The Ministry of Food

Imperial War Museum London





sponsored by company of cooks

12 February 2010 – 3 January 2011

the review:

This is a fabulous fun exhibition - typical of The  Imperial War Museum's mission to inform  and entertain.

Find out much more about food rationing during and after the Second World War while you learn how to appreciate how a limited diet can also be a healthy diet.

one week's rations

Wonderful facts and figures can be found throughout this anecdotal exhibit - which also has a mission to explain that good food need not be wrapped up in pretty packaging.

For example: Did you know that 37,000 POWs were employed in British agriculture during the war?

Aided by the catering company 'company of cooks' you can also try out some of these wartime recipes (with some modifications) in the Museum's cafe.

This is an exhibit for all ages with a great selection of gifts to choose from in the museum store.

Rationing came to an end in 1954 and while you may not know it, much of Britain food supplies were imported during the war as Great Britain found itself unable to feed its population.

Did you know that  post-war, the first assignment of bannanas arrived from the West Indies on 31.12.1945?

Don't miss out on this 'designed' piece of history which is not only entertaining but also 'food for thought!".

The Ministry of Food 

Seventy years ago the wartime government announced the introduction of food rationing - a control that was to remain in force for the next fourteen years. To mark this event Imperial War Museum London is opening The Ministry of Food, a major new exhibition to show how the British public adapted to a world of food shortages by ‘Lending a Hand on the Land’, ‘Digging for Victory’, taking up the ‘War on Waste’, and being both frugal and inventive on the ‘Kitchen Front’. Visitors will discover that growing your own food, eating seasonal fruit and vegetables, reducing imports, recycling and healthy nutrition were just as topical in 1940 as they are today.

Among the exhibition’s special features are a wartime greenhouse, a 1940s grocer’s shop, and a typical kitchen complete with larder, gas cooker, and an ample stock of economy recipes, including the original Savoy Hotel recipe for Woolton Pie. Visitors will be able to listen to advice on gardening from the BBC’s Mr Middleton, on nutrition from the Radio Doctor, Dr Charles Hill, and on cooking from Marguerite Patten, a nutritionist with the Ministry of Food who broadcast Kitchen Front updates during the war. Further tips will be provided in a selection of the Ministry of Food’s Food Flashes films; each one of which was seen by a wartime audience of 20 million; and on posters that reminded the public that a ‘Clear Plate Means a Clear Conscience’, and exhorted people to save kitchen scraps for the communal pig bin and to ‘Eat More Greens’.

The exhibition will explore the story of food from farms, gardens and docks, to shops, kitchens, and canteens. Visitors will learn how overseas imports were drastically cut and how British agriculture had to dramatically increase production to feed the nation, with help from the Women’s Land Army, prisoners of war and those who volunteered at Farming Holiday Camps. Tips to make the most of your vegetable garden or allotment could be as relevant for today’s green-fingers as they were in the 1940s and visitors can discover how lawns and window boxes were transformed into vegetable plots and how allotments holders more than doubled.

The rationing scheme, overseen by the Minister of Food, Lord Woolton, ensured fair shares for all and The Ministry of Food exhibition will show how the health of the young was improved thanks to nutritional supplements and advice, and how the housewife played a central role in adapting to new foods, from dried eggs to Spam. The exhibition also highlights how communal eating significantly increased to meet the needs of bombed out families, factory workers and school children and how, after the victory celebrations, austerity Britain survived even greater hardships until the ration books were finally torn up on 4 July 1954.

The exhibition pays tribute to the men, women and children who played their part in the story of wartime food – from the 30,000 members of the Merchant Navy who were killed during the course of the war to the dockers, lorry drivers and bargees who transported goods across the country and the housewives who patiently queued when scarce resources reached the shops. Visitors can find out how the Women’s Institute staffed six thousand Preservation Centres to make jams and pickles and how the Women’s Voluntary Service’s mobile canteens provided emergency sustenance to rescuers and the homeless after air raids.

‘Concerns around cutting down waste and making the most of local, seasonal food were at the forefront for those involved in feeding the nation during the Second World War. We hope the stories of resourcefulness and commitment shown in Ministry of Food will not only allow people to understand more about how the country changed its eating habits, grew more food and imported less, during the Second World War but should also provide some food for thought about the way we live and eat now.’

Mike Lucy, Founder and Chief Executive of Company of Cooks: 

‘There aren’t many opportunities to sponsor a partner’s special exhibition with such similar values to our own. When we first heard about The Ministry of Food and the Museum’s proposal to examine Britain’s messages about the production, distribution and consumption of food in times of scarcity we were keen to be involved. It will be one of London’s finest, most appealing and most socially relevant special exhibition for years in my opinion. We have been using seasonal, quality ingredients to create honest food concepts with the minimum of waste since 1996. We will be re-enforcing these messages by supporting Imperial War Museum London in their educational events programme which will include cookery demonstrations, family events and a Wartime Farm.’

Ministry of Food by Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, the official book to accompany the exhibition, was published by Hodder & Stoughton on 4 February 2010.

Concessions and Groups £3.95

,Children £2.50

Family £13.00

(Groups pre-booking essential on +4420 7416 5439)

Turner Prize 2009

at Tate Britain

on Millbank

October 6, 2009 - January 3, 2010

The Turner Prize 2009 exhibition features work by the four shortlisted artists: Enrico David, Roger Hiorns, Lucy Skaer and Richard Wright. The winner of the prize will be announced during a live broadcast of the award ceremony on Channel 4 on the evening of December 7, 2009.

This year’s prize fund is £40,000 with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 each for the other shortlisted artists.

The winner will be decided by a jury whose members are: Charles Esche, Director Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Mariella Frostrup, writer and broadcaster; Jonathan Jones, art critic, The Guardian; Andrea Schlieker, Curator, Folkestone Triennial; and Stephen Deuchar, Director, Tate Britain and Chair of the Jury.

The Turner Prize, established in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding 21 April 2009. It is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art and is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe.

Enrico David
Absuction Cardigan 2009
Courtesy the artist; Cabinet, London and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne / Berlin
Photo credit: Sam Drake and Gabrielle Johnson, Tate Photography

Enrico David, who presents Absuction Cardigan 2009, a new installation of paintings, collages and sculptures including two papier-mâché eggmen from his nominated exhibition How Do You Love Dzzzzt By Mammy? at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel. David absorbs and adapts existing styles and images into his unique iconography, from magazine advertising to early modern design. Presented as a surreal parade of fragmented bodies, his work combines a feeling of instability and alienation with an unsettling sense of humour.

Roger Hiorns
Untitled 2008
Courtesy the artist and Corvi-Mora, London
Photo credit: Sam Drake and Gabrielle Johnson, Tate Photography

Roger Hiorns, who exhibits Untitled 2008, metal dust from an atomised passenger jet engine, shown as part of his nominated exhibition at Corvi-Mora, London, and three untitled wall-sculptures comprising bovine brain matter, plastic and steel. Hiorns alters these carefully selected substances into new and unexpected forms, triggering questions about our interpretation of the world around us.

Lucy Skaer
Thames and Hudson 2009
including Black Alphabet 2008
Courtesy the artist and doggerfisher, Edinburgh Commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery,
London Photo credit: Sam Drake and Gabrielle Johnson, Tate Photography

Lucy Skaer, who presents Thames and Hudson 2009, an installation comprising new and recent work including Leviathan Edge 2009, the skull of a sperm whale, just-visible behind a screen, Leonora (Death) 2006, an intricate drawing executed in a mass of tiny black spirals, and Black Alphabet 2008, a series of 26 sculptures made from coal-dust. In translating an image from one state to another, Skaer deliberately slows-down our understanding of what we are looking at, directing our attention to the act of looking itself.

 
Richard Wright
no title 2009
Photo credit: Sam Drake and Gabrielle Johnson, Tate Photography
Courtesy the artist; Gagosian, London; The Modern Institute / Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow and BQ, Berlin

Richard Wright, who has produced a highly intricate gold-leaf painting across one wall of the gallery. This work, the artist’s most complex and ambitious composition to date, is made in response to the room’s architecture and the specific context of Tate Britain. The painstaking and lengthy process of creating the work by traditional methods, combined with its inevitably short life-span, adds a sense of poignant transience to its visual beauty and lustre.

where

Tate Britain

when

daily


times

10.00-17.50 Exhibitions
10.00-17.40 (last admission 17.00)

how much

£8 (US$13 approx.)

how

Information: +4420 7887 8888

Telling Tales:  
Ultimate Art Furniture chair, 2006
Boym Partners © Boym Partners 


Fantasy and Fear in Contemporary Design

through October 18, 2009

at the V&A

This free exhibition in the Porter Gallery is a delight of good and evil - mixed up with some fantastic and imaginative design

Design art is becoming increasingly fashionable and you have to wonder at the creativity of these artists/designers.

Some of the darker exhibits on display may not be something you would wish for in your home; but other more fanciful designs would be more than welcome.

  Studio Job
© the artists. Courtesy of Royal Tichelaar Makkum
Courtesy of Royal Tichelaar Makkum www.tichelaar.nl. Photo: Studio Marten Aukes

At a time of heightened interest in works of so-called 'design art', made in small editions for the collector's market, Telling Tales features work by a generation of internationally regarded designers.

The exhibition focuses on work by designers who explore the narrative potential of objects, connecting the past with the present.

Robber Baron table, 2006 Studio Job © Studio Job
Photo: R. Kot, Brussels

  Perished Bench, 2006 Studio Job © Studio Job

The exhibition is structured in three sections.

In The Forest Glade - design evokes the innocence of fairy-stories.  Notably the work of Tord Boontje.

The Enchanted Castle is inspired by the rise of the novel and prints in the 18th century, and features design that parodies and questions decorative taste, exemplified by the work of Studio Job and Maarten Baas.

Heaven and Hell is informed by psycho-analysis and the work reflects anxieties about our mortality. Designers in this section include Dunne & Raby and Miriam van der Lubbe and Niels van Eijk.

The very unique and limited edition pieces push the boundaries between art and design.

Fabulous furniture, lighting and ceramics, designed by a new generation of international designers, including Tord Boontje, Maarten Baas, Jurgen Bey and Studio Job are showcased in this delightful exhibition inspired by the spirit of story-telling.

Each tells a tale through their use of decorative devices, historical allusions or choice of materials, sharing common themes such as fantasy, parody and a concern with mortality.

Hampton Court

flower   


show
kicks off July 7,  2009

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show has a whole new look this year. Regular visitors to the show will notice a major change to the layout, as the four floral marquees are revamped to create one large space allowing more nurseries to attend the show, and giving visitors the chance to take home an even wider range of plants and flowers.

2008 was the last year of the Daily Mail Pavilion, and in 2009 the heart of the showground is being filled by the major new Gardening Energy feature, designed by RHS Gold Medal winning designer, Sarah Eberle.

Visitors are also able to enjoy two new categories of gardens: The Gardens of the Six Wives of Henry VIII celebrate the 500-year anniversary of the English monarch’s accession to the throne, with gardens representing each of his famous wives; Sustainability Gardens, which aim to inspire visitors who are looking for ways to be more green.

Garden your way to a healthier lifestyle
Grow your own, gardening in a changing climate, healthy living and making the most of your life outdoors are just some of the main attractions at this year’s show.

Bring the taste of the good life into your home with the extensive Growing Tastes feature. This takes you from plot to plate with 14 grow your own exhibits displaying giant garlic bulbs, herbs from around the world and a variety of English as well as exotic fruit and vegetables. Cookoo Box Nursery’s Munch Your Way Through Lunch no-waste display proves that you can even produce a meal from deadheading! The central feature is a family allotment, which is bound to fuel the nation’s appetite for grow your own.

In the Cookery Theatre chefs cook up a storm and give a range of demonstrations using seasonal produce, as well as emphasising natural, organic, locally-sourced and British dishes.

The new sustainable garden category promises to offer environmental initiatives and clever ways to be greener.

The South Pacific comes to the South of England
This year, get a taste for the Legends of Fiji, as villagers from the Fijian islands bring a tropical garden paradise, displays of tribal dancing and singing, and traditional Fijian crafts to the show.

Gold Medal-winning designer Claire Whitehouse will be recreating a lush Fijian garden with colourful, tropical planting such as palms, hibiscus, bougainvillea and orchids. Interspersed with this planting are carved orchid roots, traditionally used to depict the ancient stories of the country such as ‘the Legend of Degei the Snake God’ and ‘the Legend of the Sacred Turtles of Kadavu’.

The islanders share their traditional ways of living with show visitors, including building bures (huts), weaving mats, carving coconut jewellery, singing island songs, teaching meke (dance) and sevusevu presentation, which is a traditional Fijian ritual. In addition to all of this, the Long Water, which runs through the centre of the show, hosts a number of traditional Fijian rafts.

This year's Hampton Court Flower Show was a lot of fun: from fabulous fashion on the Catwalk to great Show Gardens.

The focus was good fruit and vegetables with a 'grow your own' theme backed up by cookery demos alongside a number of featured gardens.

The very relaxing atmosphere was helped by only a small number of heavy showers on press day (an improvement on previous years) and a delightful cup of Thai tea along with a neck massage.

There were many treats as you wandered through the great gardens on display.....   including the opportunity to vote on a new flavour of Rachael's yogurts to celebrate 25 years and a wonderful collection of Henry VIII related scarecrows made by school children.

Hampton Court is more like an event than the very serious Chelsea which makes it top of my list for a family outing packed with good commonsense flower, fruit and veg tips on how to become both a successful gardener and cook!

Lynne Speedwell

Highlights of Hampton Court include

Welcome to Henry VIII’s Tudor court!
Hampton Court Palace was the favourite residence of Henry VIII, and to celebrate the 500th anniversary of his accession to the throne, the RHS has given the show a Tudor theme.

The Tudor Rose Festival is themed like Henry VIII's Tudor court with a dramatic red and white Tudor Rose symbol taking pride of place. The marquee offers, as always, an abundance of rose varieties and their accompanying heavily scented atmosphere, but unfortunately you won’t find anything there like the Tudor Rose, which doesn’t actually exist botanically!

Henry was famous for his wives and they each get their own garden this year: Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr all had very different personalities, each of which has been translated into a small garden by up-and-coming designers.

Calling all scarecrows!
The RHS is calling for pre-schools and primary schools in the South East to get creative and enter the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show Scarecrow Competition for the chance to win £200 worth of garden centre vouchers to be spent on plants and tools for a school garden.

To celebrate the 500-year anniversary of Henry VIII accession to the throne, the schools, which must be registered with the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, are challenged to use plant and recycled materials to create a Tudor scarecrow. It might be Henry VIII, one of his wives, an ordinary Tudor person or anything with a Tudor slant – anything goes!

Venue:

Hampton Court Palace
East Molesey,
Surrey

Sunday 10am–5.30pm

Dates and times:

July 7-12, 2009
Opening times Tuesday to Saturday 10am–7.30pm

Tickets:

telephone 0844 209 1810

or 00 353 74 938 8136 if calling from outside the UK

* The show closes at 5.30pm on Sunday 12 July with afternoon entry from 2.30pm

RHS members

See the show first and at its best at one of two members’ only days, Tuesday 7 & Wednesday 8 July or save £10 on a pair of public day tickets when booked in advance.

(two tickets = £44 in advance, £54 on the day)

Chelsea

flower   


show
May 19-23, 2009

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the ultimate event in the gardening year.

It sets the latest gardening trends, features the newest and most desirable gardening products and creates an explosion of colours and scents.   And despite these recessionary times, the gardens are more imaginative and creative then ever - and more likely to fit the budget of the typical Chelsea Flower show visitor

Cutting-edge garden design and thousands of perfect blooms; top growers and world class designers; scents and sights and shopping galore. Chelsea will be crammed with leading lights, big name designers and the spectacle you'd expect at the world’s greatest gardening event.

Don’t miss out on the gardening event of the year.

   and the garden-friendly celebrities.
Lynne Speedwell

Unquestionably the best show for many years, the recession has seen a cutback in the number of gardens and an almost complete elimination of conspicious consumption as the 2009 gardens celebrated the simple and the attainable.

With a conspicuous lack of well-heeled sponsors, there are no examples of excessive use of marble and statuesque Asian/Egyptian sculpture towering over sunken gardens almost invisible to the eyes of the enthusiastic visitor.

This year the garden are almost without exception - it was the plastic garden that broke the rules - tranquil and sublime, with peaceful colours and creative planting in subtle settings.

Lynne Speedwell

Best in Show, the Daily Telegraph's garden was the favorite to win ... and it did.  Blending Swedish design with traditional planting and modern architectural integrated concepts, the black-background garden was almost picture perfect.

A close second in this editor's opinion was The Canary Islands Spa Garden which in many respects was not dissimilar to the Telegraph garden with the black background - this time - representing the volcanic nature of the Islands.  Young designers David Cubero and James Wong designed their garden with a relatively small budget and managed to create a stunning indoor/outdoor gazebo experience.

But Chelsea is not just show gardens.  The Grand Pavilion showcases plants and flowers from across the world. Some celebrate the successes of high-profile charities such as Cancer Research, CentrePoint and Help for Heroes. Others take flower arranging to another level displaying hats of flowers which would shine at any London Season event.

And then of course there is one of the editor's 'perennial' favourites: topiary; alongside the many environmentally inspired gardens: the particular favourites of the city folk who make good use of the inspiration of the Urban and Courtyard Gardens.

Celebrities make press day a paparazzi favourite; but this is one event where enthusiasts from all around the world come to enjoy the best of international flowers, gardens and horticultural from all corners of the globe.  

If you miss out this year, don't forget to book early in 2010.

Highlights of Chelsea include

Show gardens
Urban gardens
Courtyard gardens
The Great Pavilion – featuring the Continuous Learning educational displays
Floral Design Marquee Gardening products & sundries
Gardening Matters Marquee

and the winners

Venue:
Venue Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London

Dates and times:
Opening times Tuesday–Friday 8am–8pm
Saturday 8am–5.30pm

Tickets:

Box office:
0844 209 1810
or 00353 74 9388136 if calling from outside the UK

Theatre Royal Bath Productions

present

Alan Bennett's


enjoy  credit: Nobby Clark  


Starring Alison Steadman
and David Troughton

at
The GIELGUD THEATRE

through May 2, 2009

the review

Alan Bennett's unique imagination lends itself to 'slice of life' dramas and Enjoy is no exception.

Just as he drills down into the characters he portrays, he also exposes the idiosyncrasies of the British Working Class and their obsession with the middle classes.

In a manner which can only be Alan Bennett, the playwright manages in a single breath to blend laugh-out-loud humour with pathos, sadness, joy, frustration;  all combined with a sharp and incisive look into the depths of the people he creates.

Alan Bennett is better than any other playwright at exposing his creations through his original powers of observation.  He is the consummate witness to events

In real life, Alan Bennett would sit on the wall of the house opposite to where I lived.   his presence was silent and he displayed no emotion; nor did he say anything.

When a young woman flew over the handle bars of her bike one icy  winters morning in North London, and slid ungraciously down the road face down, Alan Bennett did not move.

As I went to help the woman, her nose grew large and red and swollen and her lower lip began to bleed.  The local GP got word of the accident and he equally unglamorously lumbered down the road to see if she was okay.  Bennett watched on silently, and this passion of his to observe human nature is mirrored in Enjoy:

A working class family plan their enforced move from terrace house to modern flat.   The elderly married couple agree to be observed by what we believe to be public officials; but the reality is not as is appears.

Bennett layers on the layers of who is watching who in this play, but like so much of his work, there is a dark message. Most of us live a life of resignation and acceptance mixed with a heavy helping of despair, combined with a 'just get on with it' attitude   which  mirrors  everything that is British.  And as the audeince laughs at the characters on stage they also laugh at their own, often ridiculous way of life.

Alison Steadman steels the show, but a stellar performance by the rest of the cast - including a couple of truly memorable cameos - makes this a must for all fans.

Following Peter Hall's Bath summer season and a record-breaking regional tour, Alan Bennett's Enjoy triumphantly comes to London's West End for a limited run.

Famously remembered as Alan Bennett's first theatrical failure when it premiered in 1980, director Christopher Luscombe has   re-visited the play to universal critical acclaim.

Starring Alison Steadman and David Troughton, the show is set in the playwright's home town of Leeds and focuses on an ageing couple, Wilf and Connie, living in the city's last back-to-back. With the demolition of the area in progress, they are soon to be re-housed in a new maisonette with a waste disposal unit and non-slip vinyl flooring! When a sociologist comes to observe them in their daily life, normality takes a decidedly atypical turn.

who's who

credit: Nobby Clark


The fabulous Alison Steadman is best known for her memorable role as the monstrous Beverly in Mike Leigh's 'Abigail's Party'.  She also starred in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, for which she won an Olivier Award.

Her films include 'Shirley Valentine' Clockwise', 'A Private Function' and Mike Leigh's 'Life Is Sweet' and 'Topsy Turvy'. Television work includes 'Fat Friends', 'Selling Hitler', 'The Singing Detective', 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle' and 'Pride and Prejudice' and recent appearances include 'The Worst Week of My Life', 'Gavin & Stacey' and 'Fanny Hill'.

David Troughton is one of the UK's most experienced classical actors.  His numerous credits for the RSC and National Theatre range from Henry IV, Caliban and Bottom to Hook in Peter Pan. Television credits include 'Casualty 1907', 'New Tricks', 'Doctor Who' and 'A Very Peculiar Practice'.

Alan Bennett has been a household name for more than forty years. His numerous plays include The History Boys, one of the biggest theatrical sensations of recent years; Habeas Corpus; Forty Years On; Single Spies; The Madness of George III; Talking Heads and The Lady in the Van.

The cast also includes Carol Macready, Josie Walker and Richard Glaves.

Complicite/Simon McBurney

present Shun-kin
 
Photocredit,Tsukasa Aoki


co-produced by barbicanbite09  at



The Barbican
through February 21, 2009

Shun-kin is inspired by two works by one of the most important Japanese writers of the twentieth century, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. Written in 1933 when Japan was opening its arms to Western influence, the short story, A Portrait of Shunkin, is a tale of masochistic longing. In the same year, Tanizaki wrote In Praise of Shadows, his essay on Japanese aesthetics. Both stories were shaped by Tanizaki's own fantasies and idealisation of a bygone era. Shun-kin moves between the neon glow of Japan and the vanished world of the Meiji era and uncovers moments of light in a world of darkness. McBurney and Complicite tell a tale of devotion, passion and power, where beauty is unforgiving and love is blinding. Emerging from traditional Japanese culture this powerful production reveals how close beauty and violence can be. Shun-kin is performed by an entirely Japanese cast in Japanese with English surtitles.

Photocredit,Tsukasa Aoki

Original music is by Hidetaro Honjo, design is by Merle Hensel and Rumi Matsui, costume design is by Christina Cunningham, lighting design is by Paul Anderson, sound design is by Gareth Fry, projection design is by Finn Ross for Mesmer and puppetry is by Blind Summit Theatre.

Under the artistic direction of McBurney, Complicite is one of the world's leading theatre companies. Its last show, A Disappearing Number, was seen at the Barbican during bite07 and subsequently won the Olivier Award for Best New Play, Critics' Circle Drama Award for Best New Play and Evening Standard Award for Best Play. It played to capacity houses and is being revived at the Barbican this October. The BBC Radio 3 version of A Disappearing Number is broadcast on Sunday 21 September at 8.00pm. Other recent work includes a world tour of Measure for Measure (co-production with the National Theatre) and a revival of A Minute Too Late (National Theatre). The company is currently developing its first original screenplay with the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer.

Actor, writer, director and co-founder of Complicite, McBurney has devised, directed and performed in over 30 productions for the company. Other directing credits include Pet Shop Boys meet Eisenstein (Trafalgar Square) and Strange Poetry (with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Walt Disney Concert Hall), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui with Al Pacino in New York and Lenny Henry's So Much Things To Say. McBurney's production of All My Sons with Katie Holmes, John Lithgow and Diane Wiest opens on Broadway in October. As a film actor, he has appeared in numerous movies including The Duchess with Keira Knightley, The Golden Compass, The Last King of Scotland, Friends with Money, Bright Young Things, Eisenstein, Onegin and the soon-to-be-released Boogie Woogie and Hippie Hippie Shake.

Venue:
Barbican Theatre

Dates and times:
through 21 February 2009, 7.45pm
Also 2.30pm on 14 & 21 February
No performances on Sundays

Tickets:
£10.00 - £40.00
(£2.00 off all prices 30, 31 January and 2 February)
Various discounts available

Running time:
110 minutes no interval

Barbican box office:
+44845 120 7550

open hours:
9.00am - 8.00pm Monday - Saturday
; 11.00am - 8.00pm Sundays and Bank Holidays

The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv

present

Plonter 
Plonter, The Company photocredit Gadi Dagon

at

The Barbican Pit

January 27-29, 31 and February 1-5, 7

Plonter follow the paths of families living in Israel and Gaza before and after the border walls were constructed to prevent suicide bombings in Israel.

It's a tough subject to address on stage and each member of the cast of the show takes on a number of roles in a performance of short, interlinked scenes.

As you enter the theatre members of the audience are ID checked.  Bags are not allowed in.  This sets the scene for a single act play that highlights an almost insoluble problem:  two different societies causing death and destruction upon each other.

The characters are in some respect stereotypes.  They express their ignorance of each others' culture and their fear and suspicion of the unfamiliar. 

The concrete partitions on the stage represent the conflict.  Children plan suicide bombings; children on both sides become innocent casualties; and young Israeli soldiers are portrayed as victims of a war where neither side can win until there is peace.

What makes the play interesting and complex is the focus on the family.  As the family units break down - divided by different opinions - the true but less visible legacy of an enduring war is given  a voice.

Despite some difficulty in watching the action while reading the subtitles, this production often reveals some of the more ludicrous aspects of war as well as the more enduring,  while at all times placing the conflict in its social context.

Plonter is a revealing exposé of some of the subtleties of war and the young actors certainly do the subject justice.   An achievement which deserves to be seen by as large an audience as possible.

Don't miss out!

Raida Adon, Irit Kaplan, Yaniv Biton, photocredit Gadi Dagon

Jewish and Arab actors come together in a theatrical presentation of life either side of the border roadblocks

Plonter marks the first appearance in London for 23 years by Israel's largest theatre company, the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv. The Cameri was founded in 1944

Created over six months by a company of young Israeli Jewish and Arab actors working with writer/director Yael Ronen, Plonter presents the conflict from the perspectives of both sides. The play premiered at the Cameri in 2005.  Since then, it has played at festivals around the world. .

Plonter depicts the pain and frustration, as well as the humour, found in contending with everyday life in the region. It reflects the current political reality, taking audiences into the turbulent, tangled, complex and surreal existence of living either side of the border roadblocks. The same actors play Israelis and Palestinians, weaving together stories of family life on both sides, each suffering in their own way by the conflict.

Plonter is performed in Hebrew and Arabic with Arabic/Hebrew and English subtitles. With over 150 actors the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv is Israel's largest theatre company and is based in the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Centre.

The performance lasts 75 minutes with no interval.

Performance times: 7.45pm except Sunday 1 February, 5.00pm

In Hebrew and Arabic, there are subtitles in Arabic/Hebrew and English

Post-show talks on January 29 and 30, 2009 and February 5, 2009

Tickets; £15.00 (US$21)

Box office: +44845 120 7550

Age guidance: 15+

In Memoriam: Remembering the Great War

at

The Imperial War Museum

30 September 2008 – 6 September 2009

It informs and engages visitors with a great mix of artifacts, art, videos, film, interactive exhibits and much more.

While the subject is both chilling and emotional, the statistics speak a thousand words - and the feeling as you go round this exhibition is a mix of sadness and pride.

Yes - it may be somewhat sentimental about the forces who go to war to protect the rest of use; but it also acts as a sharp reminder of the current conflicts and what many soldiers experience.

Of course, nobody says it better than the First World War poets and there is plenty of verse to be read which sums up the whole history of the event in a manner that few can emulate - including myself.

A great reminder of the past and a really inspiring take on the War.

And don't miss a whole series of events which go alongside In Memoriam.

The First World War was the beginning of what Winston Churchill later described as ‘the woe and ruin of the terrible twentieth century’. The Great War was truly a global war, fought not just on the Western Front, but also in Russia, the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa. Casualties were on a scale never seen before. Massive artillery bombardments caused terrible loss of life and destruction. The use of aircraft and submarines in large numbers and the first appearance of tanks on the battlefield brought new dimensions to conflict. When the fighting had finished in November 1918, the First World War had claimed the lives of 21 million people worldwide.

For Britain, supported by its Empire, the war also meant huge social change, with its men conscripted for the first time in history and women taking their places in factories and fields. The First World War still exerts an extraordinary hold upon the public imagination and this exhibition seeks to further our knowledge and understanding of that terrible conflict.

****************

Featuring fascinating and previously unseen material, this exhibition will use the experiences of over 90 individual men, women, servicemen and civilians to illustrate the different aspects and key events of the Great War and its aftermath. Much of the material will be drawn from the Imperial War Museum’s own collections that were established during the First World War.

Among the personal stories and items on display are: · The watch and ‘King’s Shilling’ given to Edward Packe who enlisted in the Army in August 1914; · The Victoria Cross awarded to Jack Cornwell who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Jutland and the second youngest recipient of the VC; · The smashed aircraft windscreen of British flying ace James McCudden who had shot down 57 aircraft by the time of his death in action in 1918; · The Military Cross awarded to Wilfred Owen that was worn by his mother until her death; · The paint box and brushes used by Official War Artist John Nash who, with his brother Paul, served on the Western Front; · The torn tunic worn by Harold Cope who was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Somme; · The cross that marked the grave of Prime Minister’s son Raymond Asquith; · The diary kept by Florence Farmborough who was a nurse on the Russian Front; · An extract of Geoffrey Malins’s film The Battle of the Somme, that was viewed by at least half the population when it was screened in 1916; · The illustrated album of Herta Dobinger, a 13 year old Austrian, who recorded the experiences of life on the Austrian home front; · The camisole worn by Margaret Gwyer who survived the sinking of Lusitania; · A wreath tossed into the car carrying Prime Minister Lloyd George after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

Admission to In Memoriam: Remembering the Great War is free.

To compliment In Memoriam a selection of works from the 1918 Hall of Remembrance scheme will be displayed in the adjoining Singer Sargent Gallery. Created by the British War Memorials Committee of the Ministry of Information, the scheme was designed to commemorate all aspects of the war effort, including the home front. However, the Hall of Remembrance was never completed and the collection of paintings was given to the newly founded Imperial War Museum. Among those paintings on display will be John Singer Sargent’s Gassed (1919), the intended centerpiece of the Hall, Percy Wyndham Lewis’s A Battery Shelled (1919) and Paul Nash’s The Menin Road (1919).

The official book to accompany the Imperial War Museum exhibition In Memoriam: Remembering the Great War will be published by Ebury Press in September 2008. Written by respected historian Robin Cross this lavishly illustrated narrative of the Great War uses letters, diary entries and eyewitness accounts to tell the personal stories of those involved.

Hampton Court Palace
Flower Show

copyright: ©BBB WorldWide2007

    july 8 - 13, 2008

I particularly liked the Holiday Inn Garden and the Porsche Garden.....but it is the judges who ultimately decide the winners and losers of this particular contest.

Unlike the 208 Chelsea Flower Show, the gardens at Hampton Court are much more accessible and far less elitist.   The show is a haven for gardeners and fans of indoor/outdoor spaces. 

Check out some of the fantastic ideas on display.  You may just find out that copying some of the  designs is the greatest form of flattery.

and the winners of the show gardens are:

Gold Dorset Cereals Ltd GW18 Show garden

Gold Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants DM4 Show garden

Gold Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts GW6 Show garden

Gold Porsche GW16 Show garden

Silver-Gilt

Silver-Gilt Flora Anglian Home Improvements GW9 Show garden

Silver-Gilt Flora APL & SGD GW2 Show garden

Silver-Gilt Flora Cedar Nursery DM3 Show garden

Silver-Gilt Flora Homebase GW4 Show garden

Silver-Gilt Flora National Year of Reading GW5 Show garden

Silver-Gilt Flora Winchester Growers DM2 Show garden

Silver

Silver Flora Boardman Gelly & Co GW15 Show garden

Silver Flora Burghbad Bathrooms – Designed by

David Cubero & James Wong

GW20 Show garden

Silver Flora Domoney Ltd GW17 Show garden

Silver Flora Dorset Water Lily Company GW23 Water garden

Silver Flora Libra School with Gill Lomax & Steve

Pearce

GW3 Show garden

Silver Flora World of Water GW21 Water garden

Bronze

Bronze Flora Copella Fruit Juices Ltd GW8 Show garden

Bronze Flora Dial A Flight GW14 Show garden

Bronze Flora Lesley Faux & Garden Friendly

Brothers

GW10 Show garden

Bronze Flora Floral & Hardy Gardens GW1 Show garden

Bronze Flora Send a Cow GW12 Show garden

Bronze Flora Southend-on-Sea Borough Council in

partnership with Metal

GW11 Show garden

RHS members can be re-admitted to the show for the sell-off on production of an RHS membership card, receipt or ticket stub. Non-members will need to present a receipt or proof of purchase for items to collect.

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show Awards

Show gardens, water gardens, small gardens, conceptual gardens, flowers and ornamental plants are awarded in the FLORA medal range.
Exhibits of fruit are awarded in the HOGG medal range.
Exhibits of vegetables are awarded in the KNIGHTIAN medal range.
Exhibits of special scientific or educational Interest are awarded in the LINDLEY medal range.

Panels of selected RHS judges - all experts in their field - complete the judging of gardens, floral exhibits and other horticultural exhibits before the show opens to members on the Tuesday.
All exhibits are judged using standard criteria - they are not judged against each other. There is no limit to the number of medals the judges can award.
Four medal grades are available for award for horticultural exhibits at the Royal Horticultural Society's shows, and these are used by RHS Committees and judging panels who recommend awards for exhibits.

copyright: ©BBB WorldWide2007

The full list of all the winners will be available July 8, 2008.  The awards are: Gold, Silver-Gilt, Silver and Bronze

Exhibits of pictures, photographs, floral arrangement, floristry and Inspiring Spaces are awarded in the GRENFELL medal range.

Special awards are also given at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

Tudor Rose awards will be given to the best Gold Medal exhibits in each of the following three categories: Show Gardens; Water Gardens and Floral Marquees.  There are also awards for the Best Small Garden, Best Conceptual Garden, Best Plant Plot, Best Inspiring Space, Best Exhibit in the Festival of Roses, Best Exhibit in the Plant Heritage Marquee and the Best Scarecrow.
Certificates of commendation are given to gardening sundries exhibitors whose stands reach a high standard of presentation. These certificates are awarded for excellence of presentation and are not an RHS endorsement of the products or services on display.

where

Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey

when

Charity Gala Preview on July 7, 2008 between 6-11pm
For tickets  or call +44845 370 0128.

flower show 8 – 9 July: RHS members only
10 – 13 July: All are welcome, members and non-members

what time

8 – 12 July: 10am – 7:30pm (Afternoon entry from 3pm)
13 July: 10am – 5:30pm (Afternoon entry from 2:30 pm)

how much

tickets: tbc.
All tickets must be bought in advance

how to book

Ticket hotline: +44870 842 2234 Show information: +4420 7649 1885

Manolo Blahnik's design
celebrates
the 2008 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

    may 20 - 24, 2008

Is perhaps Chelsea Flower Show a reflection of our times?   Last year's vivid palate of purple and mauve exuded confidence and a style reminiscent of a classic Greek drama.

In sharp contrast, 2008 is the year of tranquil simplicity with reflections from large tranquil pools of water and a great deal of green planting.  Colour is absent in may of the structural gardens which dominant at this year's show.  'Do not stand out or make a large visual noise. These are challenging times and we should reflect in quiet corners and hidden outdoor spaces.'

Today's designs do not challenge the eye.   The soft textural use of friendly tactile material give a secure warmth to the show gardens of Chelsea and are - in my view - well-formed without 'shouting' that there is some thing new and witty in the making.

My favorite was the garden designed by Dairmuid Gavin and Terence Conran.  The Oceanico Garden is one of the most playful on show with undulating topiary covered by frivolous daisy shaped umbrellas to protect the planting and shade the visitors seated at the discreet table and chairs.

But how did the show garden fare?  See below.

Gold

Gold Savills plc MA18 Show garden

Silver-Gilt

Silver-Gilt Flora Ruffer LLP with Clare Agnew Design RHW39 Show garden

Silver

Silver Flora Studio Lasso Ltd RS1 Show garden

Bronze

Bronze Flora North East England @ Home Garden RHW42 Show garden

No award

No award Simply Italian UK Ltd MA8 Show garden

One of the world's most famous shoe designers has created an image for the world's most famous flower show. With a career spanning over 30 years, Manolo Blahnik has become one of the world's most influential footwear designers. He opened his first shop in London's Chelsea in 1973 and now has a following of loyal devotees to his shoes, which spans the globe. The lines and silhouette of his distinctive handwriting remains instantly recognisable, and his sketches, used at the outset of Blahnik's design process, are as coveted as the shoes themselves.

Blahnik's beautiful illustration of the daylily (Hemerocallis 'Grace & Favour') is the official 2008 RHS creative for the flower show that is renowned for setting the latest trends in the gardening world. The bold flower with deep burgundy petals was chosen for its striking beauty, as well as for being a flower that is representative of a traditional English garden, and for flowering in May when the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is held. The bloom used in the final illustration was grown by Pollie's Perennials and Daylily Nursery, in Hampshire, who hold a national collection of Hemerocallis.

Manolo Blahnik says: "I grew up in a house surrounded by gardens. They have always been an important part of my life - and my work - so when the Royal Horticultural Society invited me to design the poster for the next Chelsea Flower Show, it was an offer I couldn't refuse. It is a privilege for me to be working on such an institution of an event, as well as an honour to be taking part in one of the most important dates in the Chelsea calendar."

Previous artists who have created an image for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show include, fashion designer David Downton and fashion illustrator Anne Penman-Sweet and these designers are always part of the fabulous gardens on show at Chelsea.

copyright: ©BBB WorldWide2007

where

The Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London, SW3

when

May 20 - 24, 2008
20-21 May, RHS members only

what time

daytime

how much

tickets: £15.00 (US$32) / £46.00 (US$95)
All tickets must be bought in advance

how to book

box Office: +44 (0)870 247 1226

costa acosta

carlos in cuba

coming soon

For his second programme at the London Coliseum, Carlos in Cuba, Acosta joins forces with the Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, the company which starred in Acosta’s legendary Tocororo, a dance created by Acosta himself based on his life story.

This evening features contemporary Cuban works, followed by Tocororo Suite – a version which contains all the highlights of the original show, and features 18 dancers and a full live Cuban band.

where

London Coliseum
St. Martin's Lane, Trafalgar Square, WC2

when

March 31 - April 3, 2008

what time

evening performances

how much

tickets: £15.00 (US$32) / £75.00 (US$155)

how to book

box Office: +44 (0)844 412 4310

opera

on the

run .........at Jermyn Street Theatre

January 15, 2008 to February 2, 2008

Opera on the Run returns to London to present The Perfect Picnic, a unique piece of opera theatre set to the music of Mozart and with an effervescently comic new libretto.

The Perfect Picnic is a wonderfully light hearted evening of entertainment combining elements of theatre and opera to produce a quintessentially British tale of love and misunderstanding at a deliciously al fresco summer opera gala.

Newly redundant accountant David Sterling and his long-suffering girlfriend Sarah Primrose mysteriously receive tickets to an opera gala at which, it transpires, David’s ex-wife and rising opera star, Rachel, is performing. When Rachel’s new boyfriend, the flamboyant celebrity TV designer Michael de Haughton-Tours, lays eyes on Sarah his attention is transferred immediately from the stage to the stalls. It is during the Picnic interval however that events unfold with more drama than the opera itself.

Neither opera nor play, neither musical nor music theatre, The Perfect Picnic paves the way for Opera on the Run’s unique brand of opera theatre which fuses genres and melds music and drama in a manner hitherto unseen in the West End. Combining sultry singing, clever comedy and deliciously delightful drama, it’s an English summer’s picnic in the middle of winter and, as such, blurs the boundaries between the seasons at the same time.

Opera on the Run’s previous productions include A Comedy of Arias, a modern story told through lyrics set to popular opera arias, Spaghetti Opera which served up a veritable cocktail of opera favourites, and most recently Turning Heads at the Edinburgh Festival, a boisterous comedy of male manners centred around a wild weekend in Amsterdam.

produced by Opera on the Run
written and directed by Ian Bloomfield and Tim Armstrong-Taylor
music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The cast features Cheryl Enever as Rachel Sterling, Lynn Marie Boudreau as Sarah Primrose, Tim Armstrong-Taylor as David Sterling, Ian Bloomfield as Michael de Haughton-Tours, and Clare Kinson as Puck.
The cast are accompanied by Kelvin Lim at the piano.

where

Jermyn Street Theatre, Jermyn Street, London SW1

when

Tue 15 Jan – Sat 2 Feb 2008

what time

Tue – Sat 7.30pm, Sun 3.30pm

how much

tickets: £16.00 (US$35) / £14.00 (US$30) concs

how to book

box Office: +44207 287 2875

Christmas


2007

at

the Coliseum

London Premiere of The Snow Queen

Hampson's The Nutcracker

Deane's Swan Lake

Following a record breaking season last year, Christmas 2007 sees English National Ballet break with tradition by opening its Coliseum season with Michael Corder's glittering new production of The Snow Queen (December 11-16, 2007). The Company's traditional showing of family favourite The Nutcracker follows with Christopher Hampson's flamboyant production returning for its seventh consecutive season (December 19, 2007 - January 6, 2008). The season finale brings Derek Deane's proscenium arch production of Swan Lake back to London for the first time since 2001 (January 8-19, 2008).

The 2006/2007 Christmas season broke all previous box office records with performances of The Nutcracker, Alice in Wonderland and Giselle selling 85,818 tickets over a six week season at the London Coliseum.

The Snow Queen is Michael Corder's third new work for English National Ballet; his other works for the Company are his acclaimed production of Cinderella premiered in 1996, and the recently performed Melody on the Move created in 2003. The Snow Queen is the first new full length ballet produced by English National Ballet in over 10 years.

The music for The Snow Queen is arranged by Julian Philips from Prokofiev's ballet The Stone Flower and other Prokofiev works. Julian's original works include Strange Seas, commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia and later performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and Out of Light commissioned by BBC Proms and premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in 2001. The production is designed by Mark Bailey whose previous collaborations with Corder include Melody on the Move in 2003. Mark's recent projects include Hamlet for Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and An Ideal Husband for Theatr Clwyd.

Based on Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale, The Snow Queen is a touching, gothic fairy tale which will be lavishly retold by English National Ballet. The Snow Queen tells the story of young friends, Kay and Gerda. Kay catches slivers of the Snow Queen's shattered magic mirror in his eye and in his heart, and his character begins to change. As Kay is spirited away to the Snow Queen's palace, eternal winter descends on the village. Gerda searches the world over to find her friend. This fantastic journey finally takes her to the Snow Queen's Palace which is inhabited by her magical court of wolves, white foxes, ice maidens and sprites. Gerda's love for Kay releases him from the spell, the slivers of mirror fall from his eye and heart and the Snow Queen's curse of eternal winter is broken.   Andersen's fairy tales have inspired plays, ballets, films and many works of art. The Snow Queen was first published in 1844 and has since been translated into more than 80 languages.

Continuing the season in traditional style, English National Ballet presents The Nutcracker, choreographed by Christopher Hampson, and designed by Gerald Scarfe. Hampson/Scarfe's ballet is colourful and vibrant and offers an eccentric retelling of this classic Christmas ballet. Clara, her Nutcracker doll and the magician, Drosselmeyer, take us on adventures in the Land of Snow and the Kingdom of the Sweets. Clara battles with a Mouse King, flies on an origami bird and falls in love with a handsome Prince. English National Ballet's Nutcracker is the ideal Christmas treat for all the family, and has proved hugely popular with audiences since its premiere in 2002.

To round off the season, the Company presents Derek Deane's Swan Lake. Arguably the most popular ballet ever created, Swan Lake tells the story of Prince Siegfried's powerful love for the Swan Queen, Odette, and their battle against the evil magician, Rothbart. Derek Deane's traditional production brings the romance and high drama of the grand Russian ballet tradition alive. Swan Lake is set to Tchaikovsky's magnificent score, which features some of the most beautiful music in the classical ballet repertoire.

This Swan Lake was originally produced for English National Ballet by Derek Deane in 2000, based on a reworking of his 1997 in the round version. The in the round production has recently enjoyed full houses at the Royal Albert Hall and has delighted audiences of over 400,000 in the ten years since its premiere. Excerpts from this production were featured in Concert for Diana in Wembley Stadium on 1 July. The proscenium arch production was last seen in London in 2001.

English National Ballet is delighted to be performing at the Coliseum with its full Company of 64 dancers and full orchestra. The international line up of dancers includes popular husband and wife partnership Agnes Oaks and Thomas Edur, as well Daria Klimentová and Dmitri Gruzdyev; Elena Glurdjidze and Arionel Vargas; Erina Takahashi and César Morales, and Fernanda Oliveira.

The Snow Queen

11 - 15 December 7.30pm

12, 15 December 2.30pm

13 December 2pm (Schools), 16 December 3pm

(Pre performance talks on 13 December 6pm, 16 December 1.30pm)

The Nutcracker

19 - 22, 26 - 29 December, 2 - 5 January 7.30pm

19 - 22, 26 - 29 December, 2, 3, 5 January 2.30pm

23, 30 December, 6 January 3pm

(Pre performance talks on 20, 29 December, 2 January 6pm)

Swan Lake

8 - 12, 15 - 19 January 7.30pm

10, 12, 16, 19 January 2.30pm

13 January 3pm

(Pre performance talk on 17 January 6pm)

VENUE DETAILS

London Coliseum, St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4ES

Ticket info

Box Office: +44870 145 0200

Ticket prices: £10 (US$22) - £60 (US$130)

CHILDREN IN FOCUS:
THE 4TH EUROPEAN PSYCHOANALYTIC FILM FESTIVAL

November 1-4, 2007

the review:

Dipping into a room of psychoanalyst analyzing films gives a unique spin on the subject - particularly effective during a discussion related to an Israeli weekday drama which takes a close look into the role of the psychoanalyst.  And fascinating stuff as the Director, Nir Bergman describes his surprise that the TV audience did not realize that all psychoanalysts go to therapy.

The daytime drama which is more like a reconstruction than a soap opera apparently mesmerized the viewers.  Perhaps the ultimate drama, Bergman creates a three dimensional 'agony aun' column set on 'the couch'.

While the Israeli TV audience gained a unique insight into the methodology of one of the country's best analysts, the HBO version which is coming out in the USA will use N. American talent to showcase their take on therapy.

Does this programme do a better job of explaining the breaddwon of family relationships than TV soaps such as Eastenders?  Perhaps -  but it is also more painful to watch.

(Please note that the review of Alice will follow.)

Childhood is on the couch at the 4th European Psychoanalytic Film Festival which takes place at BAFTA’s headquarters in London from 1-4 November 2007. With a programme of screenings, panel discussions and lectures, Children in Focus will bring together film-makers, psychoanalysts, critics, academics and film-lovers for an in-depth look at cinema from a psychoanalytic perspective.

A unique opportunity to see films from across Europe, the Festival brings together cinema that explores different aspects of childhood, from an insight into the first few months of life (Laid Down) to the experience of a child prodigy (Vitus) and the consequences of childhood actions (Caché). It will also look at the impact of child abduction as portrayed in Alice, a Portuguese film made in 2005 about the disappearance of a four-year-old girl which has a particular resonance in 2007.

The Festival also features speakers such as writer and academic Laura Mulvey (UK), scriptwriter and director Nir Bergman (Israel), film historian, academic and broadcaster Ian Christie (UK), director Elissavet Chronopoulou (Greece), director Marco Martins (Portugal), screenwriter Philipe Blasband (Belgium), director Fredi Murer (Switzerland) and editor, director and musician Michael Hudecek (Austria).

Festival Chairman, Andrea Sabbadini, says:
“This is the first time we have chosen a theme for the Festival. Children in Focus will explore the portrayal of children in cinema with all their ambiguities, imagination and innocence.
"We are interested in characters and how unconscious motivations can affect people’s behaviour,” says Sabbadini. “This is what makes the psychoanalytical view of cinema so fascinating.” Although it has a psychoanalytic slant the Festival has a broad appeal and is open to anyone with an interest in film and contemporary culture and there will be the opportunity for the audience to participate at open panel discussions.

The Festival is supported by eminent director Bernardo Bertolucci who has been its Honorary President since it began in 2001. “Since I started to know psychoanalysis I found that I had, in my camera, an additional lens,”says Bertolucci, “ it's not Kodak, it's not Zeiss, it's Freud. It's a lens which really takes you very close to dreams”.

Laid Down: Dir Emily Cooper, UK
Caché [Hidden]: Dir Michael Haneke, Austria
Tomas est Amoureux [Thomas is in Love]: Dir Pierre-Paul Renders, Belgium
Vitus: Dir Fredi M Murer, Switzerland
A Song is Not Enough: Dir Elissavet Chronopoulou, Greece
La Maison de Nina [Nina's Home]: Dir Richard Dembo, France
Alice: Dir Marco Martins, Portugal
The Third Man: Dir Carol Reed, UK

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

Established in 2001 and held every two years, the European Psychoanalytic Film Festival is a unique forum for creative dialogue between psychoanalysts, film makers, academics, critics and the public. This year’s Festival is the first to be programmed around a theme, Children in Focus. The Festival will screen and discuss films from many European countries, and for the first time Belgian, Greek, Austrian, Portuguese and Swiss cinema will be represented at the Festival. The 2005 Festival was attended by over 350 people from a range of backgrounds and interests and from many countries including Brazil, Japan and Canada.

BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI, the leading Italian film director, is Honorary President of the European Psychoanalytic Film Festival. He is also Honorary Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society. Born in Parma in 1941, his films include: Before the Revolution, The Spider's Strategem, The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, La Luna, The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha, Stealing Beauty, Besieged and The Dreamers.

ANDREA SABBADINI is Chairman of the European Psychoanalytic Film Festival and of the Screening Conditions series of films at the ICA. He is a fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, current honorary secretary of the British Psychoanalytical Society, honorary senior lecturer at University College London and the Book Review editor of The International Journal of Psychoanalysis. He has published extensively in psychoanalytic journals and edited Time in psychoanalysis (Feltrinelli, 1979), The couch and the silver screen (Brunner-Routledge, 2003) and Projected shadows (Routledge, 2007), and co-edited Even paranoids have enemies (Routledge, 1998) and Psychoanalytic visions of cinema/ Cinematic visions of psychoanalysis (in Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 2007).

PROGRAMME SUMMARY

THURSDAY 1 NOVEMBER, Royal College of Medicine
19:00-21:00 Registration and welcome reception
21:00-22:00 Screening of Laid Down (Emily Cooper), introduced by Emily Cooper and Peter Fongay

FRIDAY 2 NOVEMBER, BAFTA
08:30-19:00 Film screenings, discussions, lectures and panels
21:00-22:40 Special film event: The Third Man (Carol Reed)

SATURDAY 3 NOVEMBER, BAFTA
18:30-17:45 Film screenings, discussions, lectures and panels

SATURDAY 3 NOVEMBER, London Aquarium
19:30-24:00 Festival party

SUNDAY 4 NOVEMBER, BAFTA
10:00-13:00 Short film screening followed by plenary discussion chaired by Laura Mulvey, Andrew Webber and Andrea Sabbadini
13:00-14:00 Farewell refreshments and close

Students £240 one day £150 half day £80
Others £290 one day £170 half day £90
No tickets available for single events.

UP AND OUT

A video By Christian Marclay

October 13, 2007 
at the Prince Charles cinema

Artprojx & White Cube present

In association with the Swiss Cultural Fund in Britain

the UK premiere of

Up and Out

A video by Christian Marclay (1998) 107 mins

Screening in the presence of H E The Ambassador of Switzerland Mr Alexis P. Lautenberg.

Christian Marclay introduces the UK premiere of Up and Out.

Marclay’s feature length video collage in which Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 masterpiece Blow Up is overlaid with the soundtrack of Brian De Palma’s 1981 thriller Blow Out, itself a homage to Antonioni. The images and soundtrack make a beautiful pair not least because of the fate shared by the films’ protagonists. The photographer in Blow Up (played by David Hemmings) and the sound-effects specialist in Blow Out (played by John Travolta) are both forced into forensic roles, as are the viewers of Up and Out who must use their wits to piece the images and sounds together.

The films combine to produce a mesmerizing, hybrid third reality. Marclay accompanies the images of the original with the soundtrack of the homage, resulting in passages of amusing dissonance and surreal synchronicity. Marclay’s simple yet audacious gesture questions how and why audiences suspend disbelief for the things they hear so much more readily than for the things that they see.

The Swiss Cultural Fund in Britain is delighted to support the UK’s first ever screening of Christian Marclay’s work Up and Out, 1998.

Saturday October 13, 2007 - 10am-12 noon

Pre-screening brunch in the bar - 9.15am-10am

7 Leicester Place

London WC2

Box Office: 020 7494 3654 (open 1-9pm) www.princecharlescinema.com

Tickets £10 (US$22)

£5 (US$11) for artists, curators and students

FREE TICKETS for Frieze VIP, Swiss Cultural Fund

NORWICH LONDON GRAND PRIX

at Crystal Palace

August 3, 2007

The highlight of the international athletics season comes to an end at Crstal Place on August 3, 2007.  Carolina Kluft - Olympic heptathlon champion and regarded by many as one of the world’s greatest athletes, will competing at the event in her build up to the World Championships later in the month in Osaka, Japan.

The Swede lines up against reigning 200 metres Olympic champion, Veronica Campbell, as well as last year’s European gold medallist Kim Gevaert of Belgium.

Kluft said: “I really enjoy competing in the UK, so the chance to line up against some of the best sprinters in the world can only help me as I look to reach the peak of my abilities in time for the World Championships.”

The 24-year-old is just one of the major draws of the Crystal Palace meeting, which is traditionally the highlight of the British athletics season.  Another is Tyson Gay, the fastest man in the world this year over 100m.  He is already confirmed on the start list along with world and Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner and British world medal hopes Marlon Devonish and Nicola Sanders.

Ten of the Best of Men's and Women's competition

MEN’S

100m

All eyes will be on Tyson Gay, the fastest man in the world this year. The American has been in scintillating form this season, with his sights set on the sprint double at the World Championships. Joining him on the start line will be Olympic silver medallist Francis Obikwelu and in-form Briton Marlon Devonish, who won the 100 and 200m at the World Trials last weekend.

400m

World and Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner returns to the track where he enjoyed an impressive victory last year, clocking 43.99 seconds. He faces new UK champion Andrew Steele, no doubt relishing the chance to take on a world class field including world number two Lashawn Merritt, 4x400m gold medal winner at the 2005 World Championships, and European Cup silver medallist Tim Benjamin.

1500m

Andy Baddeley looked in superb form two weeks ago at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix in Sheffield, where he held off world silver medallist Bernard Lagat convincingly to cross the line in first place, setting a new personal best of 3:34.74 in the process. Lagat will be out to make amends tonight, whilst a host of other Brits will be chasing the qualifying time for the World Championships.

2 Miles

London athlete Mo Farah, the European 5,000m silver medallist and winner over the same distance at last weekend’s World Trials in Manchester, faces a tough battle against World Championship 5,000m bronze medallist, Craig Mottram. The Australian is the third fastest ever over the distance, clocking 8:03.50 minutes when he stormed to victory in the USA in June.

Triple Jump

European Indoor champion Phillips Idowu will be hoping for plenty of support from the home crowd when he steps out in Crystal Palace this Friday. The 28-year-old laid his marker for the season, leaping 17.35m to win his first Golden League meet in Oslo in June, but has suffered injury since then. He’ll have to watch out for Aarik Wilson, the in-form American who clinched victory in Sheffield two weeks ago.

WOMEN’S

200m

World, Olympic and European heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft, the golden girl of world athletics, faces a tough field in the 200m. A host of top sprinters line up in London including double European gold medallist Kim Gevaert, reigning Olympic champion Veronica Campbell, former 100m world champion Torri Edwards, and double UK sprint champion Jeanette Kwakye.

400m

European Indoor champion Nicola Sanders has adapted superbly to the flat after changing disciplines last year. The 25-year-old, who retained her outdoor title at the trials last weekend, faces a real test ahead of the World Championships, with World 200m champion Allyson Felix, Olympic relay bronze medallist Novlene Williams, and 2006 World Athlete of the Year Sanya Richards – winner here last year - on the start line.

800m

Yet another stellar line up in the women’s 800m, with trials winner Jemma Simpson heading a strong home contingent including Britain’s fastest this year, Marilyn Okoro, World Junior relay gold medallist Jenny Meadows, and European bronze medallist Becky Lyne, who makes her final attempt at a place in the team for Osaka.

Pole Vault

World, Olympic and European champion Yelena Isinbayeva makes a welcome return to the track where she has set no fewer than three world records. Also lining up is her Russian compatriot and great rival Svetlana Feofanova, who has set ten world records, and Britain’s Kate Dennison, who cleared 4.20m last weekend to win UK Championship gold.

3,000m

Britain’s Jo Pavey, who retained her national 5,000m title last weekend, faces a strong field including American Shalane Flanagan, GB Steeplechase record holder Hattie Dean and her compatriot Helen Clitheroe, with both Brits looking for a good showing ahead of Osaka.

You will also be able to see some of the following Great Britain and Northern Ireland athletes  who have been selected to be part of the Team for the 2007 IAAF World Championships in action at Crystal Palace.

Men

100m Marlon Devonish (Coventry Godiva) Craig Pickering (Marshall Milton Keynes)

400m Martyn Rooney (Croydon Harriers) Andrew Steele (Trafford AC)

800m Michael Rimmer (Liverpool, Pembroke & Sefton)

1,500m Andy Baddeley (Harrow)

5,000m Mo Farah (Newham & Essex)

Marathon & World Cup Peter Riley (Leigh Harriers) Daniel Robinson (Stroud & District AC)

3,000m s/chase Andrew Lemoncello (Fife AC)

110h Andy Turner (Sale Harriers Manchester)

400h Dale Garland (Channel Islands)

High Jump Martyn Bernard (Wakefield Harriers) Germaine Mason (Unattached)

Pole Vault Steve Lewis (Newham & Essex)

Long Jump Greg Rutherford (Marshall Milton Keynes) Chris Tomlinson (Newham & Essex)

Triple Jump Phillips Idowu (Belgrave Harriers)

4 x 100 Marlon Devonish (Coventry Godiva) Tyrone Edgar (Newham & Essex) Mark Lewis Francis (Birchfield Harriers) Craig Pickering (Marshall Milton Keynes)

4 x 400 Tim Benjamin (Cardiff AAC) Martyn Rooney (Croydon Harriers) Andrew Steele (Trafford AC) Robert Tobin ( Basingstoke & Mid Hants)

1,500m Wheelchair David Weir (Velocity Wheelchair Racers)

Car-parking available, or take the greener option and arrive by train, bus or ferry.

Hampton Court Flower Show
July 3 -8, 2007

What makes this show so different from Chelsea is the amount of space that allows you to really see the gardens from all aspects.

My favorite was without question the fabulous Infinity Garden: circular in design with a pebble path, circular running track and a circular swimming channel the imaginative venture was designed by Liat and Oliver Schurmann.

The theme of 'gardens with a purpose' was also illustrated by The Growing Together garden inspired by the ancient symbol the "Vesicle Piscis' where two circles merge.

This garden also merged with the University of Essex Centre for Sports and Exercise Science in the shape of  Dr Murray Griffin.  He was there to study the impact on well being, when individuals are in a balanced and harmonious environment such as this garden.

And of course the Environment and Carbon Footprints also played a role in the gardeners' quest to improve society; which included a 25 minute fashion show illustrating just how design can be improved by incorporating fresh flowers into what you wear.

All this was perhaps best encapsulated in the very entertaining and inventive garden sculpture of Anthony Samuelson who suspended a classic 1966 T-Series Bentley - covered in planting -  vertically over a black watery pool .

Thank goodness Hampton Court is here to entertain us!

A recent Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) report uncovered the cold hard, concrete, facts about Britain's urban front gardens and now garden designers at the world's largest annual flower show have been inspired to offer 'green' solutions to the modern front garden.

A survey conducted by MORI for the RHS, revealed that the need for car parking spaces is squeezing out plants and front lawns as paving takes over - but inspiration is at hand for visitors to this summer's RHS-run Hampton Court Palace Flower Show ( July 3-8).

Designer Alistair Kirk Bayford will be creating '23 Green Terrace', a small garden illustrating an alternative to a paved front garden. The garden caters for a small car which can be parked on a reinforced grass area sheltered by a cantilevered green roof which maximises the biodiversity of the space. Rainwater can be harvested from the roof for use in the house and garden and is stored in a tank under the car. Bands of granite and thyme run alongside native hedging and a vertical 'green' wall planted with a mixture of geraniums, salvias and alliums.

'Full Frontal', a small garden from Hadlow College, will also prove that your front garden can provide car parking without becoming a hard surfaced desert. The garden surface is made up of a wire grid with below-ground planting to provide a damp, shady microclimate and allow water to seep into the ground. Above ground, the grid rises and provides climbing support for plants and shelter for birds. The planting scheme will be wildlife-friendly, drought-tolerant and durable to help withstand the urban setting.

Leigh Hunt, RHS Horticultural Advisor, commented, "It's great to see designers taking up the 'green vs paving' challenge. Unlike soil, concrete cannot absorb rainwater and the excess run-off caused by paving can increase by as much as fifty per cent, contributing to localised flooding and other environmental problems. These gardens at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show provide people with attractive, sustainable designs and real, practical solutions to the space problem in urban areas."

Leigh and the rest of the RHS Advisory Team will be on-hand to answer visitors' gardening questions every day of the show.

'Must see' at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2007

Conceptual Gardens Back after its debut in 2006, tomorrow's big names in garden design will be creating innovative and challenging gardens with 'wow' factor in their first appearance at an RHS flower show.

Festival of Roses This marquee holds Britain's largest annual gathering of roses in full bloom from the UK's best rose growers. Around a dozen new roses will be launched at the show and visitors can be some of the first to see the Rose of the Year 2008.

Water Gardens A unique feature of the show, these tranquil water gardens reflect the show's location beside the River Thames. The water garden exhibitors will also be selling aquatic plants.

Inspiring Spaces These plots offer creative container planting solutions to problem areas in the garden such as an awkward corner or small front garden.

Daily Mail Pavilion Be transported back to the 1950s English countryside! RHS Gold Medal winning designers such as Tim Sharples and Rosie Hardy will be creating show gardens around the theme of a Kentish smallholding.

For tickets to the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show call 44870 842 2227

July 3-4, 2007 are reserved for RHS members and their guests, with all welcome 5-8 July.

Ticket info: Tickets range from £13 (US$26)  - £30 (US$60) with children aged 5-15 £5 (except Tues 3) and under 5s free throughout the show.
Full-day or afternoon only tickets are available.

Car-parking available, or take the greener option and arrive by train, bus or ferry.

Abrantee, Stephen K Amos, Richard BlackwoodPipes, 1977 for C.L.O.T.H & Finlandia, screen- printed cotton

FRANCESCA GALLOWAY LTD

NEO CLASSICISM TO POP: European Textile Design 1790-1970
Part I: Twentieth Century Textiles 6 June to 14 July 2007

Cavallo, 1959 British, by Mario Marini for Edinburgh Weavers, cotton and rayon damask

Neo-Classicism to Pop is a two-part exhibition of over 200 European textiles collected over a twenty-year period by Francesca Galloway, one of the leading dealers in the field. The textiles have been chosen not only for their beauty and elegance but also for their relevance to the history of textile design. The first exhibition, devoted to Twentieth Century Textiles, will be shown in Francesca's new gallery at 31 Dover Street, London W1, from Wednesday 6 June to Saturday 14 July 2007.

This exhibition will present a rotating selection from over 100 furnishing textiles and designs that will range from a spectacular printed hanging designed by the Wiener Werkstätte artist, Dagobert Peche, between 1911 and 1918 (fig. 1), to a series of four dramatic woven, silk and metal wall coverings Les Colombes designed by Henri Stephany for the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes (fig. 2). The Art Deco period is well represented by the works of Raoul Dufy (figs. 3 & 4), Alberto Lorenzi (fig. 5), Robert Bonfils (fig. 6), Alfred Latour (fig. 7), Emile Alain Seguy and Paul Dumas.

Although the majority of pre-Second World War textiles are of French origin (fig. 8), the exhibition also includes some rare British furnishing fabrics from the 1930s, in particular the iconic and very elegant Magnolia Leaf by Marion Dorn, woven in off-white and silver viscut by Warner & Sons in 1936 (fig. 9). During this period, Britain attracted talented European designers, such as Jacqueline Groag and Marian Mahler who had trained with Josef Hoffmann at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule. They became highly influential in creating a 'New Look' that took hold of Britain after the austerities of the Second World War. 'The Festival of Britain,' held in 1951, was epitomised by Calyx which launched the career of its designer, Lucienne Day (fig. 10) and is now considered to be a landmark of post-War design. So great was its success that several versions were produced as well as contemporary copies, all of which will be included in this exhibition.

Two great textiles from the 1950s - Seaweed designed by Ashley Havinden in 1954 for Arthur Sanderson and Grecian by Alec Hunter in 1956 for Warner & Sons - bridge the gap between the spirit and elegance of the inter-War period and the new 'contemporary' look of the 1950s (figs 11 & 12).

Britain maintained its pre-eminent position in textile design throughout the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. This was because firms like Edinburgh Weavers, Heal & Sons and Hull Traders and museums such as the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester (the centre of the British textile industry) worked hard at integrating and promoting great design, often by well-known artists, with industry. Among the artists who worked with Edinburgh Weavers were Marino Marini, Victor Vasarely and Alan Reynolds (figs. 13-16). Britain was not alone in applying art to industry. An elegant example of Op Art is the work of the German artist, Wolf Bauer, whose 1969/70 designs for one of the leading American manufacturers, Knoll Textiles, is a highlight of the exhibition (fig. 17).

Francesca Galloway has been dealing in Textiles, Haute Couture and Indian Miniatures for over 25 years. She established a textile department at Spinks in the 1980s before starting her own business in 1992. Major acquisitions have been made in the field of European, early Chinese, Central Asian and Islamic textiles by institutions, collectors and museums all over the world. Publications include Islamic Textile Design, 1980, and The Art of Textiles, 1989, both for Spink & Son Ltd. and the highly successful Post War British Textile Design, 2002.

Exhibition facts

Venue:
Francesca Galloway, 31 Dover Street, London W1S 4ND


Information:
tel. +4420 7499 6844

Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday, 10 am to 5 pm

Price range:
From £200 to over £10,000

Catalogue:
The exhibition will be accompanied by a lavishly illustrated publication in two volumes entitled Neo-Classicism to Pop: European Textile Design 1790-1970 by Sue Kerry. Conceived as a reference book, it is a much needed design source with original and interesting research. Sue Kerry trained as a silk weaver and has spent much of her career in the British textile and wallpaper industry, as archivist for Warners among others.

Each volume will cost £35 or £60 for the two bound volumes.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BLACK 4

at

The Hackney Empire

featuring

stars of music, stage, screen

Abrantee, Stephen K Amos, Richard Blackwood, Boy Blue Entertainment, Eastside Young Leader’s Academy, Mark Elie Dance Foundation, Jocelyn Jee Esien, Victor Romero Evans, Robbie Gee, Mohammed George, David Harewood, Wil Johnson, Kat, Janet Kay, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Eddie Nestor, Cyric Nri, Clarke Peters & Nicola Hughes from Porgy & Bess, Clive Rowe, Peter Straker, Carol Thompson, Upswing Aerial, Curtis Walker

Fundraiser
March 27, 2007

All profits from
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BLACK 4 will go directly to the community of Kwahu-Tafo in Ghana,
the ancestral home-town
of the late actor Gyearbuor Asante.

For more information or to make a donation visit the Friends of Tafo website at www.friendsoftafo.org

where

Hackney Empire 291 Mare St, London, E8 1EJ

when

May 27, 2007 at 7:30pm
how

Box Office: +4420 8985 2424

how much

Tickets £21.50 (US$44) - £13.50 (US$28)  

Pilot Theatre
in partnership with
York Theatre Royal

presents

Sing Yer Hearts Out for the Lads

at

The Hackney Empire

March 22 - 26, 2007

Gala Fundraiser
March 22, 2007

directed by

Marcus Romer

Pilot Theatre In partnership with York Theatre Royal Presents Sing Your Heart Out For The Lads By Roy Williams Directed by Marcus Romer.

As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations for Pilot Theatre Company, a touring production of Roy Williams' shocking and abrasive look at the world of football fans and endemic racism in the working classes in announced for the Autumn Season 2006.

First performed as part of the National theatre's Transformations Season, Sing Your Heart Out For the Lads is a play that tells a story about the underbelly of contemporary England. Set in a pub during the course of an England v Germany game it shows a group of football fans whose fervour and passion for England is overshadowed by a violent mixture of racism, boredom and unfulfilled dreams. As the game kicks off, so too does the atmosphere in the pub.

Marcus Romer's Pilot Theatre is dedicated to making work that focuses on the transition to adulthood that many of the characters in the play are making. The play tackles the sense that racism is an undeclared and endemic problem in the working classes in England, something that the rise of far right political parties in recent years seems to prove. The opinions and thoughts of young people within these communities is a clear indicator of what the future holds. Pilot Theatre's work listens and rather than moralise hopes to open the debate/encourage discussion (or similar).

Roy Williams is rapidly becoming one of the UK's most sought after writers, his plays have won several awards including the Evening Standard Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright and he is currently on commission from the RSC and is also writing a play with Damon Albarn for the National Theatre.Pilot Theatre celebrated its 25th anniversary last year with the launch of Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads and projects for this year include a new production of Look Back In Anger at Harrogate Theatre and Oldham Coliseum and the world premiere of the adaptation of Anne Cassidy's, multi award winning novel Looking for JJ.

Following the gala performance of Sing Yer Hearts Out for the Lads on March 22, footballers from Trinidad and Tobago are set to launch their own players union later this month at a fundraiser at the Hackney Empire, with prominent players and members of the Trinidadian communityin attendance.

T & T World Cup stars Brent Sancho, Ian Cox and Kelvin Jack will join representatives from the professional game and Trinidadian community groups at a fundraising performance of the acclaimed play, 'Sing Yer Hearts Out for the Lads', at the Hackney Empire on March 22, 2007.

All the funds raised from the evening will be used to set up a Trinidad and Tobago Professional Footballers Association based in Port of Spain. The union will seek to support aspiring young professionals from the Islands.

The evening will also feature a celebrity sports memorabilia auction and a post show panel discussion with the T & T players, playwright Roy Williams, cast members and Kick It Out.

where

Hackney Empire 291 Mare St, London, E8 1EJ

when

March 22 - 25, 2007 at 7:30pm
Matinees Thursday and Saturday 2:30pm

how

Box Office: +4420 8985 2424

how much

Tickets £16.50 (US$33) - £10 (US$20)   except for Gala performance

Photograph by Ronald Traeger, 1966(detail) Vogue ©The Condé Nast Publications Ltd

1960'S FASHION & TEXTILES and what's coming up......................................................

Sixties Fashion

through to 25 February 2007

The 1960s were a time of sweeping changes in society, politics and culture. Britain began to prosper again, and the young enjoyed a new freedom. As Time magazine famously explained to its American readers, 'London has burst into bloom. It swings; it is the scene'.  Fashion, together with pop music, became Britain's most spectacular export. Like music, it flouted the rules of propriety and gender. It plundered the past, invented the future and travelled the world to find new ways of dressing. Fashion designers ignited.

The V&A is open daily 10.00 - 17.45 and until 22.00 on Wednesdays and the last Friday of the month. The nearest underground station is South Kensington (Piccadilly, District and Circle lines). For general information call +4420 7942 2000  Box office on +44207 942 2211.

Leonardo: Experience, Experiment and Design
through January  7, 2007 the exhibition provides an unrivalled insight into the mind of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), featuring 60 superb examples of his drawings from British collections brought together for the first time. A number of Leonardo's notebooks are also part of the display. Together they give a vivid picture of Leonardo's thinking on paper across the realms of science, technology, art and design and of his experimental investigation of nature's laws. The drawings and manuscripts are presented together with several large-scale models of his designs and sophisticated computer animations to describe Leonardo's thought processes and illuminate his vision. Inspired by the exhibition,November 24, 2006 Friday Late is dedicated to inventions. The evening includes workshops, performances and debates and will feature some of the most successful inventions as well as some of the most famous flops.

At Home in Renaissance Italy
through January 7, 2007 the riches of the Renaissance interior, and its central role in the flowering of Italian art and culture, are the subject of this exhibition. Masterpieces by Donatello, Carpaccio, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Titian and Veronese, as well as exquisite treasures once in the Medici collections, demonstrate how works of art were originally conceived for affluent Renaissance homes. The exhibition focuses on the main rooms - the sala (reception room), camera (bedroom) and scrittoio (study) - of a wealthy urban interior. With displays of furniture, paintings, textiles, tapestries and decorative arts from the palazzi of Tuscany and the Veneto, the exhibition presents a fresh look at the Renaissance from the perspective of household life. 

Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour
October 10 - December 17, 2006 Twilight's otherworldly and alchemical qualities have long attracted artists. This exhibition draws together works by contemporary photographers and video artists who have explored the visual and psychological effects of twilight. The exhibition includes bodies of works by leading photographers Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Gregory Crewdson, alongside emerging talents such as Liang Yue and Chrystel Lebas and will feature a specially commissioned film installation by Ori Gersht. Admission £5, Concessions £4. Bookings 0870 906 3883 or bookings.office@vam.ac.uk

Light and Sound Installation Volume
november 24, 2006 - January 28, 2007 PART OF THE PLAYSTATION SEASON 3D of Massive Attack, the group's long-time producer Neil Davidge and lighting designers UVA have collaborated with the V&A and PlayStation to create this audio-visual installation in the museum's John Madejski garden. Volume is a grid of vertical light columns which respond visually and with music to visitors' movements. The installation is part of a series of contemporary events supported by PlayStation this winter.

bringing the ocean to the land

for 28 days

around the corner from

Take Britain

June 5, 2006 - July 2, 2006

twenty-four/seven

Lia Ditton entered the single-handed Trans-Atlantic Yacht Race, the 2005 OSTAR, in order to live the subject of her art.

‘Absolute Solitude,’ One Woman, One Boat is about the relationship which developed between the skipper and her boat.

Lia completed her journey in 28 days and she is now re-enacting the time she spent on the ocean 'in dry dock' as her final piece of work as a graduate of the Chelsea schools of Art.

As the weather changes, sails will be hoisted or doused and appropriately trimmed to the conditions. The purpose this time is not to race faster, but to reduce the wind resistance of the anchored yacht.

Replace a seemingly endless expanse of ocean with a sea of people and the work is a static and very different re-enactment of Lia Ditton’s single-handed trans-Atlantic odyssey.

"Absolute Solitude, 1 woman, 1 boat"
is an art project.

Lia Ditton will live for 28 days non-stop in a 40ft by 28ft wide racing Trimaran suspended in inner-city London.

The work will be a static re-enactment of the single-handed trans-Atlantic journey Ditton undertook in 2005. 'Absolute Solitude' is about the relationship which develops between the skipper and her boat and will replicate on land the drama of Ditton's trans-Atlantic odyssey. Visitors will be invited to climb to a viewing platform and view the boat's 10ft by 6ft cabin and encouraged to interact with Ditton, who will follow the same 24-hour sleep pattern as if racing. A celebrated yachtswoman and artist, Ditton entered the 2005 Faraday Mill OSTAR, her first solo Trans-Atlantic Yacht race, in order to live the subject of her art and combine her two passions art and sailing. This time using the internet, the exhibition itself is trans-Atlantic, as visitors to Galerie Emourlot in New York will be able converse with Lia during the course of the installation using a unique new voice over IP (VoIP) Siemens Dual Dect C450 phone, installed by sponsor ProVu.

Commenting on the interactive art installation Lia Ditton said, "Inspired by the great William Turner, who tied himself to the rail of a ship in the throe of a storm to experience the subject of his painting, I wanted to communicate my experience by entering the Faraday Mill OSTAR last year to research the subject of my art. I'm hoping 'Absolute Solitude' will allow visitors to experience the excitement of crossing the Atlantic."

Similar to Ellen McArthur's B&Q Trimaran, Ditton's boat is now mounted in the Courtyard of Chelsea College.

Dancing Queens, jaw-dropping hits, score-board toppers – it can only be the

Eurovision & ABBA Tribute with BBC Concert Orchestra

for a one night stand

at

Hackney Empire

May 25, 7.30pm

The BBC Concert Orchestra celebrates 50 years of one of the greatest song contests on earth, Eurovision, with a special tribute to its most famous winners, ABBA. West End stars will sing the best hits generated over the last five decades.

Conducted by David Arnold and hosted by popular BBC Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce, the celebration focuses on the best UK entries to date. From the sixties we have Puppet on a String, Congratulations and Boom Bang a Bang. The seventies gave us what is considered to be one of Eurovision’s most successful winners on the score-board, Save All Your Kisses For Me, which was followed up with the smash hit Making Your Mind Up in the eighties. The nineties also brought us two more chart-toppers with Love Shine a Light and Just a Little Bit, and there’ll be plenty more from a repertoire of entries past. Whether revered or ridiculed, these songs have endured the test of time and enjoyed huge pop chart success, the testament to this being ABBA, the 1974 winners with Waterloo, which launched their hugely successful career.

Conductor:
David Arnold

Host: 
Ken Bruce

Guest Artists:  
Joanne Farrell, Zoë Tyler,
Alex Gaumond and Chris Manoe

Programme:

Eurovision & ABBA Tribute Concert

Hackney Empire, Mare St

Bookings: +44208 985 2424

Tickets are £20 (US$38)/£16 (US$30)/£12 (US$22)

and more shows to follow including:

Ellen Kent and Opera International

present

The Ukrainian National Opera of Odessa

in collaboration with

The Chisinau National Opera

Verdi 's Rigoletto

on

June 4, 2006 at 7:30pm

From two of the loveliest Opera Houses in Europe comes a stunning traditional production of Verdi’s masterpiece Rigoletto, by the Ukrainian National Opera of Odessa in collaboration with the Chisinau National Opera following its critically acclaimed visit to the Royal Albert Hall in 2003.

Based on a play by Victor Hugo, who wrote Les Miserables, Verdi has a libretto truly worthy of his talent. Rigoletto is a tale of a dissolute duke and a jester whose overwhelming love for his daughter leads to tragedy. The Ukrainian National Opera of Odessa in collaboration with the Chisinau National Opera offer some of the world’s leading talents including the soprano *Irina Vinogradova, soprano *Rosa Lee Thomas, who sang in Ellen Kent’s opera productions at the Royal Albert Hall, talented soprano *Elena Gherman and the young soprano Maria Tsonina, the talented soloist with the Chisinau National Opera who won the Vienna Opera House Young Opera Singer Competition. The leading baritone of the Chisinau National Opera, Vladimir Dragos, will sing Rigoletto alongside international Italian tenor Ruslan Zinevych as Duke, who sang with Pavarotti and a young 27 year old Ukrainian tenor Andriy Perfilov* who will be making his debut and is reminiscent of a young Placido Domingo.

******************  followed by

SHAMAN

Box Office Tel: 0208 985 2424

from June 12, 2006 to June 18, 2006

Making their UK debut, the remarkable dance group from Turkey, Shaman, really is a “Turkish Delight”!  The name Shaman - derived from an historical figure called “Saman” - can be traced to many Anatolian traditional dances and folk songs.

Arrays of colourful costumes supported by brilliant chorography of other branches of dances from all over Anatolia, folk songs, modern dance, bale, acrobatics, Flamenco, Hungarian, Caucasian, Georgian, Abhaz to Balkan are accompanies by sounds from rare ethnic stringed instruments and percussion.

A cast of 40 artists bring to life fairy tales, stories and legends which have been told a hundred of years.

Following the sell-out knock 'em dead mini tour of Autumn 2005, the Grumpy Old Women are back with a vengeance for 90 minutes of theatrical HRT.

Inspired by the ratings busting BBC TWO series and best selling Grumpy Old Women handbook, Grumpy Old Women Live, is a celebration of the pre, peri and post menopausal female condition.

More than just a typical baby-boomer grype....

BOX OFFICE +44870 060 6651
All Tickets £19/$34 (+ bkg fee)

More than just films and a festival wrap-up to follow

.

Festival Wrap-up!

The London Film Festival sets itself apart from many other film festivals.  Firstly, it is not a competition.  And secondly, it offers more than just movies.

The two-week festival is crammed full of all things to do with movies - chose from from lectures or discussion groups; presentations by the film-makers or film series 'at selected cinemas near you'.  For several days you can bury yourself in darkened theaters and watch a world of almost constant entertainment.

Selecting from the list of movies can be a time-consuming task; and when you do make your choice you have to be prepared to take the rough with the smooth, the good with the not so good; and the far too long with the perfect length movie.

Taking from the world of movies an insight into moving making from the four corners of the world as well as in insightful look into many the many local cultures seen through the eyes of the local script writers,  directors and directors of photography, the dedicated film go-er is treated to a virtual smorgasbord of entertainment.

Whether it's a big budget movie or a low-cost documentary, the discerning always keep in mind that there are two things - among many others - which make for a good movie: a good story and beautiful art-direction/photography. 

Murderball

Take three documentaries:   Murderball (USA); Estimira (Brazil) and Living in a Falcon (Argentina).

Living in a Falcon is a delightful low budget movie which provides the audience with a thoughtful look at the aspirations of the homeless living inside a classic car - in this case the Falcon -   as they survive on the streets of a capital city.  The film not only portrays the lifestyle of some of the homeless in Argentina.  It also explains how living on the streets actually works and is seen by some as preferable to living within the confines of a more solid structure.

The generosity and warmth of the people characterizes the culture.  Living in a Falcon tells the story of two men, one who has been living in his car for several years; and the second who is searching for his own Falcon to make his home.

There is little to tell us where these cars come from - they are just abandoned; but the story transports the audience to a different country and a to a different world which in many respects shares many similarities to every other capital city.

In contrast, Estimira - a stunningly beautiful movie - also tackles the homeless,  but in this case there is less hope.   Director, Marcos Prado making best use of this past career, produces a visually stunning movie about Estimira, a schizophrenic woman who lives on one of the huge mountains of garbage in Brazil's cities. 

As a photographer he is drawn into the visual imagery of the slums and poverty of Brazil and Prado tells us the story of one woman.  But despite moments of humour - particularly the brief conversations Estimira has with her equally homeless 'boyfriend'  - the movie is too long to keep our attention.

Estimra's personalities are often confusing and sometimes indistinguishable.  One problem with this movie is the difficulty in following the dialogue (specifically the English language translation) of a woman who is schizophrenic.  Rather than a story with a beginning, middle and end, this movie is a snapshot of a time in her life.  Despite the fact that the film is often very moving and very beautiful, it is difficult to decipher and fails to keep the audience's attention.

In sharp contrast Muderball is a winner on all counts.  The documentary - which takes a close-up look at the very competitive world of quad rugby - tells a story which was just waiting to be told.   Players from different countries 'spinning their wheels' in 'MadMax' look-alike wheelchairs play a basketball-type game to win Paralympic medals and World championships.

The audience is given the opportunity to see athletes - who are as driven as any other athletes competing for their country - competing and behind the scenes in training and at home.

The producers/directors really lucked out when Joe Soares, the coach of the USA team was fired and went over to the other side - TeamCanada. With great humor, Murderball follows the two teams and one coach determined to get his revenge.  His determination - including a heart attack - is unsentimentally documented in the run up to the Athens Paralympics. 

What gives this documentary the edge is its great story.  As Murderball follows the progress of sporting 'jocks' in wheelchairs it is a sad indictment of the industry, that this most popular sell-out sport gets no sponsorship in the US. Team members (who are often financially supported by other team members who received substantial payouts in  damages) confront their lives with a relentless humour.

This hugely entertaining documentary provides a hands-on insight into a very determined group of athletes competing in a sport where - like any other - only the winners make the grade!

Recommended movies in no particular order include  - among many others: The Constant Gardener, Walk the Line, Separate Lies, Little Jerusalem, Isolated, The Proposition,  Ultranova, L'Enfant, The March of the Penguins and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

More than just films

Headlining the Festival events is the series of The Times Screen Talks which feature discussions with: veteran director Terry Gilliam (The Fisher King, Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brothers Grimm); Mexico’s Gael García Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries, Bad Education, The King); leading Hollywood screenwriter turned director Shane Black (The Long Kiss Goodnight, Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang); and a just confirmed Times Screen Talk with enigmatic actor Guy Pearce (The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of The Desert, L.A. Confidential, The Proposition).

Complementing these public interviews, BAFTA and The Times bfi London Film Festival present: a discussion with one of France’s most prolific directors: François Ozon in Conversation (8 Women, 5x2, Time To Leave). Fast becoming one of the UK’s foremost cinematographers, the Festival is pleased to present a masterclass with Alwin Kuchler (Morvern Callar, The Mother, Proof) moderated by production designer Mark Tildesley (24 Hour Party People, The Mother, The Constant Gardener).

Free events include The Hollywood Reporter’s discussion In Sync: The Director/Producer Dynamic which will bring Sweet Sixteen Films director producer team Ken Loach (My Name Is Joe, Sweet Sixteen, Ae Fond Kiss) and Rebecca O'Brien, together with The Constant Gardner director producer team Fernando Meirelles and Simon Channing Williams, to discuss what makes a winning director/producer relationship.

The Festival features a broad range of panel discussions including An Enticing Proposition, presented in association with The Script Factory, where director John Hillcoat and musician turned screenwriter Nick Cave will discuss taking The Proposition from script to screen. Acclaimed director of music documentary, The Fearless Freaks, Bradley Beesley and Murderball director, Henry Alex Rubin will both participate in Access All Areas to discuss the importance and challenges of getting access to talent and their confidants when making documentaries.

A series of free panel discussions, The Time Out Platform Events, will be held which will see producer and Stoned director, Stephen Woolley join a panel discussion on the portrayal of London on screen in London On Film; director and photographer, Perry Ogden (Pavee Lakeen) will look at where the borders lie between fine art and narrative cinema in From Art To Film; and director of Lemming Dominik Moll will join producer, Bruno Pesery, and actress, Isabelle Carré, from Entre Ses Mains in a discussion about what makes French cinema so prolific in Vive La France. Other topics up for discussion include the influence of London on innovative film-makers at the onedotzero panel discussion, This Is London, featuring panelists London author Iain Sinclair and film-maker and ‘St. Etienne’ collaborator Paul Kelly.

Late night revellers are invited to join the party celebrations which follow the 3rd ANTENNA Anniversary!: Directors Special where music video director and director of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Garth Jennings, will give a commentary on a showcase of music promos from around the world. A burlesque and theatrical evening celebrating the best in short film-making, Future Cinema hosted in conjunction with the Festival by Future Shorts will feature live performances from avant-garde popsters The Real Tuesday Weld and audio-visual architects The Light Surgeons.

The Festival will also present no less than 44 education events to students, teachers and parents in the greater London area and The Script Factory returns with Scene, a three day mini festival of masterclasses and events designed to motivate film-makers to talk and think about the art and business of making films.

The Times Screen Talk: Guy Pearce Tue 25 Oct 18.30 NFT1

Regarded as one of the most complex actors of his generation, Guy Pearce made his mark a decade ago playing a pretty young drag queen in The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of The Desert. The film was a box office and critical hit, becoming one of the 10 most successful Australian films of all time and receiving an Oscar and two Golden Globe nominations. Since that time Pearce’s diverse array of roles include Detective Ed Exley in Curtis Hanson’s marvellous L.A. Confidential, amnesiac Leonard Shelby in Christopher Nolan’s Memento and hardened criminal Dale Twentyman in the Australian heist movie, The Hard Word. In his most recent film, The Proposition, a stunning tale of retribution set in the frontier of 1880s Australia, Pearce gives a remarkable performance as the tormented Charlie Burns, a member of the outlaw Burns gang who is given an impossible proposition by law enforcer Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone). We are delighted to welcome him to the NFT to discuss his career to date.

There will be an additional screening of The Proposition on Tue 25 Oct 13.45 NFT2

The Times Screen Talk with Guy Pearce replaces that with Pierce Brosnan on Tue 25 Oct 18.30 NFT1 which has been cancelled due to conflicting filming commitments.

The Times Screen Talk: Shane Black Sat 29 Oct 14.00 NFT1

Shane Black started out in LA as an actor, but his first screenplay Lethal Weapon in 1987 led him to becoming the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood, earning up to $4 million for a single script. Films such as The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight in 1996 cemented the perception of him as a master of the action movie. After an absence of ten years, he’s back with his directorial debut, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, a stylish, darkly comic murder mystery set within the confines of the Hollywood film industry.

The Times Screen Talk: Gael García Bernal Sun 30 Oct 14.00 NFT1

An actor from a young age, Gael García Bernal appeared in soap operas in his native Mexico before making his feature film debut in Alejandro González Iñárittu’s Oscar nominated, Amores Perros. It was a breakout role for the actor which led to remarkable performances in Y Tu Mamá Tabién, El Crimen del Padre Amaro, The Motorcycle Diaries and Almodovar’s Bad Education. Earlier this year Bernal starred Federico Garcia Lorca’s ‘Blood Wedding’ at the Almeida Theatre. His most recent film is The King.

The Times Screen Talk: Terry Gilliam Tue 1 Nov 18.30 NFT1

From Jabberwocky to Time Bandits, Brazil to 12 Monkeys, The Fisher King To Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Terry Gilliam has made some of cinema’s most fantastically imaginative and visually distinctive films. In 1975 he co-directed Monty Python And The Holy Grail with Terry Jones and in 1977 made his first outing as director on a non-Python project, the medieval fantasy Jabberwocky. Famously uncompromising, he has often had to struggle to realise his vision on projects such as Lost In La Mancha, and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. His latest film The Brothers Grimm is a dark and magical imagining, focusing on the adventures of the fairytale scribes.

The Times Debate with Screen International: Is Home The New Cinema? Wed 26 Oct 18.15 NFT2

Guest will debate the issues of piracy, digital cinema and simultaneous DVD releases, which have far-reaching consequences for film-makers and cinemagoers alike. The guest speakers will argue for and against the motion before the audience is invited to cast their votes. The Times Editor Robert Thomson will chair this event. Confirmed panelists include Chairman and CEO of UIP Stewart Till and the CEO of Video Island and Screen Select Simon Calver.

An Enticing Proposition Thu 27 Oct 18.30 NFT1

John Hillcoat and Nick Cave discuss the development of their most recent collaboration The Proposition from script to screen. Previous collaborations include Hillcoat’s bleak prison drama Ghosts…of the Civil Dead, his jungle set thriller To Have and to Hold and a number of music promos and live sets for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Journalist and broadcaster, Nick Roddick, will chair this event. Confirmed panelists include singer/songwriter/scriptwriter of The Proposition, Nick Cave, and director John Hillcoat.

The Hollywood Reporter Presents: In Sync: The Director/Producer Dynamic Thu 20 Oct 18.15 NFT2

Of all the collaborations that go into the making of a film, the one between the director and producer is perhaps the most vital. Without them sharing a common goal, without compromise, trust and open lines of communication between the two, the outcome of a film can be far from satisfactory. Featuring two high profile film-making teams, this panel discussion will ask what makes a winning producer/director relationship and look at how the decisions both parties make, both creative and financial, affect the ultimate success of a project. The Hollywood Reporter’s London-based Bureau Chief Stuart Kemp will chair this discussion. Confirmed panelists include, the team behind The Constant Gardener, director Fernando Meirelles, producer Simon Channing Williams and Sweet Sixteen Films team director Ken Loach and producer Rebecca O'Brien.

Alwin Kuchler – Cinematography Masterclass Sun 30 Oct 16.00 NFT2

Fast becoming one of the UK’s foremost cinematographers, Alwin Kuchler began his career collaborating with Lynne Ramsay, with whom he studied at the National Film and Television School. He shot her award-winning short films Small Deaths and Gasman as well as the features Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar, for which Kuchler won the 2002 British Independent Film Award for Best Technical Achievement and Kodak prize for Cinematographer at the Dinard Film Festival. His other credits include Stephen Frears’ television drama The Deal, Kevin Macdonald’s One Day in September, Roger Michell’s The Mother, Michael Winterbottom’s The Claim and Code 46 and most recently John Madden’s Proof which we are delighted to be screening as part of this year’s Festival. Currently at work on Danny Boyle’s sci-fi feature Sunshine, we are delighted that he has made himself available to participate in what promises to be a fascinating Masterclass.

London On Film Mon 24 Oct 20.30 Delegates’ Centre

A discussion on the portrayal of London to mark the publication of the Time Out special edition 'London on Film' will be chaired by Time Out Film Editor Dave Calhoun. Confirmed panelists include director and producer of Stoned, Stephen Woolley.

From Art To Film Mon 31 Oct 20.30 Delegates’ Centre

Where do the borders lie between fine art and narrative cinema? As several significant artists move into film-making, the panel will ask what makes a meaningful transition from one medium to the other. Confirmed panelists include photography, director and producer of Pavee Lackeen, Perry Ogden.

Vive La France Thu 27 Oct 20.30 Delegates’ Centre

What makes French cinema so prolific and so varied? Is it government support? Is it cultural difference? Is it both – or neither? Chairing the event will be film critic Jonathan Romney. Confirmed panelists include director of Lemming Dominik Moll, producer of Entre Ses Mains Bruno Pesery; and actress in Entre Ses Mains and L’Avion Isabelle Carré.

Future Shorts present: Future Cinema Tue 1 Nov 20.00 SE ONE Club, Weston St, London Bridge, SE1

Europe’s leading and most innovative short film label, Future Shorts, and The Times bfi London Film Festival invite audiences to Future Cinema, a burlesque and theatrical evening celebrating the most exciting emerging talent. In addition to the best in short film-making, the evening will include fantastic shows from critically acclaimed avant-garde popsters The Real Tuesday Weld, who will be scoring a live soundtrack to the classic surrealist film, Dreams That Money Can Buy, and audio-visual architects The Light Surgeons who will remix the cult 1950s film The Fountainhead. If that wasn’t enough, dancers and performers will also work with the curators to create a truly unforgettable night. There will be performances from The Light Surgeons, The Real Tuesday Weld and Cellorythmics

Preserving Artist's Moving Images Tue 1 Nov 21.00 NFT 3

The Times bfi London Film Festival will stage a special panel discussion focusing on the challenges associated with archiving and preserving artists’ moving images. This event will be chaired by: Head of Moving Image, Arts Council England Gary Thomas. Confirmed panelists include Film Preservationist, The Academy Mark Toscano, Film Preservationist and Programmer, Anthology Archives Andrew Lampert and Curator of Artists Film, NFTVA William Fowler.

Antennaversary! 3rd Birthday Directors Special Thu 27 Oct 21.00 NFT1

Antenna mark the passing of their third year showcasing the finest, most innovative, dangerous, and beautiful music promos from around the world at the NFT. A panel of very special guest directors will comment on the promos and share insider industry knowledge. The panel discussion will be followed by a booty shaking after-party with special guest DJs. Confirmed guests include director of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Garth Jennings.

onedotzero presents: This is London Mon 24 Oct 18.30 NFT3

onedotzero present a specially curated event looking at the influence of London on innovative film-makers and creatives. London’s reputation for producing and attracting innovative artists and film-makers, and as a source of inspiration is immense. This session will present a series of creatives from different areas – from music video to live performance and film – on whom London has been a keen influence and who have presented fresh and contemporary visions of London. Head of Onedotzero, Shane Walter, will chair this event. Confirmed panelists include writer and director Chris Petit, writer of London Orbital Iain Sinclair; and director Paul Kelly.

Classification: New Challenges Thu 27 Oct 11.00 Marriott County Hall, London SE1

International classification bodies have previously seen as, and often criticized for, protecting the general public from obscenity, blasphemy and violence on our screens. Now they increasingly come under pressure from a number of other sources including religious groups seeking to be protected from negative representations of their faith; a general concern about the ease with which images previously deemed ‘unsuitable’ can be now be seen; and a general cultural move to see classification as consumer advice rather than strict regulation enforceable by law. This discussion will examine the new challenges facing international classification bodies as well as asking, in the light of new systems of digital delivery, whether it is possible to classify at all any longer? Professor of Film and Television, Brunel University, Julian Petley, will chair this event. The panel will include Director of the British Board of Film Classification David Cooke; Chairman of the Board of Film Censors, Singapore, Amy Chua; Professor of Film Studies, Belgrade Nevena Dakovic; and Film Censor, Ireland, John Kelleher.

Francine Stock will talk to director Peter Yates about his cult classic Bullitt (1968), starring Steve McQueen and featuring the most memorable car case in cinema history. In this special Times bfi London Film Festival event, Peter Yates will be introducing key scenes from the film. He’ll reveal what went on behind the scenes, and will describe the technical struggle to film the famous vertiginous car chase on location in San Francisco. At the time it was ground-breaking: to use real cars, real streets – it’s a chase which has been imitated ever since, but, many would argue, never equalled.

Film In Print Sun 23 Oct 16.15 NFT3

Since early cinema people have written about the art of filmmaking, whether in a critical context, from a biographical or academic standpoint. On occasion, a writer’s influence can extend beyond the page. Pauline Kael not only changed how film was written about, but could also hold sway over a film-maker’s career. More recently, Peter Biskind and others have invoked tremors within the film industry by providing an insider’s viewpoint on the machinations of Hollywood. Featuring representatives from publishers as well as established writers and directors, this event, presented in association with Faber publishing, will look at what is being written about, what is being published, and why. And, perhaps most interestingly, will ask film-makers how they feel about the way their work is represented in print. Confirmed panelists include The Observer film critic Philip French, publisher of Wallflower Press Yoram Allon; and publisher of Faber Walter Donohue.

SCHWEPPES PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE 2005

ANNOUNCEMENT OF SHORTLIST

The judges of this year's Schweppes Prize - the leading showcase for new talent in portrait photography -  selected 60 portraits for the exhibition from the 6,000 submitted images.

The exhibition runs from November 9, 2005 – February 12, 2006 at the National Portrait Gallery.

Four photographers have been shortlisted for the £15,000 Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize, a major international photography award.

Ric Bower (b1967) lives and works in West Wales as a photographer, painter and teacher of drawing. The image Three Generations which depicts the artist's family is part of a series of conceptual portraits exploring how and why people pray. Ric graduated with a first-class degree in photography in 2005.

Three Generations (from Prayer)

Ric Bower
Ó Ric Bower

UK-based German photographer Philipp Ebeling (b1977) won the 2004 Observer Hodge Photographic Award for his series of photographs shot during a short snow flurry at Whitechapel Market, East London. His shortlisted portrait of Georgina Potier was the result of a commission to photograph winners at an award ceremony.

Georgina, Royal College of Arts, London

Philipp Ebeling
Ó Philipp Ebeling

Australian-born photographer Shara Henderson (b1978) now freelance in London, gained a Bachelor of Arts in Photography with High Distinctions, at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. In 2004 she completed an internship with Mary Ellen Mark in New York. The sitting took place in a Polish town called 'Brzeg Dolny', just outside the city of Wroclaw in the summer of 2004.

Girl with Baby – Poland

Shara Henderson
Ó Shara Henderson

Swedish-born photographer Magnus Reed (b1965) has worked on reportage photography covering the war in Afghanistan and has made a documentary on the beatnik generation. He discovered Jack and Amy, the subjects of his shortlisted portrait - which captures the feelings of adolescence - in his home town of Brighton.

Amy and Jack

Magnus Reed
Ó Magnus Reed

the winner will be announced

at a ceremony on November 7, 2005.

The £5,000 Deloitte Award for the best portrait taken by a photographer age 25 or under, will be presented at the same time.

competition judges:

Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery (Chair)

Val Williams, Curator, writer and Director of Research Centre for Photography and the Archive, London College of Communication

Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, Serpentine Gallery

Eamonn McCabe, Photographer, The Guardian

Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs, National Portrait Gallery

Jawlensky and Werefkin 1909

Gabriele Münter: The Search for Expression 1906-1917

through 11 September,2005

Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery
Somerset House, The Strand.

Street in Murnau 1908

Gabriele Münter (1877-1962) played a vital role in the development of German Expressionism in the early years of the 20th century. She was at the forefront of a group of highly influential avant-garde artists, including her lover Wassily Kandinsky, who redirected the course of German modernism and shaped Expressionist aesthetics. Münter was a founder member both of the progressive artists' association, the Neue Kunstlervereinigung Munchen (NKVM), and the celebrated avant-garde group, der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider). This exhibition has been made possible by the Gabriele Münter Supporters Circle.

Gabriele Münter: The Search for Expression 1906-1917 is the first ever museum exhibition of Münter's work in Britain. It   features 21 important paintings from the most intensively creative period of her career. The exhibition includes a small number of works from British private collections but the majority of paintings have been selected from the outstanding collections of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, to which Münter bequeathed her estate in 1957 and which houses the finest collection of Blaue Reiter paintings in the world. Several of these loans to the Courtauld are masterpieces of Münter's oeuvre and some have never been shown outside Germany before.

Village Street in Winter 1908

The exhibition begins with three paintings from 1906 that Münter produced during a period of intermittent travel with Kandinsky, which included stays in Holland and France. During these years Münter practised a loosely defined form of Impressionism epitomised by Avenue in the Park Saint Cloud. However, in 1908 a dramatic change in her work occurred. That summer, Münter and Kandinsky discovered the little town of Murnau. Here, in the Bavarian Alps, began a period of unprecedented creativity. Accompanied by friends and fellow painters Alexej Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin, they laid the foundations of the Blaue Reiter movement. The innovations of the Post-Impressionists, Nabis and Fauves, informed the remarkable artistic awakening that took place there. With a shared sense of purpose the small group shed the vestiges of naturalism which, for Münter, was a revelation.

Münter's painting from this time is broadly characterised by her use of heightened, bold and bright colour, together with a forceful simplification of form and a rejection of conventional perspective. In works such as View of the Murnau Moors and Jawlensky and Werefkin, broad areas of bright, flat colour were enclosed by heavy black outlines: the results were radical and innovative and comprise some of the most important paintings of her career, such as the famous Listening (Portrait of Jawlensky). However, Münter's work during this period never solidifies into a stylistic formula; it is always fugitive, always searching. As she put it, "When I begin to paint, it's like leaping suddenly into deep waters, and I never know beforehand whether I will be able to swim."

The following summer of 1909, the group returned to Murnau and Münter decided to buy a house. The Russian house, as it became known, acted as the group's base and Münter grew increasingly interested in Murnau's colourful Bavarian architecture and its local folk art and religious glass painting traditions. As Village Street in Winter and Dark Still Life (Secret) show, Münter began to incorporate these techniques and aesthetics into her own work.

The sense of community and possibility at Murnau contributed to the foundation of a new progressive artists' association, the NKVM, which held its first exhibition in Munich in December 1909. Münter's contributions attracted scathing reviews. She continued to exhibit with the NKVM, along with Kandinsky, until 1911 when internal tensions led to the couple resigning their membership. A counter-group was quickly established, the Blaue Reiter, and Münter showed work, including Dark Still Life (Secret), in both Blaue Reiter exhibitions in 1911 and 1912, which are seen as the cornerstone of German modernism. Her work was included in the groundbreaking Blaue Reiter almanac, a collection of essays and illustrations promoting a radical vision of spiritual renewal in art that Kandinsky and Franz Marc published in May 1912.

The advent of the First World War brought an end to the group's activities. As a Russian national, the conflict meant that Kandinsky could no longer stay in Germany. The couple fled to Switzerland and separated in Zurich in November 1914. Münter travelled to Berlin before they reunited briefly in Stockholm. Companions for nearly fifteen years, Kandinsky left for Russia in March 1916 and the couple were never to meet again.

Münter remained in Scandinavia. Here, in contact with the Swedish avant-garde, her work underwent considerable change. Moving away from the landscapes and still lifes of her earlier work, she now produced an important group of paintings of women in interiors, often characterised by a melancholy or thoughtful mood, and the most important of these, Reflection, is the final work in the exhibition.

It was not until 1931 that Münter returned to Murnau. There she formed a close friendship with the art historian Johannes Eichner and resumed her career. She revisited the simplified forms and expressive use of colour that had characterised her early production; but in conservative circles her work was still considered controversial. Nazi officials denounced her 1937 exhibition at the Art Association in Munich. Only after the War would Münter begin to achieve recognition for her unique contribution to the development of modernism in Germany.

Reflection 1917

Opening hours:

Daily 10 am to 6 pm, last admission 5.15 pm

Admission:

Included in admission to permanent collection - Adult: £5.00 (US$9) 

Contact details

Tel. +4420 7848 2526
Fax. +4420 7848 2589

presents the

World Premiere

of

FAIR

by Joy Wilkinson

at

Finborough Theatre
118 Finborough Road
London SW10

August 12 - September 3, 2005
 

presents the World Premiere of

FAIR

by Joy Wilkinson.

................The problem's simple. We pay top dollar for the shittest health, housing, schools and you name it cos your government wants its global economy so we have to give up everything and whatever's left gets diverted to your diverse mates.

Burnley writer, Joy Wilkinson, confronts the racism brewing in Britain's northern towns and beyond. What's turning young people to the right? How and why are the BNP managing to recruit?

This is a dizzying new play for the summer, set in the heat of the fairground. Upside down on the Revolution ride, Railton meets Melanie. A spin on the waltzer, some chips and a spliff and it goes off like fireworks until she discovers his politics and the relationship implodes. Except this time Melanie can't just pack her backpack and get away. This time she has to stay and face Railton as they clash over their dads' plans to mark one year on from the race riots. Which is more fitting for Britain today - a traditional English fair or a multi-cultural mela? After this rollercoaster of a play it's not so easy to tell right from left, wrong from right, black from white.

Joy's writing penetrates the attitudes and prejudices of this community in a witty and theatrical way that puts a whole new spin on northern drama, with waltzers for settees and Pepper's Ghosts flickering in the twilight. Her first play, Felt Effects, was joint winner of Soho Theatre's prestigious Verity Bargate Award. Her other plays include Interior Design for the Undead, winner of the International Student Playscript Competition, and The Aquatic Ape, performed in the 5065 Lift at last year's Edinburgh Festival - "Outlandishly brilliant...It is well written, sparky, clever and funny" ****Three Weeks. This is Joy's first full production in London.

Fair and Felt Effects are being published in a joint volume by Nick Hern books.

Floodtide continues its programme of challenging new plays, after successes such as Hyperlynx at the Tricycle, Wild Raspberries at the Glasgow Citizen's Theatre and Wolf Game at The Union. It's recent Change project brought together ten of London's most interesting young writers, including Joy Wilkinson, with ten directors and forty actors to create a UK election special. On Floodtide's work: 'If only world leaders possessed such foresight'. The List 'A welcome antidote to despair'. The Sunday Herald 'Questions all motivations...' The Independent

Helen Eastman returns to the Finborough after her acclaimed production of The Monument in 2003. In the interim Helen has directed two operas - Hansel and Gretel at Cork Opera House (as a celebration of their 150th anniversary and status as European Capital of Culture) and the world premiere of Bug Off! for a Northern Ireland tour. She has assisted Michael Attenborough at The Almeida and, for Floodtide, initiated and directed the Change project . She has been made honorary fellow in contemporary performance practice at Westminster University and a Projects Associate for the Almeida.

On Helen's work: "Five stars. Deserving of a longer run and a wider audience, this is extraordinary stuff." What's On, The Monument. "A provocative experience. You leave the auditorium with a knot in the gut, and damp earth in your nostrils." Time Out on The Monument Sunday Times Pick of the Fringe for The Cure at Troy ''Five Stars. A must see. Superbly acted and stylishly staged.' Three Weeks on The Cure at Troy "'Five Stars. This is exactly the sort of quietly brilliant theatre that so often gets missed" Three Weeks on Wild Raspberries

review to follow: this show is not recommended!

what you ned to know

Finborough Theatre, The Finborough, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Box Office +44870 4000 838 Tuesday August 16th - Saturday, September 3, 2005 Tuesday to Saturday Evenings at 7.30pm. Sunday Matinees at 3.30pm. Tickets £12($20), £9($15) concessions. Tuesday Evenings £9($15) all seats. Saturday evenings £12($20) all seats. Previews (August 16th and 17th) £8($13) all seats.

who's who

Directed by Helen Eastman.

Designed by James Cotterill.

James Cotterill trained in Theatre Production at RADA before completing the Motley Theatre Design Course. Recently he has designed Big Sale (Protein Dance), The Fool (Vanbrugh Theatre, RADA) and The Cudgel and the Rapier (Liquid Theatre/BAC), As assistant designer to Dick Bird he has worked on Tejas Verdes (The Gate), The Gondoliers (Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf), Lear (Sheffield Crucible), Dirty Wonderland (Frantic Assembly), The Gambler (Maastricht) and currently Fatal Harvest (Royal Court).

Lighting Design by Neill Brinkworth.

Cast: Jonathan Jaynes, Rebecca Everett and Matthew Wilson.

Jonathan Jaynes, whose distinguished career had included playing Caliban in The Tempest and Gora in Wicked Yaar! at the National Theatre, Judd in Bouncers at Hull Truck Theatre Company, Harry Doulton in Equus at Salisbury Playhouse and Jack in Happy Famillies and Levin in Anna Karenina at Watford Palace is joined on stage by two new LAMDA graduates, Blackburn-born Matthew Wilson and Rebecca Everett.

finborough theatre - 25 years old

Founded in 1980, and celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2005, the Finborough Theatre presents new British writing, UK premieres of overseas drama, particularly from the United States, Canada and Ireland, music theatre and unjustly neglected plays from the last 150 years.

In its first decade, artists working at the theatre included Clive Barker, Kathy Burke, Ken Campbell, Mark Rylance and Clare Dowie (the world premiere of Adult Child/Dead Child). From 1991-1994, the theatre was at the forfront of the explosion of new writing with Naomi Wallace's first play The War Boys; Rachel Weisz in David Farr's Neville Southall's Washbag which later became the award-winning West End play, Elton John's Glasses; and three plays by Anthony Neilson - The Year of the Family; Normal: the Dusseldorf Ripper; and Penetrator which transferred from the Traverse and went on to play at the Royal Court Upstairs. From 1994, the theatre was run by The Steam Industry. Highlights included new plays by Tony Marchant, David Eldridge Mark Ravenhill and Phil Willmott, new writing development including Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and F***king (Royal Court, West End and Broadway) and Naomi Wallace's Slaughter City (Royal Shakespeare Company), the UK premiere of David Mamet's The Woods, and Anthony Neilson's The Censor which transferred to the Royal Court.

Neil McPherson became Artistic Director in 1999. Time Out Critics' Choice winners since then have included the UK premieres of Brad Fraser's Wolfboy; Lanford Wilson's Sympathetic Magic; Tennessee Williams' Something Cloudy, Something Clear; and Frank McGuinness' Gates of Gold with William Gaunt and the late John Bennett in his last stage role; the London premiere of Sonja Linden's I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda; the specially commissioned adaptation of W.H. Davies' Young Emma by Laura Wade and directed by Tamara Harvey; Lynn Siefert's Coyote Ugly; the first London revival for more than 40 years of Rolf Hochhuth's Soldiers; and four first plays by new writers - Jason Hall's Eyes Catch Fire; Chris Dunkley's Mirita; Dameon Garnett's Break Away (published by Oberon Books) and Simon Vinnicombe's Year 10 (published by Methuen). Other productions have included Waterloo Day with Robert Lang; Sarah Phelps' Modern Dance for Beginners, subsequently produced at the Soho Theatre; Carolyn Scott-Jeffs' sell-out comedy Out in the Garden which transferred to the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh; the musical Schwartz It All About; the London premiere of Larry Kramer's The Destiny of Me (No 1 Critics Choice in The Evening Standard); The Women's War - an evening of original suffragette plays; Steve Hennessy's Lullabies of Broadmoor on the Finborough Road murder of 1922; the Victorian comedy Masks and Faces; Etta Jenks with Clarke Peters and Daniela Nardini; The Gigli Concert with Niall Buggy, Catherine Cusack and Paul McGann; the UK premiere of Darius Milhaud's opera Médée; and Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams with Linda Bassett.

The Finborough Theatre won the Guinness Award for Theatrical Ingenuity in 1996 and 1997; the Pearson Award bursary for writers Chris Lee in 2000 and Laura Wade in 2004; was shortlisted for the Empty Space Peter Brook Award in 2003; and won the Empty Space Peter Brook Mark Marvin Award in 2004. In 2004, the theatre was named by Variety as one of the top five fringe venues in London.

English Touring Theatre present

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD

By Tom Stoppard

Richmond Theatre

July 12-16, 2005 at  7.45pm and also Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

Nick Rowe and James Wallace played Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, respectively, alongside Ralph Fiennes' Hamlet at the Hackney Empire and on Broadway. They now bring these characters to Richmond Theatre in this play-within-a-play-within-a-play where they have centre stage.

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead explores many questions such as the meaning of life and the fact of death, the theatricality of acting and the impossibility of action.

Tom Stoppard made his brilliant debut with this play and launched an award-winning writing career that has included Jumpers, Travesties, Arcadia and The Invention of Love as well as screenplays for Empire of the Sun and Shakespeare in Love.

ETT is renowned for the clarity and style of its productions. Steven Unwin, Artistic Director and winner of the Globe's Sam Wanamaker Award in 2003, directs a superb cast.

the review:

Tom Stoppard's early genius is perfectly demonstrated in this revival of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead.

It is not necessary to be familiar with Shakespeare's Hamlet but it certainly helps to place the many quips and references if you know Hamlet well. 

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead is funny throughout and this is largely a reflection of of the rapid fire dialogue and puns which keep the audience intellectually entertained. 

Another bonus of this play is the fact that we leave the theatre well aware that there is a lot to be said about the role of small talk and quick repartee in our everyday lives.  Behind the guise of confidence in others there often lies self doubt and insecurity.  Do we really have a handle on who we are and exactly what is going on around us and the world at large?  These are some of the many questions which the play addresses.

With clever sets and use of entrances and exits,this short run is a must for everyone.  With fine performances this is a show not to be missed.

who's who

Rosencrantz Nicholas Rowe

Guildenstern James Wallace

The Player James Faulkner

Players Ed Browning Grant Gillespie Richard Hansell Edmund Kingsley Charlie Roe Leon Tanner Ross Waiton

Director: Stephen Unwin Designer: Michael Vale Costume Designer: Mark Bouman Lighting Designer: Ben Ormerod Original Music: Olly Fox Casting: Ginny Schiller

Tickets:

£10 (US$20) to £22 (US44)

Box Office:

+44870 060 6651

at BAC

february 1-6, 2005,

as part of the FOR ONE WEEK ONLY SEASON

The Chaingang Gang is the latest cocktail of impro, adventure and song from Cartoon de Salvo, following the company's previous hits Meat and Two Veg (Observer's Top Ten Shows of 2002), Ladies and Gentlemen, Where Am I? (Time Out Critics Choice) and Bernie and Clive.

An impossible escape, a death-defying railroad ride, a crossing to a magical land. Five fugitives have nothing to lose but their chains. But the hounds of hell are hot on their tail. And the quest is yet to come.

Throughout the show five performers, chained together on stage by iron manacles, are allowed no exits or entrances, no private moments, no secrets. The show features five-part harmony and a cappella singing, in a range of styles, from doo-wop to barbershop to gospel and beyond. The Chaingang Gang draws on the writings of Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces), whose theories of mythology apply equally to Odysseus and The Wizard of Oz.

Cartoon de Salvo's new show arrives in London after two national tours. It has previously played at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Bristol Old Vic, and Warwick Arts Centre. The Chaingang Gang is devised by the company, directed by Alex Murdoch (The New Tenant, Young Vic; The Wooden Frock, Kneehigh), and designed by Becky Hurst (Kes, Manchester Royal Exchange).

The other two companies popping into town are Hoax (Bristol) and Uninvited Guests (Bristol). It offers the chance to build up a London fan base and to bag a kindly word from London-based media. In return, Londoners will get the chance to see the incredible work created in the shadowy world outside the M25 without going beyond zone 2.

the review:
Cartoon de salvo offers entertainment at its purest. They take a simple idea: an escape from a prison and tell a yarn of how by forgetting to take the key to undo their shackles they are forced to stay together.

Take a cast of five and a blackboard and let your imagination run wild as the actors' high energy and physical and vocal dexterity provide humour and comedy at its most simple.

You enter the theatre smiling and leave with a big grin on your face. A morality tale which has some similarities to the Wizard of Oz, this is a charming show which has only a very short run!!

Venue:

BAC, Lavender Hill, London, SW11 5TN

Date:

February 1-6, 2005

Time:

8.30pm (Sunday 6.30pm)

Tickets:

£10.75 (US$20)
Ticket Offer: Pay What You Can on Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Box Office:

+4420 7223 2223

Soho Theatre Company

presents
Pam Ann

in

Flying with Winterwonder Pam

at

UCL Bloomsbury Theatre

through January 8, 2005

PAM ANN AIRLINES - WORLD'S MOST EXPERIENCED AIRLINE PAM ANN AIRLINES - WORLD'S MOST EXPERIENCED AIRLINE PAM ANN AIRLINES - WORLD'S MOST EXPERIENCED AIRLINE PAM ANN AIRLINES - WORLD'S MOST EXPERIENCED AIRLINE PAM ANN AIRLINES - WORLD'S MOST EXPERIENCED AIRLINE PAM ANN AIRLINES - WORLD'S MOST EXPERIENCED AIRLINE PAM ANN AIRLINES - WORLD'S MOST EXPERIENCED AIRLINE PAM ANN AIRLINES - WORLD'S MOST EXPERIENCED AIRLINE PAM ANN AIRLINES - WORLD'S MOST EXPERIENCED AIRLINE

review:  the very fabulous 'Pammmmmmmm Annnnnnnn'  is a must for anybody who has ever taken a flight.  And if you are a regular passenger you should NOT miss out. 

Pam has a loyal following and some of them are hot off their airline flights.  Crews from BA, Virgin, American and several  other airlines crammed into the theatre to get the 'other view' of how little cabin crew actually......  and just how irritating they can be.

Pam Ann delivers a two hour show which involves a lot of banter with the audience and some very astute 'imitations' of the crew of a plane alongside the somewhat 'questionable' service that they sometimes deliver!

I always say that when you get off a plane you rarely remember your frustrations for more than a few minutes - even if you have sworn and muttered to yourself that this time you really will complain; never take  the airline again; get the person fired; go to the press... etc. etc.

But when you leave the Pam Ann show you can't help remembering just how much those cabin crew can irritate you whether it's in first class, business or coach.  And its those memorable lines and sketches that will likely revisit you next time you take that 'nightmare service' flight.

purchase that ticket now !!!

"The fact is we don't make the same mistake more than 3 times".  Infamous Australian trolley-dolly Pam Ann touches down for four weeks over Christmas.

Pucci-clad Pam Ann opens at the 550-seat UCL Bloomsbury Theatre for her first major London run in a year, with a show that promises to be bigger, bolder and brasher than ever. This special flight before Christmas concludes a whirlwind year for Pam, in which she has supported Cher on the Arena tour and played sold-out shows across the globe from New York to Sydney.

Flying with Winterwonder Pam blends the very best of the airhostess from hell's cutting wit, her observational take on life, audience interaction, and to die for fashion - all complimented by extravagant new routines from newly expanded dance troupe, Pam's People. Also, for the first time ever, Pam takes you along the runway of her life - just who was she before she took to the skies?

The UCL Bloomsbury Theatre will overflow with jet-set style and Thunderbird-esque visuals, with a sumptuous set inspired by Pierre Cardin and Courreges, designed by award-winning Australian designer Martin Reid.

Pam Ann's creator, comedian Caroline Reid, has been named BOYZ magazine Best Cabaret performer for four years running. During 2003 she appeared at Kevin Spacey's Old Vic Fundraiser and gave new meaning to the term "jet set" when Elton John booked her to charter his private jet to Venice for David Furnish's 40th birthday party.

UCL Bloomsbury Theatre
15 Gordon Street,
London WC1

Nearest tube:

Euston

Performance dates:

through January 8, 2005 (except 24, 25 Dec and 1 Jan)

Start Time:

9pm

Box Office:

+4420 7388 8822

Ticket prices:

£15 (US$29) - £22.50 (US$43)

Sonia Friedman Productions presents

The Tricycle Theatre Production of

GUANTANAMO

'Honor Bound to Defend Freedom'

at The New Ambassadors

through September 4, 2004

Following a sell-out run at The Tricycle Theatre, Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo's critically acclaimed and powerful new play, "Guantanamo: 'Honor Bound to Defend Freedom'" has a short run at The New Ambassadors.

The transfer should have been anticipated; because unlike many other 'treatments' of the subject, Guantanamo stands out as a simple statement. 

There is little dramatic license in this production, although the stark bright set guarantees that you are always in Guantanoma. The characters - based upon fact - may be located in the UK, the US and other parts of the world but they are all attached by an umbilical cord to the core subject, Guantanamo. A father speaks of his son; a man talks about his brother; a bother describes how he feels about 9/11 and the death of his sister....... but nobody talks directly to another.  They are all isolated in their despair.

The style is almost reportage. Each character performs with a clinical sentiment.  There is little drama, few tears and no conflict. 

The play speaks for itself and rather than horrify the audience the writers choose to shock by simply presenting the facts.

Since 2001, nine Britons and at least two British residents have been held in Guantanamo Bay without charge, trial, or access to lawyers. In total, over 600 detainees comprising 40 nationalities are held in Camp Delta. The sign at the entrance reads: 'Honor Bound to Defend Freedom'.

On February 19, 2004, five Britons were released. Four UK nationals and at least two British residents are still imprisoned in Cuba. The 'war on terror' continues but at what cost to personal freedom and civilized values?

In London, 12 foreign nationals are currently being detained in either Belmarsh or Woodhill Prisons. 'Guantanamo in our own backyard' (Amnesty International). Some have been there over two years. Neither they, nor their lawyers, know what charges have been brought against them nor whether they will ever be tried or released.

The play ends as it begins, with a couple of prisoners in the jail cells which flank the stage.  There is no bow to the audience; there are no standing ovations.  The cast are the characters and the characters are like the cast in a play that does not have an ending. 

At least, not yet!

who's who

The Tricycle Theatre Production of "Guantanamo: 'Honor Bound to Defend Freedom'" is designed by Miriam Buether, with lighting by Johanna Town and is produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions.

Nicolas Kent and Sacha Wares co-direct the original cast, including David Annen, Paul Bhattacharjee (plays until 14 August), Jan Chappell, Mido Hamada, William Hoyland, Tariq Jordan, Aaron Neil, Alan Parnaby, Shaun Parkes, Theo Fraser Steele and Badi Uzzaman.

Victoria Brittain, ex-Associate Foreign Editor of The Guardian, and South African born author Gillian Slovo (who has been nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2004 for her ninth novel "Ice Road"), have gathered personal testimony from the families of the detainees, from lawyers and from medical experts and have combined this with excerpts of actual speeches given by government spokesmen. Using this verbatim material, "Guantanamo" has provoked a debate about national security versus human rights in the post September 11th era.

"Guantanamo" continues the tradition of work by Nicolas Kent and Richard Norton-Taylor, which includes the Tricycle's staging of "Half the Picture - The Scott Arms to Iraq Inquiry", "Nuremberg - The 1946 War Crimes Trial", "Srebrenica - The Hague 1996 Rule 61 Hearings", "The Colour of Justice - The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry", and "Justifying War: Scenes From the Hutton Inquiry" (all later broadcast by the BBC). In total, The Tricycle tribunal plays have reached an audience of over 25 million worldwide via television and the BBC World Service. Sacha Wares' previous directing work includes "Credible Witness" (Royal Court Upstairs), "Pera Palas" (Gate Theatre) and "Bintou" (Arcola).

details:

Monday - Saturday at 7.30pm
Thursday & Saturday matinees at 2.30pm
All tickets are priced at £20/(US$39)

box office:

+44870 060 6627

The Queen Elizabeth Hall

at 

The South Bank Centre, London SE1

presents

FOI

Les Ballets C de la B Capilla Flamenca

Choreography: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Musical Direction for Capilla Flamenca: Dirk Snellings

June 10 and 11, 2004

at 7.45pm

A brief opportunity to see the work of   Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui - as he accepted a recent award at the Gala evening of the Movimentos Dance Festival in Germany - was enough of an introduction to ensure that I booked to see his upcoming show in London.

In advance of collecting the award for Best Choreography, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui demonstrated his creativity by performing  a brief 'Tango Ballet for the Movimentos audience.  It told a romantic story of a man and a woman through dance.  It was imaginative, beautifully conceived and very entertaining. 

I can't wait to see FOI this month when it returns to the Queen Elizabeth Hall following its critically acclaimed UK premiere last May.  And tickets are selling fast!!

Featuring a company of eleven performers, seven musicians and singers from the Flemish vocal and instrumental consort, Capilla Flamenca, FOI is a richly theatrical performance of dance, live polyphonic music and singing. Understood by many as a profound response to current international crises, the piece was co-commissioned by the South Bank Centre.

In FOI, meaning 'belief', Cherkaoui places his eclectic group of dancers of Swedish, Korean, American and Flemish origin at the immediate aftermath of a terrible catastrophe. As cultures and times overlap, the living and the dead share memories, philosophies and ideas, while absorbing glimpses of the stories of Cherkaoui's idiosyncratic performers come alive. At times the movement accentuates simple everyday gestures, as well as drawing on a variety of dance styles to explore themes of faith, myth and survival.

The acclaimed Flemish ensemble, Capilla Flamenca, under the direction of Dirk Snellings, provide an integral live score of mainly medieval music from the 14th Century Ars Nova, including music of religious ceremonies, motets, courtly songs and dances. This music, which has survived centuries by means of written scores, is juxtaposed with the oral tradition of old village songs.

A Brief Biography:

At only 27 years-of-age, Moroccan-Flemish Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is one of Europe's most dazzling young choreographers. In addition to his previous major international hit, Rien de Rien, which has also had two runs at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, he won plaudits in Alain Platel's Iets Op Bach (winner of the Time Out Award for Best Production 1998) and the Edinburgh Festival hit Anonymous Society (winner of the Barclays Theatre Award for Best Musical Theatre 1999), which he also choreographed.

Ticket prices:

£11.00 (US$20) - £17.50 (US$32)

Box Office:

+448703 800 400

PIETER-DIRK UYS: ELECTIONS AND ERECTIONS

May 10--29, 2004 at the Soho Theatre

and

June 1-5 at the Duchess Theatre

for details see below

The very talented Pieter-Dirk Uys (South Africa's take on Barry Humphries) is unique in the manner in which he educates and informs his audience on some of the less than positive aspects of modern South African society.

He is one of the most highly regarded performers in his native country and during his last visit to London (and my first visit to one of his shows)  Foreign Aids played to sell-out audiences at the Tricycle Theatre.

Elections and Erections takes democracy and sex and filters both through laughter, shock and awe.  Uys celebrates South Africa’s ten-year post-apartheid existence and looks to its future as a country threatened by the biggest HIV/AIDS pandemic in the world.  

For all the right reasons, don't miss this show!

The show  is presented at Soho Theatre as part of the London Comedy Festival and then transfers to the Duchess Theatre. As Hub Venue to the Festival, Soho Theatre hosts some of the finest acts and serves as a central information point for press and public.

A Brief Biography:

Closely associated with the Space Theatre in Cape Town and Johannesburg Market Theatre during the 1970s and 1980s, Pieter-Dirk Uys has written and performed eighteen plays and over thirty revues and one-man shows throughout South Africa. He began to irritate South African politicians and censors with his plays from 1973 and created his most famous character, Evita Bezuidenhout, as a way to overcome press censorship as she voiced opinions in a weekly column in the Sunday Express in Johannesburg. In 1982, the high heels and handbags came out and the physical embodiment of the character was born. He was awarded South Africa’s prestigious Truth and Reconciliation Award in 2001 and honorary degrees from Rhodes University, the University of Cape Town and the University of Western Cape for his socially responsible creative work.

Venue:

Soho Theatre + Writers’ Centre
21 Dean Street
London W1D 3NE

Dates and times:

May 10 - 29: at 7.30pm
May 19-29: at 9.30pm
May 15, 22 and 29: at 4pm

Ticket prices:

£15 (US$28)/£12.50 (US$23)

Box Office:

+44870 429 6883

Venue:

Duchess Theatre
Catherine St
London WC2.

Dates and times:

June 1-5, 2004 at 8pm and June 5, 2004 at 4pm

Ticket prices:

£15 (US$28)/£12.50 (US$23) concessions

Box Office:

+44870 890 1103

DIANA RIGG & VICTORIA HAMILTON

star in

SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER

by

Tennessee Williams

at

Richmond Theatre

April 19 - 24, 2004

Tennessee Williams - one of America’s greatest playwrights -  is renowned for the intensely poetic style with which he explored society’s taboos.   This short run of Suddenly Last Summer is a great opportunity to see a show before it transfers to the West End.  The play is an unforgettable portrait of forbidden desire, cannibalism and mental instability set in the Deep South.

Mr Williams has written many memorable dramas.  You may remember his other sensational and evocative plays including A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and The Glass Menagerie.    Why not add Suddenly Last Summer to your list of great nights out?

Sebastian dies suddenly last summer in mysterious circumstances. In the sultry heat of New Orleans, his mother, Mrs Venables (played by Diana Rigg) plans her revenge on Catharine (Victoria Hamilton), the girl that she believes stole Sebastian from her.

This highly acclaimed production showcases two of the country’s most distinguished actors.  The part of Mrs Venables is the latest in a line of formidable women played by Diana Rigg, whose previous work includes Humble Boy, Mother Courage and Her Children, and Medea.

And rising star Victoria Hamilton who has recently starred in Sweet Panic and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg is perfect casting for this fantastic production which will soon move to the West End.

The list of great names involved in Suddenly Last Summer also include the director, Michael Grandage, who has won various accolades including the Evening Standard Best Director Award, the Critics Circle Award and the South Bank Show award.

Very early booking advised to be sure you don't miss out!

Tickets:

BOX OFFICE +4420 8940 0088 (booking fee)
US$27 - US$50
£14 - £26

All evening performances at 7.45pm
Wed & Sat mats at 2.30pm

Tamasha Theatre Company in association with Soho Theatre Company presents

present

Developed from a series of workshop performances in Soho Theatre’s studio in 2003, Nadim Sawalha comes to Soho Theatre’s main house to play Mohammed Al Fayed in his one-man show All I Want is a British Passport!

Directed by Kristine Landon-Smith, it is a thought-provoking satire on the government, authority and immigration.  Brilliantly funny and frighteningly accurate, the play examines Mohammed Al Fayed’s exhaustive quest to gain a British passport. The timing coincides with the latest - rarely out of the news - recent inquiry into the death of his son Dodi and Princess Diana, and his recent last-minute High Court injunction against the BBC’s investigation into his finances.

Nadim Sawalha played Mohammed Al Fayed for television in Justice In Wonderland. This experience sparked an interest in Al Fayed, which led to the two meeting for coffee and cake at Harrods and a period of extensive research by Sawalha. The result is a touching and humorous show that represents the human side of the story as opposed to the scandal and drama that surrounds it.

If you know anything about passport and visa applications don't miss this one!

Nadim Sawalha's collaboration with Tamasha began with East is East when he created the role of the father in Kristine Landon-Smith's stage production of the play. His most recent theatre work includes Cheek by Jowl’s production of Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul at the Young Vic, directed by Declan Donnellan; the world première of Patrick Marber’s Howard Katz at the National Theatre and performing in his own play, Prophet in Exile, directed by Corin Redgrave at the Chelsea Art Centre.    Kristine Landon-Smith is joint founder and Artistic Director of Tamasha and has also directed all of the company’s shows. Her 1996 production, East is East, was nominated for an Olivier award and her original production of Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and A Funeral won the Barclays Theatre Award for Best New Musical.

Location:
Soho Theatre
Dean Street, London W1

Dates and time:
through 13 March 2004 at 9.30pm

Ticket prices
£10/£8 (US$ 20/16)Mon-Thu
£12/10 (US$ 240/20)Fri/Sat

Box office
+4420 7478 0100 (24 hours)

Paul Spicer

NOTES FROM NEW YORK

Donmar Warehouse

March 7. 2004 at 7.30pm

Julie Atherton

In an unprecedented partnership, New York fashion house DKNY will wardrobe Notes from New York, the West End’s first and only platform for contemporary US musical theatre. 

Taking place throughout 2004, this series starts with a show at London’s Donmar Warehouse on Sunday, March 7.  The show features the work of Pulitzer Prizer winner Jonathan Larson (Rent) and the Tony Award winners Jason Robert Brown (Parade) and William Finn (Falsettos).  Performed by Debbie Kurup, Paul Spicer, Julie Atherton and Craig Purnell and tickets are flying off the racks.  But will the clothes be aucioned at the end of the show?

This unique association marks the first time that a leading fashion house has ever been involved in wardrobing a West End show and is typical of the groundbreaking vision behind the Notes from New York series, which was developed last year as a means of importing the very best in brand new musical theatre from New York to London.

Producer Neil Eckersley says: "We’re delighted that DKNY has chosen to support Notes from New York and are very much looking forward to developing this pioneering partnership. It’s the first time the contemporary theatre and fashion worlds have ever collaborated in this way and we’re extremely excited about working with the DKNY team to profile their cutting edge collections as an integral part of our shows. This is musical theatre for a new generation with the emphasis on stylish, chic, high-class presentation of work that’s second to none."

Young musical theatre stars Paul Spicer and Julie Atherton, who received widespread acclaim for their performances in the first of this series, will be joined for the March show by the fearsomely talented Debbie Kurup, currently starring as Dee Dee in Tonight’s the Night at the Victoria Palace, and Craig Purnell, whose extensive credits include the UK première of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World at the Bridewell Theatre.

Through four single lives in one vast city, Notes from New York will explore the defining moments of human existence, evoking the full range of emotions from feelings of love, loss and longing to exhilaration, euphoria and joy. Intelligent, raw, immediate and real, the songs that have redefined musical theatre in New York arrive in London’s West End.

who's who

Jonathan Larson is best known as the composer of the smash hit musical Rent, which won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards and has received numerous other accolades to date. He died tragically of an aortic aneurysm ahead of the show’s world premiére in New York. His only other musical Tick Tick Boom was produced posthumously Off-Broadway in 2001 and has yet to receive a UK production.

Less prominent than Larson, yet equally talented and somewhat more prolific, William Finn, himself mistakenly diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour in 1992, is the composer of In Trousers, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland. His most recent shows include A New Brain, which is based on his experience of being misdiagnosed and Elegies, a song cycle presented for the first time in New York last year.

Jason Robert Brown’s first musical Songs for a New World originally opened Off-Broadway in 1995, following which he made his Broadway debut in 1999 with Parade, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Original Score of a Musical. His most recent musical The Last Five Years premièred in New York last year.

Notes from New York is directed by David Randall with musical staging by Paul Spicer.

Venue 

Donmar Warehouse
Earlham Street
London, WC2

Box Office

tel: +44207 369 1765

Ticket Prices

Stalls: £25.00, £20.00

Circle: £25.00, £20.00, £15.00

Limited Number of Standing Spaces: £10.00

"THE HOLY TERROR"

Starring

SIMON CALLOW

at

Richmond Theatre

through February 21, 2004

Back in February 2004, Theatre Royal Brighton Productions made a producing debut with Simon Gray's "The Holy Terror", starring Simon Callow and directed by Laurence Boswell.

The play appears to have been written for the energetic Callow; who is probably best remembered for his role in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Mr Callow almost leaps around the stage in the increasingly frenzied role of 'Mark Melon' - publishing supremo.  Set in the eighties, Melon portrays the 'transitional man'.  He parallels a time when publishing - like many other industries - stepped out of its traditional fusty, dusty role into the commercial realities of the late twentieth century.

Arrogant and manipulative, Mark Melon reigns over this 'new world' of publishing.  His eloquence takes no prisoners. He describes colleagues and writers alike by their attributes - or lack of attributes; and his vitriolic tongue shows no mercy as he plays his childish political pranks on everyone who steps across his path.

Melon's merciless methods of conducting all his relationships is his downfall.  His characteristic insecurities lead to paranoia and an eventual breakdown. Just as he tortures others, he tortures himself.  The ongoing joke that his wife is having an affair turns into his demonic reality, with devastating effects.

Simon Callow lives and re-lives the part, as he tells his story to a gathering of the local Womens Institute And perhaps this is where the credibility of The Holy Terror is called to question. (ref. the movie Calendar Girls!). 

There is no doubt that the obsessive Melon portrays 'the modern man with the successful profession wife and the indolent single child' syndrome.  But his meteoric success almost guarantees the big fall. 

Although Callow performs the role to perfection, the play runs long; and although the audience would stay to see the story unfold..... members of the Women's Institute would have walked out en masse, long before Melon's madness.

This play is a must for Simon Callow fans.  A brilliant performance and often very clever and funny dialogue make up for the short comings of The Holy Terror, which after a short tour (see below) will find a home in London's West End in the Spring.  By this time, it may be shorter and sharper, but it will always remain another Callow tour de force and early booking is advised!

Simon Callow has directed and starred in many West End productions, including his recent successful "The Mystery of Charles Dickens" and his numerous television and film credits include "Shakespeare in Love", "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Postcards from the Edge", "Maurice", "A Room with a View" and "Amadeus". Laurence Boswell's more recent West End directing credits include "Up for Grabs", "This is Our Youth", "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" and "Popcorn".

Simon Callow as 'Mark Melon' and Robin Soans as 'Gladstone', star alongside Geraldine Alexander, Beverley Klein, Tom Beard, Matt Canavan and Lydia Fox.

Simon Gray is one of Britain's most prolific playwrights and authors. His stage plays include "Butley", "Otherwise Engaged", "Quartermaine's Terms", "The Common Pursuit" and "The Late Middle Classes". His latest book, "The Smoking Diaries", will be published this Spring.

Tour dates:
New Victoria Theatre Woking week of February 23
Milton Keynes Theatre week of March 1
Malvern Theatre week of March 8
Theatre Royal Bath week of March 15

Richmond Theatre Box Office: +4420 8940 0088

Box Office: +4420 8940 0088

Performance Times:
Thursday – Saturday at 7.45pm
Matinee on Sat at 2.30pm