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No country for old women: Old Ladies - at Finborough Theatre

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The day after seeing The Old Ladies at the Finborough Theatre , I was describing the play to someone in great detail: about three old ladies who lived in a rickety house in southern England in 1935. Based on Hugh Walpole’s novel and adapted by Rodney Ackland, it is the sort of story with enough believability, humour and mild thriller to stick in your mind. Perhaps it is the lure of this dark, forboding tale of a life without money, to be alone and to be old, that makes you feel attracted to this poverty porn. But then again, given the state of the world, the cost of living, an ageing population, or just the fact that it’s a dog-eat-dog world, it might as well be an every little old lady-for-herself, too. It’s a well-acted and staged piece that moves at a brisk pace, so there isn’t much time to think about it too much. And in the intimate (or should that be claustrophobic?) space of the Finborough, there’s nowhere to avert your eyes. Even if you wanted to.  The scene is a grim Cathe...

Last chance: Curtain Call @RoundhouseLDN


Arad’s Curtain Call at the Roundhouse has completed its summer season of live performances. But you have until the end of the bank holiday weekend to see the installation before the silicon rods are packed away.

Created by Arad in 2011, it's made up of 5,600 silicon rods suspended from an 18 metre diameter ring. The curtains first appeared in 2011 and returned this year as part of the Roundhouse’s Bloomberg Summer. The live performances with invited guests were part of a series of late night events.

Closing the live performances on Thursday were the London Contemporary Orchestra. With a combination of cool music and vocals, it was a reflective and sophisticated musical experience.


They performed a series of pieces including Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel and John Tavener’s Svyati accompanied by projections on the round canvas.

Being at the Roundhouse it was a promenade performance. With the installation you could move in or out of the "inner circle". Depending on the projections that were moving or whizzing by it was at times a disorienting. How fast the projections were moving also seemed to be an indicator of the number of people opting to sit on the floor. And not always did the music and imagery gel.

But there was enough going on to inspire many to create their own little pieces of Instagram artwork in response to the evening.

Curtain Call ends on the bank holiday Monday.

A video posted by Paul In London (@paulinlondon) on

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