The dashing pair wowed the audience in France’s version of the hit reality show: Got Talent, France Got Talent. (more…)
Day: 18 August 2014
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THEATRE REVIEW | Dogfight, Southwark Playhouse
★★★★ | Dogfight, Southwark Playhouse
San Francisco 1963 is the setting for this powerful musical, receiving its European premiere at The Southwark Playhouse. A bunch of marines are on their final night of shore leave before heading off to fight in Vietnam and decide to play a cruel and misogynistic game. They each pool their money; pick up the plainest girls that they can find and compete for who can pull the worst of the bunch and gain the prize money.
Based on the 1991 movie of the same name starring River Phoenix, Dogfight premièred Off-Broadway in 2012, when it won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and was nominated for 5 Outer Critics Circle and 2 Drama Desk Awards.
Eddie (Jamie Muscato) meets waitress Rose (the talented and powerful newcomer Laura Jane Matthewson) and what starts as a slightly brash testosterone fuelled piece evolves into something much more tender and touching between the two leads. The supporting cast is excellent too, giving sterling performances. Peter Duchan’s book is well written and the music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are a perfect bend of humour, pathos and warmth. There’s a wordy Sondheim-like quality to some of the numbers that work well within the context. The choreography is good (if slightly restricted by the smallish space) and the almost bare stage is cleverly used to recreate various scenes.
Southwark Playhouse has really picked out a gem in this award-winning premiere. There’s a moving and enthralling story, superb acting and singing and the piece delivers everything it promises and more (including a lot of hot young marines in their underwear, I couldn’t not mention that one).
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FILM REVIEW | The Notorious Mr Bout
★★★★★ | The Notorious Mr Bout
According to this new documentary from filmmakers Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin, it would seem that everybody has wildly exaggerated polarising ideas about who Viktor Anatolyevich Bout really is. None more so than Mr Bout himself who considers himself simply as a devoted family man and a highly successful international entrepreneur, and the D.E.A. who claim that his illegal arms trading and gun-running activities have rightly earned him the title of Merchant of Death. It seems that the truth may lie somewhere in the middle.
After the fall of communism in his native Russia, Bout was determined to embrace the newly permitted capitalist society and so bravely entered the world of import/export. At first he traded in anything he could lay his hands upon, but then hit on the fact he could make even more money by buying up old Russian planes and starting a cargo service in the Third World. As well as shipping produce and home electronics he and his rather dubious partners included Bulgarian made arms in the consignments that they flew around some of the more troubled countries in Africa.
Bout is undoubtedly a larger-than-life colourful character. One of his many excesses was his love of his video camera and whilst it made for some very intimate and extraordinary footage for this film, he also shot footage when he was cavorting with several warlords and some very shady despots, and that provided damning evidence when the authorities decided to go after him. The D.E.A. set up a covert sting operation in Bangkok where it was alleged that the shipment of arms he was selling were intended to be used to kill Americans, so he was arrested and extradited to the US where he was made an example of, by being given an excessively long jail sentence.
According to investigative journalists who had met Bout out in the field, he was really very small fry in the world of arms trading and he did not in anyway justify either the reasoning or the ferocity of the way that he was pursued. The D.E.A. could have felt that they had been taunted by the brazen way he carried out his activities, which frankly were fueled by both his love of the limelight and his sheer naivete.
Bout’s loyal wife Alla is a constant presence throughout the film (the very dated archival footage of their wedding is particularly wonderful) and she dutifully plays along as his supportive partner. As she deals with her husband’s trial she also proclaims her innocence too, but whilst she may not have been explicitly involved, it is hard to believe that she didn’t know what her husband was up too.
At the end of this excellent and compelling documentary it’s clear that the ‘notoriety’ in the title really split between Bout’s activities but also with the questionable motives of the D.E.A. At Bout’s trial, the Judge made a point of mentioning that prior to the entrapment operation that the D.E.A. had set up, there was no evidence at all that Bout had broken any American laws.
It seems that they wanted to make a scapegoat/example of someone and so they chose Viktor Anatolyevich Bout. This is a distraction from the main picture as just before the credits role, someone makes the point that most arms trafficking in the world is done by Governments trying to help their friends, and this is rarely considered illegal.
Highly recommended
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Lady Gaga in the world’s most serious #IceBucketChallenge
Here it is folks, the world’s most serious #IceBucketChallenge, from Lady Gaga.
The usually OTT Lady Gaga seemed serious today as he poured a silver dish, not a run-of-the-mill bucket, of ice cold water over herself, the craze that is running around the internet, called #IceBucketChallenge
She then nominated: Adele, Michael Rapino, Vincent Herbert, and Arthur Fogel.
For the challenged she opted for a leather, studded swimsuit, black lipstick, and heavy eyebrow makeup.
A number of celebrities have already taken part of this craze of pouring buckets of freezing water over themselves. We’re trying to establish whether this is a means of creating a reality check for themselves or whether they are all just barking… (probs barking…)
Last week Lady Gaga showcased the artwork for her new fragrance Eau De Gaga.
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UPDATED: Crisis in Uganda: Six LGBTs murdered in Uganda in a week
Unconfirmed reports are being made that at least six LGBT people have been stoned to death in Uganda, after the Country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) was annulled.
We are in the process of validating this story – to read the full statement by the Friends New Underground Railroad, please click here.
Ugandan LGBT activists have reported that at least 6 gay, lesbian and transgender individuals have been killed in rural areas of the African nation.
Three gay men, two lesbians and one transgender person were allegedly amongst the victims.
‘One who survived (still breathing after stoning) was burnt alive using kerosene / paraffin and a matchbox,’ a witness and a source to the Friends New Underground Railroad FNUR, a Quaker solidarity imitative helping LGBT people in Uganda, stated, according to this press statement.
A seventh gay man was reported to have been attacked, by a mob. He died from his injuries a day later.
According to the source, a rural vigilant mob attacked the 28-year-old gay man in a different zone on August 5th. ‘I went to the scene,’ wrote the eyewitness in an email. ‘I saved him, when I lied to the mob that let me take him to the police.’
The witness stated that he was able to convince the mob he would deliver the victim to the police, but instead put him on a boda boda, (motorcycle) and rescued him. The victim was later denied medical care, he alleged, because he lacked funds to pay.’
The news comes after around 200 LGBT activists and allies celebrated the annulment of the AHA.
On August 1st, Uganda’s AHA (Anti-Homosexuality Act) was annulled after it was discovered that the bill was passed without Quorum.
However 215 of 375 MPs have already signed a petition to reintroduce and ‘fast-track’ a revised law.
‘I am confident we shall have the bill retabled and passed into law overwhelmingly,’ MP Latif Ssebaggala told IRIN News.
The repealed AHA calls for up a 14 years sentence for anyone found guilty of “homosexual acts” and a life sentence for those convicted of “aggravated” offenses – such as those committed by HIV-positive individuals, or involving the disabled, minors or serial offenders.
The promotion of homosexuality is outlawed, and citizens have been urged in the media to denounce and ferret out presumed LGBT people.
A wave of evictions has also followed, as families and landlords kicked out LGBT individuals, fearing arrest themselves under the AHA.
TheGayUK hasn’t been able to confirm these reports.
We reached out to FNUR for comment on whether the accusations were true, a statement from the organisation stated,
‘The press release is by Anne-christine d’Adesky, Founder of Safe Passage Fund – with input from Friends New Underground Railroad.
‘We are aware that there are claims that that “there is no truth to the claims made in the release.”
‘We – the Quakers in Olympia, WA and the activists we support in Uganda – all understand the importance of corroborating the work they are doing. FNUR reports as much information as we can and operate this project as transparently as we are able – while protecting the identities of those whose work we support. They are on the ground working to save others. The safety and well being of the activists/conductors and their passengers is our reason for creating FNUR and it is our only consideration. We respect and follow what the security team and others we work with in Uganda ask us to reveal or not to media folks and others.’