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Showing posts with the label Javier de Frutos

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He had it coming: Burnt Up Love @finborough

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Out of the darkness and shadows, three characters emerge. Lit only with candlelight or flashlights, a gripping tale by writer and performer Ché Walker about crime, punishment, love, and loss emerges. The fast pace conveys a sense of urgency to make up for lost time, lost opportunities, and what might have been. It’s currently playing at the Finborough Theatre .  We first meet Mac (Ché Walker) in prison, serving time for a crime he committed. With only a photo of his young daughter, Scratch, to keep him company, he looks for her upon release. But Scratch (Joanne Marie Mason) isn’t the teacher, lawyer or dancer Mac imagined while incarcerated over the years she might be. Instead, Scratch is in and out of trouble, on the edge, angry and violent. A chance encounter one night with JayJayJay (Alice Walker) forms a loving bond and gives her a moment of stability. But Scratch’s demons and restlessness mean trouble does not seem far away. Scratch's random act of thoughtless violence against

Songs and dancing: Three / 8:38 / Seven @WiltonMusicHall

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It was meant to be ballet with songs. But instead after the cancelling of the original programming of Seven Deadly Sins, it became songs and a little bit of choreography. But with its beautiful singing and a chance to see a new dance piece choreographed by Javier De Frutos, Three / 8:38 / Seven shows that simple (although unplanned) premises can make a for a great evening of entertainment. It’s currently at Wiltons Music Hall . The programme opens with “Three”, representing songs from Kurt Weil and Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera. Beginning with the overture, it sets the mood for the period of Weimar Berlin. It might help to understand the time and context of the piece, but by the time we’re into the Pimp’s Ballad and Mack The Knife (arguably Weil’s biggest hit) it probably doesn’t matter. Next up is the dance piece, 8:38 performed by Viviana Durante and Mbulelo Ndabeni, set to music by Bach and Weil, ending with Lotte Lenya’s version of September Song. As the two dance in s

Death becomes him: Everyman @NationalTheatre

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Judgement day and getting taken to the cleaners takes on a new meaning in this spectacular new take on the classic fifteenth century morality play Everyman at the National Theatre with Chiwetel Ejiofor . It feels like every theatrical trick is deployed during the roughly ninety minutes it takes for one man to account for his life. There  is a giant video screen, dazzling lights, a urinating penis prop. It’s all terrific stuff and an awe inspiring updating of the tale to modern and secular London.