tue 21/05/2013

Reviews

Relatively Speaking, Wyndham's Theatre

Matt Wolf

The pronouns have it in Alan Ayckbourn's career-defining comedy of spiralling misunderstandings, which has arrived on the West End 46 years after first hinting at the formidable talent of a dramatist who could make of many an "it" and "she" a robustly funny study in two couples in varying degrees of crisis. Far nervier than its study in middle-class mirth at first lets on, Relatively Speaking hands Felicity Kendal her giddiest stage assignment in years, and she is well served by a Lindsay...

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Sylvie Guillem, 6000 Miles Away, Sadler's Wells Theatre

Ismene Brown

People go to see Sylvie Guillem the way they used to go to Isadora Duncan or Anna Pavlova, to see a living legend, a game-changer. Guillem became one of dance’s handful of game-changers not when she was the controversially over-fashioned classical ballerina, nor even when she was the arrestingly individual dramatic ballerina in great British narrative ballets. It was when she left her past imagery behind her and threw herself up into the air qua Guillem, no longer young and classical, but...

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Lubomyr Melnyk, Village Underground

Kieron Tyler

Imagine the rising and falling piano cadences of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Then plug the gaps between each note with any of those which may have...

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Helen Chadwick, Richard Saltoun

Sarah Kent

It's 17 years since Helen Chadwick died without warning of heart failure at the tragically early age of 42 and nine years since the Barbican staged a...

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Case Histories, BBC One

Veronica Lee

He's back - and he's even moodier than before. Jackson Brodie, the private dick for whom the word “brooding” was invented, hasn't been seen on BBC...

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Falstaff, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Kimon Daltas

Comedy is king in a Falstaff revival which is consistently enjoyable but could be a little less nice

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The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women, BBC Four

Tom Birchenough

The welcome return of the legacy of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld

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Ariadne auf Naxos, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Edward Seckerson

Strauss's opera reluctantly enters the Battle of Britain courtesy of a young German director

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Scott Walker

Kieron Tyler

Easy listening and continental European intellectualism combine on the early albums from pop’s wilful auteur

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Say It With Flowers, Sherman Theatre, Cardiff

Gary Raymond

New play about tragic Welsh diva Dorothy Squires misses the real story

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Mariele Neudecker, Regency Town House, Brighton

Fisun Güner

The German artist plays with notions of the Romantic sublime

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CD: Jamie Cullum - Momentum

Peter Quinn

Stylistic mash-ups of album number six result in perfect pop

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The Liability

Tom Birchenough

Brit crime caper hits new lows, despite strong cast

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La donna del lago, Royal Opera

David Benedict

Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez and Michael Spyres triumph over adversity

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Britannia, BBC Four

Kieron Tyler

The entertaining tale of the protracted birth of a British rock scene which took America on at its own game

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Bullet Catch, Spiegeltent, Brighton

Thomas H Green

The classic shock trick provides the core for a surprisingly philosophical show

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Propaganda: Power and Persuasion, British Library

Fisun Güner

A thought-provoking exhibition looking at ways in which the state seeks to wield its influence

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The Victorian in the Wall, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs

Sam Marlowe

Will Adamsdale's new musical comedy-drama is touching, quirky and deliciously daft

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The Stoker

Tom Birchenough

Nihilism stared down in Alexei Balabanov's bleak look-back to Russia in the Nineties

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Carmageddon

Stuart Houghton

A car crash of a racing game

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The Great Gatsby

Matt Wolf

Baz Luhrmann's Fitzgerald-spawned epic is busy and brash and big - but great? No, except for Leo

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Albert Herring, Opera North

Graham Rickson

Britten in the round is a comic treat fit for a May Fair

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Knee Deep, Theatre Royal, Brighton

Thomas H Green

Australian acrobatic circus troupe are truly thrilling

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These Shining Lives, Park Theatre

Demetrios Matheou

London's new theatre makes a thrilling debut, albeit with a play a little less shiny

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The Pirates of Penzance, Scottish Opera, Theatre Royal, Glasgow

David Nice

Gilbert and Sullivan need a lighter director's touch in this musically strong new production

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Nina Conti, Soho Theatre

Veronica Lee

The ventriloquist gives a fresh take on an old art form

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Tomorrow's World, ICA

James Williams

Good things happen when one of Air collaborates with New Young Pony Clubber

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Frankie, BBC One

Jasper Rees

New primetime district nurse dispenses a spoonful of sugar

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Public Enemy, Young Vic

David Nice

The horrors of local politics still chime in Richard Jones's queasy production of an Ibsen masterpiece

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latest in today

Relatively Speaking, Wyndham's Theatre

Early Ayckbourn play fizzes anew 46 years on

Sylvie Guillem, 6000 Miles Away, Sadler's Wells Theatre

Guillem weaves her game-changing magic in Forsythe and Ek

CD: Stooshe - London with the Lights On

Mouthy London trio's debut is loaded with enjoyable bawdiness and atti...

Lubomyr Melnyk, Village Underground

The pioneer of continuous music astonishes while Bon Iver’s preferred artis...

Helen Chadwick, Richard Saltoun

Her obsession with death and decay was leavened by a wicked sense of humour

10 Questions for Artist Michael Landy

On the eve of a new exhibition of his kinetic saints, the artist talks abou...

Case Histories, BBC One

The brooding private detective is back

Falstaff, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Comedy is king in a Falstaff revival which is consistently enjoyable but co...

The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women, BBC Four

The welcome return of the legacy of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld

DVD: Chronicle of a Summer

BFI reissue of the mother of all vérité docs