Category: Review

What’s on? Artistic variations on WG Sebald

I was reading in New Scientist the other day about how you could inherit trauma from a parent or even grandparent, that fragments missed by a ‘cleaning process’ might remain hidden in the embryo, contributing in later life to psychological ailments such as bi-polarity or depression. German author WG Sebald prods at such splinters, embedded… Read more »

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Picasso / Dalí – Compassion and Conflict

An exhibition at Museu Picasso rocks the foundations of art history by placing two iconic artists of radically different reputations together. Picasso_Dalí / Dalí_Picasso is a painstakingly researched and provocative show that spotlights specific points of encounter between the two men, expanding our understanding of both. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973): enigmatic Cubist, lifelong hero of the left, fundamentally… Read more »

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What’s on? A Game of Mirrors

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 »

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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 »

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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 »

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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 »

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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 »

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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 »

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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 »

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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 »

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