THEGAYUK

Tag: London News

All the latest from London, the capital of the UK, home to the UK’s largest gay community.

  • REVIEW: Chris Stein/Negative: Me, Blondie and The Advent of Punk, Somerset House, London

    Fittingly it’s Deborah Harry’s opening line in the programme notes that sums it best.

    ”I had no idea that Chris was a voyeur when I met him”

    Currently running til 25th January 2015 at Somerset House to mark the 40th anniversary of Blondie, Chris Stein/Negative: Me, Blondie and The Advent of Punk is a showcase of unpublished photographs by Chris Stein, the hugely successful 70’s band’s co-founder.

    Blondie were undoubtedly one of the most influential bands of their generation with a sound encompassing punk, new wave, hip hop and reggae and in Deborah Harry happened to have one of the most iconic front women of all time. It is no accident that Harry is regularly cited as heroine by so many indie and alt rock musicians that followed.

    Unsurprisingly she dominates the work on show and her beauty, sensuality and good old fashioned star quality is the exhibition’s main selling point. There is a mix of candid outtakes, a snapshot taken backstage with David Bowie a particular highlight and unseen pictures from magazine shoots. This is no one woman show however. Images of other figures from the NYC punk and new wave scene such as Iggy Pop, The Ramones and Joan Jett loom large. At it’s best Stein’s work is stark and unsentimental, documenting the people and places he knows well with the sharp eye of an insider.

    Perhaps the most haunting portrait on show is of writer William S Burrows, taken in the late 80’s. Conservatively dressed, arms folded and with head cocked, he radiates defiance and fierce intellect.

    The exhibition also serves to chart the progress of Blondie from their formation in 1974 to the huge international fame a few years later. But while the band travels to Europe and beyond, they remain rooted in New York. A series of city street scenes and urban landscapes show that Stein is as interested in the harsh beauty of the city as the people that populate it.

    There is a high possibility that anybody vaguely acquaintanced with Blondie’s music will rush home to play Parallel Lines on repeat for the rest of the day. And that is no bad thing. But the power of this exhibition is in capturing a time long past but that still has a hand in shaping alternative pop culture hugely today.

    Find out more visit Somerset House

    5 November 2014 – 25 January 2015

    Daily 10.00-18.00 (last entry 17.15)

    Open until 21.00 (last entry 20.15) on Thursdays from 27 November

    24 & 31 December 10.00-16.00, 25 & 26 December-closed, 1 January 12.00-18.00

    East Wing Galleries, East Wing

    Free admission

  • Second Man Arrested After Homophobic Attack In London

    Second Man Arrested After Homophobic Attack In London

    Police have confirmed that a second man has now been arrested in connection to an assault in London on two gay men.

    (more…)

  • THEATRE REVIEW | DV8: JOHN, The Lyttleton Theatre

    ★★★★★ | DV8: JOHN, The Lyttleton Theatre

    Lloyd Newson’s DV8 Physical Theatre Company have been presenting innovative dance pieces for the best part of three decades and have won a plethora of awards. I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if their latest piece, John, now playing at the Lyttleton Theatre were to bring them a whole lot more.

    The programme note tells us that the piece we are seeing is not what Newson had originally planned, a work about assisted suicide. The emphasis changed when a close friend of Newson’s died unexpectedly, and he decided he needed to do a work about love and life rather than death. They interviewed several men for the project, but when John came into their office, it became clear that the new work would predominantly follow John’s story, and so the present piece was born.

    It starts as a monologue about John’s traumatic council estate childhood under the shadow of a violent, rapist father. Anna Fleischle’s ingenious, revolving set is put to brilliant use as characters move from one room to another. At first movement is fairly natural, but it becomes more stylised as the story evolves, though always as a response to speech. Rather than being set to music, in this case, the movement is a reflection of language and the words being spoken.

    Later the set doubles for the gay sauna where much of the second part of the piece is played out, perfect in its depiction of the endless cruising from sauna to steam room to restrooms. Much of the choreography is unbelievably complex. In the group scenes, you feel that if one member of the company were to misplace a foot or a hand, then the whole delicate balance would be destroyed. That never happens of course, and one of the joys of this production is seeing the way bodies fuse together, meld into one and then just as easily drift apart, something of a Newson trademark.

    Endlessly fascinating, but ultimately incredibly moving, it not only examines John’s reasons for having sex with men, but also unflinchingly examines why men may or may not take risks with their sexual health. Their stories are told without judgement, without prejudice.

    I won’t give anything away, but the ending with John caught once more alone on the stage was incredibly moving. It runs for one hour and twenty minutes without an interval, but time had gone so fast, it was hard to believe it was actually the end.

    A true collaboration, one should also mention the excellent lighting of Richard Godin and the sound design of Gareth Fry. Every single one of the performers should be commended for their commitment, for their skill, and for the beauty of the movement. So too should Lloyd Newson, who has yet again come up with a starkly original and thought-provoking piece of theatre.

    John is on now at the Lyttleton Theatre and almost half the tickets for each performance will be £15 as part of the Travelex Theatre Scheme

    On 9 December John will be broadcast live to over 550 UK cinemas and many more worldwide as part of National Theatre Live. Details at www.ntlive.com

    Runs until 13th January 2015

  • Two Men Injured In Halloween Homophobic Attack In London

    Officers in Kingston Borough are appealing for witnesses and information following a homophobic attack on two men in Surbiton in the early hours of Saturday morning, 1 November.

    Police were called at around 01:20hrs that day to reports of males fighting outside the KFC restaurant in Brighton Road, Surbiton.

    Officers attended and found a 21-year-old man [victim1] suffering a head injury.

    London Ambulance Service attended and the man was taken to a hospital. He has since been discharged.

    A second man with the victim, aged 18 [victim2], was also suffering minor facial injuries.

    The Community Safety Unit on Kingston Borough is investigating and is treating the attack as a homophobic hate crime.

    At this early stage, it is understood both victims were walking along Victoria Road and as they passed a group of two men and three women outside the YMCA they were subjected to homophobic abuse from one of the two men.

    The two victims walked away but when they reached the zebra crossing nearby the two men [suspects 1 and 2] approached them and ‘victim 2’ was punched.

    ‘Victim1’ intervened to protect ‘Victim2’ and the suspects then assaulted him.

    ‘Victim1′ ended up on the floor where the suspects kicked and stamped on him.

    Passersby intervened to stop the attack and the suspects both ran off along Victoria Road.

    A search of the area by officers did not locate anyone matching the suspects’ descriptions.

    ‘Suspect1’ has been described as: a white man, aged in his late twenties, with fair hair that was shaven, a muscular build, short in height, and wearing a pink tutu.

    ‘Suspect2’ has been described as; a white man, also aged in his late twenties, with brown short hair, and also wearing a pink tutu.

    A 26-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident.

    He was arrested on Tuesday, 4 November for grievous bodily harm and common assault and remains at a west London police station.

    Enquiries continue regarding the identity of the second suspect.

    Trainee Detective Constable Ann-Marie Hodgkiss, the officer in the case, said: “This was a violent and unprovoked hate crime and I am appealing for anyone with any information about the incident to contact me.

    “The two suspects were distinctively dressed, probably due to Halloween, and I would urge anyone who recognises their description and who may know who they are to contact me and help us trace them.”

    Any witnesses or anyone with any information are asked to call the Community Safety Unit at Kingston Police Station on 0208 721 5858 or via 101, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Spine, Soho Theatre

    From fast-rising Channel 4 Playwright Clara Brennan comes a hilarious, pan-generational call to arms for our modern age.

    Spine charts the explosive friendship between a ferocious, wisecracking teenager and an elderly East End widow. Mischievous activist pensioner Glenda is hell-bent on leaving a political legacy and saving Amy from the Tory scrapheap because ‘there’s nothing more terrifying than a teenager with something to say’.

    In this era of damaging coalition cuts and disillusionment, has politics forgotten people? Can we really take the power back? Amy is about to be forced to find out.
    There’s something about a well scripted and performed monologue that can be immensely powerful and intense and Brennan’s play manages to be both of these things whilst also being incredibly funny. Rosie Wyatt’s Amy is initially an unsympathetic character with an accent and pattern of speech like nails on a blackboard and a strutting, angry demeanour. The skill in both the script and the acting lies in making the viewer warm to and believe in the changes that take place in Amy, in spite of her bad points.

    The Soho Theatre is a great space for this play with the small space crammed with teetering piles of books. I laughed a lot and almost didn’t notice that the play was delivering a message about apathy in an age when we’re challenged and tricked into thinking that we should be grateful for what we have. And keep quiet. There’s a touch of the 1970s classic film Harold and Maud about the play: eccentric pensioner and off the rails teenager learn from each other.

    Kudos to Rosie Wyatt too for telling an audience member off for using her phone during the play, whilst remaining in character. She’s a woman after my own heart.

    Spine runs until: Tue 21 Oct – Sun 2 Nov, 7.15pm. Matinees: Sat 2.30pm, Sun 5.30pm
    Buy tickets here: http://www.sohotheatre.com/whats-on/spine

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Curing Room

    ★★★★ | The Curing Room

    “It made the recent Globe production of Titus Andronicus look like a teddy bear’s picnic!” And indeed over 90 minutes we had been subjected to a deluge of blood, guts and gore, couple with full frontal male nudity the likes of which I have never seen before on the stage.

    David Ian Lee’s The Curing Room throws seven Soviet soldiers into the empty cellar of a monastery, stripped of all belongings and their clothes. Abandoned by their captors, and left without food, the men resort finally to murder and cannibalism in order to survive. The play asks questions about how we redefine ourselves in extreme circumstances, how the constraints of normal civilised society and military rank cling to us, or don’t.

    The play is something of a tour de force for the seven brilliant actors, who literally bare all before the audience. Director Joao De Sousa is unflinching in his depiction of cannibalism and there is, as I said earlier, a lot of blood. My companion spent much of the latter part of the evening with his head turned away from the stage. This play is definitely not for the faint hearted, and if your only reason for going is a prurient desire to see seven men naked, well you soon get used to that. The gore is harder to cope with.

    It would be invidious to pick out any one of the actors. They all work as a close-knit team, and all, without exception, give excellent performances. De Sousa’s pacing is brilliant, and I was gripped throughout. Once away from the theatrical brilliance of it all, though, a few minor doubts crept in about the writing and about the play itself. For much of the play, the characters come across as mere cyphers, as representatives of certain types; the stiff upper lip captain, the honourable senior lieutenant, the slightly simple young private, the old retainer and so on. This could be the reason I found it ultimately less involving than I should have. Though the horror of what unfolds before you certainly draws you in, ultimately ones cares little about the fate of these soldiers as individuals.

    None the less, The Curing Room is well worth seeing if you have the stomach for it. I doubt we will see anything like it again for some time.

    The Curing Room is at the Pleasance Theatre until November 9th.

  • London Gay Couple Told To Get Off Bus In Homophobic Rant

    A gay couple from London have told the Evening Standard that they were told to stop kissing or get off the bus.

    The couple who were travelling on the number 89 at around 10:30 PM near Blackheath have told that the bus driver had a homophobic rant after the pair shared a ‘peck’ on the lips.

    Jack James, 23, and his boyfriend are reporting that the driver said, “Oi, you two don’t do that on my f**king bus or you can get off, I don’t want to watch that.”

    The incident happened on the 8th August 2014.

    According to the Standard, the pair didn’t realise that the driver was talking to them and asked for clarification. The driver reportedly replied, “Yes, it’s my bus it is my rules and I don’t want to watch that, it’s disgusting, get off the bus.”

    Mr James, has also stated that the driver told them to ‘f**k off’ and that they weren’t real men. Mr. James has said that he is considering reporting the incident to the police.

    Mr James said,

    “We were chatting away when my partner gave me a peck on the lips. The bus driver shouted ‘Oi you two don’t do that on my f****** bus or you can get off, I don’t want to watch that’. When the bus stopped at our stop I walked up to the driver and politely asked the driver if he was talking to us. His reply was ‘Yes, it’s my bus, it is my rules and I don’t want to watch that, it’s disgusting, get off the bus’. Once we got off the bus we were fuming and I was shaking. The bus stopped again and he shouted and told us we were not real men and we should f*** off.”

    Ken Davidson, TfL’s Head of Bus Operations, told the Standard,

    “All customers have the right to use our services without fear of being abused and offensive behaviour is completely unacceptable. We would like to reassure Mr James that this matter is being taken very seriously and that a thorough investigation is being conducted by Go Ahead.”

    In August the police appealed for witnesses to a homophobic attack on a London train, which happened between Charing Cross and Bexleyheath

  • THEATRE REVIEW: Urinetown, Apollo Theatre, London

    With a terrible title, something that the writers are keen to point out, Urinetown is the anti-musical- musical and it’s bloody brilliant.

    (more…)

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Tempest, Waterloo East Theatre

    ★★★ | The Tempest

    The cover of the programme for Waterloo East Theatre’s new production of The Tempest shows Big Ben toppling under a flood of water. As we entered the theatre, Ariel was suspended in a hammock above the audience. Whilst on stage, various detritus that may have been salvaged from a flood was scattered around, Miranda sitting reading in an empty bath, and Prospero, seated on a crate, quietly talking to her. The press release tells us that the year is 2080, but no other allusion to the year or to London was made, and as the text continued to refer to the courts of Milan and Naples, I doubt many would have got the reference anyway.

    The play opened in a burst of energy, with passengers on the ship that is soon to be caught up in the eponymous tempest, dancing and drinking and generally making merry before the storm disperses them on Propero’s island, which is when Prospero starts to have his fun, directing events almost like a puppeteer. Indeed many have sought to find something of Shakespeare himself in the character.

    Sarah Redmond’s production was swift moving, managing seamlessly the transitions from high to low comedy, from darkness to light. I’m not quite sure I understood why Miranda and Ferdinand’s marriage should have been celebrated with a lap dance, and I would have welcomed a little more of “the sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not”, but the score did provide us with “a thousand twangling instruments”. In fact, music was used most effectively throughout.

    Would that the text had been delivered with a deal more musicality too, for poetry was somewhat lacking, except in the performance of Guy Wolf, who gave us a Ferdinand of charm and innocence, bringing out both the humour and the beauty of the poetry. It was there too in Chipo Kureya’s mercurial Ariel, and I will not easily forget the radiant happiness that spread over her countenance when Prospero finally set her free. Rebecca Hazel caught well Miranda’s wonder at a “brave new world”, if a touch too lasciviously at times. Though there is no doubt a venal side to the attraction between Miranda and Ferdinand, it should still have a childlike innocence about it, which is exactly where Wolf was so convincing.

    I’ll admit that I often have a bit of a problem with Shakespeare’s mechanicals and The Tempest is no different from any of his other plays in that respect. Here their scenes were managed as well as they can be, I suppose, ably led by Matthew Harper’s boorishly bullish Caliban, but still nobody was rolling in the aisles, as presumably they would have been in Shakespeare’s time.

    Over all presides the problematic figure of Prospero, and for me the performance of Tom Keller revealed a major problem at the heart of the play. Admittedly, there is not much to like about Prospero for the first half. He is cruel to both Ariel and Caliban, and to Ferdinand, at times dismissive of his daughter. This makes him a difficult character to like, though he redeems himself in the last two acts. Prospero does have a good deal to be angry about, but to succeed in the part, the actor needs to bring out his benevolence as soon as possible. Tom Keller was pretty irascible from the word go, and remained in a pretty bad mood throughout, his delivery of the text unmusical and perfunctory.

    The Tempest plays at Waterloo East Theatre until October 26th.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Damn Yankees, The Landor Theatre, London

    ★★★★ | Damn Yankees, The Landor Theatre, London

    Perpetual losers, The Washington Senators, are failing to win at baseball yet again and fanatic Joe Boyd is tempted into a Faustian pact when he sells his soul to the devilish Mr Applegate in return for a series win. Joe soon realises what he’s leaving behind and is torn between the wife he’s left behind versus the chance to take his team to victory and the distraction of the devil’s sidekick, beautiful and vampy Lola.

    Adler and Ross’s multi-award winning musical may have one of the silliest plots around but that doesn’t matter at all. Coming straight after their success with The Pyjama Game and a string of chart hits, Damn Yankees was well received and was even made into a film starring Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon. Sadly, at the height of their success, Ross died aged 29 from complications of lung disease.

    This production has already been nominated for an Off West End award for Best Choreographer for Robbie O’Reilly. It’s not hard to see why. The dance routines are breath taking. The production values of the show are up to the standards of a West End production and tickets are a fraction of the price. O.K., The Landor is a fringe venue and has fewer frills in terms of special effects and scenery but is well worth a trip to Clapham North. The lighting, set and costumes are all well put together especially given the constraints of a smaller venue.

    The cast are especially strong with wholesome and handsome Alex Lodge putting in a stellar lead performance as Joe Hardy, showing dazzling dance moves and a powerful voice, which considering that he’s a recent graduate shows a considerable talent. He’s definitely one to watch and not simply because of his boyish good looks. Poppy Tierney and Jonathan D Ellis are both hilariously camp as Mr Applegate and his sidekick Lola and give well polished performances. Ellis’s cabaret turn in Act Two was especially waspish and funny and Tierney gives a good rendition of “Whatever Lola Wants”.

    Did I mention the boys? I haven’t seen so much bare male flesh in a musical in quite some time. As well as being a stage presence due to their singing and dancing, their abs and pectorals are worthy of some kind of award, surely? The supporting female cast are equally good but with less flesh on show.

    This is definitely worth checking out for an entertaining few hours.

    Damn Yankees runs until the 8th of November 2014

    Buy tickets here: http://www.landortheatre.co.uk/index.php/booking-office/musicals/damn-yankees-90/

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Hello Norma Jeane, Kings Head Theatre, Islington

    ★★★★ | Hello Norma Jeane, Kings Head Theatre, Islington

    The year is 2003. Joe has jetted off to Los Angeles to find and bring back to England his 76 year old grandmother, Lynne, who has escaped from the home she was living in and holed herself up in a motel in Hollywood.

    When he finds her, she tells him that she is there, because the world is in dire need of some good news, and that news is that she is about to reveal that she is in fact Marilyn Monroe, that she faked her own death, and that she has been living in obscurity in Essex ever since. Is she really Marilyn or is she just fantasising? Will Joe believe here? Will we? And does it really matter one way or the other?

    Dylan Costello’s amusing and often very touching play cleverly keeps us guessing. As he adds layer upon layer of detail to his tale, we are buffered one way and the other, one minute believing Lynne really is Marilyn, and the next absolutely sure that she isn’t, and we are kept guessing till the end. Ultimately though the play is not about guessing games, but about the nature of love, unconditional love; the genuine love between Joe and his grandmother, contrasted with that of Joe and his abusive, cheating boyfriend back in London. And maybe when Lynne jets off to Hollywood, she does so in the hope of making Joe see sense, of Joe finding his true self instead of living in the shadow of his boyfriend.

    At the play’s centre is a performance of warmth and humour from Vicki Michelle, known worldwide for the role of Yvette in the TV sitcom Allo Allo. But this is no star turn; Michelle is one part of a talented team. Her relationship with Jamie Hutchins’s sweet, rather gauche Joe is beautifully charted, as their scenes together veer from high comedy to touching drama. Farrell Hegarty differentiates nicely between the superstar Marilyn and the young Norma Jeane, and has a great comic turn as TV hostess Carla Carlyle. Handsome Arron Blake completes an excellent cast as budding actor Bobby and Matthew Gould’s direction is unobtrusively right from beginning to end.

    Hello Norma Jeane was one of five winners in Chicago based Pride Films and Plays’ Great Play Contest in 2011, and it is to be hoped that it will have a life beyond its present short season at the Kings Head in Islington.

    At the moment it is playing Sundays only at 3.15 and 7.15 until November 2nd at the Kings Head Theatre, Islington.