This show was at its best when the dance was fast and frenzied, elevated at times to the sublime by the thrilling vocals of Juan Jose Amador. While showcasing her own daughter-father relationship the specifics described can be interpreted to extend to a consideration of other father-daughter relationships. Including the tenderness and the influencing while acknowledging difference and the necessary unknown in the other. There was poignancy in the metaphor of a lifted embrace from which … [Read more...]
Scottish Ballet – The Crucible at Sadler’s Wells
Crucible: a container made of a substance that can resist great heat, for melting, fusing, or calcining ores, metals, and the like; a severe test or trial; here, meaning a test designed to bring about change or reveal an individual's true character. The Crucible is a new ballet based on the play by Arthur Miller, brought to be performed in London for the first time by Scottish Ballet at Sadler’s Wells. Choreographed by Helen Pickett and with dedicated orchestral music scored by Peter Salem … [Read more...]
The Gunpowder Plot at Tower Vaults at the Tower of London
This is a thrilling immersive show that takes you back in time to London in 1605. You will travel through lantern-lit tunnels in small groups to be brought to various destinations as scenes. These include the prison cells of the White Tower of the Tower of London you have just passed in real life - a pretty home of appealing Catholic sympathisers with priest holes in which you must hide. You will linger in the Duck and Drake pub where the rebel plotters used to meet (yes, do buy a drink) before … [Read more...]
Casanova at Sadler’s Wells, London | Review
Northern Ballet’s Casanova is a terrifically enjoyable show of flare and drama thrillingly performed. Attendance is the guarantee of an enjoyable evening. The ballet, choreographed by Kenneth Tindall, is the story of the life of Giacomo Casanova from the young man aspiring to be a priest first encountered on stage who is transformed by his contact with the sumptuous, alluring debauchery and dangers of eighteenth-century Venice in the first act, Paris in the second. Casanova told his own … [Read more...]
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at New Wimbledon Theatre
The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe at the New Wimbledon Theatre is a fabulous musical show with stunning special effects created by a terrifically talented team, onstage and off. It’s suitable for older primary age children and also adults unaccompanied by children, especially for those who read the book when they were young. The story set on stage by director, Michael Fentiman is true to the wonderful story written by CS Lewis. The plot tells of a family of four young evacuees at the … [Read more...]
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch – Kontakthof at Sadler’s Wells
Sadler’s Wells was predictably packed for this annual February visit by Tanztheater Wuppertal. This time they are performing Kontakthof ( Courtyard of contact), often described as one of Pina Bausch’s most significant works which premiered in 1978. However, after a sometimes testing one hour forty minutes of at times laboured repetition without the relief of an interval some of the audience couldn’t wait to leave the room. Overheard was someone as she escaped to the bar, ‘I got excited every … [Read more...]
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Curated by Carlos at Sadler’s Wells
Sadler’s Wells was packed for Birmingham Royal Ballet. The evening had the stardust of Acosta’s name scattered all over it. The first work in Curated by Acosta was about home. About building a home, building cities, building Birmingham. About migrants leaving one home and making a new one in another country, this country. The pain of leaving old love behind as those you meet as friends turn into roots. . ‘You have to risk everything to gain something’. Performed by an ensemble of … [Read more...]