Tag Archives: Barbican

Rooms

Silk Street Theatre, Barbican, London ****
Runs: 1hr 15 mins without an interval
Review of performance seen April 11, 2019:

© Andrew Downes for GIAF, modern bathroom, spick and span except for the smashed basin, something's not right here...

© Andrew Downes for GIAF, modern bathroom, spick and span except for the smashed basin, something’s not right here…

Perhaps it depends on the order in which you see them. Then again, perhaps it makes no difference at all. Continue reading

The Alchemist

RSC Barbican Theatre, London (****)

© Helen Maybanks, Mark Lockyer as 1the alchemist', Subtle

© Helen Maybanks, Mark Lockyer as the `alchemist’, Subtle

It’s one of the abiding marks of our age, the con. Whether it’s flashy as in The Hustle, aspirational as in the Lottery, or sophisticated as in The Sting, the con runs through our lives. At any one moment, we’re only a hair’s breadth away from being taken for a ride. These days, it’s more likely to be an online or phone scam offering thousands of pounds at the press of a button or a computer to be saved from a terminal virus or even secondary glazing! Continue reading

Antonioni Project/Roman Tragedies

Barbican Theatre

Back in the early 1960s, anyone with half a curious cultural brain in their heads would take themselves off to small fleapit cinemas like The Academy or the Classic in Oxford Street (now defunct). There you could catch the latest European or `art’ film. And at one of these I remember seeing Italian director Antonioni’s La Notte (The Night) with Jeanne Moreau and Marcello Mastroianni. Such was its impact neither I nor the flat mates I was with were able to utter a word until we reached home. Continue reading