Category: Entertainment
-
THEATRE REVIEW | Geo Wyeth AKA Novice Theory
Perched atop an Ikea coffee table playing a battered old Casio in nothing but his underwear is the curious ball of nervous energy that is Geo Wyeth.
-
THEATRE REVIEW | Play Without Words
If you’re anything like me then the ballet isn’t something you’ve considered as being your thing and contemporary dance conjures up images of incomprehensible manoeuvres performed with ridiculous seriousness. I always thought dance seemed a bit absurd and inaccessible.
I saw a production of Matthew Bourne’s brilliant “Edward Scissorhands” in Nottingham a few years back and was proved entirely wrong. I’ve since seen quite a bit of modern dance and most of it has exceeded my expectations but my loyalties still lie with Mr Bourne. He’s certainly earned the many accolades and awards he’s gathered with his productions including the long running all male production of “Swan Lake”. He’s also earned the admiration of a whole load of gay men with the gay themed “Dorian Gray”, the homoerotic “The Car Man” (loosely based on “Carmen”) and the recent “Early Adventures” with its gay overtones and its homage to male underwear modelling. That’s not to mention the obligatory amount of lithe male flesh which is often on show. The Joan Crawford style stepmother in “Cinderella” was pure high camp and the scene where loose women and even looser men ply for trade in a 1940s Underground Station was enough to titillate even the most jaded palate.
His latest production has just opened at Sadler’s Wells and is due to transfer to Norfolk and I’d recommend catching it before it’s too late. Forget the Olympics. This is definitely an inspirational show.
The show is called “Play without Words” and is loosely based on 1960s British films like “The Servant”. It’s set in Chelsea in the upper class home of a bright young thing and revolves around his relationship with his manservant. It’s a fantastic production. The sense of seductive and permissive morals is played out with intensity against a back drop of desperate power struggles. The costumes, set and styling are breathtaking and the show manages to be suave and erotic as well as funny and invigorating. The dancing styles encompass a range of movements and the sheer force of some of the dance sets is immensely powerful. Catch it while you can! It’s the most chic and stylish thing you’ll see this year. Think Colin Firth in Tom Ford’s “A Single Man”. Oh…did I mention? There are some very attractive men in it too and they’re not too unhappy about showing off their bodies along with their dancing skills.
The show is running at Sadler’s Wells until the 5th of August 2012 before a transfer to Norwich Theatre Royal from 7th to 12th of August 2012
http://www.new-adventures.net/productions/play_without_words
Matthew’s new production of “Sleeping Beauty” starts in November.
http://www.new-adventures.net/productions/sleeping_beauty
Chris Bridges writes for the Gay UK team and also publishes reviews and opinion articles on his blog: http://gayboyinterrupted.blogspot.co.uk/
-
Scott Mason Leaves The House
Big Brother’s Scott Mason has temporarily left the house today to be told about the death of a loved one.
-
FILM REVIEW | The Mission
★★★★ | The Mission
The Mission contains enough heart, energy and soul for any audience to forgive the rough around the edges finish. It outweighs many of its more polished, bigger competitors in its intentions and message.
Set in the Mission district of San Francisco, Che Rivera (Benjamin Bratt) is an admired, macho, tattooed and well respected man. Bus driver, single father, recovering alcoholic, ex con and spends his spare time fine-tuning his beloved customised ‘low rider’ (that’s a vintage automobile for the uninitiated). Living with him is his treasured only son Jesse (Jeremy Ray Valdez) who has a secret not yet told to his father. You start to understand why as the story progresses. Upstairs, Lena has just moved in. A strong, fiercely independent and earthy woman, who works at the shelter for abused women. Lena begins to fall for Che, until a side of him is revealed that she fears she’s seen the results of all too often at the shelter. Upon the discovery of his son’s sexuality Che violently disowns his son in a gritty on-street spat, a difficult, heartbreaking scene to watch in gay cinema; it tears the two apart. The neighbourhood, an audience to the event, learn about Jesse’s sexuality, which sends homophobic ripples through the Latino community. The writer’s intentions may have been to focus on the relationship between father and son, but overwhelmingly the focus falls on the Latino community, and how it might play a role in the way fathers treat their gay sons.
The story is told with truth and empathy for Che, Jesse and Lena; the casting is brilliant and crucially credible. Valdez, plays his Latino homosexuality with dignity, sensitivity and courage. His worry, isolation and the confinement of his sexuality is played exceptionally (I fell in love with his doey eyed, submissiveness.) Yet, strangely, we don’t hate his father – although we should. Instead we desperately want his father to understand and to accept. It could be clichéd, but it isn’t, we’re being allowed to participate in this bittersweet, intimate, father/son journey.
Che’s tolerance gets an invigorated jolt, when his son is attacked on the streets of Mission, but there are pot holes along the way. He refuses to accept Jesse’s boyfriend, who for all intents and purposes comes from a different planet; monied, middle class, educated and white. The stark opposition makes the relationship, at best, two-dimensional, a more powerful script may have demanded another Latino boy for real punch and grit.
Che, with the loving of a good woman (Lena), starts to welcome Jesse back into his life, but feels a little incongruous, in the respect that by satisfying Che’s love-life he is able to accept his son’s.
The language is sometimes simplistic and the resolution premature for it to really feel believable. I like my loose ends tied up – The Mission’s resolve feels clunky. However the theme and issues buried in this film are vitally important – the teenage ‘coming out story’ from – and for an entirely new generation. I applaud the movie makers for The Mission’s integrity, worth and ambition.
Available to buy / view on: Amazon
-
BOOK REVIEW | Jack Holmes And His Friend
Grand master of gay literature, Edmund White, is now in his 70s and his first novel was published in 1973. He’s renowned for his classic novel “A Boy’s Own Story” which accompanied me through an episode of glandular fever back in my teens and made the days bearable.
-
BOOK REVIEW | James Lear
The nation’s women are gripped by “Fifty Shades of Grey” fever. Huddles of women are whispering about it in corners and passing dog eared copies back and forth. Book shops are selling out and the author is breaking records all round with her tale of BDSM sex and raunch. It set me thinking about how a few of my friends and I experienced a similar phenomena with the books of James Lear.
-
SINGLE REVIEW | Wing, Little Mix
Genius. I didn’t have much hope for the debut release for the winning X Factor quartet, but if the first single ‘Wings’ is anything to go by Little Mix’s album is going to be fresh, innovative and dare I say, quirky.
-
FILM REVIEW | Our Paradise
Despite its lack of motive, this film nurtures a disturbing subculture of achieving status by taking what’s not yours to take.
Something deeply dark and disturbing yet visually enticing awaits viewers for this French drama about a 30-something hustler whose neurosis about ageing is, we assume, turning him to a motiveless murderous monster. After finding a younger man (Dimitri Durdaine) lying dazed, damaged and suffering from memory loss in the cruising grounds of Bois de Boulogne, Paris, Vassili (Stephane Rideau) shrouds his new muse, becoming a hybrid of pimp/lover figure to his new squeeze. After a client, who Vassili believes he had murdered, is discovered living in Paris, the two lovers and now accomplices are forced to go on the run.
Our Paradise is an enigmatically beautiful piece of cinematography with much thought given to ensuring that the characters are either corpulently grotesque or fallen angelic beauties, not in equal measure, however. Angelo is the fallen angelic beauty – both inside and out. Vassili’s world is full of these gross, bloated and aged individuals who, one imagines used to be paying trade, now, with fresh blood, and Vassili’s burgeoning potbelly hindering his prospects; the fallen angelic beauty reignites business. One odd scene, Angelo is examined by a doctor, ostensibly to see whether the boy was raped shoves a camera into the boy’s anus and describes his findings ‘smooth as silk.’ This is, however, as far as character probing goes. Uncomplex and a little two dimensional in some respects the characters are more animalistic in their pursuits. Durdaine is almost entirely detached from his character, which adds to the rather chilling but lonely portrayal of Angelo.
Durdaine plays an almost perfect twink to Rideau’s inflated frame and the audience is given many opportunities to revel in his nakedness, which of course is wonderful and does distract from some the many questions that the film’s lack of motive throws up.
One of the key issues explored is the often mismatched relationships between younger gay men and their respective elder partners. The narrative doesn’t judge, but merely outlines the possible issues faced by such relationships, most notable replaceability for a younger, newer, fresher model and the power struggle between the monied and the beneficiary.
The supporting cast is superb, their performances loiter in the mind as an uneasy feeling engulfs you. Sterling performances from supporting cast Béatrice Dalle and a young Mathis Morisset who shows acting promise far beyond his years.
The brilliantly translated subtitles really draw you into the action, distracting the audience from analysing our anti heroes’ intentions. Why the film is called Our Paradise remains, annoyingly elusive, as paradise is unobtainable for Vassili and Angelo. The ending makes the film feel a little pointless and if you’re looking for a bow to wrap up the little details you certainly won’t find it in this film.
-
SINGLE REVIEW: White Light, George Michael
The problem with being George Michael is that so much good music has gone before it’s almost impossible to top your past achievements.
-
BIG BROTHER: Luke and Scott Safe From Eviction
Luke Anderson and Scott Evans are safe for another week after Lydia Lousia is the latest housemate to be evicted from the Big Brother House.