Paul in London

Esther O'Toole's gripping play The Crossing is in London this week at Battersea's Theatre 503 . It tells the story of three Ghanaian men in the last months of their journey through North Africa to Europe and what they see as a better life. It's based on various first hand accounts and given recent stories of the failure of NATO ships to assist refugees off the coast of Libya and border spats between France and Italy , it feels like it has been ripped from the headlines. The play works so well in bringing out the stories and motivations of these three men who risk everything and pay smugglers to get them to the Italian Island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean. The performances by Michael Offei, Michael Kofi and Kwaku Boateng draw you in to a world of desperation, hope and humour. The chemistry between them also gives the story a real warmth. By the end you feel like you understand where they are coming from. The production is also slick with some clever projectio...

Heaven nightclub is an unlikely place for an opera at first. But Sunday night it was packed with people keen to take in a new twist to Mozart's Don Giovanni . The sexuality and genders of key roles are reversed with some surprising (and funny) results. Heading the cast as the cad Don is Baritone Duncan Rock who has a voice to match his body... It's big. He has appeared at Glyndebourne, British Youth Opera, Opera Holland Park so he isn't just there to be pretty but he is central to making this show work so well. With a book is by David Collier and lyrics by Ranjit Bolt this update has Don living as a yuppie in 1980s London where the sex, coke and boys are all one thing... Easy. There is also some inspired costumes including a very tight set of gold lame pants worn by one of the men. It's funny and amusing without too much dwelling on the gay gore for straight members or those curious about opera. There is also a lovely interpretation of hell and damnation for thi...

There are people out there that would watch a talented actress read a phonebook. Gross Und Klein is a new translation of Botho Strauss's 1978 play at the Barbican comes close to this experience. Direct from Sydney Theatre Company and headlined by Cate Blanchett it is the unravelling of a woman's life after her husband leaves her. The play starts off well with Blanchett's character overhearing conversations from a hotel window in Morocco. It's a wonderful monologue that brings out many of the themes of the play. But unfortunately it doesn't go anywhere. Is it in her mind? Did her husband leaving her unravel her life? Is she alone? Is she depressed? We don't really know. What follows for the next three hours is a series of scenes about isolation, loneliness, detachment and mental breakdown. Some of them are pretty, some of them creepy. But none offer much insight or are weirdly imaginative enough to sustain interest in this epic. Blanchett runs the gamut of faci...

The process of dying in a Swiss assisted suicide clinic is detailed, efficient and bureaucratic as told in An Instinct For Kindness , currently showing at the Trafalgar Studios. Chris Larner's monologue based on his real-life observations and experiences in dealing with his former wife illness and eventual death is a sad tale but also has enough observations and surprises to keep you engaged. At 70 minutes long it is not a long journey. And Larner's ability to keep things funny and give a fresh take on pain, processes and the emotion of it makes for an enjoyable and contemplative night out at the theatre. This production was first at the Edinburgh Fringe and so it is good to see that it is now touring. It runs at Trafalgar Studios until the end of April. There are post show discussions as well if you like that sort of thing. @Johnnyfoxlondon and I decided to pass on the Rabbi who was speaking after the show on the night we went in favour of a boo... listen to ‘Assi...

Thanks to the nimble efforts of @FerozeIyer , I found myself with a ticket to Abigail's Party , the latest sell-out show at the Menier Chocolate Factory . We went for the full Abigail experience which included '70s themed dining while being entertained by people queueing for returns in desperation to get a ticket. While the amusing menu served as a reminder why heart disease features prominently in this piece, I suspect the joke was on us for eating it. It is a wonderful production of Mike Leigh's play with and excellent cast. The star of the show is really the authentic recreation of suburbia 1970s, which for both Feroze and I brought back happy memories of our childhood - complete with leather look lounges. The cast which includes Jill Halfpenny as party host extraordinaire Beverly and Joe Absolom as Tony. The story is fairly straight forward. They drink, they smoke, they drink, they argue. They drink some more, smoke some more and argue more. What its all about ...

In October it will be fifty years since The Beatles released their first single ‘Love Me Do’. While scary to think that anyone now who remembers the sixties is ready for retirement (or near death), London’s Prince of Wales Theatre will welcome Let It Be , a new West End production featuring many of The Beatles’ greatest hits from September 2012. The show is a theatrical concert and the first West End show with full rights to the Beatles' catalogue. The Prince of Wales theatre is also the site of the fab four's legendary Royal Variety performance, featured in the above clip. Tickets are on sale now. Mamma Mia, currently playing at the Prince of Wales theatre, moves to the Novello early September.

Spring came out in the past week... And on the weekend it seemed appropriate to head the parks with the rest of London... Playing frisbee semi-naked looked like fun...

The Sunshine Boys opens at the Savoy Theatre towards the end of the April and a new picture of Richard Griffiths and Danny DeVito is out of the duo... Neil Simon's classic play is about Al Lewis (Griffiths) and Willy Clark (DeVito), a vaudevillian team who grew to hate each other. They are reunited for a television special which is a cue for grumpy old men-type shenanigans. Griffiths and DeVito certainly look the part, albeit with possibly better dental hygiene than real vaudeville stars... It starts previews from April 27...

This weekend at the Store Street Gallery in Bloomsbury is the second exhibition of contemporary printmaking, promoting it as an art form. It includes a variety of prints by artists Lisa Denyer, Alexander Gough, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Max Lowry, Dénes Maróti, Will Martyr, Andy Warhol and Giulia Zaniol . Venetian artist Zaniol's prints (pictured right) uses a two-plate technique that means no print is exactly the same and the results are quite varied and interesting. The exhibition concludes Sunday, but be sure to linger around Store Street to sample the other exhibitions and independent stores in the neighbourhood. An oasis in Bloomsbury and a civilised short walk up from Covent Garden or the British Museum...  

I caught a charity fundraiser for The Sound of Mumbai this week. It is currently available to watch online on More4 within the United Kingdom and tells the story of a slum school choir performing the songs from  The Sound of Music in a major concert hall with a full orchestra. At the heart of the documentary is the optimism of the young singers who have so many hopes and dreams riding on the one performance. The success of the documentary has led to the start of Songbound which is a music outreach initiative that uses singing to reach out to India's most impoverished children through collaborative projects with schools, choirs and professional musicians. Donations can be made through the website. Boo impressions follow... listen to ‘The sound of Mumboo’ on Audioboo