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Death becomes her: A Brief List Of Everyone Who Died @finborough

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For a natural process, death is not a topic that comes up naturally for people. We ask how people are doing but expect the response to be “I’m great”, not “I’m not dead yet”. And so for the main character in A Brief List of Everyone Who Died, Graciela has a death issue. Starting with when she was five and found out only after the matter that her parents had her beloved dog euthanised. So Graciela decides that nobody she loves will die from then on. And so this piece becomes a fruitless attempt at how she spends her life trying to avoid death while it is all around her. It’s currently having its world premiere  at the Finborough Theatre . As the play title suggests, it is a brief list of life moments where death and life intervene for the main character, from the passing of relatives, cancer, suicides, accidents and the loss of parents. Playwright Jacob Marx Rice plots the critical moments of the lives of these characters through their passing or the passing of those around them. Howeve

Film: Volver

Sunday morning I managed to catch Pedro Almodóvar's latest film
Volver. It is such a sweet story of murder, revenge and family relationships. All the cast were great, and particularly Penélope Cruz in particular in the lead role. Although having her star in a movie as a woman poor and scrubbing floors seemed out of place. She is too glamorousus for that. It reminded me of seeing Marlene Dietrich wearing an apron cookin' up a meal for Edward G Robinson in the movie Manpower - it was just plain wrong. Perhaps things are different in provincial Spain...

Casting of Cruz aside, it was a great film. And her rather perky cleavage feature thoughout the film at key points. My favourite line was said by a supporting character to her about their plan to take over a bar and restaurant: "Between my mojitos and your cleavage we'll make a killing"... I'll drink to that.

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