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A Man For All Seasons: Seagull True Story - Marylebone Theatre

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It's not often that you see a play that tells you not so much a story but gives you a sense of how it feels to be in a situation, how it feels to be silenced, how it feels to be marginalised, how the dead hand of consensus stifles your creativity. However, in Seagull True Story, created and directed by Alexander Molochnikov and based on his own experiences fleeing Russia and trying to establish himself in New York, we have a chance to look beyond the headlines and understand how the war in Ukraine impacted a a group of ordinary creatives in Russia. And how the gradual smothering of freedom and freedom of expression becomes impossible to resist, except for the brave or the suicidal. Against the backdrop of Chekhov's The Seagull, which explores love and other forms of disappointment, it presents a gripping and enthralling depiction of freedom of expression in the face of adversity. After playing earlier this year in New York, it plays a limited run at the Marylebone Theatre . Fro...

Movies: Man On Wire

Monday night (after getting over a weekend of stomach flu) I caught the doco Man On Wire about Philippe Petit's high wire walk between the Twin Towers in New York City. There was something nauseating about watching Petit on screen. He wasn't the most likeable of subjects, and irritating to the point that you would want to punch him... But even assholes have their purpose. In the long planning for this stunt, they shot some fantastic footage (including of the World Trade Centres ) and it is the slice of life from the times that makes it worth watching. The story about the reaction of New York to the feat is interesting as well (although much more brief)... Now if only we knew why none of the conspirators talk to each other today? Or why that Australian man was semi-nude in one scene? And in the days pre-cheap flights, how did they afford all these flights? At least the title was explained by the end of the film... Worth catching while it is still in cinemas, if you can stomac...