Place yourself in Belfast in 2009. Two middle-aged Nordies meet in a pub in the jittery presence of a Polish barman. Their lives are linked by a bomb that one threw there, in 1974, at the height of The Troubles. It blew 6 men up, some literally to bits – one of them was the… Read more »
The Italian director Ettore Scola died last month. Probably the most internationally famous of his films was Una Giornata Particolare (A Special Day), a domestic love story starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, set on the occasion of Adolf Hitler’s visit to Benito Mussolini’s Rome in 1938. The film was released in 1977, and won a Golden Globe and was nominated… Read more »
A middle-aged, peroxide blonde Helen of Troy staggers into a neon-lit bar and pours herself a drink. So begins the Spanish-language play Juicio a una Zorra, a powerful and passionate monologue delivered by acclaimed actress Carmen Machi (Hable con Ella, Abrazos Rotos), on at Teatre Goya (Barcelona) from 19th – 31st January 2016. Director Miguel Del Arco wrote the piece to give… Read more »
Further proof that LOOKING FOR DRAMA is part of the human condition comes directly from the mouth of acclaimed Argentine actor Ricardo Darín, probably the most famous Spanish-speaking thespian in the world. The actor of stage and screen (Hijo de la Novia (Son of the Bride) 2001, Truman 2015) reunites with accomplished actress Érica Rivas and director Norma… Read more »
In the beginning was the image, and the image was truth. Those were the days! Now there is no truth, only ‘truths’ negotiated between individual self-perception and social archetype, or self-perception of archetype… or something along those lines. Where that leaves the documentary photograph is one of the considerations of an excellent exhibition at Barcelona’s Caixa… Read more »
What makes Spanish art seem so expositive and yet so elusive? Does it hold the key to a better understanding of the ‘Spanish identity’? In the first of a series of profiles on Spain’s artists, I attempt to explore this and other intrigues… The artist Noé Bermejo (32) was born in a village in the municipality… Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
