Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth, Royal Academy of Arts - ★★★ - Until March 31, 2019


Is this an exhibition, a conversation or even a meditation? Actually it’s all three. In the darkened main rooms of the Royal Academy we navigate - sometimes awkwardly - past Bill Viola’s large video screens and Michelangelo’s drawings. The parallels with being in a cathedral are clear. And the subject matter is suitably heavyweight: essentially, the cycle of life. Viola frequently employs diptych and triptych formats. Water features a lot, usually suggesting ritual or redemption. The intention is to provide an immersive experience: would the content work as well scaled down? Veils in one piece offer relief from the hard-edged technology elsewhere. Michelangelo’s drawings are on a much smaller scale and require closer examination. They were made late in his career and if the themes of mortality and transcendence weren’t obvious enough, the curator hammers them home for us. Some of the draughtsmanship is breathtaking: how were such effects achieved using chalk? Occasionally (heretical idea) it’s a bit naff! The ‘Taddei Tondo’ sculpture of the Virgin and Child displays a very human bond but also Christ’s mortality. It is this duality of the physical and the spiritual that connects both artists. A stimulating dialogue between very different approaches, if a rather gloomy one.

 Reviewed by A.L.
 Our Score:  ☆☆☆ 

 WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE:
Until March 31, 2019
Daily: 10 am - 6 pm (last admission: 5:30 pm)
Fri: 10 am - 10 pm (last admission: 9:30 pm)
Royal Academy, Main Galleries, Burlington House
Nearest tube: Piccadilly Circus
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/bill-viola-michelangelo
Map & Location: Burlington House, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London W1J 0BD, UK

Most Popular

Les Liaisons Dangereuses ★★★ National Theatre | Mar 21 - Jun 6, 2026

Image
Spoilt, rich people whose sole occupation is scheming to destroy the lives of the naïve and gullible. No, this is not a dramatised version of the Epstein files. Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ eighteenth-century epistolary novel, depicting amoral aristocrats on the brink of the French Revolution, has inspired many incarnations, yet it continues to shock and, at times, to delight. Christopher Hampton’s stage adaptation, first presented in 1985, streamlines the narrative, focusing on the rivalry and tangled emotional connection between the two master manipulators: the Marquise de Merteuil, played by Lesley Manville, and the Vicomte de Valmont, portrayed by Aidan Turner. Together they engage in a vicious game, with Valmont attempting to seduce both the innocent Cécile de Volanges and the devout Madame de Tourvel. It is wickedly entertaining material, and it proves just as intriguing in this context as it does in the well-known teen film, Cruel Intentions . There are, however, some issues with...
Full Details »

Coven ★★ Kiln Theatre | Until January 17, 2026

Image
Coven seeks to transform the seventeenth-century obsession with witches into a musical in the spirit of Six . The historical horror becomes an anachronistic retelling inspired by the Pendle Witch Trials and by the idea that Jenet Device, a child witness in the 1612 trials, later became a victim of the dark arts hysteria in 1633. In the first act, Jenet is imprisoned with several women accused of witchcraft although their 'crimes' really consist of practicing natural healing, assisting in childbirth, or offending powerful men. All are victims of a repressive patriarchy, an authoritarian church, and a deeply corrupt legal system. However, the portrayal of these women and their stories feels heavy-handed, and by the end of Act I the central narrative and main character remain uncertain. Only in the second act, through a flashback that explores Jenet’s psyche, do we learn her history and recognise her as the true protagonist. The scattered plot threads from the first act then begi...
Full Details »

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

Image
Maybe the best musical value in London. The lunchtime concerts at St. Martin's are always a wonderful way to escape the hustle and bustle that is London and the sensory overload that is Trafalgar Square. This is a beautiful setting with great acoustics, and a church pew hard enough to make sure you don't nod off. Reviewed by J.C.  Our score:    ☆☆☆☆  WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE: Mon & Fri: 1 pm - 1:45 pm ( occasionally Tues & Thurs)  St. Martin in-the-fields, Trafalgar Square Nearest tube: Charing Cross https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/whats-on
Full Details »

English National Ballet - Body & Soul ★★★ Sadler's Wells Theatre | March 19 - 28, 2026

Image
This latest offering from the English National Ballet presents two works loosely connected by the theme of body and soul. The first, by the renowned choreographer Crystal Pite, is titled Body and Soul (Part 1). Set to a French text that largely describes the dancers’ movements, it unfolds across eight brief scenes. The piece is at its most evocative when Pite deploys a large group of dancers, creating exquisite passages such as the mirroring of the rhythmic surge of waves against the shore. However, the work lacks the narrative richness found in some of Pite’s finest creations, such as Revisor and Assembly Hall . While there are undeniably striking moments and some fine pas de deux , the production also fails to attain the level of her more abstract achievements, such as Figures in Extinction . Even so, encountering Pite’s choreography remains a consistently rewarding experience. The second piece, Proper Conduct , is a new work by Kameron N. Saunders. Divided into three parts, it unf...
Full Details »

Vincent in Brixton ★★★★ Orange Tree Theatre | Mar 14 - Apr 18, 2026

Image
Vincent van Gogh spent two distinct periods in London. He stayed for two years from 1873 to 1875 before returning briefly in 1876. During his first stay he lodged with Ursula Loyer and fell in love with her daughter, Eugénie, who rejected him. Nicholas Wright’s play Vincent in Brixton reimagines this episode, deepening it into a more intricate emotional entanglement for the young art dealer’s assistant who would later become one of the most celebrated artists of all time. The play presents Van Gogh as a blunt, almost gauche young man with a striking lack of social restraint. His speech is impulsive, unguarded, and at times painfully direct, yet this very openness lends him a disarming vulnerability. Wright uses this quality to explore the tension between naivety and perception, suggesting that the same emotional candour that isolates Vincent also sharpens his artistic vision. The result is a thoughtful meditation on the inner forces that would come to define both his work and his stru...
Full Details »

The Old Ladies ★★★★ Finborough Theatre | Mar 24 - Apr 19, 2026

Image
When the timid and impecunious Miss Beringer moves into her new lodgings, she is warmly received by her sympathetic and kindly landlady, Mrs Amorest. However, her relationship with her fellow lodger soon proves far more fraught. It becomes clear that the formidable, almost malevolent, Mrs Payne covets Miss Beringer’s sole possession of value, a piece of amber given to her by a friend who has moved to India. Written in 1935 by Rodney Ackland and adapted from Hugh Walpole’s earlier novel, the play is a slender Gothic thriller that faintly echoes the macabre sensibilities of a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The narrative itself is insubstantial, and the piece relies heavily on atmosphere and sharply etched characterisation. In both respects, this production proves strikingly effective. Juliette Demoulin’s set design conjures a vivid sense of shabby, faintly sinister decay, while Carla Joy Evans’s costumes are impeccably judged, ranging from the frayed gentility of Mrs Amorest and the uno...
Full Details »

A Mirrored Monet - The Musical ★★★ Charing Cross Theatre | Mar 14 - May 9, 2026

Image
Although Monet would eventually become one of the most beloved artists of all time, his work was initially derided by the artistic establishment. When he attempted, alongside Renoir and Degas, to exhibit through official channels such as the Paris Salon, run by the Académie des Beaux-Arts , his paintings were repeatedly rejected. In response, these artists participated in the Salon des Refusés of 1863, an exhibition that helped bring attention to what would become Impressionism. A Mirrored Monet presents a musical retelling of the painter’s life, exploring the interplay between his personal experiences and his artistic commitment. At its heart is Monet’s profound love for his first wife, Camille, who served as both muse and model. The production uses the familiar device of an older Monet, convincingly played by Jeff Shankley, reflecting on the actions of his younger self. Through this lens, he recalls with regret how his obsessive dedication to art led him to neglect his wife and fami...
Full Details »

Ruth The Musical ★★★ Wilton's Music Hall | March 18 - 28, 2026

Image
In July 1955, Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in Britain. Despite serious concerns about her mental state and the abuse she had endured, the nightclub hostess was convicted of murdering her lover, David Blakely. The government refused to stay her execution. Her death is widely regarded as a watershed moment in shifting public opinion against capital punishment. Ruth The Musical frames her story in retrospect, as Ellis revisits her life in conversation with the man who will ultimately act as her executioner. Bibi Simpson brings a raw, brittle intensity to the imprisoned Ruth, while Hannah Taylor’s portrayal of her younger self captures both vulnerability and reckless longing. Connor Payne is chillingly effective as David, exuding the careless cruelty of a cad accustomed to having his own way. John Faal impresses both dramatically and vocally as Ruth’s hapless admirer, Desmond. The production gestures towards weighty themes such as class, gender, and the morality of capita...
Full Details »

The Authenticator ★★★★★ National Theatre | Until May 9, 2026

Image
When some 18th-century diaries written by the founder of Harford House are discovered, his descendant Fenella calls in two academics, Abi and Marva, to examine them. The manuscripts, which detail Harford’s involvement in the slave trade, soon prove to be far more than a mere catalogue, and the complex history of Britain’s role in the enslavement of Africans acquires a distinctly human face. The subject is a fraught one, with strong, often ahistorical and unnuanced opinions drowning out the complicated reality. Winsome Pinnock has written a fascinating and richly funny play that shows how this heritage touches three women, each in a very different way. Pinnock manages to explore the complexity of her subject with extraordinary humour and humanity. This is theatre at its finest, taking on a difficult subject, humanising it, making it dramatically compelling and avoiding the needlessly didactic. There is much to learn and much to ponder in this play, but it is also deeply entertaining. Sy...
Full Details »

Samurai ★★★★★ The British Museum | Feb 3 - May 4, 2026

Image
“Samurai.” The word conjures images of fierce Japanese warriors in elaborate helmets with swords drawn, but this superb presentation reveals that there is far more to know about this class that came to dominate Japan’s political life and whose legacy still lingers in many aspects of contemporary culture. Structured in three sections, Rise of the Samurai AD 800 to 1600, The Long Peace 1600 to the 1850s and After the Samurai 1876 to the present , the exhibition demonstrates the importance of the samurai, both men and women, not only in warfare but also in the governance and cultural development of Japan. Bringing together more than two hundred and eighty objects from twenty nine lenders, the show offers a rich array of flamboyant helmets and intricate armour, alongside depictions of combat in scrolls by masters such as Hiroshige. There are also revealing glimpses behind the public image the samurai sought to project. Displays of smoking accoutrements, a popular pastime for both male and ...
Full Details »

The City Life Magazine | Reviews & Ratings