NOW SHOWING SIX OF THE BEST May 21, 2009 THEATRE: BURST Festival Battersea Arts Centre’s annual festival of new theatre, with 51 different events set to take place. The subtitle is 51 Reasons for Living, inspired by President Obama’s inauguration address. FILM: Synecdoche, New York Charlie Kaufman’s magnum opus is a lingering, poetic and funny meditation on life, love and the whole damn thing. [...]
Strong acting fails to bring revised Ibsen classic to life May 21, 2009 TheatreA DOLL’S HOUSEDonmar WarehouseIbsen’s story of a woman who walks away from her empty marriage was too much for upright Victorian audiences at its first London staging in 1889. With such compelling source-material, it’s a shame Zinnie Harris’s reworked version – which relocates things from 1880s Norway to London in 1909 – is curiously bloodless, [...]
OUT THIS WEEKEND PREVIEWS May 21, 2009 FILMTORMENTED Britain’s answer to the current vogue for teen slasher flicks. EVERLASTING MOMENTS Acclaimed Swedish period drama about a female photographer. THE GIRL CUT IN TWO The latest quirky film from French auteur director Claude Chabrol. DVDTHE READER Kate Winslet on Oscar-winning form as a former Nazi prison guard. SEVEN POUNDS Apallingly mawkish melodrama with [...]
Museum of fun May 21, 2009 NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2Cert: PGTHIS Bank Holiday’s slice of family-centric fodder pulls off that rare cinematic trick – it’s a sequel that’s better than the original. However, given that the original Night at the Museum was a dog’s dinner of a film, the bigger surprise is that it was ever a big enough hit [...]
Cyprus is a place in the sun and a lot more besides May 21, 2009 FOR Britons, Cyprus has turned into something of an upmarket Marbella, without the crowds. With unrealised investment potential and a load more untarnished space in which to enjoy golf, watersports, beautiful landscape and good weather for most of the year, it’s no wonder savvy investors are looking to the island to buy property. What with [...]
FOCUS ON: IPSWICH, SUFFOLK May 21, 2009 GREEN FARM, NEAR STOWMARKET, IP14 3REPrice: Offers in excess of £975,000If you’re looking for the property that has everything then this is it. Believed to date from the 16th century, this listed barn conversion comes complete with swimming pool, tennis courts, and even a carp lake/boating pond. Inside, the house has recently been modernised but [...]
Q&A: SALES May 21, 2009 Q. Dear Russell, I’ve put an offer in on a property that I really like but so has another party. The vendor has said that he wants to do a contract race in order to decide. What does that mean?A. A contract race is very much first-past-the-post – basically the first party to have read [...]
The untarnished beauty of the Suffolk coastline May 21, 2009 THE recent episode of The Apprentice in which the contestants struggled to devise an attractive marketing campaign for the Kent seaside town of Margate, was a good demonstration of the jaded reputation many of Britain’s coastal resorts have earned. But had they been applying their efforts to the towns lining the Suffolk coast, chief among [...]
AN ABUNDANCE OF GLITTER FOR THE ASIAN WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT May 21, 2009 LONDON’s most successful Asian ladies were out in force on Wednesday night for perhaps the sparkliest evening of the year, the Asian Women of Achievement Awards, in association with Lloyds TSB. The star-studded guest list included Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, as well as BBC Dragon James Caan, MP Tessa Jowell, Lib Dem [...]
Lowry turns professional May 21, 2009 GOLF: Ireland’s Shane Lowry has announced he is to turn professional after his Irish Open triumph last week. The 22-year-old, who missed out on a £500,000 first prize at Baltray last week, is set to make his pro debut in the European Open at the London GC, on 28 May. He said: “This decision will [...]
