Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

I have always loved the scale of Anish Kapoor's work, even if I don't understand much about the philosophy behind it, and this exhibition's initial hit is based on the overwhelming size of the first exhibit when you first walk into the gallery, with a scale that made me feel overwhelmed and squashed at the same time But I hadn't seen his works with the blackest of black paint before.  Apparently there is a whole controversy because he has bought exclusive rights to this colour, and I can understand the outrage, but he certainly makes the most of it.  I don't think it really shows in photos, but the optical illusions, created by how dark the paint is, are truly amazing and makes it a properly interactive experience.  They look like they are floating in midair, or completely vanish when you try to capture anything three-dimensional in an image.  The photos here are the best I could do, loads of them just don't make sense in 2D, so it means you'll just have to ...

The summer is always weird for telly as there’s a lot more to do outside.  But I did watch a couple of things. Ride or Die: Another women led action adventure, with cast, production and writing all covered, and I’m here for it..  With the magnificent Hannah Waddingham as an assassin and Octavia Spencer as her best friend, this is a lot of fun as the duo run rings around the Albanian mob with the support of a couple of green flag men in secondary roles.  I love the middle aged female friendship being displayed here, but it’s also great that women can be proper baddies and not just in a girlie way.  Some of the plot and dialogue is a bit iffy, but this is funny and engaging, and generally a cut above the majority of action adventures so I definitely recommend. (TV series streaming on Prime) Silo: series 3 of this sci-fi dystopian book adaptation has been drip fed over the past few weeks.  Rebecca Ferguson is still fab, and it is still largely sticking to the boo...

  Well, this was a white knuckle ride!  Based on a 2018 Danish film, this is a tense thriller with Russell Tovey holding the stage for the full 65 minutes of the play. Joe (Tovey) is working alone in a police emergency response control room.  Bored, and with a monotone voice as he deals with time wasters, he is also making judgements about every call, and the people who call in, and deciding whether he needs to give it proper attention.  We learn he has family problems and that there is some kind of hearing hanging over him.  When he gets a call from Emily though, he gives it his full attention and we see him spring into action, perhaps going further than he should in true police drama style.   This is fantastically tense, with Tovey holding our attention every step of the way as we watch his decision making, both good and bad, unfold in real time.  It tackles toxic masculinity, and mental health issues as well as police misconduct and with a soci...

I always enjoy this play, although it’s been a while since I last saw it.  But this is a fantastic revival.  Modern but keeping the spirit of the original, there’s verve from the very start in making sure the audience know they are part of the action.  The first half leans heavily into the rom-com-iness of it all, whilst the second half takes us off to a bleak war before back home again.   I have never seen Adrian Lester turn in a bad performance and this is no exception.  He dazzles as early Cyrano, playful and passionate, whilst still retaining cynical outsider vibes, and then makes the switch to sadder Cyrano completely seamlessly.  Susannah Fielding is excellent as Roxane too - no limp lettuce behaviour here, and with her own agency.   Costume and set are all gorgeous, keeping to tradition despite the more modern sensibility and language.  I really enjoyed the poetry too, and unlike The Misanthrope last week it never detracted from c...

 First thing to say is that Sandra Oh is fantastic, and she is surrounded by an excellent cast for this reworking of Moliere’s classic about the hypocrisy of aristocratic society.  Oh plays Alice, a straight talking writer who is being pursued to apologise for things she has said.  Paul  Chahidi plays her friend John, and Tom Misan as Stephan her younger lover, both doing a fantastic job in providing a counterbalance and foil to Alice's passionate inflexibility. Jemima Rooper is also perfect in her relatively small role as Stephan’s bitter ex wife, using social media to cause real life damage.   Alice, in this version of the play is a writer who is wedded to honesty and telling the truth as she sees it, with no patience for dissembling, compromise or taking a pragmatic path.  This eventually affects her career and her relationships.  Completely rewritten with an up to date focus on narcissism, cancel culture, social media pile-ons, online misinfor...

 A day out in London took me first to see the new Marilyn Monroe exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, followed by a brief wander through Tate Modern before ending the day at the Globe for a glorious production of Much Ado About Nothing. First, the Monroe exhibition which was extensive, organised by her life story and relationships with different photographers over the years including Philip Hausman, Cecil Beaton and her close collaborator for on-set photography, Eve Arnold.   It was interesting how closely she curated her image, having control over which proofs got to see the light of day and which were banished (until now) to obscurity by Monroe's pen through the image. Ironic how that control vanished after her death. There were plenty of stories about her being difficult and fighting with the studios, but it is interesting to see how many of them were her not wanting to be put in the dumb blonde box.  Her story is so well known but there were plenty of pho...

As it's been Pride month I have been rewatching a few old favourites - so starting this month’s roundup with some suggestions:   Heated Rivalry -  award winning, classy, complex romance set in a toxic environment. Crafted as if it was a 6 hour movie, with fabulous writing, cinematography, soundtrack and performances which absolutely deliver on its carefully structured story arc. It chucks the traditional male gaze out the window in the beautifully shot intimate scenes, and if episode 5 doesn't have you standing on your sofa cheering, there is something wrong with you*.  You do need to put your phone away though, trust that the first few episodes are worth the later payoff, and properly watch, otherwise you will miss so many of the subtle layers (s eries, streaming on Sky/NowTV)   All of Us Strangers - A reworking of a Japanese novel, this atmospheric thriller/ghost story/romance explores grief and loneliness alongside all sorts of love between families and love...