Midtown: Guided Tours & Talks ★★★ FREE


These free walks around midtown, where EC1 meets WC1, are often seasonally themed. They happen in the late morning or early afternoon and start from the orange Bee Midtown Kiosk, just outside the Holborn tube station or from a couple of other designated points. The easiest way to learn about the walks is to pick up the brochure at the Holborn Kiosk. Walks are usually about 45 minutes and themes include "Bloomsbuy People," "The Cock Lane Ghost," "The Great War," "Suffragette City," and such literary tours as "Charles Dickens and Bleak House." There lots of different themes and the tours are always fun and informative.

Reviewed by J.C.

  Our score:  ☆☆☆ 

WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE:
Various days including the weekend, usually midday
Holborn
Nearest tube: Holborn
https://bee-midtown.com/walks
Map & Location: Holborn Station, Kingsway, London WC2B 6AA, UK

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The Game of Love and Chance ★★★★ Arcola Theatre | Jul 14 - Aug 7, 2021

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The Game of Love and Chance opens the Arcola's tremendous new outdoor space and comes up smart as paint. Pierre de Marivaux's play was first performed in 1730 and tells of a master and his driver who swap identities as do a lady and her maid; here things are transferred to modern London with more than a smack of 'Made in Chelsea'. The updating is very well handled by adapters and directors, Jack Gamble and Quentin Beroud. It is “an almost seamless updating of an eighteenth-century script.” True to the original's nod to Commedia dell'arte there are plenty of asides, but the production manages to make them feel natural. Pace is everything in this sort of farce and the company of six are spot on with their antics. Ammar Duffus and Michael Lyle as the master and his driver are great fun, but it is Beth Lilly as Lisette who is most successful at turning from maid to mistress; her entire demeanour is perfect. David Acton's father, who is in on the joke, is prope
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My Night with Reg ★★★★★ The Turbine Theatre | Jul 21 - Aug 21, 2021

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Tommy on Top ★★★★★ Above The Stag Theatre | Jul 28 - Aug 29, 2021

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Hotel Paradiso ★★★ Underbelly Festival | Jul 17 - Aug 5, 2021

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Love's Labour's Lost ★★★★ Open Bar Theatre | Jul 12 - Aug 18, 2021

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Hairspray ★★★★ London Coliseum | Until September 29, 2021

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Hairspray fills the air at the London Coliseum with a heady whiff of 60's charm. At times it isn't just the beehive hairstyles which need a little support; the plot, based on John Waters’ 1988 film, is fairly simplistic, but the endless stream of Jerry Mitchell's brightly choreographed numbers keeps everything bouncing. There isn't a lot of dialogue – which may be a benefit since it sometimes comes over as rather screeched. Mercifully the songs make it all worthwhile; who could resist "Good Morning Baltimore" or "You Can't Stop The Beat"? Marisha Wallace stops the show with her gospel number whilst the Supremes-like trio are dynamite. As Tracy Turnblad, Lizzie Bea certainly fills the bill and is a delight. However, it is Michael Ball who dominates the proceedings. He's a magnificent Edna Turnblad. Bravely, his first scenes are very downbeat and unglamorous, but then he transforms into a glittering star who is just short of becoming a pantomi
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Sophie Taeuber-Arp ★★★★★ Tate Modern | Jul 15 - Oct 17, 2021

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Sophie Taeuber-Arp is currently being fêted as one of the great exponents of Dadaism and this large, wonderfully spacious exhibition shows almost every aspect of her work. Robert Short's seminal 1980 book Dada & Surrealism barely gives her more than a footnote, concentrating instead on her husband, Hans Arp. How times have changed! Taeuber-Arp challenged social conventions, and here we see works full of flashes and edges, packed with dazzling light and having the penetrating intensity her broad approach to abstraction brings to her works. Taeuber-Arp's architectural and interior designs stand shoulder to shoulder with upholstery, wood-turning and furniture; everything shows a wonderful economy of form. Strikingly displayed stained glass panels contain glowing blocks of colour. We were particularly charmed by seventeen delightfully magical string marionettes never before seen in the UK; they were designed for the stage production King Stag in 1918. These are justly the cen
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Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope ★★★★ Seabright Productions (online) | Jul 22 - Aug 1, 2021

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Quentin Crisp was a paradox as he both rebelled against and represented the society he was born into. In later life, he was criticised for his "old-fashioned" views about gay people and issues, but Crisp never sought to be a spokesman for a movement. He sought to be himself and the political critique of him has always seemed rather unfair. Curiously however, the persona he created to be "himself" not only exposed him, making him a victim of society's ridicule, it also became a means to protect him from society and acted to cloak that very self. The dichotomy of being both naked and a civil servant permeates Crisp's self presentation. He exposed and concealed, rebelled and conformed. He relished his role as gadfly and delighted in turning the conventional approach to all subjects on its head. His aphorisms cunningly reversed accepted wisdoms. Crisp was a rebel not a revolutionary, but he lived his life his way and not by the standards of others past or prese
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Bellotto: The Königstein Views Reunited ★★★ The National Gallery | Jul 22 - Oct 31, 2021 - FREE

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Bellotto: The Königstein Views Reunited is a small exhibition of big paintings. Five large canvases from Bellotto's time as court painter in Dresden in 1756 give us varied views of the massive fortress at Königstein, reminiscent of Edinburgh Castle standing as it does on a rocky outcrop. Three paintings depict scenes around the outside of the fortifications and two show life within the walls. Almost photographic in style, the canvases present an extensive use of the camera obscura which allowed the artist to produce highly detailed depictions of his subjects, especially architectural ones. Bellotto's technique with the device was not as expert as that of his more famous uncle, Canaletto, and perspectives here are often a little skewed. The artist's light sources also sometimes seem somewhat confused, creating an impression of contradictory shadows. Inside the fortress, whilst laundry women hang out the washing, everyone else strolls around and chats. It all seems very rel
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