religion
Songs for a New World, The Other Palace Digital review - chimes with our extraordinary 'moment'Saturday, 25 July 2020
We’ve already had The Last Five Years in lockdown; now, we get a digital production of American composer Jason Robert Brown’s earliest work. A series of wistful pop/jazz numbers loosely linked thematically, rather than narratively, this 1995... Read more... |
Album: Bab L'Bluz - NaydaSaturday, 30 May 2020
Bab L’Bluz are a Franco-Moroccan band, They’re the latest in a succession of musicians - going back to the pioneers Nass El Ghiwane, and the recently departed Rachid Taha - to have created a vibrant fusion of traditional sounds from the Maghreb with... Read more... |
Krabi, 2562 review - a trance-like visitationFriday, 29 May 2020
Have you ever visited a destination you saw on film, only to realise it’s not quite how you imagined? Filled with tourists, the scars of mass visitation, and caught between its own culture and staying commercially attractive. The Thai city of Krabi... Read more... |
Album: The Soft Pink Truth - Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?Tuesday, 28 April 2020
Drew Daniel is never short of concepts, invention or mischief. As one half of Matmos, with his life partner M.C. Schmidt, he has made some 10 official albums and many more collaborative ones – all pushing the boundaries of electronic bricolage and... Read more... |
Drawing the Line, Hampstead Theatre online review - modern history becomes dark farceTuesday, 14 April 2020
This week’s gem from the Hampstead’s vaults is Howard Brenton’s political drama from 2013, telling the extraordinary, stranger-than-fiction story of Cyril Radcliffe and his 1947 mission: to arrange the Partition of India in just five weeks. A tale... Read more... |
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 6 - Parsifals for EasterFriday, 10 April 2020
Wagner's final drama, of learning, suffering and redemption through compassion, is second only to Bach's Passions at this time of year, and seems likely to strike a special note in the present crisis. Opera companies around the world, making much in... Read more... |
Jane Eyre, National Theatre at Home review - a fiery feminist adaptationFriday, 10 April 2020
The National Theatre’s online broadcasts got off to a storming start with One Man, Two Guvnors – watched by over 2.5 million people, either on the night or in the week since its live streaming, and raising around £66,000 in donations. Let’s hope... Read more... |
Album: Shabaka & the Ancestors - We are Sent Here by HistoryThursday, 12 March 2020
Londoner Shabaka Hutchings's other main groups, The Comet Is Coming and Sons Of Kemet, are pretty modernist. They incorporate dub, post-rock, post punk and rhythm patterns that recall London pirate radio sounds into the playing of his ensembles,... Read more... |
Missa solemnis, BBCSO, Runnicles, Barbican review - affirmation in the face of adversityThursday, 05 March 2020
The tough, knotty writing of the Missa solemnis – its “unrelenting integrity”, Donald Runnicles said in a pre-concert interview – was addressed unflinchingly last night by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. They have a distinguished history with... Read more... |
Christos Tsiolkas: Damascus review - the author of The Slap goes biblicalSunday, 01 March 2020
To Christos Tsiolkas fans expecting something in the vein of his riveting bestsellers The Slap and Barracuda, the sixth novel by this Australian writer may come as a shock. We're not in Melbourne any more. Damascus is a serious historical enterprise... Read more... |
The Prince of Egypt, Dominion Theatre review - Moses musical goes big and broadWednesday, 26 February 2020
The theatre gods rained down not fire and pestilence, but a 45-minute technical delay on opening night of this substantially revised musical – a stage adaptation of the 1998 DreamWorks animated movie. But nothing could entirely halt this juggernaut... Read more... |
Young, Sikh and Proud, BBC One review - siblings divided by their attitudes to faithWednesday, 29 January 2020
Journalist Sunny Hundal has a long track record as a writer and blogger concerned with issues of race, politics and ethnicity. He’s also the brother of the late Jagraj Singh, an influential preacher who encouraged a dramatic upsurge of interest in... Read more... |
