Reviews of Habibi Funk 031, Kayatibu, and The Good Ones
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A self-confessed epic mash up
Romeo and Juliet rehashed 30 years on is full of disparate ideas and feels like a production on steroids, writes SIMON PARSONS
Romeo and Juliet recreated 30 years on, desperate to recapture the past
[Alex Brenner]
SIMON DUFF relishes the cross contamination of Damien Hirst’s greatest hits by street artists from France and the US
In view of the grooming gangs inquiry, SIMON PARSONS feels the relevance of this powerful examination of trauma suffered at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre
JOHN GREEN doubts the motivations of a US war photographer who never questions why, or for whom, she is producing images of imperialist conflict
MARIA DUARTE reviews Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Hedda, The Mastermind, and Regretting You
TONY CONWAY welcomes a thrilling and concise history of Hope not Hate, that is also a manual full of tactical advice
PAUL DONOVAN welcomes an inspiring account of living with deafness that has important lessons for the treatment of deaf people in today’s UK
A Night at the Kabuki
Sadler’s Wells
A FANTASTICAL reworking of Romeo and Juliet set amongst ancient warring Japanese clans accompanied by strains of Queen’s A Night at the Opera is the self confessed epic mash up created by writer and director Hideki Noda.
The two protagonists are recreated 30 years on, desperate to recapture the past, fill in the missing pieces and alter their tragic fate, yet their frequently comic intrusions into the story of their brief love affair inevitably change nothing.
The visual spectacle with spinning beds, stunning costumes, dramatic tableaux and vast floating sheets on a stage of spinning doors set below white battlements and a cast of 26 is truly mesmerising but the overall effect before the interval where the original tale of the star-crossed lovers is rehashed is of a production on steroids. Rarely does the volume dip, movement cease or the rapid Japanese delivery ease up.
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