ONLY GOD FORGIVES Cert 18 | By Steve Dinneen Three stars SO, ONLY God Forgives… Owwwwkaaaaaaay… Nicholas Winding Refn’s blood-soaked Bangkok revenge movie makes his previous film, Drive, look like a kids movie about a plucky stuntman. It’s essentially a collection of stylish, exquisitely orchestrated but disjointed scenes portraying a level of graphic violence [...]