Posts

Review: The 39 Steps

Image
Review by: Charlotte Bays  (@ Theatrehopping ) The 39 Steps is a fast-paced, witty retelling of a classic piece of fiction.  I entered the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch knowing very little about the production or The 39 Steps as a whole. I had not come across the original novel by John Buchan nor had I ever watched the wildly popular Alfred Hitchcock film. As such, I had no idea what to expect when the lights went down in the theatre. Fortunately, The 39 Steps ended up being a tour de force of expertly crafted British comedy.  With a fast-paced plot and multiple jokes per minute, The 39 Steps never has a dull moment. The play managed to brilliantly fuse together an intense spy thriller with a tidal wave of pure hilarity that had the entire audience in stitches. So often, when watching a comedy, the characters’ convictions can waver and become incoherent, lost amongst the humour. Yet, this was never the case with The 39 Steps, I really found myself rooting for Richard Hannay (Tom Byrne) an
Post a Comment
Read more

A Swedish Culture Trip - Natalie Bays

Image
My experiences of art and culture in Sweden have always been genuinely rich. The Swedish way of life includes culture and heritage everyday. From simple home design, to extraordinary happenings on the streets, to events in diverse areas and international exhibits. Lets take a quick dive into Swedish life with some Street Art, Home Design and Svenska London. In june 2015 I took a day trip to a small town outside of Gothenburg one day with a couple of friends. On the advice that there was some beautiful street art PLUS amazing fika and vintage clothes shops - this place did not disapoint!  At the time i was working on a street art programme in Romford and this city had decided a year prior that they would regenerate their town through art and culture starting with a ‘painted town’ festival called ‘No Limits’ where a couple of new large-scale international artworks would be erected in the town every year until the artworks became a tourist destination themselves. Something, ten years late
Post a Comment
Location: Brentwood CM14, UK
Read more

Summer Is Coming... But Why Are We Drawn Towards Festivals?

Image
  Why Festivals?      Speaking anthropologically, festivals exist for religious reasons, celebrating gods together as offerings and possibly displaying our collective obedience and love to those above – but over centuries the idea of a festival has transcended into celebrations of our united consciousnesses and cultures. A way to bring us together without defining who has a seat at the celebration table.     If you remember your junior school history projects, you may remember that in Ancient Greece, celebrations of art culture, music and theatre were commonplace, of course, always in line with celebrating a God (although, I would question whether that was just an early day political PR tool) and from this you could say that music festivals easily derived from this model of ‘Koilon (or Theatron)’.     A lot like the Milton Keynes Bowl that hosted the UK’s first outing and live recording of Greenday’s ‘American Idiot’ album – the Theatron originally was just a stage sat at the bottom of
Post a Comment
Location: Brentwood CM14, UK
Read more

Visual Voices

Image
This week we are heading towards International Womens Day – 8th March, thus is an apt time to talk through some female visual heroes. Here are three of the 20th / 21st Century heroes that you can continue to be inspired by. You know, the ones that are still working hard on putting female artists on the map – this way, if any of them tickle your fancy you can follow them on social media and join them in their feminist arts crusade: 1. Bobby Baker: Domestic Performer & Celebrant of Humble Female Power – Bobby Baker’s artwork draws from her personal and family experiences, exploring the relationship between art and lived experience while addressing the splitting of women's domestic and professional lives. While creating artworks domestically for years (and a lot of the time out of cake! - e.g. her performance piece at the beginning of her career - An Edible Family in a Mobile Home (1976) Baker has over the years become more involved in social activism. In 2009 Baker exhibited i
Post a Comment
Location: Romford RM1 3EE, UK
Read more

Remembrance - Music - Keeping Ukraine Culture Prevalent

Image
Last Sunday a nation reflected on war and the influence on all of our lives it has. Those brave young soldiers who joined the armed forces in the past, with our without choice and of course those who objected to war so passionatelyinsidiousexodus  that they were imprisoned or worse. Fast forward 100 years, and we are still seeing brutal scenes of war - with the usual insideous plan for power over land and people. While Russia storms it's neighbouring Ukriane we have also seen contemporary war crimes, destruction of heritage and also a mass exidous of Russians who do not want to fight a war they are being forced into.  However, we have also seen a nation so passionate about the independence of their people and culture that a global movements of individual financial aid and financial support and protest have been on a scale like never before. The war has been so prevalent in the art world that we have seen this year's bienalle shut down Russian Pavillion for the first time and th
Post a Comment
Location: London, UK
Read more

All the leaves are brown – A brief exploration of artists that have discovered Autumn through trees!

Image
This might sound a bit specific – however when you recall painted imagery from all epochs the tree does really symbolise the season. I'm going to talk about a couple of movements and artists that really captured the season through their work, and those where the study of the tree really transformed their style:   To start us off, it would be difficult not to mention the impressionists. Capturing scenery really was the game of the movement and Monet’s Autumn on the Seine at Argenteuil, 1873’ shows a plethora of colour which did not feature in his summer palette. Deep oranges and subtle ochres of the trees contrasting with the cold blues of the river.    However an impressionist who truly embraced the season was Van Gogh .  Although he is also known more familiarly with spring and late summer with his sunflowers and cornfields – however his work suited autumnal trees predominantly throug h out the 1880s – beginning with the very realistic and very sepia ’ Appel Orchard with Lime Tr
Post a Comment
Read more

Should We Rid Ourselves Of All Anger?

Image
The injustices in the world seem to be growing everyday. With the the horrible decision taken by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe V Wade in June and with our own government proposing and placing restrictions on our rights, such as the right to protest, things seem bleak. Due to the current political turmoil and these terrible injustices  people are angry. But are they right to be angry? Now this is not to state that what is happening is not bad or wrong, as it clearly is, people are having their rights and freedoms torn away from them. But instead this question asks whether we should respond to such terrible situations with anger. Members of the stoic school of thought, such as Seneca, would believe that we shouldn’t.  While of course is it only natural for humans to react to an injustice with anger, it doesn’t necessitate that we should. Stoics believed that in order to reach ‘eudaemonia’    (flourishing and true happiness) we should abandon any destructive emotion completely. Within
Post a Comment
Read more