Posts

Showing posts with the label museum

Featured Post

The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

Image
We’re warned at the start of the show with an upbeat number that this is not the usual sort of musical. And it turns out to be just that. But with boundless enthusiasm and energy from its two leads, who deploy a range of voices and breathtaking energy to create a series of voices for puppet characters, a bedtime story becomes a silly oddball tale about four souls stuck in purgatory. With puppets. And various toilet humour references. It’s currently playing at Upstairs At The Gatehouse . The piece starts as a bedtime story. Daddy (Mark Underwood) is about to read a bedtime story for Louise (Sarah Louise Hughes). But her stomach felt funny, and soon, she went to the bathroom. Then, for reasons that seem to only make sense in the confines of the show, they start telling the story of four people who died in unfortunate circumstances in the bathroom. Depicted as puppets, they’re stuck in purgatory as St Peter doesn’t have enough space for each of them in the afterlife. And so begins a puppe...
Read more...

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

Image
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.
Read more...

Feel it, smell it: Leather Forever

Image
Burlington Gardens is the home for an intriguing and beautiful exhibition by Hermès called Leather Forever . It celebrates the art of making products with leather along with showcasing some of the beautiful products made by the company over its 175 years. There is the opportunity to feel and smell different leathers and watch the craftmanship in action working with the material. With a mix of lighting effects and different set pieces to compliment their range of products, it is at times an interactive experience and there is even a moment when you can be caught in a leather curtain. A lovely diversion that will have you wanting to head to the gift shop... If you know there is one just around the corner ... The Leather Forever exhibition is open from 10am to 6pm daily and admission is free. It runs through to 27 May.
Read more...