I love the little quirks of history that define us as the product of chaos rather than some grand scheme, so I've long been fascinated by the almost farcical circumstances surrounding the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand, the event that precipitated the bloody muddle of the First World War.
Unbeknownst to each other two terrorist groups set out to assassinate him on that fateful day. One was organised by experienced Serbian militia but manned by incompetent students, the other incongruously consisted of young artists from Hungary. Although perhaps not that incongruously because a failed art student led the Nazi’s into the Second World War fighting allied forces led by an amateur painter.
After its premiere at the Dublin Theatre Festival and its highly acclaimed run at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, this theatrical adaptation of Eimear McBride’s debut and gripping novel A GIRL IS A HALF FORMED THING arrives at The Young Vic. It is one of the most important and urgent productions you will see.
The theatre company Complicite are known for their dedication to long periods of research and wide reach of collaboration, to devise innovative, imaginative theatre and THE ENCOUNTER, Simon McBurney’s latest offering currently playing at the Barbican, is no exception.
Well SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER has finally met its match! I have sat through some duff shows at the Dominion Theatre but this one takes the cake. Anyone remember David Cassidy as an intergalactic warrior in TIME acting along with a 3-D hologram of Lord Olivier’s head? Well, the hologram is back. However this time it is Liam Neeson and we’ve progressed to a whole body hologram.
Norma, by Vincenzo Bellini, belongs to a school of opera known as Bel Canto which, to translate somewhat freely, could be said to mean “it’s all about the singing”. Some of the music can be a bit humdrum and the plots bizarre, but the pulses of the opera-loving public are set racing so frantically by the dazzling vocal firework displays that we are prepared to forgive almost anything. Luckily.