South Bank Winter Festival ★★★ FREE


This winter festival features the usual array of street food and crafts in wooden huts. It is a lovely stroll along the riverside in the day time and the entertainment venue and beer hall are very busy in the evenings.

Reviewed by J.C.
 Our Score:  ☆☆☆  

WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE:
Last Reviewed: December 2018
South Bank near the Royal Festival Hall
Nearest tube: Waterloo Station
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/festivals-series/winter
Map & Location: South Bank, London, UK

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St. Martin in-the-fields: Lunchtime Concerts ★★★★ FREE

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The Story of My Life ★★★★★ Stage Door Theatre | Sep 10 - Oct 19, 2024

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Thomas Weaver is a best selling author, who returns to his small town to deliver the eulogy for his childhood friend, Alvin Kelby, with whom he has almost lost contact. That moment causes him to recall the memories which he has mined for his stories, while simultaneously forcing him to reconsider the power of that friendship and his part in its decline. He comes to realise that nerdy and needy Alvin, who shared his obsession with the film, It's A Wonderful Life , has really been his muse. And, despite Alvin's seemingly small life, through his sharing of his sense of wonder at the world, he has actually had a far reaching effect. Neil Bartram and Brian Hill's musical riff on the perennial Christmas film's theme and also on the so-called butterfly effect produces a small touching tale that works beautifully in the intimate venue of the Stage Door Theatre. It is a setting which allows the two principals, Markus Sodergren and Tim Edwards, to make a direct emotional connect
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Pride and Prejudice ★★★★★ Jermyn Street Theatre | Aug 19 - Sep 7, 2024

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Rocky Horror Show ★★★★ Dominion Theatre | September 6 - 20, 2024

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The Silver Cord ★★★ Finborough Theatre | September 3 - 28, 2024

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David Phelps is bringing to the family home Christina, the wife whom he married in Europe. His brother, Robert, awaits David's return with his fiancée, Hester. However, both boys have seriously underestimated their formidable mother's reaction to these rivals for her children's affections. Most famous for his adaptation of Gone with the Wind for David O Selznick's film, this work of American playwright Sidney Howard has not been produced in Britain for 95 years, and it epitomises the archetype of the controlling smother-mother who will go to any lengths to secure her control over her children. Mrs Phelps is a character we all quickly recognise as we perversely enjoy her machinations to detach her boys from their partners. There is no doubt that Howard taps into something deep in the psyche of many as we watch in delighted horror as the maternal monster and master of hypocrisy manipulates situations to destroy her perceived rivals and to infantilise her grown children.
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State Ballet of Georgia: Swan Lake ★★★ London Coliseum | Aug 28 - Sep 8, 2024

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For the first time in its 175 year history, the State Ballet of Georgia is appearing in London, and to mark the occasion it is presenting its lavish, almost liturgical, production of Swan Lake . Except for the unusual happy ending, this is a version which stays very close to the traditional presentation of Tchaikovsky's masterwork, and it is satisfying to see a staging which does not feel the need to reimagine the piece. Artistic director Nina Ananiashvili of the Georgia Ballet and former Bolshoi artistic director Alexey Fadeechev have respected the original Petipa/Ivanov choreography and have trimmed and added judiciously so that all the treasured moments are intact. Under the baton of Papuna Gvaberidze the English National Opera Orchestra does an excellent job of mining the riches from Tchaikovsky's score, and kudos must go also to Vyacheslav Okunev for the opulent costumes and evocative set. On the night we attended, the role Odette/Odile was exquisitely danced by Chloe Miss
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Death of England: Closing Time ★★★★ @sohoplace | Aug 22 - Sep 28, 2024

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With the third in any trilogy of plays, the question always is "Do I need to have seen the other ones first?" And, the answer here is a resounding "no." Clint Dyer and Roy Williams' Death of England: Closing Time stands on its own as a fascinating study of two cultures wedded to each other in an uneasy alliance. Denise and Carly are yoked together by the fact that the latter is the partner of the former's son, and they have also more or less gone into business together. Nevertheless, the personal and business ties are strained by their differences in race and heritage. They make tentative steps towards each other, but are always on the verge of mutual incomprehension. Dyer and Williams' metaphor for the complex nature of the new multicultural Britain has a wonderfully current feel with references to Kamala Harris and Liz Truss, and jokes that are full of clever contemporary allusions. The language simply soars, with lots of brilliant throwaway lines a
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Silence! The Musical ★★★★ The Turbine Theatre | September 4 - 28, 2024

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23.5 Hours ★★★★ Park Theatre | Sep 4 - Oct 5, 2024

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Popular teacher, Tom, is accused and convicted of having sexual relations with a 15 year old student. Carey Crim's play shows the devastating consequences of that event not only for him, but for his family and friends. While they alternate between support for his protestations of innocence and suspicion that he is actually a sexual predator, they also become victims of what has happened. Their limbo of unknowing strains relations, and the abuse and suspicion of the community becomes a penalty for Tom's defenders as well as the accused. His punishment does not end after he has served his time in prison, but equally, neither does theirs. While painting a powerful portrait of the personal toll taken on all connected to such an occurrence, 23.5 Hours also raises many serious social questions: the distinction between due legal process and justice, the differing definitions and notions of the age of consent, the balance between a community's need to protect itself and its concom
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Vitamin D ★★ Soho Theatre | September 3 - 21, 2024

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Larki has gotten a divorce which means that she is viewed by members of her Pakistani community as having failed. As a result she has moved home and is now trying to come to terms with both her own sense of 'inadequacy' and the patronising attitude of family and friends. She is groping towards a sense of self that is not defined by her community, and she is seeking to express her authentic and individual reality in her poetry. Saher Shah's sitcom exploration of Larki's experience is presented through a series of encounters with female family and friends who are embodiments of various stereotypes of the community: the shallowly acquisitive friend, the prying, judgemental aunty, the brazen rebel and the culturally insensitive colleague. Shah squeezes lots of broad humour from these caricatures, and intersperses those moments with Larki's poetic longings to be herself. However, it is only near the conclusion of the piece that we get a sense of how Larki has ended her m
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