Culture Reviews

13 Sep

Posted at 08:32h in Culture Reviews by

We saw ‘Fleabag’ in the muggy dark, holding hands at the local screen; my first time seeing live theatre at the cinema.  Long after we have laughed and cringed at the subsequent two TV series, this is the original monologue. It is darker, funny yet bound with grief and shame. A metaphorical rummage in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s underwear drawer. The tiny strappy ‘Agent Provocateur’ type stuff uncomfortably nestles with big knickers and woolly tights. While she sits or hovers centre-stage on a stool, the technology of live broadcast reveals every artful twitch and grimace of her face. A whole slew of emotions play out between her mouth and eyes, while we gasp.

03 Sep

Posted at 22:40h in Culture Reviews by

From the outset the fortitude of the ensemble cast move us when a member of the Sydney Theatre Company tells of Ningali Lawford-Wolf’s death last week mid tour. Our narrator has come sudden to take her place, sometimes reading the text, to keep the narrative going despite tragedy. Is this a metaphor for the continuing struggle for Aboriginal land rights perhaps? This is the story of one small place where white settlers take land from the first nation people of Australia. One tale told well demonstrates the bloody outcome of colonisation. We see how fear breeds separation, which leads to violence. As one indigenous performer fills the huge Olivier stage, the power of two centuries of injustice is brought home.
https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-secret-river

28 Aug

Posted at 21:43h in Culture Reviews by

This is an acerbic, witty slice of the politics of 1988. It shows a stone hurled from Thatcher’s Britain and the consequences reverberating into 2019. Lindsay Duncan and Alex Jennings spar with brilliance as a tory minister and his bitingly sarcastic wife. The punch, however, when it comes demonstrates the destructive power of undigested grief. Simon Woods underlying manifesto is a prayer for compassion.
www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/hansard

19 Aug

Posted at 22:06h in Culture Reviews by

Tree and Roots’ 2019 Oil on panel 62.5x75cm.
With exquisite attention to detail Julian Perry’s paintings document loss, the effects of rising sea levels and “weather weirding”. His work reflects the passage of recent time, a disappearing landscape through images of specific chunks of fallen coast. Beyond beautiful painted images; his work offers a contemplative commentary on our changing environment. See more of his work at www.julianperry.info.

03 Aug

Posted at 15:58h in Culture Reviews by

This is an epic tale which ranges across oceans and decades. A stunning panorama sets the scene for tropical Jamaica and then monochrome post-war Britain. Brilliantly staged, ‘Small Island’ is at the National Theatre. It chronicles the rises and falls of two families, explores exclusion and neighbouring themes – love, loss, kinship, belonging, racism and small mindedness. I am left feeling ambivalently British. Not long after the arrival of the Windrush, one after the other my parents sailed toward new lives in the Caribbean. They were heading towards meeting each other on another small island.