Hubble Bubble’s hot tips for the weeks ahead on the London arts scene
The great thing about living in London is that when you find those brief (!) spells in between jobs, whilst waiting for that call from Trevor (Nunn) or Steven (Spielberg), you can pop out to the theatre and watch those of your mates who are lucky enough to be strutting their stuff on the boards. Of course, you have to comfort yourself that they are only working because they are: a) younger than you b) more attractive or, c) “know someone”, never because they might actually be better at the job than you. Well, you have to keep morale up somehow.
This week, a fellow resting thesp suggested a trip to see Noel Coward’s Design For Living. Not being a great Coward fan I decided to go anyway because I knew (had met) someone in it and because I love going to the Old Vic, it’s a proper old English theatre and sits perfectly at the end of my door- to- door line, the Bakerloo, which means I can peruse the Evening Standard on route and check out the latest Boris Johnson nonsense (our very enthusiastic mayor, currently presiding over the birth around town of thousands of bright blue bikes advertising Barclays Bank).
The Old Vic is also distinguished by its management: the charismatic and brilliant Kevin Spacey, embraced by British theatre lovies for his bravura in taking over the theatre and for his support of our theatre in general (even turning up to meetings alongside the likes of Sir Peter Hall to protest about theatre cuts: a Proper Man of The Theatre. His artistic directorship has produced a mixed bag of plays but is always worth checking out. Also, (HOT TIP COMING) if you don’t mind the possibility of disappointment and maybe going for a drink instead, turn up at the Old Vic half an hour before it starts and you can often get top price tickets for half price, especially at the start of a run or on a Monday.
Last Wednesday night we were in luck and found ourselves well forward in the stalls, a passionate menage a trois evolving before us delivered in pukka cut-glass 1930’s tones and moving from bohemian Paris to dazzling Manhattan. Initially banned in the UK, this provocative play returns to the London stage for the first time in 15 years. Whilst the men were superb, the central female character, played by Lisa Dillon, didn’t quite have sufficient X Factor to elevate the production into brilliance but it was hugely entertaining and hilarious in the way that Coward always is at seemingly effortlessly managing to combine wit, humour and the pain of the truth behind the mask of social pretence. For me it is a play about embracing the difference: love takes many forms. Design For Living is definitely worth a visit
I would also urge you to check out London’s Selfridges store on Oxford Street near Bond Street tube station before September 22nd where our great doyenne of the fashion world, Vivienne Westwood, has an exhibition of shoes spanning five decades. This slice of fashion history was the perfect place for me to bring my daughter and her friend after they were given a DT (Design Technology, for those out of the loop) project to design a shoe – the perfect excuse to take two uniformed 10-year-olds to peruse the often outrageous but always stylish and inventive creations that had Naomi Campbell rolling off her death-defying platforms on the catwalk back in 1992.
My uniformed girls especially loved the shoes made out of cans (Coke, Heinenken and Guinness). Can Shoes 2005, the Louis Vuitton Boot 1995 (a foot-high gold pencil and Louis Vuitton labelled boot) but we hadn’t quite reckoned on being confronted by the Penis Shoe (1995), which consisted of two pom-pom ‘balls’ at the heel leading down to a phallic protuberance at the toe and all in a seductive black.
Like exotic creatures in an aquarium, Westwood’s shoes stare out at you in glass boxes under a spotlight, breathtaking and wonderous. Not to be missed by fashion victims, festishists or those with a hint of the Imelda Marcos about their wardrobe. Me, I loved the Pirate Boot 1981, iconic and fit for the dandy lurking us all.
That was all I managed to fit in this week but also on the Old Vic front is Scorched which opened on September 3rd and runs til October 2nd, an underground theatre experience (which I am hoping to make) by Wajdi Mouawad, currently the most performed French speaking playwright, on at the atmospheric Old Vic Tunnels. Other imminent highlights on my list include: Clybourne Park, Dominic Cooke’s production of this dark but hilarious play concerned with race issues at the Royal Court. Act 1 is set in Chicago 1959 and Act 2 in 2009. I am booked in for the 27th September so watch this space for further comment or better still check it out before it sells out.
The Royal Court features some of the best theatre in London at the moment and is on a roll. Tickets are great value and it’s THE place to keep up with cutting-edge theatre produced at the highest level. Its recent production of Spur of the Moment was heralded as one of the most extraordinary debuts by a young playwright. She was 17. I saw it and was gripped.
Also opening this week on the 18th September is Birdsong, the stage version of Sebastian Faulkes’ brilliant book by young, up and coming playwright Rachel Wagstaff and starring US actor Ben Barnes and Genevieve O’Reilly. With the great Trevor Nunn at the helm, the play is definitely worth a look.
Also, if there are any tickets left, it is worth a trip to Bethnal Green, East London to see Frantic Assembly’s production of Beautiful Burnout. Described as a brilliant piece of physical theatre set in the visceral world of boxing, I have tickets for Saturday and can’t wait for the experience. Watch this space.
Finally, on the theatre front, for the organised amongst you, book up for The Black Watch at the Barbican. I missed it first time round and got in early this year with a booking for its return performance at the Barbican later this year in the wake of its Olivier Award win in 2009.
On the art front, check out the British Art Fair at Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore SW7, this weekend 15-19 September, described as “British Art at its best”, I am never disappointed. Another absolute must is Sargent and the Sea, some of the work of John Singer Sargent which is about to finish at the Royal Academy on September 26th. I have been in love with this artist since seeing his breathtaking picture The Daughters of Darley Bolt 1882 at the Prado Gallery in Spain earlier this year.
TFN
Hubble Bubble
