| An UnLimited Media Bulletin | Thursday 26 June 2014 |
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So here we go again people, with another weekly round up of highly recommended shows, gigs and events that are all happening in and around the capital this coming week. Don't forget you can also get daily alerts from us on both Twitter and Facebook, so why not follow us on your social networking outlet of choice? Meanwhile if any friends, colleagues, acquaintances or people you once knew would be interested in getting a free cultural guide to London in their inboxes every Thursday, tell them to sign up at thisweeklondon.com/signup. For those of you Edinburgh Fringe-bound come August, look out for our first previews and features over at ThreeWeeks Edinburgh very soon. Meanwhile, back in London mode, we'll have another batch of tips and an interview for you a week from now. Caro Moses Editor, ThisWeek London |
We first heard of Victoria Melody's intriguing show 'Major Tom' at last year's Edinburgh Fringe, where it garnered no small amount of critical acclaim. It’s about Melody’s participation in beauty pageants, and her dog Major Tom’s participation in dog shows, and casts a critical eye over these parallel worlds.
The show has been touring the UK over the last twelve months, and next week heads to the Soho Theatre for a five night run. I booked in a quick chat to find out more about the show, and Melody’s motivation for exploring these particular themes.
Read the interview here
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CABARET/COMEDY: Friday Night Freaks w/ EastEnd Cabaret + Marcel Lucont + Ria Lina | Udderbelly | 27 Jun 'Normcore' has no place at this late-night carnival comprising a whirl of cabaret, comedy and special entertainment presented by kinky ThisWeek interviewees EastEnd Cabaret. Sneering 'Gallic Symbol' Marcel Lucont, dotty comic Ria Lina, and 'Ab Fab'-inspiration stand-up spawn Josh Howie all dabble in tonight's freakery. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings | Shepherd's Bush Empire | 27 Jun (pictured) Funk-soul survivor Sharon Jones and 'Back To Black' collaborators The Dap-Kings join as one to 'Give the People What They Want', pouring hot toffee grooves all over tonight's audience. Support is c/o R&B renaissance man Charles Bradley, NYC afrobeat band Antibalas and retro trio The Sugarman 3. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: The Importance Of Being Earnest | Harold Pinter Theatre | 27 Jun - 20 Sep Still as sharp, crisp and witty as it was in 1895, Wilde's well-preserved high-society satire gets a facelift c/o director Lucy Bailey. Nigel Havers, Rosalind Ayres, Cherie Lunghi and Martin Jarvis lead a quintessentially English cast. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Lucy Frederick And The Claw Of Anxiety | Leicester Square Theatre | 28 Jun Outwardly cool and confident showlady Lucy Frederick limbers up pre Edinburgh Fringe with this preview of her hypertense new solo show, which deals with the tell-sale signs of social ineptitude. Details and tickets here. DANCE: The Rambert Event | Rambert Dance Company | 28 Jun - 12 Jul The RDC dance a chain of site-specific 'Events' inspired by late US choreographer Merce Cunningham, performing in promenade all over Rambert's brand new HQ. To accompany the show, a score devised by Radiohead's Phil Selway, and set pieces designed by artist Gerhard Richter. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Rastamouse | Stratford Circus | 28 Jun 'Rastamouse' boss man Michael De Souza invites the 'hole' family to rap along to stories of the world's most boombastic cartoon character. To follow the readings, the Rocksteady Reggae School will lead a series of workshops in bongo improv with Da Easy Crew, rapping and beat-making, plus a ukulele jam at Bandulu's Kitchen. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Jack & Dean & Friends Live | Soho Theatre | 29 Jun YouTube-famous duo Jack & Dean, the friendly everyboys of ever-so-gentle online comedy, will be recreating their most-viewed skits, plus some new ones featuring special friends, live and IN REAL LIFE tonight at the Soho Theatre. Downstairs. At 7pm. Details and tickets here. COMEDY: Weirdos' Blueprint Finale w/ The Grandees + Darren Maskell | The Proud Archivist | 29 Jun Adam Larter and his Weirdos bring their experimental series of Blueprint gigs to a head, with look-ins by honorary oddballs The Grandees and Darren Maskell, plus full-timers Liberty Hodes, Matt Highton, Penny Matthews, Joz Norris and Lee Kern. Details and tickets here. OPERA/FILM: River Of Fundament | London Coliseum | 29-30 Jun (pictured) A radical reinvention of 'Ancient Evenings', Norman Mailer's hypersexed novel of regeneration, rebirth, and the rise and fall of the American auto industry. Visual artist Matthew Barney and sound man Jonathan Bepler present the British premiere of 'River Of Fundament', a part-pre-filmed, part-live-performed opera-come-movie starring actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Paul Giamatti, opera singers Eugene and Herbert Perry, and avant-garde vocalist Joan La Barbara. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Bec Hill – (Ellipsis) | Etcetera Theatre | 30 Jun In 2013, feted comedian Bec Hill, who's moonlighting solo tonight away from her captaincy of the Pun Run, predicted she'd win an award. And then, that didn't happen. Bec's new show '(Ellipsis)' is one for anyone who's ever made a pledge like that, and failed to keep it. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Blondie | Shepherd's Bush Empire | 30 Jun Ice cool rock icon Debbie Harry and the boys of Blondie sashay over to Shep's Empire for a show celebrating their 40th year in the new wave pop game. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: The Elephantom | New London Theatre | 30 Jun - 6 Sep (pictured) The National Theatre's big blue pachydermal play, an adaptation of Ross Collins' whimsical kids book, is the story of a little girl who's visited by a friendly ghost elephant. Only trouble is, he's a bit bit big for the house. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Simon Munnery - Søren Kierkegaard | Museum Of Comedy | 1 Jul Although still working on his new solo show – an intriguing-on-paper study of the various writings of Danish deep-thinker Kierkegaarde – pre the Edinburgh Fringe, olde tyme comedy kook Simon Munnery is nevertheless previewing it tonight. Isn't he kind? Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Beyond Caring | The Yard Theatre | 1-26 Jul Alexander Zeldin's dark social satire, based on first-hand experience of those working zero-hours contracts, hones in on an 'invisible class', a small group of temp cleaners hired for the night shift at a meat factory, and what happens when their isolated lives collide. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Richard III | Trafalgar Studios | 1 Jul – 27 Sep Having shown his feisty side (a bit) lately in Channel 4′s 'Fargo', the hitherto friendly Martin Freeman tries his 'diabolical villain' acting skills for size in Trafalgar AD Jamie Lloyd's big new angle on Shakespeare's game of deceit. Seats are disappearing at lightning speed, so get ye to the box office now now NOW. Details and tickets here. |
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DANCE: New English Ballet Theatre – Tryst | Sadler's Wells Theatre | 2-5 Jul The New English Ballet Theatre present 'Tryst', a mixed bill of new pieces inspired by the themes of 'love, devotion, jealousy and betrayal'. Moving off with Royal Ballet choreographer Valentino Zucchetti's 'Orbital Motion', which features a score by Philip Glass, the programme also covers Daniela Cardim Fonteyne and Kristen McNally's 'Tangents'; and a moving new commission by Andrew McNicol based on Tolstoy's tragic 'Kreutzer Sonata'. Details and tickets here. THEATRE/COMEDY: Stuart Bowden – She Was Probably Not A Robot | Soho Theatre | 2-5 Jul Dr Brown's go-to comic comrade, “amicable” and 5/5-rated showman Stuart Bowden, is back on a solo basis with this lo-fi prototype, the DIY sci fi chronicle of a dying world and a cosmic visitor told with tinfoil and looped noises. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Intimate Apparel | Park Theatre | 2-27 Jul (pictured) American playwright Lynn Nottage's massively acclaimed 'Intimate Apparel', in which an ageing black seamstress who, after a lifetime saving her earnings from sewing lingerie to open a beauty shop, begins receiving letters from a lonely Caribbean man. Details and tickets here. |
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MUSIC: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart | Scala | 3 Jul NYC indie-lings TPOFBAT give in to the heavenly sway of their stargazing latest LP 'Days Of Abandon', playing at the headline pinnacle of a night also featuring sets by grave Brighton band Fear Of Men and tidy alt-pop London-ites Felt Tip. Details and tickets here. OPERA/SPOKEN WORD: The Turning Of The Screw + The Dwindling House Of Holland | Holland Park | 3-12 Jul Following a performance by Opera Holland Park of Britten's operatic spin on 'Turn Of The Screw', Henry James' taught psychodrama involving a governess and her two charges at the rather spooky Bly House, horror fans are invited to join Immercity’s chilling nighttime walk in the park, to learn the history of its great families. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: The Boss Of It All | Soho Theatre | 2-27 Jul (pictured) Adapted from an early comic film by divisive director Lars Von Trier, New Perspectives' "transcendent" office power play follows a cowardly boss who, on discovering his IT company is being sold off, hires an out of work actor to deal with his workers for him. Details and tickets here. |
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