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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: Le Long Weekend


Scene from "Eating Out 2". That is Adrian in the centre... Guy from American Idol and Rebekah Kochan are either side...

All has been quiet over the past few days as I have been taking a few days off work and just enjoying springtime in London. I have also caught a couple of screenings at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Fest at the newly refurbished BFI Southbank

On Sunday it was a collection of shorts filmed in Britain, but it really should have been called Made in London. Most interesting of the films was one called Le Weekend which featured an irritating and sexually ambivalent Frenchman (is that a tautology?) who also is a film maker. The premise is that he comes to London to do a film school assignment and ends up wandering around central London with the help of a friendly (and rather fit) local. It all ends in tears (sort of) but in the meantime there are some great locations of Soho and surrounding areas.

On Monday it was a charming film called Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds. Actually any film with Mink Stole in it can't be too bad. And it was a well made sex comedy about a gay man who pretends to be straight to attract the attention of a rather ambivalent man who happens to do modeling for their art class. This was a repeat screening and a lot of people commented on Sunday how Marco Dapper who plays this ambivalent man was rather appealing. Well it takes all sorts I suppose...

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Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

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Damn Yankees at the Landor Theatre is one hell of a fun, sexy show. A great cast of dancers and singers give this show about a man who sells his soul to get on his beloved baseball team (and give them a chance of winning) new legs and balls. It also helps to up the ante with the sexiness with some healthy doses of cleavage and legs (and that's just the men). The musical is a retelling of the Faust story set in the 1950s when the New York Yankees dominated the game.
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