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Searching undeterred: The Gift @ParkTheatre

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I recently had a few parcels go missing from where I live. The first parcel disappeared without a trace. The second parcel's contents were removed, and the box was left alone in the lobby. It's one of the things that you have to put up with living in central London. Apart from complaining to the delivery company and filing a police report, it crossed my mind to think about what would happen if I sent myself something rather unpleasant for a future parcel thief to open up. Well, Dave Florez's new work, The Gift, is in this line of thinking, except that the lead receives an anonymous gift of a turd in the mail rather than sending it to himself. It is lovingly gift-wrapped in a cake box from a posh north London bakery. It's a fascinating and hilarious three-hander currently playing at Park Theatre .  Colin (Nicholas Burns) is a little obsessive at the best of times. He doesn't let things drop quickly and is obsessed with the details behind anything and everythi...

Art, death and decay: Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum

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The British Museum's Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum is a wonderful way to start to appreciate the richness and beauty that has been uncovered from these two ancient towns. Over 250 artifacts, some which have never ventured out of Italy are on display and attempt to piece together the ordinary life of the Roman home and the people who lived in them. There are the obligatory pieces of information that explain the eruption, how it engulfed the cities and how those who were not able to flee died. But what is more interesting than the plaster casts and the bone fragments  as others have noted is how you can see firsthand the various lost art forms from the Roman Empire that were rediscovered and reinterpreted from the Renaissance onwards.

Out and about: British Museum

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A trip to the British Museum this week to see the Masterpieces from the Uffizi Gallery (and the Museum too) is a pleasant enough diversion for an overcast day and an opportunity to brush up on 500 years of drawing and making paper... There are so many drawings that it is difficult at times to concentrate in the low light of the library reading room in the museum... It is there until July. Also in the museum grounds there is  the South African landscape with its mass plantings of colourful Cape Daisies and rather interesting-looking quiver trees. It is there until October.

Scenes from the British Museum Saturday

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Scenes from the British Museum Saturday , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . Hmm... Nice golden ass ...