Author Archives

  • king lear old vic
    King Lear (Theatre)
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Reviews

    With an 80-year-old woman, Glenda Jackson, in the title role of King Lear it has come a long way since Shakespeare first loosely adapted it from Leir of Britain, a mythical tale about an 8th Century BC Celtic king. This pseudo-historical figure was mentioned in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain. So […]

  • Theatreland
    Hot Picks This Week
    Posted in: Unused

    The once in a lifetime supermoon today is hopefully a sign of a super week for you! If you’re not one to believe in such things then why not check out the surefire signs of our hot picks of London events below. Theatre: Red Candle – Mermaids of the East. This Japanese play not only […]

  • arrival
    Arrival (Film)
    Posted in: Movies & TV Shows, Reviews

    If aliens landed on earth, all things considered they’d probably be a lot like the ‘creatures’ that hover above the 12 randomly selected geographical locations in this high concept sci-fi flick directed by Denis Villeneuve. Probably. Adapted from a short story by respected author Ted Chiang, it doesn’t just thrust little green men at you, […]

  • Depictions of London by the Great Artists
    Depictions of London By the Great Artists
    Posted in: Highlights

    London has transformed throughout the centuries, at a pace that picked up dramatically during industrialisation as it became  one of the world’s leading commercial centres. Throughout this period many notable painters, poets and writers tried to capture its essence in stunning works of tribute. However, the Great Artists often showed it as a barely distinguishable […]

  • The Red Candle – Mermaids in the East (Theatre)
    The Red Candle – Mermaids in the East (Theatre)
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Reviews

    From Eastern lore comes a play about this beautiful tragedy of Japanese mermaids adapted by playwright and translator Nozomi Abe and directed by Yojiro Ichikawa. Originally titled The Mermaid and the Red Candles, it’s a tale about an abandoned mermaid who is raised by a childless human couple but whose destiny changes as she increasingly […]

  • Nov 8: Birthdate of Astronomer Edmund Halley of Halley’s Comet Fame
    Posted in: Highlights, People

    All you amateur stargazers out there will no doubt know that today is the birthdate of Edmund Halley, the English astronomer who discovered the Halley’s Comet which is named after him. Born in 1656 in good old Haggerston, East London (Big up Hackney!) this genius of a man was also a geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist and […]

  • Theatreland
    Hot Picks This Week
    Posted in: Places

    As the week kicks off here’s a checklist of some eye-catching events across the capital which are certainly worth a look in. Keep a space for these in your social calendar. Museums: South Africa: The Art of a Nation (British Museum). An exhibit of South Africa’s rich artistic heritage including their earliest rock art From […]

  • magnus-plessen-skin-of-volume
    Magnus Plessen: The Skin of Volume (Exhibition)
    Posted in: Galleries & Museums, Reviews, Shows & Exhibitions

    German artist Magnus Plessen new exhibition at the White Cube follows on from his earliest show ‘1914’ which was influenced by Ernest Friedrich’s anti-war book War Against War whose graphic photographs revealed the horrific realities of the battlefield and showed bodies maimed by automatic weapons. In this new exhibition this dislocation of body parts is […]

  • hamlet
    Hamlet (Theatre)
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Reviews

    Shakespeare, the world’s greatest bard was both born and buried in Stratford-upon-Avon 400 years ago so it’s fitting that on this anniversary year Britain’s first all black production of Hamlet should be produced and performed in Stratford – Stratford, East London that is. Black Theatre Live’s partnership with Stratford Circus arts centre and Watford Palace […]

  • television-comes-to-london
    Nov 2, 1936: Television Comes to London
    Posted in: Highlights, Movies & TV Shows

    Television Comes to London was the title of a documentary aired on the world’s first television service introduced by the pioneering British Broadcasting Company (BBC) on this day Nov 2nd in 1936. A more apt title might have been BBC Brings a Television Service to the World but no matter how ground-breaking this all was its […]