Pride In London has been postponed but a new date will be announced “in due course”.
Organisers of Pride In London, the UK’s biggest Pride celebration has been postponed, due to the fears around the spread of Covid-19.
A statement from the pride’s two co-chairs, Alison Camps and Michael Salter-Church said, “It’s been a tough decision to postpone the Pride in London Parade and events, but the health and safety of our communities is our top priority. With the climate changing daily, we need to think even further ahead and make timely decisions to protect the health and wellbeing of our communities, volunteers and participants”.
Other outliner events have also been postponed including, “Pride Festival, Pride’s Got Talent, Pride in the City, Pride Boxing, the Pride 10K and all other upcoming events”.
They added, “We fully appreciate the pressures and effects that the current situation is having on all of our communities. Allyship is needed more than ever, so we ask everyone to continue to be kind, loving and generous. Our priority now will be to look closely at how we can support and bring communities together over the coming months”.
Sad news, as The Chateau, a Pop Up LGBT+ bar and cultural space is set to close at the end of April.
The bar, which started life in Camberwell, London made the announcement that it’s due to close at the end of April.
The statement said, “we’ve held on as long as is humanly possible, but the time has come to move on…”
It added, “The Chateau is an entity without and we will continue to live outside of the basement.
“Thank you to all who have supported us over the last two years, it’s been stunning”.
The bar was planning a raft of events up until the last date in April, however, a further message from the organisers wrote,
“In light of the current situation, we have taken the decision to cancel all events scheduled this week at The Chateau.
“We will keep you posted with our plans going forward. Sending lots of love and strength to all the artists, promoters, djs, freelancers and queers right now and thank you for all your support for the chateau team at this tough time. “
“Pleasuredrome will undergo maintenance and cosmetic improvements providing work for our core staff”
One of the UK’s busiest gay saunas has announced that it is to shut its doors from today, “until further notice” due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
A spokesperson, Chris Amos, for the sauna said,
“Following last night’s advice from the UK government recommending people avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other social venues and in the interest of the health and wellbeing of our much-valued guests as well as the wonderful staff we have decided to temporarily close our doors from 7 am today until further notice.”
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The sauna will use the time to “undergo maintenance and cosmetic improvements” which will provide work for the core staff at the facility.
Pleasuredrome says it will continue to monitor the Government’s advice and “act accordingly to ensure public health and safety.”
You can keep up-to-date with the sauna on their Twitter feed.
A real find in the restaurant scene is Bala Baya. It’s a real find because it’s tucked away in a spot hard to find and it’s a real find because it’s extremely delicious.
A few minutes walk from Southwark tube station in the revitalised railway arches now chock a block full of restaurants and a couple of small theatres is Bala Baya.
Top-notch Israeli food cooked with care and to perfection is delivered to tables with grace and elegance in a space that is uniquely designed to make everything just perfect.
There are many choices on the menu but the best value is the set menu where you’ll share 7 dishes at £42 per person where each dish is so unlike the others.
The Chickpea Hummus (£7 on the a la carte menu) is an excellent blend of mixed spices, pine nuts (superb and plentiful), pickled chillies (for that extra kick), with tomato pulp, and served with two fluffy and very soft pitas. Just superb overall. The Mackerel & Harissa (£13), a dish I would normally never order, was an unexpected delight thanks to the combination of the Sharon Fruit (variety of persimmon), mustard cress and tomatoes which gave the dish a nice zing! While the mackerel was, of course, very fishy, the non-fish portion of the dish pushed it over the edge into delicious category. But what was more than delicious was the Wild Tomatoes dish. Very large (£10) and with each ingredient superb, it consisted of Mooli (white root), pickled red onions, Manouri cheese (similar to feta but cooked and better-tasting), and coriander with blackberry vinaigrette to top it off. Superb, zingy, and beautifully presented, with all the ingredients a great mix. It’s a dish I could eat every night! The Cauliflower & Roe (£13), while not as fabulous as the Wild Tomatoes (it’s hard to beat), consisted of a large cooked cauliflower with harissa, sweetcorn black pepper and cured fish roe on top of acidic vinegar, which, along with the harissa, gave the cauliflower a minor kick but it was an excellent texture. Next up was the Crispy, Sticky and Crunchy dish (£11) of chicken thighs – and all four pieces were of the name, with bitter orange, harissa, kimchi, butternut squash puree, hazelnuts sprinkled on top, and sumac.
While the Kimchi was too spicy, the combination of the rest of the ingredients gave this dish the perfect taste. But what was to come after just topped everything: the Cheeky. It was Ox cheek (a nice round portion, and slow-cooked for 3 hours we were told), with a large aubergine resting comfortably on top, and plum tomatoes alongside with the entire dish swimming in beef and date jus. And if this sounds mouth-watering it’s because it was! A dark brown dish, with the plum tomatoes giving it colour, it was large enough for us to share, but to be honest I wanted more of this dish even though I was getting full! Superb. It’s £18 on the a la cart menu by the way.
Too full is an oxymoron when you know there is dessert still to come. And we had two from the menu: the Burnt Babka and the Malibu Malabi. And if they both sound delectable it’s because they were! The Babka (dough baked into a golden brioche-like bread with added chocolate and hazelnuts and plums) reminded me of a cinnamon bun but with much more flavour. I absolutely loved this dish – and it was up to standard with the mains we had just devoured! The Malabi was coconut, orange blossom, mango, citrus fruit, sumac and rose all compacted into a glass dish.
My dining companion loved it but I was very happy with my Babka! Both desserts are also on the a la carte menu (£9 and £8 respectively).
As mentioned previously, the tasting menus are a bit better value than the a la carte menu. The other tasting menu is £53 per person – you get one more dish but this menu does not include the Cheeky nor the Wild Tomatoes dishes – which were two of my favorites.
As for drinks, it’s a given that Bala Baya has a drink for everyone. Cocktails are fine, with the Flying Camel a standout (Ketel One, Cointreau, grapefruit, sumas and rose), but I need to go back and try the Champagne Martini (yummy!), the Pomegranate and Ginger, and (!!) the Peach (with peach liqueur, lemon and prosecco). The wines are a good value, at two pages you have your pick of white, rose and reds, but as Bala Baya is an Israeli restaurant, your best bet is to jump in with both feet and go for the Israeli wine.
Chef Eran Tibi, a descendant from a Middle Eastern family, successfully brings his family’s cuisine to London. Trained at Le Cordon Bleu and the kitchens of Ottolenghi, the Roundhouse’s Made in Camden kitchen and founding Executive Chef at Zest@JW3, Eran’s passion and creativity are apparent in every one of his dishes.
It’s a slick, cool two-story restaurant with the downstairs in full view of the open kitchen but it’s upstairs where you want to sit. With an overhang of plants in the back, to the high ceilings and the floor to ceiling windows at the front, it’s a very comfortable environment where the tables are not too close to each other. And it’s under the concept of Desert Bauhaus, with interiors designed by the award-winning architect Afroditi Krassa. The wait staff are superb, attentive and very nice, and there is nothing bad to say about this place. It’s just perfect, like a lazy Saturday afternoon on a Tel Aviv Beach.
Intrigue. Attraction. Mystery. Lust. Sex. Murder. These are the themes surrounding two plays rolled into one and called ‘Spy Plays’ now at the Above the Stag Theatre.
David Thame’s ‘Kompromat‘ and ‘London/Budapest‘ are shown together for the first time, and both based on true life events where the same actors play different characters in both, 60 years apart.
‘Kompromat’ which in Russian culture is short for “compromising material”, and which has been previously performed at the Vaults, tells the chilling story of Gareth Williams, the presumedly gay man who worked for a government agency and who was found dead inside a sportsbag in the bathtub in his Pimlico flat in 2010. The show takes the story further by surmising that he picked up a man at a gay bar on that night and took him back to his flat. Guy Warren-Thomas plays Gareth, shy yet brilliant, while Max Rinehart plays Zac, the young mysterious Hungarian who seduces Gareth and perhaps had something to do with his death. In ‘London/Budapest’ it’s 1955 and Author Adam de Hegedus (Warren-Thomas), has just met a young man (Rinehart again, at his most seductive) at the Jermyn Street Baths, and takes him back to his Pimlico flat. But who is this young man? Is he who he says he is?
And did de Hegedus actually commit suicide or was he murdered?
So what links these two men? A Pimlico flat, and that both dead had connections to the spy world. And Director Peter Darney beautifully, with the help of the production team, brings it all to life on one of the stages at Above the Stag. In ‘London/Budapest‘ we are whisked to a appropriate era set with a comfy lounge chair while in ‘Kompromat‘ it’s a modern bachelor flat where death will rear its ugly head. And the acting couldn’t be better. While Rinehart has the most dialogue and delivers it with passion, Warren-Thomas Is just perfect in his duel roles and is also absolutely breathtaking when he enters the stage in ‘Kompromat’ in an outfit that’s unexpected yet very, very sexy.
The Kings Cross neighbourhood continues its renaissance with more and more shops and restaurants opening up, and with new apartment and offices sprouting up like weeds. Also new to this area is Arabica.
Arabica, situated on a corner facing the establishing and pleasantly calm, green space known as Lewis Cubitt Gardens, is slightly away from the hustle and bustle of Coal Drops Yard and Granary Square in this rapidly developing area.
One of six branches in London, Arabica brings food, ingredients and more from the Middle East to London for food and flavours that are delicious and flavourful. The Kings Cross location, open only for four months, is one large room with an open plan kitchen with bar and is a sleek and calm environment with service and food to match. Anyone from a single diner, couples or larger groups would feel comfortable at Arabica, with seating arrangements appropriate for all.
Open seven days a week (the Borough Market location as well), Arabica is open for brunch, lunch and diner. It was the brunch menu that we tried, and we were treated to a combination of dishes which brought a potpourri of smells and flavours to our noses and tastebuds.
The Arabica Fry Up (£10) was just that – Rookery farm eggs (cooked over easy soft), house-cured lamb bacon, beef sujuk, roasted tomato, chestnut mushroom, Za’atar (Persian) bread, served in a small frying pan, and is one delicious dish. The beef sausage and the lamb bacon (rather like mini lamb steaks) were very very good (though a bit too salty), with watercress in the pan to give the dish a bit of colour and zest. While not 100% filling it’s perfect for those who like it all but don’t want to feel too full and bloated.
The Turkish-Style Fried Eggs dish was simple yet flavoursome (£9). Fried Rookery farm eggs with roasted peppers, aubergine, tomato, herbs, and crispy shallots was a bit similar to the fry up, except substituting roasted peppers, aubergines and shallots for the meat, and with parsley sprinkled on top for the green look, with a serving of beef sujuk – slices of a mildly spiced beef sausage – were an excellent accompaniment to this satisfying and tasty dish. Very seasonal and very good.
But the stand out dish was the Moorish Buckwheat Pancakes. A snip at only £7.50, the three large pancakes were amazing. Topped with sweet caramelised bananas, salted date honey caramel, with roasted pecans generously sprinkled on top, and with orange blossom cream which brought together tastes that were very delicious. The pancakes have a great flavour and texture (buckwheat) that make them so very very unique with each mouthful as satisfying as the last. Highly recommended. Other brunch choices include the Breakfast Pide and the Halloumi & Herb Tortilla (both £9).
The Turkish Coffee was thick and aromatic as hoped, with the cardamom flavour clearly and pleasantly evident from first to final sip. The Turkish Delight served alongside this was a lovely touch, and among the best I have sampled, with pistachio nuts and pomegranate molasses providing a sticky, chewy treat, which was not overly sweet.
Perhaps a visit for dinner is in order just to be able to eat dishes from the Hot Mezze selection (Steak & Bone Marrow Pita and Lamb Kibbeh are some of the highlights), the Clay Oven choices (Babaganoush Man’Ousheh and the Lahmacun – Turkish pizza with spiced lamb), or the Charcoal Menu (Berbere Spiced Cauliflower, Beef Shish, and the Chicken & Pistachio Shish), as well as the Vegetable and Grains section which all sound very very delicious and very very healthy.
The cocktails, though we didn’t try any, also sound amazing, from the Turkish Delight (Vodka, hibiscus liqueur, strawberry & rosewater jam, vanilla aquafaba – £9) to the Pomegranate Margarita (yummy – £11), or the Halva Daiquiri (Dark rum, fig & hazelnut liqueur, ginger syrup, lime, tahini aquafaba, walnut bitters – wow – £12) or perhaps the Turkish Coffee Martini (£10) which will no doubt blow your socks off.
The selection of fresh, delicious and very very good food are some of the reasons I’d go back to Arabica, whether the Kings Cross of the other restaurant locations (Borough), Selfridges (Food Hall) or to the Market stall locations (Borough again, Southbank and Real Food Markets). Great service, beautiful looking food, and a generally warm feeling all over are other reasons I’d go back.
★★★★ | The Prince of Egypt, Dominion Theatre, London
Dreamwork’s animated 1998 film ’The Prince of Egypt‘ comes to life at the Dominion Theatre.
With music and lyrics by veteran composer Stephen Schwarz, and directed by his son Scott Schwartz, ‘The Prince of Egypt’ faithfully follows the film in the telling of two men – Moses (Luke Brady) and Ramses (Liam Tamne) – who were raised as brothers but, in one of the dark secrets of the family, are not actually brothers.
Moses was born a Hebrew, and after an accident where Moses pushes an Egyptian guard off a temple being built by the Hebrew slaves, he runs off and encounters what turns out to be his real sister and the real members of his family – all Hebrews. While his adopted father dies, Ramses takes over as the Pharaoh – King – while at the same time still condemning all Hebrews to a life of slavery, which will now include his brother. With the brothers divided, what will become of their relationship, and of the Hebrews who desperately seek their freedom?
The production values in this show are worth the price of a ticket. From the illuminated pharaohs and hieroglyphics, which are projected on to the sides of and on the stage, to the amazing costumes and sets, ’The Prince of Egypt’ was made for the huge stage that is the Dominion Theatre. And the dancers are all actually superb, morphing from statues to flowing water to wind to sand dunes to the burning bush where God tells Moses that he needs to return to Egypt and guide the Hebrews to freedom.
Yes, we also get to see Moses part the red sea, with videos of waves projected onto the sides of the stage to make it look like the Hebrews are actually walking between the red sea. Disney, just like their other productions in the West End, looks like they spared no expense in this production. Kudos go to Sean Cheesman, choreographer, who has guided the dancers to be practically another character in the show, to the production and set design and costumes (Jon Driscoll, Kevin Depinet and Ann Hould-Ward respectively), and the performances of both Brady and Tamne. Also, the singing voices of Christine Allado, Alexia Khadime and Mercedesz Csampai are just beautiful. While there were a couple of scenes that had us scratching our heads, overall it’s an amazing production and one not to miss.
When you walk into a theatre and you see that the set is a grand staircase leading into a living room with a large statue of David and various photos of men and drag queens on the wall you know you’re in for a drag of a time. This is exactly what ‘La Cage’ delivers.
Actor Simon Callow adapted the show for the stage, who was asked to write an English version of the original 1973 play (which inspired three french films, a hit musical, and a hit American film – The Birdcage). Directed by Jez Bond, ‘La Cage’ is written in its original time and location, and French speaker Callow astutely brings the flavour of the original farce to life.
Drag queen extraordinaire Albin (Paul Hunter) and Georges (an amazing Michael Matus) own and live above drag queen bar La Cage, along with their extremely camp butler Jacob (Syrus Lowe) who can sure wear high heels. Georges’ son Laurent (Arthur Hughes) arrives to inform him that he’s getting married to a girl whose parents are very religious and conservative, and that they’re coming to town to meet his ‘parents.’
Laurent’s natural mother is invited as well but leaves it to Albin to pretend he’s Laurent’s mother and it’s all one huge farce on the day and things get worse downstairs in the club as all hell breaks loose as Albin is not in residence. Dishes with naughty pictures and innuendos galore go into overdrive as the show goes way over the top with an ending identical to the other productions but in this production is all a bit too easily sewn up.
A lot happens in just over two hours and the cast easily keep up the comedy and energy. From the grand dame that is Albin to the almost not in control Georges they help to maintain a bit of the drama while the show spins its characters all over the place. And while you’ll admire their dedication and tenacity, you might find yourself laughing throughout but to a point where it’s not even funny.
When was Billie Trix – the fictional Diva of Divine Degradation – first unleashed in public? Why, 9/11/01 of course, the purrfect date of birth for a one-woman assault on all known taste! How could I possibly forget? Furiously pumped by the blistering, raw nasal ecstasy of prime, Cordon Bleu coke, I had no idea that evening’s Closer to Heaven press night – Billie’s media premiere – would soon expose me to the sizzling incandescence of the then-unknown and uncrowned Queen of Cunt Rock!
Was I up for it? Oh Christ, yes – I’d just spent an outrageously erotic, Rocky Horror night with my then-partner, and utterly fucked from drugs, sexual excess and a huge plate of restorative pasta, I crashed comatose for hours. Bad move – I woke to 71 missed voice messages screeching World War Three was game on, was happening, the World Trade Centre and Pentagon both savaged by kamikaze terrorists.
An ultimate wake-up call? For sure – nothing grabs your attention faster than indiscriminate, random slaughter in globally-famous landmarks! Still, press nights wait for no-one – neither queen nor transdiva – so Billie Trix’s first, ferocious draft scorched our spectacularly heightened senses with a contact high worthy of Dietrich screwing Madonna!
Sure, public decorum cancelled the scheduled after-party, but not the impromptu shag-a-thon spontaneously erupting at the Shadow Lounge, all blatant public sex and delirium; Frankly, there’s nothing like terrorist death-threats to kick-start libidos and make Viagra instantly redundant!
So, can lightning strike twice? Never doubt it! Even in Closer To Heaven, Billie’s role screamed out for total exposure – the more warts, pudenda and used condoms the better – and, with Musik, authored by Jonathan Harvey and sound-tracked by the Pet Shop Boys, Billie finally has a solo showcase capable of killing her talent-free rivals on sight!
Musik, authored by Jonathan Harvey and sound-tracked by the Pet Shop Boys, Billie finally has a solo showcase capable of killing her talent-free rivals on sight!
Billie’s back-story? Simple – she’s an every day, utterly amoral, drug-fucked hedonist, like all unrepentant media whores; hello Michael Jackson and my darling, Catholic Pope, allegedly shockingly high on snorted Saints’ ashes! But while lazy – and unimaginative – critics cite Marianne Faithfull as Billie’s role model par excellence, she’s arguably far closer in spirit to Wendy O.Williams, deranged frontwoman of hardcore punk band the Plasmatics. And Wendy’s finest, must-read media moment? Nothing less than attempting suicide trying to hammer a kitchen knife through her sternum!
Okay, maybe Billie’s not quite that extreme, but as played by the uber-Botticellian Frances Barber reprising her iconic role, Billie instantly electrifies every susceptible cock in sight! And an appropriate air of depravity is set by the Velvet Underground’s ‘Sister Ray’, fiercely chugging away pre-show in the auditorium. Pin-sharp perfect mood music, it’s a 17(!)-minute epic of smacked-up, tranny junkies projectile puking all over their appalled johns, as they come en masse in showers of rancid spunk!
Arguably, ‘Sister Ray’ is Billie’s signature song as much as Dietrich’s ‘Falling in Love Again’, and sets our expectations sky-high. We’re not disappointed; Heart-stoppingly offensive, Billie takes no prisoners, dead, alive or in between, like a glorious, fetish-culture Joan Rivers on Crystal Meth! And gay author Jonathan Harvey pulls no punches, ramping the Amy Winehouse Bible of Pure Excess to scarcely believable, Trailer Trash on Steroids tastelessness!
Structured as a flashback memoir of Billie’s fantastically view-worthy highs – and lows – the only downside of Musik, ironically, is the Pet Shop Boys’ dreary, pompous and hollow synth-pop, and the six, stunningly banal songs – absolute masterpieces of vacuity – that punctuate the show. Cringingly, Warhol’s feted by this lyrical messterpiece; ‘Soup…won’t let you droop’, after which my mind – and pen – refused to transcribe the subsequent drivel.
Still – thank my Holy, Bleeding Jesus – there’s still Barber’s ferociously meaty, dramatic attack to relish. Briefly, Billie name-checks the famous – and infamous – she’s shared genitalia, and, more interestingly, repartee with, from Jackson Pollack, Trump to Prince Harry, and it’s here the one-liners come thick, fast and awesomely offensive.
A word of warning; dump any snowflake bigotry – and faux-sensitivity – right NOW; Jonathan Harvey’s wit is brutally eloquent. So, are you firmly strapped in? Then we’ll take a ride on the All About Eve ghost-train…“Trump’s penis?’ Billie hisses, ‘it’s shaped like a walnut whip!”, and that Lou Reed compared her clitoris to a perfect, triple bass clef’.
On a roll now, she screams she’s “such a perfectionist – I produce at least ONE note a week!’. But occasionally, even Billie needs Autotune; ‘Your voice would sound this rough if you’d sucked as many lying cocks as I have!’. Still, she’s a model of sobriety – “I haven’t touched smack since my first rehearsal this morning!’ but even so, Billie simply can’t stand Madonna; ‘That plagiarising Bitch! She copies everything!’ Now. that insult takes ferocious balls, with Madge literally playing London’s Palladium just streets away!
More hot, feisty and fearless than tranny hookers shagging football thugs, Francis Barber’s Billie Trix is simply a revelation in Musik. Think Killing Eve’s Villanelle with added singing chops and utterly insouciant, jaded attitude, and you have diva Bille Trix, the absolute, Reigning Queen of killer, kitsch cabaret! So why waste time streaming porn or Game of Thrones? The real Dragon Queen – Billie Trix – is gloriously spreading her wings right now in Soho!
‘Time & Tide’ is a tale of love in the most unexpected places.
Nemo (Josh Barrow) works at a diner but has bigger ambitions in life. He wants to move to the big city of London, to be in theatre, and to get out of his nothing town of Cromer. This is much to the dismay of his boss at the diner May (Wendy Nottingham), who encourages him to stay in their small town. But Nemo’s friend Daz (Elliot Liburd) is secretly in love with him, but of course, Daz is not going to blatantly come out and say it, though he says he just recently broker up with his girlfriend. Meanwhile, May has an admirer in Ken (Paul Easton), the bread delivery man who also is hesitant to come out and say how he really feels. But May has some other sort of secret intentions, and it’s not for Ken. So what is her secret? And will Daz finally tell Nemo how he really feels? It’s unrequited love, love that may or may not be reciprocal, in Time & Tide.
Good performances, and the lovely diner set, in the cosy small room of the Park Theatre, make this production, its premiere, one to watch. Liburd is a natural on stage, but it’s Nottingham who is memorable as the woman who has run the diner for decades, and who is considering selling up and moving away. Nottingham is just fantastic.
As Star Trek’s Borg Queen, Alice Krige was instantly, shockingly unearthly, an stunning visual heart-attack, as unlikely as an 8-foot drag queen twerking on crack! An arguable career highlight, the role propelled Krige into the media stratosphere, paving the way for an acclaimed, deeply nuanced run in Spooks.
Profundity Murdered By Pedestrian Pedants!
Effortlessly cutting the actorial mustard, her every, hugely conflicted moment a master-class in killer drama, Krige proved an absolute dramatic revelation on screen.
So – pardon our French – WTF happened to Krige’s live acting chops? In the beautifully refurbished Riverside Studios opening production, Persona, an adaptation of Ingmar Bergmans’ masterly and forensic dissection of identity, she’s an inaudible as a de-miked Madonna futilely gyrating on stage.
How come? Was she somehow under the assumption that film-craft projection – where the slightest whisper is captured by multiple, ultra-sensitive boom mics – would be adequate for a packed space with severely raked seats, with all those packed bodies relentlessly soak up the sound?
Poor, poor Alice – how badly mistaken can an actress be? And – to be fair – she’s hardly helped by those steep raked bench seats. Ever cursed the sea of bobbing heads blocking your sight-line at a badly-planned venue? Welcome to a Grade-A theatrical nightmare!
And – unbelievably – the production choices descend from poor to atrocious.
Bergman’s movie, briefly, is intensely focused on the deepening, psychic symbiosis between Sister Alma, a female nurse, and the inexplicably mute, traumatised actress –Elisabet – she’s caring for in a remote, isolated clinic.
Never easy viewing and exceptionally demanding cinema, Bergman’s script is dense, tortuous, gnomic and elliptical, hardly the stuff of unintentional comedy. So it doesn’t help when – as a result of an inexplicable creative choice – director Paul Schoolman doubles up as an utterly superfluous, onstage narrator to what’s best staged as an intense two-hander. What on earth does adding a dreary, flatly inexpressive voice-over detailing Bergman’s creative process and thoughts on filming Persona add to a show where the principles – Krige and Nobuhle Mngcwengi’s mute actress Elizabet -are crouching invisible and inaudible on a visually obstructed stage?
Which opens another, hugely contentious issue – colour-blind casting, which, normally, should be comprehensively embraced across the board. Here, however, Bergman’s crucial point is that the nurse and actress, initially almost physically identical, fuse even more deeply into an almost symbiotic psyche. So it’s especially jarring – and dramatically incoherent – to have an ice-pale Krige paired with Nobuhle Mngcwengi, a visually contrasting woman of colour, justly acclaimed as a singer/songwriter, but with a puzzlingly insubstantial acting CV.
So, are there any redeeming aspects of this production? Mercifully, yes. Stepping into Riverside’s pristine, aesthetically barren main studio – less artistically inspired than Trump’s bright orange, mad clown make-up – my oestrogen-choked genitals suddenly leapt with faux-orgasmic joy. And the source of my bliss? William Close’s lusciously imposing Earth Harp, all taut, shining copper cables studded with lights and sensors, invitingly strung high above us from the stage to the studio’s rear wall.
The effect? Gorgeously intimidating, like willingly entering a dominatrix’s hi-tech torture chamber, or feeling like human mice at the imminent mercy of a gigantic cheese-wire.
Ever heard of Laurie Anderson? She’s an avant-garde electronica musician, who pioneered tactile instruments, surfaces sensitive to sensor gloves that instantly release sounds. Hugely bolstered by digital reverb, the resulting music is a physically exhilarating, deep bass throb in our helplessly receptive flesh.
It’s an über-kinky, utterly cutting-edge cyber-fetishism, an ideal prop for an S&M, transhumanist orgy.
And Earth Harp player William Close – all close-cropped, spiky silver hair and killer beard – plays his heart out like a swashbuckling, psychic pirate, unpredictably hi-jacking our sympathies as the score’s sonorous, body-shaking chords demand. If this production’s insistence on low-key whispering and restricted visibility is a misguided attempt at projecting emotional intimacy, William Close’s bravura swagger makes his startling soundscapes anything but futile!
Persona adapted from the Ingmar Bergman movie at the Riverside Studios to February 23rd. 0208-237-1000
