fairytales
Hundreds and Thousands, Soho TheatreMonday, 27 June 2011
One of the many strengths of new writing for the stage is that it’s not afraid to go into the darkest and most upsetting places of the human psyche. Whether at the Royal Court or at the Bush or Soho theatres, young playwrights have dived in to... Read more... |
We Are Shadows, Spitalfields MusicSunday, 26 June 2011
Spitalfields Summer Music Festival is now finished for another year, but bid farewell to its audiences in fitting style with We Are Shadows – a new community opera devised by composer John Barber and librettist Hazel Gould. Bringing together over... Read more... |
Rusalka, Grange Park OperaThursday, 16 June 2011
Its little-mermaid legend is enough to make the angels weep, given the bewitching gravity of Dvořák's masterpiece: a water nymph, caught between the human and supernatural worlds, condemns herself to eternal limbo for the sake of her erring princely... Read more... |
Pygmalion, Garrick TheatreWednesday, 25 May 2011
With The Cherry Orchard just opened at the National Theatre and The School for Scandal at the Barbican, summer is quickly proving itself the season for classic theatrical revivals. The latest to join the London line-up is Shaw’s perennially beloved... Read more... |
Alice Anderson's Childhood Rituals, Freud MuseumSunday, 24 April 2011
Freud’s West Hampstead house is tied up in a cat’s cradle of thick rope. The rope is the same colour as the brick, a deep orange but with a sheeny lustre. It makes the house look not quite real, a Brobdingnagian doll’s house transplanted to this... Read more... |
Secrets of the Arabian Nights, BBC FourThursday, 21 April 2011
Everybody knows One Thousand and One Nights, even if they don’t know they do. Ever been to the panto to see Aladdin? Watched Sinbad the Sailor on stage, or Sheherazade at the opera or ballet, or perhaps watched one the many film versions of The... Read more... |
Red Riding HoodSunday, 10 April 2011
Once upon a time, Gary Oldman acted in the plays or films of Caryl Churchill, Mike Leigh and Alan Bennett, bringing a deliberately disorienting intensity to whatever the role. But here he is in Red Riding Hood snarling commands like “You will die... Read more... |
Cinderella, Birmingham Royal Ballet, London ColiseumTuesday, 29 March 2011
Birmingham is the fount of beauty and magic when it comes to ballet design. Covent Garden - forget it, too much money, too little taste. What illustrates that truism is the comparison that can be made between the Royal Ballet’s cartoony Cinderella... Read more... |
The Most Incredible Thing, Sadler's WellsWednesday, 23 March 2011
There was not likely to be much ballet here, despite the Pet Shop Boys’ proud use of the word to distinguish their substantial three-act score. This delivers a richly James Bond-ish ride through big pop tunes, opulent filmic moments and some nice... Read more... |
Q&A Special: Choreographer Javier de FrutosMonday, 21 March 2011
Born in Venezuela 48 years ago, de Frutos has never been the fairytale type, at least not overtly. His 20-year career of choreography has been a career of unstoppable fecundity, violent flamboyance, extreme, even grotesque exhibition, outrageous... Read more... |
In a Forest, Dark and Deep, Vaudeville TheatreMonday, 14 March 2011
Dark this new one-act drama by American playwright Neil LaBute may be; deep, not so much. It has all the author’s usual hallmarks: an accumulation of sinister tension, disturbing sexual politics, the threat of violence. And in a taut, pacey... Read more... |
Hänsel und Gretel, Royal OperaFriday, 24 December 2010
Fairy tales are fear tales really, the sweetening (and sharpening) of every child’s worst nightmares, emotions long buried in adulthood but very easily tapped back into with good theatre productions. The Witch in Hansel and Gretel should be the... Read more... |
