| | | Evening Conversations review – warm meditations from midlife | | by Anya Ryan Nov 2, 2022 | | Soho theatre, London
Sudha Bhuchar’s monologue, drawing on chats with her children, has much likable detail but slightly less focus than you’d wish for Meet Sudha Bhuchar. She’s a middle-class, middle-aged mother of two mixed heritage millennials. Clambering from the audience with her coat on and backpack in hand, she’s ready to sit down for her nightly conversation. Bhuchar’s monologue, inspired by discussions she’s had with her sons, ponders on big themes. There’s talk of her confused sense of identity, intergenerational trauma and moving from a childhood in both Tanzania and India to a life of Le Creuset porridge pots in Wimbledon. But with a meandering structure, Bhuchar’s overall focus remains unclear. At Soho theatre, London, until 12 November Continue reading... | | | | | Living review – Bill Nighy tackles life and death in exquisitely sad drama | | by Peter Bradshaw Nov 2, 2022 | | A gentle and poignant Kazuo Ishiguro-scripted remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1953 film Ikiru about a man dealing with a terminal diagnosis The terrible conversation in the hospital consulting room – everyone’s final rite of passage – is the starting point for this deeply felt, beautifully acted movie from screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro and director Oliver Hermanus: a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1953 film Ikiru, or To Live. A buttoned-up civil servant works joylessly in the town planning department; he is a lonely widower estranged from his grasping son and daughter-in-law. In the original, he was Mr Watanabe, played by Takashi Shimura. Now he is Mr Williams, played by Bill Nighy. Continue reading... | | | | | 'House isn't a subculture. It's my culture': Cakes Da Killa on ballroom, Beyoncé and Black love | | by Shaad D'Souza Nov 2, 2022 | | The rapper discusses his origins, house music’s mainstream turn and his ‘Adele moment of a new album, Svengali A few years ago, Cakes Da Killa felt trapped. The Atlanta-via-NYC rapper and producer had released a few acclaimed mixtapes, each showcasing his blooming talent as a lyricist and stylist. But, no matter how dexterous, technical or transgressive his music, people always seemed to come back to one thing: “I was getting pigeonholed to just being known as a gay rapper,” he says, speaking via video from Montreal. “I felt my own image was overshadowing the actual music.” His solution was simple – let them say what they want, and keep making some of the most underrated and outright fun underground rap going. “I decided that if this was how it’s going to be, I should just make music that I love completely,” he says. “Not just me trying to be marketable, because at the end of the day, I would always be known as ‘the gay rapper’.” Continue reading... | | | | | James Cameron releases extended trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water | | by Guardian film Nov 2, 2022 | | New footage from the sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time has been released on YouTube James Cameron has released new footage of his forthcoming Avatar sequel The Way of Water, in the form of a two-and-a-half minute trailer released online on Wednesday. Avatar: The Way of Water is the follow-up to Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi blockbuster which remains the highest-grossing film of all time. It stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña and Sigourney Weaver, and is set more than a decade later than Avatar. According to the official synopsis, it “tells the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure”. Avatar: The Way of Water is out on the 16 December in the UK and US. Continue reading... | | | | | Tanz review – gross-out body-horror ballet is an unlikely laugh | | by Sanjoy Roy Nov 2, 2022 | | Battersea Arts Centre, London
Florentina Holzinger’s show has inspired audience walkouts but others stay and cheer at its bloody-minded audacity Premiered in Vienna in 2019, Florentina Holzinger’s Tanz has gained notoriety (walkouts, fainting) and trailed content warnings (beware of nudity, blood, needles, strobes, graphic violence), as well as garnering lofty commentary in art magazines. Which meant I was entirely unprepared for it to be … funny. Albeit in a gleefully exploitative, gross-out way. Tanz is the aftermath of an almighty crash between romantic ballet and body horror. Following the two-act structure of ballets such as Giselle and La Sylphide, the piece starts in a social world, then moves into a fantastical one. Holzinger’s first act is set in a ballet studio, where a gracefully aged ballet-mistress (the marvellous Claire Philippart, naked throughout) coaxes four women through the time-honoured exercises of ballet class – strain combined with beauty, poetic aspiration with piano tinkles – as well as into removing their clothes. Surrounding them are the figures of other women, likewise disrobing, notably Annina Machaz as a one-toothed witch, straddling a vacuum cleaner hose by way of a broomstick. At Battersea Arts Centre, London, until 3 November. Continue reading... | | | | | Northern Ballet: Made in Leeds review – faith, community and hip-hop Casanova | | by Lyndsey Winship Nov 2, 2022 | | Linbury theatre, Royal Opera House, London
Choreographers Mthuthuzeli November, Stina Quagebeur and Dickson Mbi jolt ballet’s habitual moves with this fresh and convincing triple bill It’s the moments when you see a dancer’s eyes light up that give a thrill. When a smile breaks out as they nail a tricky rhythm, or lean into a juicy move, relishing the unfamiliar, taking a risk. Under new management since the arrival of artistic director (and ex-Royal Ballet principal) Federico Bonelli in May, Northern Ballet’s usual territory is accessible story ballets based on popular titles such as The Great Gatsby, Casanova and 1984. But this triple bill shows they’re not on autopilot, commissioning three choreographers who bring with them diverse influences. Mthuthuzeli November draws on memories from his South African childhood; Dickson Mbi brings elements of hip-hop; Stina Quagebeur connects with qualities from everyday life, and you can see the dancers finding their way with this new material. Regardless of the success of every work, this is what artists, and ballet companies, need: to dip a toe (in pointe shoes or otherwise) into a different way of moving, and therefore thinking. That doesn’t have to mean a dramatic shift from the dance vocabulary they’re used to. What’s refreshing about Quagebeur’s piece, Nostalgia, is its ordinariness. It’s one of the more perceptive depictions of a realistic relationship I’ve seen on a ballet stage. We see snatches of a couple in an unspectacular, non-fantasy romance. First it’s with gentle tension between two bodies. Then it’s more hostile, more hurt. Now they seem to be asking: “Who even are you?” Or maybe realising: “I think I need you.” However you look at it, it’s complicated. The pair (Minju Kang and Jonathan Hanks) watch as an identical couple appear, dancing with blithe and playful ease. Was that us? They’re enchanted by their own memories, caught up in it all until somehow they have swapped partners and each is dancing with their own fantasy. Continue reading... | | | | | Channel 4's 40 best shows – ranked | | by Michael Hogan Nov 2, 2022 | | From a prime minister violating a pig to a pre-watershed lesbian kiss, Catastrophe to, er, Countdown, Channel 4 has been at the forefront of cutting-edge programming. As the station turns 40, we rate its best shows On 2 November 1982 at 4.44pm (see what they did there?), announcer Paul Coia said: “Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to be able to say to you: welcome to Channel 4.” That multicoloured 4 logo had just appeared on our screens for the first time, soundtracked by a four-note musical ident, titled Fourscore. That’s a lot of fours. In the ensuing four decades, the terrestrial broadcaster has aired pioneering drama, nurtured comedy talent, supported cutting-edge journalism and created no end of nifty factual formats. Reality! Dating! Food! Property! Post-pub filth! More dating, this time with gratuitous nudity! Continue reading... | | | | | The Wonder review – Florence Pugh's passionate reckoning with a horrific miracle | | by Peter Bradshaw Nov 2, 2022 | | Pugh drives forward Sebastián Lelio’s haunting adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s story of divine possession Sebastián Lelio’s new film is an arrestingly strange, distinctively literary tale of innocence, horror and imperial guilt adapted from the novel by Emma Donoghue: the anti-miracle of a young girl’s mysterious possession by divine grace. You could put this in a double-bill with The Exorcist. Florence Pugh brings a pugnacious and forthright intensity to the role of Lib, an English nurse who in 1862 comes to a village in rural Ireland, commissioned by a somewhat pompous male committee of priests and worthies to be an expert witness in examining what appears to be a miracle unfolding under their eyes. A young girl, Anna, has not eaten any food for four months and yet appears entirely healthy. Her stricken, awestruck parents Rosaleen (Elaine Cassidy) and Malachy (Coalán Byrne) receive a continuous stream of true believers in their cottage, who are allowed upstairs into her bedroom to speak with the sweet-natured, pious child. Anna is tremendously played by Elaine Cassidy’s daughter, newcomer Kíla Lord Cassidy. The parents have now agreed that Lib will keep watch over Anna to ensure that she is not hiding food, alternating every eight hours with a nun with the same task so that their mission is covered by both medicine and faith. Continue reading... | | | | | Ireland's Call: Navigating Brexit by Stephen Collins review – how Dublin got Brussels on side | | by Rory Carroll Nov 2, 2022 | | Though a forensic study of the Brexit negotiations from an Irish perspective might sound dry, it is anything but When I finished Stephen Collins’ book on how Ireland responded to Britain’s decision to leave the EU, a tale of shrewd politicking and diplomacy in Dublin, an image came to mind: a mouse whispering to an elephant, which then calmly sits on and squashes a chest-beating gorilla. No prizes for guessing which one was the UK. Boris Johnson’s myths about Brussels dictating the shape of bananas, after all, paved Brexit, a dreamland where Britain would be king in a new jungle. Continue reading... | | | | | Bill Callahan review – gritty guitars and sharp-toothed Smog revival | | by Huw Baines Nov 2, 2022 | | SWX, Bristol
The US songwriter beautifully combines the bright indie-folk of new album Reality with the unruly energy of his earlier days The pace quickens, then slows; quickens, slows. Bill Callahan’s voice rumbles over a roiling beat, stitching Partition’s delicate circular melody to a guitar dirge that squares Sonic Youth with Crazy Horse. “You do what you got to do / Do what you’ve got to do … / To touch the picture,” he sings. When the song ends by collapsing in on itself, he says: “Now we’re getting somewhere.” In truth, he’s been on walkabout for an hour by this point. Callahan is touring Reality, an album as bucolic as this set is spiky. Here its songs – largely sunny indie-folk numbers about nature and fatherhood – run into some of the unruly energy and lo-fi misanthropy of his Smog label days, creating tension that’s fascinating and almost wilfully difficult. Continue reading... | | | | | Beyond Movietown: Derek Jarman's lost 'novel' echoes through his oeuvre | | by Jessica White Nov 2, 2022 | | Published for the first time, Through the Billboard Promised Land Without Ever Stopping, chimes with many of the obsessions the director carried through his films In Sebastiane, Derek Jarman and Paul Humfress’ 1976 film, the soon-to-be-martyred Roman soldier is warned by his friend Justin to stop fighting against their pagan authorities. “The truth,” Sebastiane responds, “is beautiful”. As they speak, Justin tends to the wounds of the third-century saint in an act of love that has the potential to endanger both of them if they are caught by their tyrannical overseer or their fellow soldiers. This moment of intimacy is luxuriant; where there could be a palpable sense of terror, Jarman and Humfress instead focus on the tenderness between two defiant men. Sebastiane’s “truth” is not just his devotion to Christ in a pagan society, but also his willingness to receive and give affection in the overtly masculine, violent and sexual environment of a military outpost. This is the kind of truth echoed in Jarman’s only known work of narrative fiction: Through the Billboard Promised Land Without Ever Stopping, which was written in 1971 and published for the first time in 2022 by House Sparrow Press. It follows a blind protagonist known as King who is accompanied on a trip across a mythical America by his valet John. On this trip (almost entirely on foot) they encounter pierrot clowns, poets excavating the land in search of old spoken verses and a mystic guide called Begum, who shows them the sights of Movietown. King and John, like Sebastiane and Justin, remain constants to one another in an increasingly unreliable and disrupted landscape. Continue reading... | | | | | |
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