Gresham College Lectures - FREE - ★★★★★


Gresham College is a fascinating institution that has been providing free lectures for over 400 years. Currently the College offers over 130 annual lectures and events. The range of subjects covered by their eminent lecturers is vast: law, literature, music, medicine, economics, astronomy, computer science.... The variety is amazing and the Gresham professors are leading scholars in their fields. The College is located in Barnard's Inn, but lectures are in various venues including the London Museum. The College has been recording its lectures since the 1980s and live streams all lectures. There are now over 2,000 lectures available on its website and on YouTube.

Reviewed by J.C.
 Our Score:  ☆☆☆☆☆ 

 WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE:
Times and Dates vary
Barnard's Inn, High Holborn
Nearest tube: Chancery Lane
Map & Location: 30 Holborn, London EC1N 2HH, UK

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Good Grief, Platform Presents and Finite Films - ★★★★★ - Feb 15 - Apr 15, 2021

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Just when lockdown may have made us resigned to an intellectual diet of television, featuring the improbable acted by the unbelievable, along comes this wonderful little play by Lorien Haynes. A thoughtful meditation on loss and relationships, Good Grief is beautifully crafted and brilliantly performed. Adam (Nikesh Patel) has lost his partner and Cat (Sian Clifford) has lost her best friend. Their shared exploration of the mourning experience is charged with some very sharp banter and some very poignant moments. There's a lot of humour here and a great chemistry between Patel and Clifford. They move naturally and sensitively through a gamut of emotions while coming to terms with the new parameters of their relationship. The play explores how grief, like love, comes in many forms and how both are subject to personal and social boundaries. Director, Natalie Abrahami cleverly uses the black and white scene-change sequences to deconstruct the illusions and conventions of theatre whil
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All On Her Own, MZG Theatre Productions (online) - ★★★★★ - February 16-21, 2021

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Terence Rattigan's thirty minute monologue, All On Her Own , was written for radio and here, in Alastair Knights' immaculately filmed production, becomes a superb vehicle for award-winning Janie Dee. Rosemary is the rather posh widow of a Huddersfield building contractor, Gregory, and after rather too much whisky, she imagines trying to communicate with him. Effortlessly, Dee draws us into their milieu which would seem, to the outside world, to contain a perfect marriage, but the veneer is very thin. One could imagine a relationship akin to that in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Rattigan was for many years derided, but thankfully his writing is at last back in fashion. His language here is spare yet it takes us on an emotional roller coaster as Rosemary downs more and more alcohol. Beautifully lit and stylishly set, we get a strong impression of the Hampstead these characters inhabit – dinner-party discussions on the merits of Kafka and educating children at Eton. Norther
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Sir John Soane's Museum Guided Tour - FREE - ★★★★★

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This is one of our favourite museums in London. The quirky and crammed home of John Soane, architect of the Bank of England. It has some wonderful treasures, including Hogarth's "The Election" and "The Rake's Progress." The sarcophagus of Seti I is in the basement along with the parlour of his imaginary friend, Brother John. Don't miss the opening of the display walls in the gallery now done on the hour and half hour. Also, try to be there for the free Private Apartments tour, limited to 8 people and requiring  sign up on site. Reviewed by J.C.  Our Score:    ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE: Wed - Sun: 10 am - 5 pm (l ast entry at 4:30 pm) Closed: Dec 24, 25, 26, 31 & Jan 1 Private Apartments Tours: 1:15 pm & 2:00 pm Sir John Soane's museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields Nearest tube: Holborn https://www.soane.org
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Romeo & Juliet, Metcalfe Gordon Productions (online) - ★★★★ - Until February 27, 2021

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Creativity and imagination have really come to the fore during this pandemic which has allowed Nick Evans and his team to produce this fascinatingly clever version of Romeo & Juliet . One would never guess that none of the performers were actually on stage together. Beginning in a theatre auditorium, the ingenious production designs by Jamie Osborne give us a series of realistic locations climaxing in an extremely beautiful crypt. Standing head and shoulders over the show is Sam Tutty's Romeo. Initially smitten with fair Rosaline, our hero's fickle eye soon migrates to Emily Redpath's pretty Juliet, and Tutty doesn't put a foot wrong as the young lover. He speaks the lines immaculately and his stillness often helps build the tension. This is definitely an outstanding performance of a role which can be difficult to pull off. Lucy Tregear's sympathetic Nurse and Helen Anker's Capulet together with Vinta Morgan's Friar Laurence bring gravitas to the smaller
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Barnes' People, Original Theatre Company and Perfectly Normal Productions (online) - ★★★★ - Feb 18 - Jul 31, 2021

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Barnes' People comprises four monologues written by Peter Barnes for BBC Radio 3 during the 1980s and they have varied success here in filmed performances. Matthew Kelly, in "Losing Myself", has the difficult task of realistically creating an ageing Harley Street doctor conversing with his deceased friend; his lines seem more suited to the printed page than being spoken. Additionally, it seems rushed with complex issues trivialised. Jemma Redgrave is totally believable as Rosa, a doctor beating her head against the brick wall of bureaucracy. She feels she has lost her anger and thinks her individuality has dissipated over the years. There is a welcome lack of sentimentality as she tries to cope with her own problems and those of elderly patients as she ponders 'Is there life before death?' In "Billy and Me" Jon Culshaw plays a ventriloquist who converses with his family of dummies. Here we are considering the nature of schizophrenia as the ventriloquist
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Moment of Grace, The Actors Centre (online) - ★★★★ - Until August 9, 2020

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At the heart of this hybrid between theatre and film is the visit of Diana, Princess of Wales to an AIDS ward in 1987. The action is seen through the eyes of three characters superbly performed by Luke Dayhill, Lucy Walker-Evans and Andrew Paul. Dayhill is outstanding as the articulate patient, Andrew, movingly awaiting death. He worries about being outed on television and says "Doing this isn't easy." At times, sharing the challenges of these characters isn't easy either. Patients and nurses alike have to get through with a mixture of humour and hope; their experience is described as "clinics and crematoriums." Walker-Evans superbly portrays the young nurse, Jude, terrified to come into work each day while wondering which of her patients has died during the night. Paul, as firefighter Donnie, has a difficult task – embodying The Sun reader, wrapped in misconceptions, who finds that his gay son, a nurse on the AIDS ward, is HIV positive. Author Bren Gosl
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Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis, Park Theatre - ★★★★★ - Until January 4, 2020

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The title says it all. You know you're in for a lot of fun and this play lives up to its billing. What do you give to your dominatrix when she turns forty? It's a question we've all asked ourselves, and what we get here is an amusing and provocative answer. This is a piece that looks at and laughs at role playing, how it can liberate us and how it can trap us. Everyone from Chinese Elvis to dominatrix, Josie, has an alter ego that either supports them or constrains them. Coming to terms with the authentic self and enjoying the possibility of playing with the notion of other selves is both the challenge and the solution. This is a very funny play with a lot of heart and wisdom that is beautifully performed by a cast which never misses a beat. Sioned Jones is quite wonderful as the obsessive compulsive cleaner who grows into a new persona and Andrew P. Stephen is delightful as the dry cleaner who accepts his complexity. Kellie Batchelor is completely believable as the age
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An Evening with David Bedella, The Crazy Coqs (online) - ★★★★ - January 9, 2021

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An Evening with David Bedella at The Crazy Coqs, the chicest cabaret venue in London, encourages you to sit back and sip a glass of Shiraz whilst enjoying an hour of immaculately performed easy-listening music interspersed with pleasant chat. The only thing missing is a live audience. This unavoidable absence somewhat dampens the atmosphere as enthusiastic applause would definitely greet Bedella's accomplished singing and enhance the ambience. Sadly, we can't have everything these days and the dozen or so well chosen songs are well worth the price of the streaming. We felt that the opening number was, perhaps, a little frenetic and really needed a chorus of showgirls to make it work, but things quickly settled into a playlist of delightfully relaxed numbers. Eydie Gormé's “Too Close for Comfort” rubbed shoulders with David Bowie's “Life on Mars?” before a sly dig at the government with Cy Coleman's “There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This.” Pianist and arra
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Public Domain, Southwark Playhouse (online) - ★★★★ - January 19-24, 2021

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The first song “And just like that, we felt a little less alone” introduces the complex cultural shift that Public Domain examines. Francesca Forristal and Jordan Paul Clarke exude energy and charm as they sing their way from social media platform to social media platform while capturing the naivety of the users and cynicism of the platforms’ creators. Contemporary references in Forristal and Clarke’s script and the well-paced direction by Adam Lenson ensure that Public Domain is fresh and pertinent. The clever lighting by Matt Daw and video overlay by Matt Powell create an illusion that is both hypnotic and disorienting, the perfect visual motif for the complex commentary of the play. In an age where “Friends of our friends” and the projection of image is more important than essence, Public Domain presents the clichés that social media is built upon. Questions like “Why is the camera not on me?” are juxtaposed to the social media creators' remarks “We just focussed on building
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Waitress The Musical, Adelphi Theatre - ★★ - Until March 28, 2020

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The frequent knock on musicals is that they are fairy tale stories with a simplistic morality. "Waitress" deals with a woman abused by her husband who unhappily discovers she is pregnant. She then has an affair with her married gynaecologist whom we are not supposed to judge as taking advantage of her state (don't think #metoo). But when she has the baby, she is, as is the case in real life, immediately changed ... instantly adoring the child, she is able to stand up to her abusive husband and to see that the relationship with her married doctor/lover will not work. Should the audience worry about her being alone, homeless, in an underpaying job and dealing with a newborn? No need! Her boss has died in the hospital while she was giving birth, and he has left her the cafe where she is the star pie maker. This plot without a moral compass is supported by some rather tired comic lines and music. The cast are energetic and Jack Mcbrayer as Ogie does an outstanding co
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