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Eyes, hair, mouth: Darkie Armo Girl at Finborough Theatre

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Darkie Armo Girl, Karine Bedrossian’s electrifying one-woman show, commands attention from the moment it begins. First performed in 2022 and revived last year, it now returns for extra performance and it's an event not to miss. The show takes you through the thrills and horrors of a hectic life. She struts, shimmies, and taunts while revealing some horrific truths. She is such an irresistible storyteller that you find yourself hooked. The story is one of fame, glamour, abuse, self-harm, and suicide. If that subject matter doesn't sound like your cup of tea, you haven't seen it delivered with such high energy and provocation. It's currently at the Finborough Theatre . The show's title refers to a slur a popular girl at school once called her. Her ancestry is Armenian, and her parents were from Cyprus, where they fled the civil war and arrived in the UK with nothing. Shortly after she was born in Roehampton. The birth was an emergency C-section that left the baby and ...

Scenes from Covent Garden Saturday 21:24


Scenes from Covent Garden Saturday 21:24
Originally uploaded by Pauly_.

A haze across the city from the Royal Opera House balcony with the market below in view...

I Was at the Opera House to see two short operas Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung (by Bartók and Schoenberg respectively), which as to be expected was a great production beautifully performed and sung.

Bluebeard's Castle struck me as a polygamists opera but there were so many pschchological layers to the opera such as "why this woman would be interested in some grumpy old man with a mouldy castle?" to keep you on the edge of your seat. Erwartung which was nicely linked through set design and costumes was more one woman's battle with her mind. It wasn't really my cup of tea. At 45 minutes however it didn't really matter...

All the opera talk this weekend has been on the Royal Opera's new production of Tosca, which is the first new production they have mounted since Maria Callas was performing in 1960s. It opened this week and was to be the performance people would talk about for years with a star turn by Angela Gheorghiu. It wasn't to be. While Bryn Tyrfel (also appearing) was fabulous the general feeling was that Georghiou's voice is not hefty enough for the role.

Even worse is her acting. The papers were too polite to call it as it is but I gather most of the time she waves her arms about like an old drag queen in a silent movie. I am going on the night she isn't appearing so I wonder if I will be missing anything...

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