Category Archives: Art

Review: Copenhagen, Minerva Theatre, Chichester

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Box Office: 01243 781312 www.cft.org.uk
Until 22 September

Photo credit: Conrad Blakemore

What was the purpose of the visit made by German Werner Heisenberg (Charles Edwards) to his friend Danish physicist Niels Bohr (Paul Jesson) as the Second World War raged? The answer is by no means swift in coming, but it is a compelling journey. Which is just as well; this is not a play that allows for wandering concentration.

The ghosts of Heisenberg, Bohr and his wife Margrethe return to the night of Heisenberg’s visit in 1941 to scrutinise the intent and rationale behind the house call. Eminently bright and highly respected, the younger man’s nation has occupied his elder’s country, thus thorough examination of several theories is necessary.

With a shared passion for scientific certainty the coals are raked over with forensic-like attention to detail, stirring human nature into technical hypotheses. Tempered by Margrethe’s perceptiveness and calm, blistering disagreement between the two men is revealing, but while such convulsions are fascinating it is the historical element that gives the play ominous depth: the creation of the atom bomb and its monstrous impact.

Director Michael Blakemore succeeds in maintaining a fluidity that is almost balletic. With a small cast and a stark set the focus on the trio is as intense as the play itself, but they impress throughout.

Patricia Hodge as Margrethe is breathtakingly good; elegant, circumspect and sharp. Charles Edwards as Heisenberg and Paul Jesson as Bohr are equally excellent, both absolutely convincing as boffins who, despite their scientific and mathematical prowess, are nevertheless vulnerable to human frailty.

Michael Frayn’s play is as much about morals as it is the quest for knowledge and you are likely to come away as many questions as answers. Oddly, this is strangely satisfying.

Review: Me and My Girl, Chichester Festival Theatre

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Me and My Girl
Chichester Festival Theatre (until 25 August)
Tickets: 01243 781312; cft.org.uk

Credit: Johan Persson

Chichester Festival Theatre director Daniel Evans (also at the helm of the show) earned groans of disappointment in response to his on-stage announcement that Matt Lucas was under Doctor’s orders to rest his voice and would not be appearing. But all was not lost, he quickly reassured us. With just two hours’ rehearsal the understudy had gamely agreed to step into the role.
Ryan Pidgen can surely now step into any role he pleases. In a totally self-assured, flawless performance, had we not known that Lucas was the intended leading man then we would have been none the wiser. On note, in step and word perfect, not for a nanosecond were we even remotely short-changed.
Playing the South London cheeky chappie Bill Snibson who suddenly needs to ‘posh up’ in order to take up his birth right as the unlikely heir of Hareford, Pidgen was not merely competent. Giving Bill warmth, exuberance and sweetness, he bounced around the stage like an adorable scamp of a puppy and, as the kids say, performed like a boss.
The plot may be lightweight, but elsewhere performances are also rock-solid. Clive Rowe as Sir John twinkles in tweed, later revealing a shy and long-nurtured love for Caroline Quentin’s splendidly redoubtable Duchess. A feisty old matriarch with a good heart, by golly she can’t half hoof, too!
Alex Young as Bill’s ‘girl’ Sally is in sweetly soaring voice and balances cockney chirpiness with a touching vulnerability.
When it comes to musical numbers it is fair to say that the majority (give or take The Lambeth Walk and The Sun Has Got His Hat On) are not especially memorable, but the dazzling choreography (nice work, Alistair David) and superb singing (and you, Gareth Valentine, Doug Besterman and Mark Cumberland) make the very best of the raw material.
Lez Brotherston’s stunning set manages to be both traditional and fairy tale – Downton meets Hogwarts, interspersed with the London skyline and beautifully lit by Tim Mitchell.
The night, however, belonged to the heroic Mr Pidgen. As an understudy who endured several ‘thrust-into-the-limelight’ moments (albeit without anything like such professionalism and sheer talent) I absolutely salute you, sir.
The perfect shot-in-the-arm antidote to all things Brexit and Trump, Me and My Girl teems with Pearly kings and queens and exudes triple espresso energy. An unashamedly frothy and feel-good extravaganza, cor blimey you’ll miss out if you don’t nab a Wilson Pickett!

No Rhyme Or Reason: Searcy’s At The Gherkin Plays Host To New Opus Art-Curated Exhibition…

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No Rhyme Or Reason: At Searcys, The Gherkin

11 September – 10 November 2017

An exhibition curated by Opus Art in collaboration with G X Gallery

Featuring works by Martin Foot, Eddie Hara, Claudia Meyer, Wu Mingzhong, Sheng Qi and Mitchell Schorr

At Searcys | The Gherkin

Visits by appointment only.

Imagery: Shane Finn at VOUZ! Photography

EDDIE HARA

THE THIRD PERSON

2005 Acrylic on Canvas

50 x 40 cm 19 3/4 x 15 3/4 in

WU MINGZHONG

HEY! SLOW DOWN, 2014

Silkscreen Print, Ed of 99

96.5 x 76.2 cm 38 x 30 in

Edition of 99

CLAUDIA MEYER

ACCORDANCE IV, 2015

Mixed Media on Acrylglas, LED

80 x 80 cm 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in

CLAUDIA MEYER

CURSIVE, 2017

Stainless Steel, Acrylglas

180 x 180 cm 70 7/8 x 70 7/8 in

SHENG QI

WOMAN ON THE TREE, 2013

Watercolour on Paper

29.7 x 42 cm 11 3/4 x 16 1/2 in

SHENG QI

MOVE ALONG, 2014

Acrylic on Canvas

60 x 90 cm 23 5/8 x 35 3/8 in

SHENG QI

YELLOW UMBRELLA, 2014

Acrylic on Canvas

70 x 60 cm 27 1/2 x 23 5/8 in

MITCHELL SCHORR

VIRTUE, 2004

Oil on Canvas

51 x 61 cm 20 1/8 x 24 1/8 in

MITCHELL SCHORR

VICE, 2004

Oil on Canvas

41 x 61 cm 16 1/8 x 24 1/8 in

MARTIN FOOT

SOGNO DI PACE

Travertine Marble

47.7 x 16.5 cm (inc. base) 18 3/4 x 6 1/2 in (inc. base)

Private view – 12 September 2017

About Opus Art…

Nicole Barbezat is a professional art dealer and an avid art collector with a long life passion for art, based in London, offering private solutions to individual collectors and institutions seeking to build and manage their art portfolios.As an artist she has been drawing and painting since an early age, and has attended the Venice International Summer Academy for Fine Arts amongst other. Nicole was also actively involved with Sotheby’s Institute of Art.Over the years, Nicole has supported emerging artists, art foundations and charities that promote the arts.Nicole has also a strong background in Private Banking and Wealth Management having been active in this field for over 15 years. Today, she is fortunate to combine this invaluable financial experience and her passion for art enabling her to better serve and understand her clients, and find the subtle synergies between the beauty of art and the investment aspects of this alternative asset.

www.opusart.co.com

About G X Gallery…

GX Gallery (established 2001) is a leading contemporary art gallery in London. representing emerging and established artists. They have a regular programme of solo and group exhibitions and exhibit at art fairs throughout the year.

The gallery offers a wide range of services including advice on building your art collection, framing, installing artwork and delivery and shipment worldwide.

www.gxgallery.com

About Searcy’s at The Gherkin…

Based on the 39th and 40th floors of The Gherkin are the elegant cocktail bar and fine dining restaurant with panoramic views of London. Whether you are looking for a restaurant for a special occasion, a restaurant with a view in London or a cocktail bar in the city, their restaurant and bar is the perfect place to enjoy fantastic food and drink.

Events

The top three floors of this iconic venue are available for private hire. Their events team can host stunning seated dinners for up to 140 or elegant standing receptions for up to 260. If you are organising a conference, a special family occasion, a private party or a corporate event, the two floors are a truly special space with an amazing view of London.

Weddings

This world renowned building is one of the most impressive wedding venues in London! The beautiful event space is located on the top two floors of the building, both of which are licenced to hold ceremonies, dinners for up to 140 people or 260 guests for cocktail receptions. The Searcy’s experienced events team will be on hand to tailor-make your special day. With breath-taking 360 degree views over London, this is a truly unique venue to say “I do”!

Searcy’s Private Members Club

Searcy’s Club at The Gherkin one of the most unique and exclusive Private Members Clubs in London. Membership allows you access to a club lounge, fine dining restaurant and elegant bar situated under the world renowned dome.  We pride ourselves in handpicking our members; to apply please get in touch where your application will be reviewed by our committee board.

Private Dining

The Gherkin private dining experience is both refined and secluded, offering a privileged perspective to impress your guests. From a special birthday, a business lunch or even an intimate wedding reception, enjoy their private dining rooms with a view of London.

www.searcysatthegherkin.co.uk

Review: The Stepmother

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The Stepmother
Minerva, Chichester Festival Theatre
Until September 9

www.cft.org.uk
01243 781312

Photo credit: Catherine Ashmore

The words ‘seldom performed’ in a marketing blurb can trigger alarm bells. In many cases there’s a damn good reason why directors don’t dust down certain plays. In this instance, however, it’s an absolute mystery why it has taken so long to revive Githa Sowerby’s beautifully observed drama, in the experienced hands here of former artistic director of the National Theatre Richard Eyre.

Written in 1924, money, equality – or the lack of – and career are core themes. The setting is the home of widower Eustace Gaydon (Will Keen). A financial chancer lacking in integrity, kindness and sincerity, when he discovers that shy young Lois Relph (Ophelia Lovibond) is set to inherit his sister’s estate he promptly marries her, thus providing a stepmother for his two young daughters and shoring himself up financially. Ten years on and the shy young woman he married has become a successful society dressmaker, but Eustace’s dodgy deals have turned on him.

Keen is superb as Eustace. Shifty, sly, domineering and full of self-justification, he is irredeemably unpleasant.

Lovibond also convinces as the young girl who, as she morphs into a confident businesswoman, gradually comes to realise just what a ghastly situation she has signed up to.

A strong supporting cast includes Eve Ponsonby as stepdaughter Monica. Desperate to marry but constantly blocked by her father’s refusal to make good with an allowance, her youthful passion and increasing desperation are beautifully portrayed.

Historically fascinating, this stylish production deserves a life beyond Chichester.

Review: Sweet Bird of Youth, Chichester Festival Theatre

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Sweet Bird of Youth

Chichester Festival Theatre

Until 24 June

Box Office: 01243 781312 www.cft.org.uk

Photo credit: Johan Persson

With the run-up to General Election a veritable carnival of hypocrisy, self-interest, arrogance and rampaging egos, the day after the event itself wasn’t the ideal time to digest more of the same. Alas, in Tennessee Williams’s 1959 play there is little relief from such monstrous conduct.

Fearing derision and rejection after the premiere of her latest film, aging Hollywood movie star Alexandra Del Largo (Marcia Gay Harden) has bolted and is holed up in a hotel in St Cloud on the Gulf Coast of Mexico with Chance Wayne (Brian J. Smith), a gigolo and wannabe actor who skipped the town a few years previously. While the actress hides behind an alias and dulls her demons with alcohol, narcotics and sex, Chance is determined to be reunited with Heavenly, his teenage sweetheart. Unaware that before leaving St Cloud he infected his girl with a STD that necessitated a hysterectomy, he has no idea that Heavenly’s father and brother are resolute: should Chance ever show his face in the neighbourhood again he will pay for his crime.

The first act, almost entirely a two-hander set in a hotel bedroom, offers superb performances from Harden and Smith. Convincing and compelling, on the Festival Theatre’s thrust stage, however, some of the intensity and intimacy is lost.

Elsewhere the performances are strong, especially Richard Cordery as Boss Finley, a bully with double standards and an unshakable belief in the American Dream. Victoria Berwick as Heavenly Finley is also excellent. Vulnerable, compliant but filled with a rage, when she sobs silent, despairing tears, her grief and anger is sorely palpable.

Easy on the eye, Anthony Ward’s set is stunning; clever, evocative and stylish, it is also beautifully complemented by Mark Henderson’s lighting.

The ruthless marching of time is one of the play’s key themes. In Jonathan Kent’s undeniably ‘classy bird’ there remains a niggling sense that the pace needs to be stepped up.

The Fiesta Continues

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Argentine Pop-Up Barullo delivered and conquered the appetites of many an anticipating guest this week. Hosted by Wines of Argentina and catered by Mauro Colagreco, we danced, drank and dined our way through the South American splendour in the heart of Hoxton. Barullo delivered to us Argentina with an extra serving of wine. My aim was to make my way though the extensive wine list but found myself somewhere after my 4th glass of Torrontes before I found that to be ‘wishful drinking’. Mauro Colagreco, owner of renowned Two Michelin Star French restaurant Mirazur, served up a sumptuous four-course meal perfectly suited to the supper-club style dining area making it an evening full of the delights of Argentina.

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The end of Barullo does not mean the fiesta has ended though as our equally esteemed Argentine friends at Gaucho have come up with another night to remember with another appearance from Mauro himself. On the 11th November. Gaucho welcomes “The 10 Hands”. Featuring 5 of the most influential and creative chefs of Argentina; Mauro Colagreco, Fernando Trocca, Narda Lepez, Guido Tassi and German Martitegui, are to showcase their gastronomic expertise just for you. Centered around the infamous Asado (Argentine Barbecue), Gaucho Piccadilly’s terrace will be transformed into a night of Argentine bbq indulgence featuring five-courses of pure Argentinian fayre served with pairings from their sumptuous wine list.

Tickets are priced at £100 and will be available from the Gaucho Website;

www.gauchorestaurants.com

Sequential Drawings The New Yorker Series By Richard McGuire

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richardmcguire sequentialdrawing

I really loved this book of drawings from Richard McGuire. Not only does it tell a story, but I also found it meditative. A wonderful book to add to any art lovers collection. 

From the author of the widely acclaimed graphic novel Here, awarded the 2016 Prix D’or for best graphic album at Angouleme, a new graphic work that celebrates another aspect of his incomparable genius.
Sequential Drawings gathers together more than a decade of McGuire’s witty and endlessly inventive spots a veritable short-story collection each drawing given its own spread, which, in turn, assures for the reader the experience of surprise and delight that the drawings unfailingly deliver. Richard McGuire’s first series of “spot” drawings debuted inThe New Yorker in February 2005 for the magazine’s 80th anniversary issue. Spot drawings, scattered among the magazine’s text, had been a long-running feature of The New Yorker, and over the years, many artists had contributed them. But McGuire was the first to conceive them as a sequence, and his drawings were something altogether new: deceptively simple images that imbued the series with movement and narrative, telling their own unexpected stories.
With illustrations throughout and an introduction by Luc Sante.

 

RICHARD McGUIREis a regular contributor to The New Yorker. His comics have appeared in The New York Times, McSweeneys, Le Monde, and Liberation.He has written and directed two omnibus feature films: Loulou et Autre Loups (Loulou and Other Wolves, 2003), and Peur(s) du Noir (Fear[s] of the Dark, 2007). He designed and manufactured his own line of toys, and is the founder and bass player of the band Liquid Liquid.Here was based on his six-page comic that appeared in RAWmagazine in 1989 and was quickly acknowledged as a transformative work that expanded the possibilities of the comics medium.”

Sequential Drawings: The New Yorker Series is available here.

 

Teresa Mills’ Mosaics Review by Margaret Graham

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At Frost we love to see something just that bit different, and Teresa Mills’s products certainly fit the bill.

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Teresa is the author of four best selling books on mosaic art which I found interesting  even before I laid eyes on the Pixelated Mosaic Kits, because I have had  a fascination with mosaics ever since I saw my first Ancient Roman floor. But wouldn’t Teresa’s kits be a fiddle? Wouldn’t any child end up having a tantrum as they struggled to cut and grout the tiles?

No, actually, that’s the beauty of the kits. The tiles fit the pixelated design exactly without cutting and grouting so absolutely no need to run screaming from the room with grout in your hair, pursued by your child, or grandchild who has been driven to fury by the fiddle of it all.

These tiles are a manageable size, and the quality is excellent. My favourite (because I like them)  is the butterfly. Everything comes in a cotton bag, the base board is wooden, and the tiles are glass, glitter and silver.

Megan Cannell, who edits our Young Voices thread, had a go. She is 15 but you’re never to old to be creative and she found, as did I, that the tiles are not too small, and are easy to fix. The colours are vibrant, and we felt they’d be just right for Mabel, who is eight, or for a young lad we know.
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I do like quality products and I hope that Teresa is on to a winner here, especially with winter and Christmas not too far away. Grannies, who seem to do a fair bit of child care these days, will welcome these kits with open arms. I just feel that anyone, young or old, who produced the finished article would find a sense of satisfaction – a piece of creative craft well done. Let’s face it, it must encourage the creativity that lies within everyone, and that is always a good thing.
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These Pixelated Mosaic Kits are handmade in the UK, and the team at Frost highly recommend them. They are reasonably priced too. The three above are £11 each.

Available in a variety of designs, from insects and animals to shapes and letters, they are an ideal way to delve into the wonderful world of mosaics.  Each kits contains all you need to make your very own mosaic masterpiece.  Handmade in the UK from high quality materials, each kit comes in its own beautiful cotton bag with the design printed on the front.  They are suitable for all ages and are perfect for keeping the kids busy or as a boredom buster.

For more details: www.teresamillsmosaics.com