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Prayers and thoughts: The Inseparables @Finboroughtheatre

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The Inseparables brings Simone de Beauvoir’s posthumously published novel to life. It traces a lifelong friendship between Sylve and Andrée, two unconventional girls who grew up in a stifling world where being a woman meant getting married or entering a convent. With a quick pace and engaging performances from the two leads, it is a journey back into the 20th century that captures two unconventional women trapped in a conventional world that will have you reflecting on how much or little things have moved on in the last century. It’s currently playing at the Finborough Theatre .  We’re introduced to Sylve praying for her country, France, to be saved from the war and indoctrinated into the world of faith and obedience. But too smart for all that, her life was full of detached guilt and boredom. But when she meets Andrée, a new arrival at her school, she is struck by how different she is from everyone else. She was burned in a fire and had a passion for life that nobody else she knew...

Art: Gilbert and George and poop



As a tribute to the Tate Modern's excellent Gilbert and George exhibition I thought I would include some imagery of their less confrontational shitty art. An entire floor has been devoted to their work and it isn't hard to do this since as they progressed through the years, they really went for large scale stuff. Some of it is quite impressive, but the period where they were fascinated in bodily functions seems a little quaint these days.

Going through the exhibition, a highlight was watching one father point out to his two young sons the bright green and pink buttocks and testicles of the artists in a piece titled. the City Fairies. Judging by the looks of other punters in the gallery they seemed to think this was a bit inappropriate. I guess with parental guidance anything goes these days...

All told, it is nice to see that their latest works have moved away from bodily fluids and to the big issues of the day such as terrorism, intolerance and extremism. Besides, turds on a giant scale look like bread rolls... The exhibition runs through to May.

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