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It's the ThisWeek London Podcast, our weekly magazine programme - available to download or stream - championing the best comedy, cabaret, theatre, music, musicals and spoken word in London, and featuring interviews with and performances from some our favourite performers and creators.
This week Chris Cooke and Tom Bragg are joined by Colm Forde co-founder and programmer of the all new Doc n Roll Festival which kicks off at the Hackney Picturehouse tonight and includes a Julien Temple (pictured above) retrospective. Plus Terry Burns gives us a snippet from his one man play 'Plain English', we talk to Tom Sellwood about his show 'Snakes! The Musical' and we hear from EastEnd Cabaret.
Click here to download or stream this edition.
Shakespeare in Shoreditch is a twelve day, site-specific theatre festival celebrating both former resident Shakespeare and the cultural hotbed that is Shoreditch itself with ten pieces of new writing and a host of complementary events.
It's been produced by theatre group RIFT and is supported by New Diorama Theatre's Emerging Artists Fund. I sent some questions over to RIFT's Felix Mortimer, to find out more about the event. You can read the interview here.
Shakespeare In Shoreditch takes place from 1-12 Oct, in a number of locations around Shoreditch. See this page here for info and this page here for even more info and tickets.
As you may know, Jermyn Street Theatre makes a point of reviving forgotten works (as well as staging all things new) and 'Flowers Of The Forest' is one of those plays that has been taken out and dusted off to be part of this autumn's season of thirties shows at the venue. The writer, John Van Druten, was a big name in the UK during the inter-war period, and later became a successful screenwriter working on a number of films we now regard as classics.
The play boasts a fine cast that includes film and TV star Sophie Ward, and is directed by Jermyn Street's Artistic Director Anthony Biggs. I found out more from him about the play, the playwright, and what's coming up at Jermyn Street. You can read the interview here.
'Flowers Of The Forest' is on at Jermyn Street Theatre until 18 Oct. See this page here for details and tickets.
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ART: Nathan Sawaya – Art Of The Brick | Truman Brewery | 26 Sep – 4 Jan 2015 Nicely-timed given Lego is so totally 'in' right now, lapsed corporate lawyer and now artist Nathan Sawaya's smash-hit global showcase, which was built one brick at a time over 4188 hours, mixes large-scale replicas of 'The Mona Lisa' and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in with his own abstract creations. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Lust For Youth | 100 Club | 26 Sep Danish 'coldwave' trio Lust For Youth translate the slick yet sensitive electronic pop vibes of their latest LP 'International' within the distinctly non-chilly confines of LDN's cosy 100 Club. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Transcender Festival | Barbican/The Laundry | 26 Sep – 1 Oct (pictured) A mini yet mighty festival of "ecstatic, devotional and psychedelic" music, this year's internationally-gleaned Transcender celebrates its first night with a one-off show at The Laundry headlined by Sweden's 28-piece Fire! Orchestra. Boosting the programme on latter days are the highly-watchable Sahara Soul – a group of musicians from all over Africa – plus the Britten Sinfonia's rendition of Tavener's 'Flood Of Beauty' and Iranian band The Kamkars. Details and tickets here. |
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ART: Anselm Kiefer | Royal Academy Of Arts | 27 Sep – 14 Dec The RAA's prestigious Summer Exhibition is, this year, the biggest ever British retrospective of one of the world's greatest living artists, German painter/sculptor/maker-of-installations Anselm Kiefer – who deals in big, brave, striking imagery designed to shock and provoke. Details and tickets here. FILM/MUSIC: King Creosote – From Scotland With Love | Barbican | 27 Sep This pointedly-timed post #IndyRef event finds Scots songwriter Kenny Creosote and his band playing their larger-than-life collaborative score to 'From Scotland With Love' – an archival film portrait of "love and loss, war, resistance, emigration, work and play" north of the border – along with the doc itself, which is directed by Virginia Heath. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Cape Wrath | Artsdepot | 27-28 Sep A one-man travelogue staged inside a minibus, Third Angel Theatre's Alex Kelly's 'Cape Wrath' finds him retracing a trip his granddad made from the Midlands up to the north coast of his native Scotland to sit, look at the sea, and look back on his life. Kelly followed in his steps 20 years on, and here tells the story for an audience of only fourteen. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Paul Ricketts' West End Story | Etcetera Theatre | 28 Sep (pictured) A strange and labyrinthine tale-within-a-tale based in shady 1990s Soho, the NSFW 'West End Story' finds outré comic/raconteur Paul Ricketts looking to have a good time for a fiver by – and this is on the poster – "creating scenarios in illegal drinking dens beneath sex shops". Hey, it is Soho. Details and tickets here. FILM/MUSIC: Take Me To The River screening + Take Me To The River All-Stars | 100 Club | 28 Sep Playing via this year's Raindance Film Festival, this screening of paean-to-Memphis 'Take Me To The River' is followed by a live ensemble set by many of the movie's inter-generational cast of musicians. Whilst the likes of rapper Snoop Dogg, singer/Hollywood actor Terrence Howard, and gospel great Mavis Staples – who all appear in the film in a bid to create a radical new LP in the diverse Memphis Delta style – can't make it, there will be performances by Otis Clay, Bobby Rush, William Bell and the Hi-Rhythm Section, plus guest PAs by Ian Siegal and Talking Heads' Jerry Harrison. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Rinse Pop-Up Radio w/ The Grime Show + Lord Of The Mics + Butterz | Shop 7, Dray Walk | 28 Sep Bringing its ten-day Brick Lane radio pitch to a close, Team Rinse presents this live-on-air broadcast of station staple 'Grime Show', once-monthly MC-off 'Lord Of The Mics', and live drop-ins by affiliates of the esteemed Butterz label. The event is free via RSVP. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Sheeps – Wembley Previews | The Invisible Dot | 29 Sep – 4 Oct Sprightly sketch three-piece Sheeps – that's Daran Johnson, Liam Williams, and Alastair Roberts – work on the (imaginary) premise that they're practising ahead of a (not real) show at Wembley Stadium. So this involves them repeatedly binning and re-inventing the same aquarium-based scenario in a variety of styles, and eventually picking apart a) each other and b) the very nature of what makes good comedy. Details and tickets here. MUSICAL: Urinetown | Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury | 29 Sep – 24 Jan Flowing on over to the West End following its springtime British premiere at St James Theatre, it's wunderkind director Jamie Lloyd's twist on the slick Tony-winning anti-musical 'Urinetown'. Starring ex-'Corrie' hottie Richard Fleeshman (he as dashing everyman/toilet attendant Bobby Strong) and Olivier-nominated actress Jenna Russell (she as Bobby's boss) imagines a dark, water-short world in which WCs are monopolised by a rich tycoon. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Sleepwalk Collective – Karaoke | Battersea Arts Centre | 29 Sep – 18 Oct (pictured) In a strange case of a Saturday night sing-along gone "catatonically deadpan, gratuitously vapid and joyously strung out", the ThreeWeeks-acclaimed Sleepwalk Collective's 'Karaoke' follows a man and woman falling in an odd, awkward kind of love as the autocue rolls. Details and tickets here. |
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ART: Turner Prize 2014 | Tate Britain | 30 Sep – 4 Jan 2015 As per, the Brit art world's most-over-hyped £40,000 award will this year be divided between four shortlistees – all British, all not yet 50. 2014's nominated artists are political Irish filmmaker Duncan Campbell, print and textiles-maker Ciara Phillips, found filmographer James Richards, and fast-talking spoken-word/audio artist Tris Vonna-Michell. The Tate makes space for the their eligible installations/exhibits ahead of the big prize-giving on 1 Dec. Details and tickets here. CABARET: Just Like That! The Tommy Cooper Show | Museum Of Comedy | 30 Sep Dovetailing with the MoC's big Tommy Cooper exhibition is this celebration of magic-making eccentric Cooper's life, from his brilliant, ungainly stage act to his private relationships, which weren't quite 'all smiles'. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Here Lies Love | Dorfman Theatre, National Theatre | 30 Sep – 8 Jan (pictured) 'Here Lies Love', Fatboy Slim and thin man David Byrne's collaborative disco musical inspired by the life of disgraced one-time Philippine First Lady (and high-heel-lovin disco diva) Imelda Marcos, twirls into the NT's new Dorfman space. And since the staging is designed as an 'immersive' 360-degree experience, audiences are advised to arrive ready and dressed to dance. And jive. And then land in the splits, ideally. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY/THEATRE: Weirdos – Computer Boy | Proud Archivist | 1-3 Oct (pictured) A digi-fantastical stage musical by script-writer Adam Larter and the comic oddities of Weirdos Comedy, 'Computer Boy' imagines a boy who thinks he's a PC. It's vaguely based on Richard and Danny Elfman's 1988 movie 'Forbidden Zone', and stars Weirdos members Ali Brice, Beth Vyse and Luke McQueen. Details and tickets here. FILM: The Past Is A Grotesque Animal | Prince Charles Cinema | 1 Oct The PCC exclusively shows this filmic portrait of one Kevin Barnes, brilliant-yet-slightly-fanatical lead singer in American psych-poppists Of Montreal, as he appraises his strained relationships with family, friends and the band itself. Fancy dress is essential. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Dirty Butterfly | Young Vic | 1-11 Oct Written by Debbie Tucker and here directed by award-winner Tinuke Craig, 'Dirty Butterfly' is a 'Disturbia'-style play in which two neighbours listen through the wall to the dark and torrid goings-on in a woman's life, and interpret what they hear very differently. Details and tickets here. |
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DANCE: The Five & The Prophecy Of Prana | Barbican Centre | 2-4 Oct (pictured) Japanese manga interlocks with hip hop dance, martial arts moves and wire-work in choreographer Kenrich 'H2′ Sandy's comic strip-inspired new work for his Olivier-winning company Boy Blue Entertainment, which follows five young delinquents sent to a rehab camp. Little do they know, it's also the HQ of an ancient army of peacekeepers. Details and tickets here. OPERA: The Girl Of The Golden West | London Coliseum | 2 oct – 1 Nov Brit soprano Susan Bullock stars as 'the girl', of saloon owner Minnie, in Puccini's Wild West American gold mining opera. It's directed by Richard Jones, who's back at the Coliseum after earning sparkling reviews for his last ENO innings, Handel's 'Rodelinda'. Details, tickets, and a long, long wait to get past them's waiting for 'Sweeney Todd' seats are here. SPOKEN WORD: Alan Bennett | Lyttelton Theatre | 2 Oct Literary contrarian and – dare I say it – 'national treasure' Alan Bennett flips through his new anthology of verse, 'Six Poets – Hardy To Larkin' on the day of its publication (which also happens to be National Poetry Day), providing his own 'enlivening' live sleeve-notes as he goes. Details and tickets here. |
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