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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: Sex and the City

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Sex and the City the movie , originally uploaded by annalyn . I nearly didn't catch Sex and The City on Thursday night with Fliss as the first three cinemas I tried, it had already sold out... It is obviously the movie of the week. Fortunately the O2 centre had some seats and so that is where we caught it. With around 700 die hard fans of the series. Who were mostly women. With a smattering of self-conscious boyfriends... And a few gays... Fliss had to explain to her men-folk that she was going to this movie with her gay friend because she knew they wouldn't want to see it. One of them is jealous of our relationship but that's just because he doesn't have a filthy mind or a sense of humour... Actually I was disappointed with the gay turnout for a movie about (to borrow from a Simpsons episode) four gay men living in New York city... Played by women... But then again this is North Greenwich ... As the film started people started cheering. I don't understand ...

Hot news this week in London...

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260520085836 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . Some people don't like the brown word ...

Movies: Indiana Jones and something or other about a crystal skull

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230520085774 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . Friday evening I went to the Odeon Leicester Square to see the latest Indiana Jones and the very long title movie... I am glad they have shortened it to just "Indy" on the posters as that saves a lot of time. Despite the price of the ticket, the Odeon Leicester Square is a great place to go to see a movie with die-hard groupies (and is less likely than most other London Odeon cinemas to smell like a toilet and have bad sound). People cheered and carried on as if it were a football match... While my friend Adam is a fan of the series, he wasn't as hard core as half the crowd at the sold out Friday evening screening who came wearing brown leather jackets and hats. It was like a window into another world. All throughout London, seemingly normal and straight men had tucked away in their closets an Indiana Jones costume (complete with khaki trousers and shirt). They may have had whips too but I wasn't checking...

Overheard at Clapham Sainsburys Saturday...

Chav man: Shuddup you stupid cow... Don't make a scene... Woman: Y-y-y-y-y-your a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaastard....

Overheard at the gym Monday...

Man #1: I really enjoyed it on Saturday... Man #2: Yeah what's it like? Man #1: Well there's loads of guys. There are the muscle daddies... But they just play with themselves...

Theatre: Pygmalion

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Watching Pygmalion at the Old Vic this week it finally dawned on me why it has always felt a little creepy to think that Henry Higgins would end up with Eliza Doolittle. Well it isn't just because (in this production anyway) she is much younger. It is because he is just too camp. Henry Higgins already has a relationship with Colonel Pickering and so Eliza is simply left to pick up the slippers. She never had a chance with those two old poofs... There they were out all night drinking together, gambling together or hanging around in Covent Garden overhearing conversations... Not to mention all those contraptions in the study looking at the mouth... It all makes sense... It's a man's world in the Higgin's household... This version of Shaw's play goes back to his original version published in 1916. At times it felt like the production was using the original sets with its quaint production values and a taxi car that crawls across the stage (although the looked lovely an...

Scenes from Leicester Square Monday

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80793732MT029_Premiere_Sex_ , originally uploaded by travelingapostrophe3 . World premiere of Sex and the City movie in London... I was in rehearsals but darn it would have been fun to be there to yell out to Sarah, "Sarah! The hat! WTF??"

Scenes from Waterloo Sunday

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12-05-2008 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . I didn't check if there was a body in the case... In London you never can tell...