childhood
The Wind in the Willows, Duchess TheatreThursday, 19 December 2013
The first Royal Opera House production to transfer to the West End stage, and Tony Robinson’s first theatre role in 16 years, is a dance-drama version of a children’s book about animals and features a man in a car costume being chased by comedy... Read more... |
L'Enfance du Christ, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Roth, BarbicanSunday, 15 December 2013
For seasonal fare that’s also profound, few pre-Christmas weekends in London can ever have been richer than this one. Hearts battered by John Adams’ nativity oratorio El Niño last night, one hoped for more soothing medicine this afternoon in the... Read more... |
Seussical the Musical, Arts TheatreMonday, 02 December 2013
With the current nostalgia for all things Dr Seuss, now is surely a good time to treat your little ones to the zany nonsense-rhyme stories as they are bought to life on stage. Kirk Jameson’s production has arrived, courtesy of Sell a Door Theatre... Read more... |
Britten 100: Birthday Concert, Union Chapel/A Life in Pictures, National Portrait GallerySaturday, 23 November 2013
“Translated Daughter, come down and startle/Composing mortals with immortal fire.” So W H Auden invokes heavenly Cecilia, patron saint of music, and it seems she did just that with Benjamin Britten, who set Auden’s text for unaccompanied choir and... Read more... |
The Selfish GiantFriday, 25 October 2013
Former video artist Clio Barnard's second feature - which took Cannes 2013 by storm with its stark and striking humanity - takes inspiration and its title from the Oscar Wilde fairytale. However that's not the film's only, or most significant,... Read more... |
DVD: Children's Film Foundation Collection – Scary StoriesTuesday, 24 September 2013
A mine haunted by spriguns, an orphan menaced by a stranger who vanishes at will and the shadow cast over a village by the Black Death. Each is the backbone for the three films gathered on Scary Stories, the BFI’s fourth collection drawn from the... Read more... |
What Maisie KnewFriday, 23 August 2013
The notion of childhood as any sort of state of grace gets exploded big-time in What Maisie Knew, a largely blistering celluloid updating of the 1897 Henry James novel from The Deep End team of co-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel. True (for... Read more... |
CD: Bin Weevils - Bin TunesWednesday, 24 July 2013
It’s rather gratifying that, in an area dominated by Americans (with the exception of the Moshi Monsters phenomenon) Bin Weevils is a very British success story. The pop-eyed cartoon insects first came into existence a decade ago as animations for... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott WittmanSaturday, 15 June 2013
There is no formula for creating a hit musical. If there were, the history of the West End and Broadway would not be haunted by the many ghosts of bygone disasters. Let us not list them here. The lack of a roadmap notwithstanding, the long-awaited... Read more... |
DVD: Children's Film Foundation Collection - Weird AdventuresFriday, 07 June 2013
Losing your pet mouse would be distressing enough. But misplacing the white rodent on a school trip to the Tower of London is beyond careless. It’s downright irresponsible. But that’s routine compared with turning yellow and then encountering a man... Read more... |
DVD: I WishFriday, 24 May 2013
The latest film from acclaimed Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Still Walking) tells the story of two young brothers who are separated when their parents divorce and who attempt to bring their family together again. While its prosaic subject... Read more... |
Dangerous Edge: A Life of Graham Greene, Sky Arts 1Sunday, 05 May 2013
Early on in Dangerous Edge: A Life of Graham Greene, John le Carré remembers Greene telling him that childhood provides “the bank balance of the writer”. Greene remained in credit on that inspiration front throughout his life, even while he... Read more... |
