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Bear with me: Sun Bear @ParkTheatre

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If The Light House is an uplifting tale of survival, Sarah Richardson’s Sun Bear gives a contrasting take on this. Sarah plays Katy. We’re introduced to Katy as she runs through a list of pet office peeves with her endlessly perky coworkers, particularly about coworkers stealing her pens. It’s a hilarious opening monologue that would have you wishing you had her as a coworker to help relieve you from the boredom of petty office politics.  But something is not quite right in the perfect petty office, where people work together well. And that is her. And despite her protesting that she is fine, the pet peeves and the outbursts are becoming more frequent. As the piece progresses, maybe the problem lies in a past relationship, where Katy had to be home by a particular hour, not stay out late with office colleagues and not be drunk enough not to answer his calls. Perhaps the perky office colleagues are trying to help, and perhaps Katy is trying to reach out for help. It has simple staging

Scenes from window shopping in Mayfair Sunday 2

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Window Shopping in Mayfair , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . Come to think of it, you don't see this either... I couldn't work out where you hit the button to flush...

Scenes from Window Shopping in Mayfair Sunday

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IMG_0027 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . You don't see that everyday...

Art and Pornography: Pop Life at the Tate

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IMG_1461 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . The Tate Modern's Pop Life exhibition finished today. Basically it was a collection of minge from the seventies onwards with a few bits of Warhol thrown in for good measure... While there was some attempt to put it all into the context of "it seemed like a good idea at the time", it was a pity there wasn't some of this interview with Jeff Koons describing how his then-wife Cicciolina expressed herself with her shaved vagina. This interview was filmed without irony at the time they created the Made In Heaven works that made up one room of the exhibition... After a while of looking at the artworks (or pornography) it was almost enough to make you want to run away from it all and see some real art... Well at least not art that you could have created yourself with some nifty clippers, a Gillette disposable and a compact mirror. But if you missed it, an intrepid reporter captured it all on Youtube ... And at a

Theatre Preview: Six Degrees of Separation

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Not content with one play this week, Monday night was a chance to catch up with the West End Whingers and troupe to see a preview of Six Degrees of Separation at The Old Vic . John Guare's award-winning play was having its first London revival in 18 years. Variations on the above artwork for this production are on posters across the tube network and they're enough to make you want to go see it... It just looks so terribly sophisticated and smart... The play has a sort of legendary status, but this is less to do with the play itself... In 1993 it was made into a film with Stockard Channing (reprising her Broadway role) and Will Smith, who largely was remembered for playing a gay character and not being that gay as there was no kissing and not much nudity (it was all a bit no homo )... Shortly after the film came out Kevin Bacon made the statement he worked with everyone in Hollywood and thus gave birth to the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon phenomena. Amongst some circles, this b

Theatre: The Power of Yes

Despite gusts of wind and snow, what looked like a full house was there on Saturday night to see David Hare's new play The Power of Yes at the National Theatre . Not even freezing conditions could prevent National Theatre audiences from seeing a lecture on the financial crisis. Well we're that sort of audience I suppose. The Power of Yes has been playing since September, but rather than see it early on in its run and be bewildered about it (such as I was with his Stuff Happens show), I waited a bit, hoping it would be trimmed and better formed by now. It probably was. David Hare is a bit of a star writer nowadays so it seemed to make sense to make him the focus of the show. Its a show about a playwright trying to understand the credit crunch and the recession of the last two years for a play he is being commissioned by the National Theatre to write. I guess being a star playwright, you can do that sort of thing. Some say Enron the play treats a similar subject matter far mor

News: The weather

As the Guardian blogged , there is nothing like a cold snap to bring out the cliches... News stories this past week will feature at least one of the following: Talking about the winter spirit that evokes memories of the blitz . Since when is Jack Frost a Nazi? There really is community spirit after all... Although this only occurs after people realise the government is not going to do something for them first... Fear of running out of grit. Birmingham will run out in 48 hours . Death will ensue after. Take matters into your own hands and clear a pavement. And then you will be sued . Oh and BBC weather reporters must have a dress code for crumpled or ill-fitting suits... Won't somebody think of the dry cleaners?

Weather: Snow Night

The first few flakes of snow began falling around 21:00 in South West London this evening in what promises to be a chilly, snowy and icy week ... How heavy it will get is anyone's guess... At the moment the flakes are providing a light dusting of the road and cars parked outside. With many people expecting the snowfall to arrive earlier and therefore heading home and staying in, it would have been a good night to head out to popular show or restaurant... The only place that still was popular was my gym alas... Well I suppose those New Year resolutions are going to be awfully fresh and raw... There is something about the snow here that just makes people want to grab their iphone and take really crap pictures of snow falling and twitter about it. Myself included. The Guardian is providing an outlet for all this technological creativity through the UK snow map , which could be a useful tool in understanding weather patterns, or just a bit of fun...

Movies: Nine

Back in London, a good cure for jet-lag is a movie... Although watching the movie musical Nine was probably not the best option... Only curiosity to see if it would get any worse kept me awake. The fatal flaw of this movie is to cast Daniel Day Lewis - a creepy actor at the best of times (as the above interview junket for the film shows) - in a role that required the audience to have some element of sympathy for him. It also doesn't help that in between the musical numbers there is some absolutely dire dialogue mostly set in hotel rooms spoken by actors with outraaaaeegeeshly leeedicrious accents. Best (or should that be worst) is Nicole Kidman's which varies from eeetaylian to okker Aussie mid sentence. It was hilarious even if her screen time was brief. There are some nice numbers sung by women in various types of pantyhose but after the best number in the movie - A Call From the Vatican - you feel like you could be Penelope Cruz's gynaecologist. Director Rob Marshall ma

Overheard at the gym...

White Man #1: Sorry I didn't see you there in the dark Black Man #2: Hey, I didn't see you in the light...

Scenes from A Church Yard London

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IMG_0020_2 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . Posted on a wall that borders a church... Interesting thoughts for the new year...