Rose English at Camden Arts Centre brings together the north east and the far east December 18, 2015 Camden Arts Centre | ★★☆☆☆ Camden Arts Centre takes Rose English’s neat exploration of movement and fragility and spreads it incredibly thinly over two and a half rooms, resulting in a jumbled and at times baffling collection of sounds and objects. You enter into a blacked-out room to the sound of a grand 10-voice chamber [...]
Wonder.land at the National Theatre is a visual delight… but where are all the songs? December 18, 2015 National Theatre | ★★★☆☆ Wonder.land takes as its starting point that the world inside our smartphones, with its cat memes and its gaudy virtual worlds, is as mad as a hatter. Mad as the Hatter, in fact. The Alice in this production doesn’t tumble into a literal rabbit-hole: she falls into the world of chatrooms and [...]
Sleeping With Other People review: a mediocre rom-com with commitment problems December 18, 2015 15 | Dir. Leslye Headland ★★☆☆☆ Late bloomers Lainey (Community’s Alison Brie) and Jake (We’re The Millers’ Jason Sudeikis) play two shy students who lose their virginity to each other during a one night stand at Columbia University. Fast forward 12 years and they cross paths again, only this time, they’re both non-committal, serial cheaters. [...]
The Lorax at the Old Vic is a brilliant take on the Dr Seuss classic December 18, 2015 During the interval of The Lorax, Dr Seuss’s cautionary tale about the dangers of environmental destruction, I received a notification on my phone: “UK government approves fracking in national parks”, and I thought “I really hope all the kids in the audience are paying attention, because my generation seems to have forgotten the Lorax’s wise [...]
Jose Mourinho’s hopes to build a Chelsea dynasty have become outdated and irrelevant in modern football December 18, 2015 When Mourinho returned to Chelsea in the summer of 2013, the Portuguese cut a more compromising figure than the brash and arrogant figure who arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2004. He described himself as “the Happy One” and insisted he aimed to see out a four-year contract which was subsequently extended this summer to 2019. [...]
Rangers £5m loan from Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct on verge of being repaid December 18, 2015 Rangers are in the final stages of paying back an outstanding £5m loan to Mike Ashley's Sports Direct retail company, director Paul Murray has confirmed. Ashley made a £5m loan to the club in January when his associates Derek Llambias and Barry Leach were on the board. Initially, the new board opted not to repay [...]
Jose Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea because there was “palpable discord” between him and players, technical director Michael Emenalo reveals December 17, 2015 Chelsea chiefs have confirmed that friction between manager and players led them to sack Jose Mourinho less than seven months after he steered them to the Premier League title. Technical director Michael Emenalo said owner Roman Abramovich had been forced to act by alarming results and “a palpable discord between manager and players”, adding: “This [...]
England’s batting collapse worries Taylor ahead of Test showdown with South Africa December 17, 2015 England's James Taylor has warned his side’s batsmen that they must rid themselves of a propensity to collapse if they are to enjoy success in their four-Test showdown with world No1s South Africa, which starts in Durban on Boxing Day. The tourists slipped from 99-3 to 190 all out during the second innings on the [...]
Villa in dire straits are so far away from revived Toon December 17, 2015 If this fixture had dropped just a couple of weeks ago, it would have been a tale of woe for both hosts Newcastle and their visitors Aston Villa. Between them, they only managed three wins out of a possible 23 games from September to November. How quickly fortunes can improve, though – for the Magpies, [...]
High-flying Hornets to be stung by Klopp’s Liverpool December 17, 2015 It must have been beyond a Watford fan’s wildest dreams to go into the week before Christmas ahead of Liverpool in the table. Remarkably, the Hornets go into Sunday’s match against the Reds one point and two places ahead of their illustrious rivals. Watford are only four points off the Champions League places. But for [...]