Prom 55. Review by Julia Pascal. Nelsons led his orchestra in such a way as to suggest that this was also the premiere for Stravinsky, Gershwin and Ravel.
performance
Pension Europa. Review by Barbara Lewis. Austrian-Italian director Martin Gruber and his aktionstheater ensemble have for decades helped audiences to explore what it is to be a human wrestling with the anxieties of the day.
Candide, WNO. Review by Barbara Lewis. Too messy, too long, too anti-Semitic, too misogynistic: there are many reasons to avoid Bernstein’s Candide. And yet, director James Bonas and the Welsh National Opera bravely make a powerful case for staging this attack on the depravity of those in power and the futility of war.
Poetry review – TITS ON THE MOON: Charles Rammelkamp reviews a selection of diverting poems by Dessa
An Anatomy of Melancholy. Review by Julia Pascal. This is one of the most extraordinary pieces of theatre that I have ever seen. The Pit is transformed into a laboratory with audience sitting in a circle watching the interplay between science, art, music, psychiatry and clinical analysis, in a concept that links the writings of Shakespeare’s contemporary, John Burton, with Freud and 2022 explorations into the mind.
Prom 41 Wednesday 17 August 2022. Review by Julia Pascal. The star of the evening was Behzod Abduraimov in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. If you shut your eyes you might think that four hands were playing the piano not two.
Poetry review – PERFORMANCE RITES: James Roderick Burns admires Barry Smith’s exploration of the overlap between art and nature
Prom 20. Review by Julia Pascal. The night of the male Modernists opened with a tribute to Harrison Birtwistle’s Sonance Severance 2000, a three minute composition which is as huge in its effect as it is brief in its length.
Lillias White Sings Broadway. Review by Barbara Lewis. The pan-damn-demic, as Broadway singer Lillias White puts it, has abated sufficiently for her to bring her considerable presence to cosy, atmospheric venues, including London’s Crazy Coqs.
Truth to Power Café. Review by Barbara Lewis. Speaking Truth to Power has come to mean “saying something to those in a position of trust or authority who don’t want to hear it,” Jeremy Goldstein, the MC of the Truth to Power Café, tells us. It’s a non-violent means of conflict resolution whose origins lie in the anti-war movement.
An Earl’s Court Miscellany. FinboroughFrontier online content. Review by Barbara Lewis. The ever-inventive Finborough Theatre has combined its return to real-life drama with an enlightened decision to carry on delivering original online work for free that surely can only enhance one of the strongest off-West End brands.
Poetry review – THE TRAPEZE OF YOUR FLESH: Thomas Ovans is impressed by Charles Rammelkamp’s extensive poetic history of Striptease and Burlesque
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, performance, poetry reviews, society, year 2024