London is a fabulous city! Our thought was that writing an arts and culture column from London would be easy, but boy, where do you even begin?
Tomorrow, Street Eat, a one-day food festival begins on Carnaby Street, with over 30 food and drink stalls, DJs and live music and free ice cream.
Other events for free include “Belgravia in Bloom,” a flower show in the streets of Westminster, which sees local businesses decorated with floral displays inspired by children’s books such as The Jungle Book.
Dear Diary, an exhibition of diaries you can actually leaf through from 1400 BC (I know, right?) to the present, demonstrates the ways in which we capture the human experience, at Somerset House near Temple Bar.
“Picasso: Minotaurs and Matadors” explores common themes in Picasso’s work, often representing himself as a Minotaur, which was both sexual and a saviour of women. This show explores the Classic Man metaphor and promises you will leave with strong opinions. It’s at the Gagosian Gallery on Bond Street until August 25.
In the West End theatres, all of the expected musicals are there: The Lion Kingat the Lyceum, Book of Mormonat the Prince of Wales and Wicked at the Apollo. The offering with the most buzz is An American in Paris, which shows at the Dominion Theatre until January 2018. It is a singing and dancing extravaganza, and I’m sure it will be wonderful.
The play we would most like to see in the West End is Hamlet. Last time we were in London, Benedict Cumberbatch was starring in same, but tickets were sold out till the end of his run.
This new version, however, is produced and mounted by the group that gave us Oresteia, which is the most powerful production I have ever seen. It is at the Harold Pinter Theatre from June 12 to Sept. 2.
At the National Theatre on the South Bank (of the Thames) – they actually have three theatres, the Lyttelton, the Olivier and the Dorfman – are all showing different plays at any given time.
This month they are presenting Ugly Lies the Bone in its final performances and Angels in America(no possibility of tickets) at the Lyttelton.
Angelsis about the AIDS crisis and is immensely powerful. Common, billed as an “epic tale of England’s lost land,” is a story set in the industrial revolution in England in which Mary, a con artist, leads the fight to save “common land” (essentially Crown land in our parlance), set aside for the “common good” for the people to use.
It is playing at the Olivier in rep with Salome, the Bible story in a fairly shocking retelling. Its billing is: “An occupied desert nation. A radical on hunger strike. A girl whose dance will change the world.” We will definitely be trying to see this before we leave.
At the Dorfman, they are showing The Barbershop Chronicles, a play about the gossip and political discussions that take place in barbershops around the world, from Yorkshire to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Accra and Lagos. Those are some pretty troubled cities, so the conversation is bound to be electric.
On the gallery front, at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, they are featuring Michelangelo and Sebastiano, two Italian Masters that you have to pay to see and Rubens and Rembrandt, Dutch Masters that are free.
They also have a show by Chris Ofili called Weaving Magic, which is a large-scale tapestry entitled, The Caged Bird’s Song made in Edinburgh’s Dovecot Tapestry Studio. It is accompanied by watercolours and sketches to show the design work and a book that demonstrates the weaving process. This will be gorgeous.
The Tate Galleries is now a series of four galleries in Britain: Tate Britain, home of British art from 1500 is in Millbank, on the river; Tate Modern is in Bankside, also on the South Bank and a short boat ride away from the Tate Britain; Tate Liverpool in Merseyside; and Tate St. Ives in Cornwall (which we will also visit when we go to see the Eden Project, a rainforest in captivity).
At Tate Britain there is a new light installation by Cerith Wyn Evans. This is a massive sculpture made of almost two km of neon lighting, in lines and curves, hanging from the roof.
The other exhibition there is Queer British Art: 1861-1967, the first exhibit dedicated to LGBTQ art.
Tate Modern has exhibits by sculptor Alberto Giacometti, whose elongated figures are among the most recognizable in modern art, open till September; and a photography show by Wolfgang Tillmans, a contemporary artist of renown in his first major show at the Tate.
This is all very exciting, but next column look out for all the hubbub and hullabaloo for Homecoming in Flin Flon.
