Bright and Deadly Things. Review by Barbara Lewis. Lexie Elliott is far from the first to make the point that conventional logic has its limitations. But she stands apart from all the literature majors that have defended their visceral thinking in that she earned authority as an Oxford theoretical physicist and then a City banker before reinventing herself as a best-selling writer.
Barbara Lewis
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Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa. Review by Barbara Lewis. In their desperation to get New Zealand’s founding document signed, the British in undue haste drew up a Maori version of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi that is disputed to this day.
The Human Voice, Charing Cross Theatre. Review by Barbara Lewis. It’s surely a temptation for today’s directors of Poulenc and Cocteau’s La Voix Humaine, or The Human Voice in this English version, to transpose it to the world of mobile phones. It’s one director Alejandro Bonatto wisely resists.
Barber Institute. Review by Barbara Lewis. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham owes its existence to Lady Martha Constance Hattie Barber. She founded the Barber Institute in 1932, and built a home for it all – a magnificent art deco building opened in 1939.
Love Goddess. Review by Barbara Lewis. Rita Hayworth was considered one of the most beautiful women of her day, was Fred Astaire’s favourite dance partner, and was married five times, including to Orson Welles, the man she is believed to have truly loved. She also suffered from Alzheimer’s for two decades before being diagnosed.
Love’s Labour’s Lost. Review by Barbara Lewis. In our angst-ridden age, the thirst for the tonic of musical theatre seems almost unquenchable. In a production that acknowledges so vividly the follies of the supposedly scholarly elite, the rustics dazzle.
Abundance: Atlas of Infinite Possibilities. Review by Barbara Lewis. In celebration of its two decades of promoting Polish talent, a selection of winning works and of the art later produced by some of the laureates is on display in the State Gallery of Art.
European Solidarity Centre, by Barbara Lewis. Many of us can spell Solidarnosc, because we’ve seen it written so many times in the bold, red logo created by Jerzy Janiszewski in the early days of the Solidarnosc movement credited with toppling Communism in eastern Europe and leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Crowning Glory: The Story of Tiaras. Review by Barbara Lewis. Tiaras have an honourable claim to star in Firle Place’s latest, multi-layered exhibition in the year Queen Elizabeth has marked her platinum jubilee.
Edvard Munch. Masterpieces from Bergen. Review by Barbara Lewis. “Disease, insanity and death were the angels that attended my cradle,” Edvard Munch wrote. They went on to haunt him for the rest of his life and to become the driving forces of his art.
The Excursions of Mr Broucek. Review by Barbara Lewis. The Excursions of Mr Broucek is an opera like no other – or as Wasfi Kani, the founder and power behind the bold, brave and never daunted Grange Park Opera, puts it: “Cosi fan Tutti it isn’t.”
Why We Sing, by Julia Hollander. Review by Barbara Lewis. Sometimes we sing because we are happy. More importantly, we sing to make ourselves happy – and not just in a good mood, but healthier, saner and part of a more cohesive community.
By Barbara Lewis • books, psychology, society, year 2023 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, books, psychology, society