Reviews
Graham Fuller
Seemingly shot in a snow globe containing haunted mountains and a neo-noirish Alpine ‘burg, The Ice Tower is the most expressionistic but relatable of the French-Bosnian director Lucile Hadžihalilović’s eerie oneiric fables involving endangered motherless children.It’s also the prettiest and the queasiest, a glittering alt-Gothic showcase for Marion Cotillard as a toxic lynx-eyed movie diva. The long-damaged Cristina van der Berg, who as a girl was objectified and unhappily groomed for stardom, preys on the smitten adolescent orphan Jeanne (stealthy newcomer Clara Pacini) while acting – and Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“Mrs Bluebird” is one of the great singles. Released in May 1968, it is airy yet lush. The filigreed harmony vocals are like velvet, the rhythm is insistent but soft. Overall, there is a sense of distance; that what’s heard is not quite within reach. When a guitar solo comes, it is sharp but muted. This is archetypal American harmony pop – but with a distinct freeze-dried character.It was the top side of the third single by Eternity’s Children, and made 69 in Billboard’s singles chart. It got to 54 in the Cash Box ranking. A UK release of “Mrs Bluebird” suggested there was chance this Read more ...
Guy Oddy
It’s not often that a band manages to get a Birmingham crowd dancing from the front of the stage to the back of the hall. However, Lambrini Girls achieved this feat on Saturday evening – from the very first bars of their set until they finally exited the stage after an encore of the lairy “Big Dick Energy”.It’s not even as if Phoebe Lunny and Selin Macieira-Boşgelmez have had a great deal of time to build their audience either. Lambrini Girls only formed in 2019 but they’ve certainly grabbed the zeitgeist by the short and curlies in that time and in doing so have attracted a seriously diverse Read more ...
Sarah Kent
A lone slice of cherry pie sits on a plate inside a glass case (pictured below), waiting to be released from its solitary confinement and guzzled by a hungry diner. There it is again, in an eye-watering display of sickly offerings (main picture). This time, four slices are lined up alongside their chocolate, pecan and lemon meringue counterparts. The display goes on and on, for as far as the eye can see.At first glance, Wayne Thiebaud’s pictures of cakes, pies, hot dogs, ice creams and gob stoppers look like euphoric celebrations of abundance; but gazing at this glut of comfort food soon Read more ...
Tim Cumming
Out of the hundreds of gigs, surprises and collaborations that make up the EFG London Jazz Festival (LJF), this review focuses on four concerts fusing jazz with world music. They are the Korean extravaganza of Dionysus Robot (pictured) at the Queen Elizabeth Hall; British-Bahraini trumpeter Yazz Ahmed’s melding of jazz, Middle Eastern elements and Bahraini history at Ronnie Scott’s; a late-career turn from Ethio-jazz giant Mulatu Astatke at the subterranean Here at Outernet; and the festival’s closing weekend ‘takeover’ by the Aga Khan Master Musicians at the Royal Festival Hall.Won Il, Read more ...
Matt Wolf
Don't be fooled by the shambling geniality which first defines Bryan Cranston's Joe Keller at the start of the Belgian director Ivo van Hove's scorching revival of All My Sons. By the time we get to the interval-free finish, some 2-1/4 hours later, this seemingly affable chap will be as done in as the tree we see toppled in the production's wordless prologue. As Joe goes down for the count, so too does the America of which he forms an all-too-ruthless part. Written in 1947, Arthur Miller's breakout play depicts a nation given over to deception and rapacity that responds only to one God Read more ...
aleks.sierz
Over the past few years, the National Theatre has specialised in trilogies. End is the final play in both playwright David Eldridge’s outstanding trilogy and in this venue’s former director Rufus Norris’s Dorfman programme. Like Roy Williams and Clint Dyer’s Death of England trilogy, Eldridge’s cycle – Beginning (2017) and Middle (2022) – says as much about the state of the nation as it does about the personal lives of its characters. Starring Saskia Reeves (familiar from Slow Horses) and Clive Owen, this two-hander explores the emotional landscape of a couple making plays for a final parting Read more ...
David Nice
That spirit of delight which hovered over Christopher Alden’s stylish/surreal Handel bagatelle when I first saw it in the 2017 revival soars on eagle wings here. It’s hard to imagine a better or more charismatic cast, led by national treasures Nardus Williams and Hugh Cutting, or a more striking contrast to Dead Man Walking: with that and its slyly subversive Albert Herring, ENO is on a roll.Partenope one of Handel’s best Italian operas? Probably not, though as in all good comedies there are moments of depth, mostly in the last act; we even begin to care about the fraught relationship Read more ...
johncarvill
Bliss it was to be a fan of Thin Lizzy 50 years ago, in November 1975. Phil Lynott referred to fans as “supporters”, an apt term given Lizzy were followed with a level of partisan fervour generally reserved for football teams. And they were on a sharp upward curve.This set covers 1974 to 1975, including remasters of Nightlife and Fighting, demos, alt takes, remixes, and live performances. It’s the origin story of the classic “twin lead guitar attack” lineup, driven by pugnacious Glaswegian Brian Robertson and laid-back Californian Scott Gorham. This is a band in transition, a good band Read more ...
Helen Hawkins
The ballet world will soon run out of titles signifying a renaissance. After ENB’s recent Re:evolution comes London City Ballet’s Rebirth, following its debut programme last year called Resurgence. In LCB’s case, the term is quite literal.The company resurfaced, after a nearly 30-year hiatus, under the directorship of Christopher Marney, whose formula for the new-look group is a winning one. Bring together fine dancers from all corners of the globe and send them out to perform in smaller venues, where they can explore rich, sometimes under-explored seams in the modern ballet repertoire. Add Read more ...
Guy Oddy
This week, UK electronica originals Cabaret Voltaire hit Birmingham on their penultimate tour before they finally put their synthesizers into storage and call it quits this time next year. For a band that have been going (on and off) since 1973, however, they were seriously on fire – with no suggestion that they should be considering permanent retirement any time soon.Richard H Kirk may have passed away in 2021, but Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson, who had both left the fold more than 30 years ago, put on a fine show and paid tribute to their fallen comrade early in the proceedings. Read more ...
Claudia Bull
Strictly speaking, an epistolary novel tells more than one story. You could say, for example, that Dracula is “about” a collection of letters and diary entries and in the same vein, that Claire-Louise Bennett’s new book is “about” a woman’s writing. Really, Big Kiss, Bye-Bye follows the end of a single relationship, but the framing – a journal of sorts, containing various letters and emails – allows Bennett to chart a woman’s shifting, lifelong attitudes to intimacy.Bennett’s narrator begins by recalling her time with Xavier, a man whom she loved for many years. In fact, she still loves him, Read more ...