The director Michael Grandage has just won an Evening Standard award for his production of Chekhov's early play Ivanov in London, and Kenneth Branagh was nominated as best actor for his performance in the title role. Not sure I would have gone that far, but I had a fine time at the show, watching the characters' collective very bad behaviour and extraordinarily poor choices with enjoyable … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2008
Goodbye to all flat
Earlier this autumn, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon came out in front of the curtain at Sadler's Wells in London to introduce his company Morphoses. (Why don't more artistic directors do this? It's totally endearing, and gives an audience who hasn't had a chance to read the programme notes a few reassuring direction signs.) Talking about his new work, Commedia, Wheeldon explained that the … [Read more...]
Found books 3: vile bodies
Ballet biography is a difficult genre, dependent so much on fading memories, partial accounts and the fitful mapping of filmed record on theatrical immediacy. It works when it illuminates an artist and unlocks a world, and few do this as impressively as Julie Kavanagh's Secret Muses: The Life of Frederick Ashton. Ashton is one of the great British choreographers. An undeniably touchy artist, he … [Read more...]
Practical criticism – walking the walk
What does a president look like, a friend asks. It's a good question, especially as my wise ArtsJournal colleague Apollinaire Scherr has already drawn attention to Obama's 'loping physical grace', adding: 'I've spent so much of my life reflecting on the meaning of movement, I can't help feeling that our President-Elect's liquid ease bodes well: it's such a rare quality among politicians, who … [Read more...]
Do you believe in happy endings?
Listening to Obama's magnificent, noble acceptance speech on the radio at five in the morning, sobbing my eyes out in the London darkness, I was forced to admit that, yes, happy endings are sometimes possible. In art, we often dismiss them as wish-fulfilment, soothing evasions of life's harsh truths. It's wonderful to recognise that reclaiming optimism can be the harder, more honest thing to do. A … [Read more...]
Practical criticism: when fops go bad
In these days of turmoil and world change, the British media stopped thinking about war, recession and the future of the free world last week to consider a prank call broadcast by two high-profile BBC presenters. Louche comic Russell Brand (notorious here for shagadelic excesses, though the wider world may know him as the star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and chat-show host Jonathan Ross (cheeky … [Read more...]