Circle Mirror Transformation (Joc de Miralls), by the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Annie Baker, is a sweet, funny and quietly tragic little play that shines light on the lives of five individuals who take part in a theatre workshop for beginners in a local civic centre. The title refers to one of a series of quirky group… Read more »
Category: Review
Review: A Radical Date with Wim Vandekeybus
Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus’ 1987 dance piece What The Body Does Not Remember, at Sadler’s Wells, London today and tomorrow, is a work credited with radically transforming the arena of contemporary dance. But what does this mean to us now? 28 years on, its once highly-innovative association of physicality and high emotion, (untrained dancers stomping, running… Read more »
What’s on? Environmental drama in Pulmons (Lungs)
All credit to this valiant Catalan-language production that brings freshness, focus and depth of character to Duncan Macmillan’s uncompromising play Pulmons (original title Lungs), a contemporary drama about a couple’s decision to have a baby, despite, or perhaps because of, impending environmental disaster. Macmillan demands that no props, sound or lighting effects, no ‘mime’, scene changes or intervals be… Read more »
What’s On? El Misàntropo directed by Miguel del Arco
El Misàntropo is a contemporary Spanish version of the classic play Le Misanthrope by 17th century French playwright Molière. A social satire with political implications, it deals with issues such as hypocrisy and love, sycophancy and plain speaking, and how far one should go to defend the truth. As Spanish theatre director Miguel del Arco has recognised, this… Read more »
Interview: Petherbridge & Hunter on My Perfect Mind
In 2007, British actor Edward Petherbridge suffered a stroke that left him unable to play King Lear, a part that he had travelled to New Zealand to rehearse. Nevertheless, the actor was still able to recall every one of his lines. Of this serious incident he and Paul Hunter have created My Perfect Mind, a re-imagination… Read more »
What’s on? El Sur – Víctor Ullate Ballet
Víctor Ullate Ballet’s performance of El Sur is my highlight of the week for all fans of classical dance, contemporary dance, flamenco… the performing arts in general. This 90-minute piece is dedicated to the late, great flamenco singer Enrique Morente, whose songs provide the musical setting for a balletic tale of love, hate, murder and suicide… Read more »
WHAT’S ON? Pieter Hugo_Kin_
South African photographer, Pieter Hugo (Cape Town, 1976), winner of the World Press Photo prize for portraits in 2005, and a finalist in 2012’s Deutsche Börse prize, has a new series of his work on display at Barcelona’s Fundació Foto Colectania until 10th December 2014. Unlike his previous commissioned projects in neighbouring African countries such as… Read more »
INTERVIEW: Carolina López on ‘Metamorphosis’ – the exhibition
The more we try to rationalise our world, the more we crave the weird and the wonderful. The exhibition Metamorphosis lures us into the interconnected worlds of two individual and one ‘twin set’ of artists, all of who work or worked on the fringe of film and animation. The exhibition, that took 10 years to find its… Read more »
Review: Tauberbach – les ballets C de la B / Munich Kammerspiele
It’s dark and something’s buzzing. Lights up, except they’re literally down, a big bar of them rests on a mass of old clothing… so much to choose from but who needs any of it? Nice to play dress up, at least, the idea has occurred to a small team of scavengers who wade through it all, selecting,… Read more »
Review: Roni Horn – Everything Sleeping… at Fundació Miró
My dream is to renovate my bathroom and put in wall-to-wall showering. In the middle, I’d have a huge, bubbling jacuzzi that takes up most of the floor space, with a sauna option operational via a toe button. Tropical plants would surround me, a robot would bring me drinks, and there I’d sit, sniffing steam… Read more »