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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

The girl with the animal tattoo: Vixen @thevaultsuk


There's something about the girl with vixen tattoo in Vixen. If you're standing in the bar at the Vaults at the beginning she is likely to push you out of the way singing and asking for spare change.

It's a confronting introduction to this part promenade performance of Silent Opera's Vixen. It re-imagines Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen to the streets of London. Here Vixen is homeless, taken in by a different kind of predator only to escape.

Rosie Lomas in the role of the Vixen holds your attention with her performance of a determined and resourceful woman of the street.

Along the way she escapes a foster carer, kicks out another homeless man from his shelter and falls in love.



The adaptation has you moving through the spaces of The Vaults. With its dirty sofas, cramped spaces and an all-pervading smell of damp, the venue is well suited to the topic. It looks like a homeless shelter at the best of times. It's  evocative at least. The audience trundles throughout the space and so wear sensible shoes and clothing that's easy to wash.

Silent Opera has you watch the piece with headphones pumping the orchestra or electronic music. Perhaps the space of The Vaults doesn't quite make sense to do this. Popup Opera had managed to use the same space without such technical gimmicks.

It helps not to have an appreciation for Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen on which this piece is based. You get the impression that the subtlety, music and story is lost here. The translations come across as clunky. But as a story about the harsh realities facing the homeless, it's a thought-provoking (if slightly earnest) piece.

Directed by Daisy Evans, Vixen is at the The Vaults until 10 June. The production is also supporting the homeless charity Crisis so bring some spare change for their charity bucket. You also need to arrive early to receive your headphones and instructions.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎


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