Jazz Conversations. Review by Barbara Lewis. Choreographer Dollie Henry and jazz composer Paul Jenkins have for more than a quarter of a century led the Body of People Jazz Theatre Company (aka BOP) on the basis jazz is a life-affirming, always-contemporary, ever-adapting, all-inclusive, forgiving form.
Barbara Lewis
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Plantation A. Review by Barbara Lewis. In 1957 Alain Robbe-Grillet reinvented the novel with an almost abstract, almost plot-less narrative and a central character named only as A… Now composer Edward Jessen has reinvented opera with “an experimental sonic theatre work” and a lone soprano (A…) singing words whose meaning we can only guess at.
By Barbara Lewis • music, opera, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, music, opera, theatre

The Rubens Garden. Review by Barbara Lewis. The Italianate palazzo in Antwerp where the great artist and diplomat Peter Paul Rubens lived and worked is closed for restoration until 2030. At the end of August, however, the newly restored garden of the Rubenshuis reopened to the public.
By Barbara Lewis • art, books, painting, year 2024 • Tags: art, Barbara Lewis, painting

The Shape Of Things. Review by Barbara Lewis. Damien Hirst is famously fascinated by death and decay. For him, they are inseparable from an affirmation of life, we understand in the Pallant’s major exhibition, the first of its kind, of more than 100 practitioners of British still life – or, as the French would say, “la nature morte”.
By Barbara Lewis • art, exhibitions, painting, year 2024 • Tags: art, Barbara Lewis, exhibitions, painting

Marie of Romania and the Pelisor Castle. Review by Barbara Lewis. Princess Marie Alexandra Victoria of Edinburgh became Marie of Romania after, guided by her family, she rejected a proposal from her first cousin the future King George V.
By Barbara Lewis • architecture, history, year 2024 • Tags: architecture, Barbara Lewis, history

The Trumpeter. Review by Barbara Lewis. Mariupol, where Ukraine for nearly three months in 2022 resisted Russia’s determination to create a land bridge between Crimea and Donbas, became a byword for horror.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre

The Comedy of Errors. Review by Barbara Lewis. This is the HandleBards’ uplifting summer tour, which after 935 miles of pedalling, brought the cycling players to a picnicking audience in the grounds of Horace Walpole’s Gothic revival mansion at Strawberry Hill, west London.
By Barbara Lewis • comedy, plays, playwrights, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, comedy, plays, playwrights, theatre

Kyoto. Review by Barbara Lewis. If Shakespeare put the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon on the global map, the Kyoto climate treaty arguably did the same for an ancient Japanese capital.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2022 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre

What is Quality in Art? Review by Barbara Lewis. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – or so they say. For Alejandro Vergara-Sharp, art historian and senior curator of Flemish and Northern European Paintings at the Prado in Madrid, art appreciation can be more much objective than that if your standard is quality.
By Barbara Lewis • art, books, year 2024 • Tags: art, Barbara Lewis, books
Stephen Sondheim Society. Review by Barbara Lewis. The SSSSPOTY, as it is known in Sondheim circles, technically is a competition, but, like Bonnie Langford, compere of this year’s 16th edition, you may prefer to see it as a celebration.
By Barbara Lewis • music, musicals, performance, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, music, musicals, performance, theatre
Cutting the Tightrope. Review by Barbara Lewis. The arts have always had a role in saying the unsayable, making it all but inevitable that Arts Council England’s effort to clarify advice issued early this year on the risk of making political statements would only add to the controversy.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre
Georgian art. Review by Barbara Lewis. Georgia is a country of less than 4 million inhabitants with a language its guides will tell you is unique. They might also mention that the word for hello “gamarjoba” comes from the word for victory.
By Barbara Lewis • art, dance, design, drawing, exhibitions, history, painting, year 2024 • Tags: art, Barbara Lewis, dance, design, drawing, exhibitions, history, painting