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'The Hunters Grimm' by Teatro Vivo, 22nd October 2014
Deptford High Street doesn't exactly scream 'fairytale'. Half of it is a building site for some shiny new development and half is mouldy old Victorian brickwork that miraculously dodged the Luftwaffe...
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'A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night' (2014) directed by Ana Lily Amirpour [LFF...
"A vampire in a hijab is such a provocative image that I’m surprised it’s never been used before. This mashup of predatory, sexually charged vampire imagery and the hijab’s minimizing of a woman’s...
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'The Man in the Orange Jacket' (2014) directed by Aik Karapetian [LFF 2014]
Apparently, The Man in the Orange Jacket is Latvia’s first ever horror film. The country may be late to the party, but boy oh boy they’ve come out swinging. Clocking in at a fat-free 71 minutes, this...
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'Here Lies Love' at the National Theatre, 17th October 2014
Surprise surprise the musical by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim is absolutely fantastic. It's not as if iconic musicians haven't come unstuck in heading towards musical theatre before, but let's face it,...
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'Lady Gaga's artRAVE' at the o2, 26th October 2014
Prior to Lady Gaga I was a musically boring fuck. The kind of chump who quivered at the announcement of a new Radiohead album or swooned over linen-shirted, bearded middle-aged men who clutch acoustic...
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'Grand Guignol' at the Southwark Playhouse, 27th October 2014
That I walked out of Grand Guignol with blood spattered across my face tells you everything. It happened while a woman was convulsing in terrified agony as her eyeballs were gouged out, meaning that I,...
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'Las Maravillas: The Lost Souls of Mictlan' at The Rose Lipman Building, 28th...
Recreating the nine levels of the Aztec Underworld in the basement of a community centre is an ambitious undertaking. Taking inspiration from elaborate and involved US-style Halloween haunted houses,...
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'The Skeleton Twins' (2014) directed by Craig Johnson
Suicide and comedy seem unlikely bedfellows, yet from Harold & Maude and Groundhog Day onwards the two have proved fruitful territory for comedy. Once you have a character who's given up on life...
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'Say When' (2014) directed by Lynn Shelton
Nobody ever says they like Keira Knightley. At best she gets grudging tolerance, at worst she suffers snide jabs at her features, her acting abilities and her (imagined) haughty demeanour. Well I'm...
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'Nightcrawler' (2014) directed by Dan Gilroy
"If it bleeds, it leads". This motto runs through Nightcrawler like the message in a stick of rock. Night in the big city transforms the environment into darkness punctuated by pools of of light: the...
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The Drop (2014) directed by Michaël R. Roskam
It turns out the key to making a bloody, gritty and malevolent crime flick really pop with emotion is to put a cute puppy front and centre. Adapted from Animal Rescue, a short story by Dennis Lehane,...
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'Interstellar' (2014) directed by Christopher Nolan
Spaceships majestically floating around the galaxy to dramatic orchestral music is very much my kinda thing. Bonus points if the music sounds suspiciously like Philip Glass' score for Koyaanisqatsi....
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'Cans' at Theatre 503, 7th November 2014https://theatre503.com/whats-on/cans/
Set entirely in a dingy Yorkshire garage, Cans begins with its two characters drowning trapped mice. It isn't the cheeriest opening sequence I've ever seen, but then this isn't the cheeriest play I've...
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The Tea & Crumpet Filmcast: London Film Festival (Episode 9)
Recorded live at the British Film Institute’s HQ, Dom, Liam, Dr Lindsay Hallam, Emily Estep and myself chit chat about the best, the worst and the weirdest that the London Film Festival had to...
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'SIRO-A' at the Leicester Square Theatre, 9th November 2014
It's been two years since I last saw SIRO-A. So finding myself in the Leicester Square Theatre on a snoozy Sunday afternoon watching them feels like a major shot of deja vu. Back then I said it was...
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'Jekyll & Hyde' at the Baron's Court Theatre, 8th November 2014
Robert Louis Stevenson's tale of a kind and gentle man chemically transformed into a vicious, violent beast has stood the test of time. Everyone, no matter how saintly, has a dark side they keep hidden...
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'Great Britain' at the Theatre Royal Haymarket,10th November 2014
The phone hacking scandal was current affairs crack cocaine. With a toothy grin I watched as a smouldering heap of long burning suspicions sparked into a giant conflagration of corruption,...
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'La Soiree' at Der Spiegeltent, 11th November 2014
There comes a point where the sight of a grinning showgirl clutching a brace of hula-hoops, a diablo spinner or a juggler wielding a set of clubs sinks the heart. Familiarity breeds contempt, so you...
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'My Old Lady' (2014) directed by Israel Horowitz
If you're a fan of French probate and property law then boy oh boy do I have a movie for you. The excitingly titled My Old Lady (adapted from the director's own play!) starts with a bang – explaining...
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'Emerge Festival Week 2' at The Space, 13th November 2014
As long time readers will know, I can bullshit my way through almost anything. From the freakiest performance art to high-falutin' opera I can just about bluff my way through to a reasoned analysis....
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