King Charles III, play by Mike Bartlett, directed by Rupert Goold, Almeida Theatre London, 7* out of 10

A day in the not too distant future; the Queen is dead, Long live the King! On the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Charles, Prince of Wales has become King Charles III (Tim Piggot-Smith). While Charles is awaiting his coronation,  the Labour prime minister of the day presents new legislation, strengthening privacy protection and thereby restricting the freedom of the press. Seeing himself as the protector of democracy Charles, takes a principled stand defending press freedom and asks the government to change the legislation. For this he seeks the support of the leader of the opposition.

As both sides remain steadfast the situation escalates. Prince William  (Oliver Chris) and his astute and ambitious wife Kate, played with gusto by a very watchable Lydia Wilson, observe the situation with concern;  meanwhile, hapless and disheveled Prince Harry (Richard Goulding) falls in love is a republican arts student from St. Martin’s, who shows him that happiness may lie in a paternity test and the simpler life of a commoner.

The cut and thrust of politics and royal intrigue takes its course and the ghost of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, haunts both her former husband and her elder son, as they inevitably get drawn in ever more deeply into the political mire.

"King Charles III" is Mark Bartlett's bold and -  in today's Britain - eminently controversial stab at writing “a future history play”; copious self-conscious references to William Shakespeare are included both in the chosen genre and the writing. Is it supposed to be a drama that is based on a realistic premise? It can be read this way, but to me it appeared as part parody, part tragic comedy; humour is thrown in and succeeds in lightening things up. Whatever Bartlett intended, the quality of the writing is high.

The set, in a round purple hue makes impressive use of the theatre space. Sound, lighting and music work together well and to good effect.  The direction is handled skilfully by Rupert Goold, the choreography of crowd scenes by Anna Morissey inventive. Tim Piggot-Smith gives an excellent performance as King Charles: wracked by doubt, yet principled, kind to his family, naïve as far as his dealings with crafty politicians are concerned.  Other members of the cast give strong performances, too. Oliver Chris plays Charles's son William as a loving son and feminist husband, who must consider the future of his dynasty; Margot Leicester is a concerned Camilla, a loyal wife to troubled King Charles. Adam James and Nicholas Rowe are credible as leaders of the Labour and Conservative party, respectively.

"King Charles III" is an interesting and thought provoking play. It is recommended for those who have a strong interest in UK politics, the constitutional role of the Monarch and the current royals and their, at times, turbulently grotesque private lives.

http://www.almeida.co.uk/event/kingcharles

Locke, (2013) Film, written and directed by Steven Knight, 8* out of 10

Any plan made by Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) is solid; preferably set in C6-quality concrete, no less.  He is loyal, reliable, no-nonsense; the kind of building project manager you want when you are putting up the largest skyscraper in Europe. Not only does he make sure there is a plan, and a back-up plan too, but he’ll also be on location to see it through to completion and manage any last minute hitches that might arise.

But when the “perfect storm” breaks out in perfectionist Ivan’s well-organised life, he has to set his priorities and manage the concurrent and disparate crises the only way he knows how. Actually, he really needs to be in three places at once. Although that's impossible, this is the 21^st century and Ivan Locke, project manager extraordinaire, believes that with the help of his mobile phone provider it must be feasible to “drive and chew gum” at the same time. But can personal crises be managed like major snags in a building-project? 

Steven Knight’s tightly scripted drama is a tour-de-force brought to the screen with an economy of means entirely consistent with telling the story grippingly.  Dickon Hinchcliffe’s score reinforces the pace. The screenplay is a gift for a gifted actor, which Tom Hardy picks up with a flourish; he is ably supported by a vocal acting ensemble.  The only slight flaw in the screenplay is making the psychological childhood trauma of the relationship between Locke and his father too explicit; here less amateur psychology and more confidence in the power of imagination the audience would have been better. But despite this, Locke is a terrific film. Incidentally, it is eminently suitable for adaptation to a theatre- or radio-play. 

Locke is a must for control-oriented managers who struggle to distinguish between their professional and private life. I plead guilty.  It is also very insightful for anyone, male or female, who aspires to a management career, or has to deal with a concrete- thinking management type in their lives.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2692904/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

Calvary, (2014) Film written & directed by John Michael McDonagh, 9* out of 10

During a confession Father James Lavelle (Brandon Gleeson) is threatened by one of his congregants, who bears a deadly grudge against the church. Father James  experienced, wise, committed to his vocation is effective in his job and attentive in his interactions with the cast of colourful characters that make up his community.

His rogue congregant has given Father James one week to get his affairs in order before he will kill him. The priest uses this time to carry on his duties while deciding how best to deal with the threat.

Calvary is part drama, part thriller, part black comedy and chimes with the Christian Easter story. There aren’t many writers/directors who are able to pull off such a potentially incongruous mix of genres and turn it into a great film, but John Michael McDonagh succeeds brilliantly. With the help of a strong acting ensemble, he tells a moving, heart-warming story, at times laugh-out-loud funny, at times terribly tragic which holds the audience’s attention from beginning to end. The lynchpin of this terrific film is Brendan Gleeson who gives a brilliant performance as Father James. (The McDonagh family is clearly bursting with talent with John Michael’s brother Martin being responsible for the 2008 comedy/drama “In Bruges”).

Calvary is a thoughtful and original movie, surely among the best of 2014.  Suspenseful, moving, entertaining, at times hilariously funny, at times desperately sad, it is not to be missed.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2234003/

The Red Prince - The Fall of a Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Europe, Book by Timothy Snyder, Vintage Books, London 2009, 9* out of 10

The Red Prince tells the story of Wilhelm, the second of four sons of Stefan, an Austrian Archduke and member of the illustrious von Habsburg family, which, when Wilhelm was a child in the 1890s, had for hundreds of years ruled large parts of Eastern and Central Europe, not to speak of its Spanish branch, whose reign over that country and its vast colonies had ended somewhat earlier.

During the dramatic and turbulent first half of the 20th century in Europe, Wilhelm plays a minor, though by no means insignificant role in the attempts of the Austrian imperial and royal family  to hold on to its reign (or failing that some remnant of that reign) in all or part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

The long-term master plan for his children was set out almost at birth by Wilhelm’s father the Archduke Stefan. Together with the ethos of the family, and Wilhelms own colourful personality it makes Wilhelm’s biography worthy of any fictional historical novel. There are encounters with powerful historical figures of the early 20th century, such as Kaiser Wilhelm and of less powerful yet famous personalities like the French music hall star Mistinguette who publicly toyed with the idea of becoming Wilhelm wife.  He on the other hand was more interested in exotic young men.

In his meticulously researched and entertainingly written book, Timothy Snyder, not only introduces us to many colourful characters populating Europe’s upper echelon’s in the first half of the 20th century; he also gives a timely and readable insight into the little history of the region that is today Ukraine but also touches on Poland and Russia. As the centenary of World War I is being marked in many Western countries, very little is being said about the course this war took on its Eastern front.  In the course of following young Wilhelm’s early military career we learn about the beginnings of today's Ukraine as a nation and a state, and about the role Wilhelm played in it, under his Ukrainian nom de guerre Prince Vasyl Vishivanyi, as a young officer at the head of a Ukrainian regiment fighting for the Austro-Hungarian Empire against the Russians.

We also follow Wilhelm through the stormy interwar period where he changes his political convictions from Royalist multiculturalist philosemitic Austro-Marxist, hence the "Red" in his princely epithet, to briefly fascist, antisemitic supporter of Adolf Hitler to his premature death in a Soviet political prisoner camp. On the way we meet some other interesting characters of the von Habsburg family who put up resistance to the Nazis and ensured the brewing of beer in the largest Polish brewery in Żywiec, owned today by the Dutch drinks giant Heineken but housing in one of its buildings a niece of our protagonist.   

As a famous historian put it: “The future is fixed, the past is always open to debate”.  Reading The Red Prince is not only enjoyable, but can help making our debates about the past and future more informed. That, surely, must be a good thing.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Prince-Dynasty-Modern-Europe-ebook/dp/B0038LB4V2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397310302&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Red+Prince

Archduke Wilhelm von Habsburg, The Red Prince

Under Milk Wood, by Dylan Thomas, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Grand Theatre, Swansea, Wales, 10* out of 10

The uninitiated among the non-British readers of this blog may think that the footballer Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) and the acting legends Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins are “from England”. You would however, be wrong. They are all as Welsh as Swansea. We non-Brits often forget that there are three countries the main island of Great Britain: From North to West-Southwest: Scotland, England and Wales.

The greatest Welsh poet and writer in the English language is Dylan Thomas (1914 – 1952).  As this year is the 100th anniversary of his birth, the Clwyd Theatr Cymru, decided to tackle his poetic, comic “play for voices” Under Milk Wood, which Dylan had completed and premiered in Manhattan shortly before his death in 1952. This new production is directed by Terry Hands. 

Under Milk Wood acquaints us with the dreams and lives of the inhabitants of the fictional, though perhaps not totally untypical Welsh fishing village of Llareggub. Although the name sounds authentically Welsh is the anagram of the rather rude English expression “bugger all”. We follow the Llareggubians from nightfall to nightfall over a 24 hour period and are helped by two all-knowing narrators giving us access to all aspects of the villagers' inner, home and social lives.

This production brings Dylan Thomas masterpiece to life in multiple layers. You could close your eyes, forget the meaning of the words as they flow from the mouths of the actors to your ear, listening only to their tonality; a symphony of sound unfolds which all by itself conjures up the rough, green and rocky coastal village landscape of Llareggub and its curious inhabitants. In another layer, phrases and sentences express, in turn, joy, laughter and melancholic desire in a firework of alliterative reinforcements and juxtapositions. 

This production adds the direction and acting, which furnish each character with the body language perfectly matched to voice and interaction. Martyn Bainbridge's simple but imaginative set, colourful and spiralling, gives the play a sense of place.  

Under Milk Wood is performed here by an excellent acting ensemble made up of strong characters on and probably off stage as well. The cast brings Dylan Thomas’ iconic village to life, both in their personal eccentricities and in the full range of their interactions.  The actors clearly are enjoying themselves on stage and that enjoyment communicated itself to a Swansea-audience delighted and proud of their national poet's work being presented by an excellent Welsh theatre company. Owen Teale and Chris Patterson as first and second voice, respectively, stand out. Polly Garter’s (Katie Elin-Salt) pitch perfect a-cappella singing is breath taking.

This production of Under Milk Wood tours Britain from now until summer the summer. The dates can be found by clicking on the link shown below. It’s more than worth the trip. Whatever you do, don’t miss it!

http://www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk/en/whats_on/event/33166

Good People, Play by David Lindsay-Abaire, starring Imelda Staunton, Hampstead Theatre, London 7* out of 10

In rough, Irish working-class South Boston, Margie (Imelda Staunton), middle-aged mother of a grown-up handicapped daughter is again about to lose her job as a cashier in a supermarket.  She knows that her friend, sometime child-sitter and landlady Dottie (June Watson) will not remain friendly to her if the rent-money stops coming in. Her other friend and bingo-playing companion Jean (Lorraine Ashbourne) suggests she get in touch with an old boy-friend Mikey (Lloyd Owen), who has escaped life in South Boston and is a successful specialist physician with his own practice. When Margie and Mikey meet again, the tension between their common past and uncommon present gives rise to some uncomfortable confrontations.

After a slow first act, David Lindsay-Abaire’s play picks up pace and quality in the second. It does however not get as far as to question cherished liberal tenets on the inherent “good people”-hood of the working classes; not that the good people of Hampstead including your reviewer, who filled the seats of their local theatre, would mind too much. Director Jonathan Kent delivers an entertaining and professional quality production to West End standards. Imelda Staunton is excellent as always, leading a good cast. Angel Colby gives an excellent performance as Mikey’s wife Kate. Hildegard Bechtler’s set moves faultlessly between South Boston, the city centre and its wealthy suburbs.  A worthwhile, entertaining and not too challenging evening at the theatre.

http://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2014/good-people/

Putting it Together, Musical Review by Stephen Sondheim, St. James Theatre, London 9* out of 10

Putting It Together is a musical review consisting of songs taken from musicals by Stephen Sondheim and organised around the theme of love relationships among sophisticated urban dwellers at different stages of their lives. The songs run the gamut from hopeful anticipation to painful break-up with a lot joy and crisis in between.

Sondheim’s lyrics are masterful case studies in social psychology delivered in a firework of insight, wit and deep emotional intelligence. As his music serves to make the great lyrics even more effective, it doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves. But he has written some great tunes, too.

It is hard to believe that we had to wait more than 20 years for the London premiere of this gem. Alex Parker’s production matches the quality of the lyrics with the right level of energy and sophistication from an outstanding cast consisting of David Bedella, Daniel Crossley, Janie Dee, Damian Humbley and Caroline Sheen. Jointly and severally the actors get to show the range of interpretation they are capable of – and very capable they are, too. On the evening I saw the show, the rapport with the audience was evident and the energy on stage radiated back only to be picked again by actors and orchestra. Even in such a high quality ensemble, award-winning Janie Dee stands out by the sheer charisma of her performance. Body language and facial expression to match the emotions portrayed was magnetic. I have seen some of the numbers Dee performs here done by show business greats like Patti LuPone and Carol Burnett - but nobody did it better.  

Putting It Together is a thoroughly satisfying and uplifting experience for a delighted London audience, who deserve an extended West End run for this production which, unfortunately for those who do not have tickets is now almost completely sold out for the remainder of its short run.

http://www.stjamestheatre.co.uk/events/putting-it-together/#prettyPhoto

      

The Blackest Black, Play by Jeremy Brock, Hampstead Theatre, London, 7* out of 10

Abi (Charity Wakefield), an aspiring English artist has succeeded in obtaining a short residency in an Arizona astronomical observatory. There she meets Martin (John Light), an ambitious American scientist who wants nothing more than a tenure-position as a professor of Astronomy. Martin has a limited number of nights to make actual observations of the portion of the universe he specialises in. Chuck (Ian Bonar), part Native American, is the engineer whose job it is to set up the telescope in accordance with the wishes of his scientist clients. 

For all but the last night reserved for Martin’s observations the weather has been bad. Though married with one child, this has led to the very high-strung, scientific and logical Martin to spend the night with the very chaotic English resident artist, for whom human connections, sexual and otherwise are what life is all about. It seems that hormones generally flow more freely in the cleansing Arizona sunshine. But when passionate Abi draws country-boy and engineer Chuck into her schemes, far-reaching consequences ensue.

The Blackest Black is a play about the clash between two professional worlds across two continents - that of the English artist, who finds the scientific look at the world incredibly limited and pedantic and that of the American scientist, who has no feel for the emotionality and the sweeping metaphors of modern art and feels overwhelmed by it. Sexual attraction between the two lights a dangerous fuse for Chuck who is both practical and a bit of a dreamer but not as ruthless in pursuing his professional goals and carnal inclinations as either of the other two.

BAFTA and Oscar nominated screenwriter Jeremy Brock (Mrs Brown, The Last King of Scotland) has written an interesting play; for me he has left some doubts about the plausibility of the relationship between his two protagonists developing such passion in a relatively short time. Director Michael Longhurst, Charity Wakefield and John Light do their best to make the strength of that relationship believable - and their best is very good. Ian Bonar shines in the role of Chuck, a character strongly written and strongly played.

All in all, The Blackest Back is a very worthwhile and enjoyable new play. The Hampstead Theatre, both upstairs and downstairs has become an ever more interesting venue for quality theatre and great value for money. I’ll be back. 

http://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2014/the-blackest-black/

12 Years A Slave, Film (2013), directed by Steve McQueen 9* out of 10

March 1843 Saratoga New York. Salomon Northrup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), is black, a free man, married with a young family, living a bourgeois existence as a musician and farmer. But when he accepts in good faith, a contract to play the violin at circus performances in Washington DC he is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Southern states. Suddenly, he enters a world, where in everyday life white people treat black people, as more or less valuable means of production without any rights. Salomon does not know how long it will be before he can regain his status as a free man, if ever, but he is determined to return to his wife and children. So he deploys his considerable skills and intelligence to get to understand the society he finds himself in. He resolves to make himself useful to his masters in order to achieve a position from which he has the chance to escape the cruel fate of being a slave in the American South of the mid 19th century.

Based on Salomon Northup’s biographical account originally published in 1853 (and dedicated to Harriet Beecher-Stowe the author of the fictional Uncle Tom’s Cabin), John Ridley (screenplay) and the black British artist Steve McQueen (director) tell an exciting story which is a powerful indictment of the system of slavery.  They are supported by an excellent cast including Hollywood stars (Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giammati, Michael Fassbender) and less known but no less excellent actors notably Chiwetel Ejiofor in the main role and Lupita Nyong’o as the slave girl Patsey. The photography showing the landscape and architecture of the American South is beautiful. The camera often stays on a scene for a long time with only the natural sound as a soundtrack that is as rich as any musical score. 

12 Years a Slave grabs today's film-going audience, as everyone can identify with Salomon Northrup, a free man who is brutally plucked from a comfortable happy working and family life into the existence of a slave. More painfully and reluctantly we can, if we are honest, also identify with potentially good men trying to be “humane slave owners”, whom the system of slavery, of which they are part, has pushed into accepting and defending what, when looked at from the outside, they would know to be indefensible. Most complex and tragic is the role of the attractive woman slave. Separated from her children, she may obtain major privileges by becoming the master’s official “second wife”.  But that in turn brings mortal danger from the master’s first wife, let alone being subject to the master’s own whims and brutality. And in this film brutality is appropriately shown when it is part of the story. Some viewers may find this hard to cope with, but the accusation that director Steve McQueen is presenting “torture porn” is unjustified and disingenuous. Finally, 12 Years A Slave can be seen as an uplifting film as the US has come a long way in emancipating former slaves and their descendants. Yet slavery and slave-like working conditions still exist in many countries around the world. And we are all prone to assert ourselves by thinking that others are less than ourselves. Salomon Northrop’s story remains a powerful wake-up call to our better nature.   

Among the mainstream English language films of 2013, 12 Years A Slave is one of two films that stand out as high quality works of lasting value, (the other being Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine).  

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024544/

Like Father Like Son, Film (2013) by Hirokazu Koreeda, 9* out of 10

Ryota Nonomiya (Masaharu Fukuyama) is an ambitious and fast rising executive in the architecture firm he works for. His wife Midori (Machiko Ono) has given up her career to look after their six-year-old son Keita (Keita Nonomiya). Ryota takes his role as provider seriously and his family lives very comfortably from the fruits of his hard work. He loves his son and wants to see him succeed in life. So the family applies to an elite private school and Keita has to take piano lessons although he does not excel as a musician. Ryota is concerned that Keita is not competitive enough. While Midori supports him loyally in his ambitions for Keita she also makes sure that Keita can also have some fun. The boy adores both his parents and particular loves it when he gets his fathers approval. 

The family is thrown into crisis when the provincial hospital where Keita was born informs Ryota and Midori that there may have been exchange of new-borns and Keita might not be their biological child.  As head of the family and in competent management mode Ryota takes the lead in dealing with the situation. If indeed there has been an exchange, his and Midori’s biological has grown up in a provincial family, the Saikis. The father Yudai (Riri Furaki) is a shopkeeper, older and not at all ambitious. He likes to spend any free minute playing with his three children, who delight in his presence and his ability to repair their broken toys. Ryota starts out with wanting to address this issue like one of the challenging management problem he is so successful at handling at work; but the decisions he has to make not only have serious consequences on others but also challenge his own life and world-view. Will he be able to cope with putting himself in question?

Like Father Like Son is a powerful and uplifting tale about relationships between fathers and children and beyond that human relationships within and between families from different social backgrounds. The interplay between adults and children and among the children themselves is finely observed. While we might expect Japanese culture and context to be very different from ours, the issues and feelings that this film so skilfully addresses are universal. Like Father Like Son captures our imagination and emotions. The credibility of Ryota’s development during the period of the events recounted depends on the performances of the other characters both adult and children. They shine with excellent performances.

Like Father Like Son deserves the prizes it has been awarded at the Cannes, London and other festivals; a delight. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2331143/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

Saving Mr. Banks, Film (2013) directed by John Lee Hancock, 8* out of 10

London in the early 1960s. Behind her carapace of irony the English writer P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson), author of the Mary Poppins children’s books is faced with a dilemma. For 20 years Mr Walt Disney of the Disney Corporation has been asking for the film rights. For 20 years she has resisted, but now she is running out of money to finance an elegant home in an upmarket London neighbourhood, blossoming cherry trees and all. And so reluctantly, she will travel to America to seriously consider Disney’s offer, which by now includes giving Ms. Travers the final say on every detail of the film he would like Disney studios to make. 

Against this business-like background of the author resisting the "Disneyfication" of her work, “Saving Mr. Banks” tells the story not only of the evolution of Travers’ relationship with the team assigned by Disney to adapt her Mary Poppins books, but also the difficult events in her early childhood in the Australian outback that lie at the heart of the Mary Poppins story and of Travers’ personality.  The flashbacks to Travers’ youth feature her  bank manager father (Colin Farrell) uniquely unsuited to his job, her mother (Ruth Wilson) and the author's younger self (Annie Rose Buckley).  And Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) who is determined to win her over so he can sprinkle the lucrative Disney stardust on the Mary Poppins tale has not only commercial reasons for being so uncharacteristically patient and persistent in his campaign. During her stay in Los Angeles Travers and Walt Disney will cross swords more than once. Will their strong personalities allow them to reach real mutual understanding?

Saving Mr Banks is well written and superbly cast. At its centre are two people who have turned difficult childhoods into engaging fantasies which have entertained children of all ages. The authenticity of the story of the creation of the classic Mary Poppins movie is helped by the fact that Travers insisted that all her meetings with the scriptwriters, lyricists and composers would be taped. 

Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Paul Giamatti and Colin Farrell put in strong performances that are true to type. Hanks is the natural leader - serious businesslike charismatic and emotionally intelligent. Thompson is the English lady hiding her inadmissible feelings behind coolness and irony. Paul Giamatti as the driver of the Disney courtesy limousine, a "mensch" who brings slice of real life into the Disney dream machine. Farrell is the irresistible heartthrob and flawed lovably rogue.  

Script and direction set-up emotional highlights are very skilfully within this sentimental and likeable drama, so that even hardened critical film-buffs will have difficulty to stop themselves from welling up. Yes, this is Disney Films placing the Disney product (Disneyland, Disney corporate culture) very effectively within a story in which all things Disney play a major role; this film is also bestowing filmic sainthood on the eponymous Walt, founder of the Disney empire. Yet it cannot be denied that Saving Mr Banks is a very enjoyable film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140373/

Fill the Void, Film written and directed by Rama Burshtein, 8* out of 10

It is a truth universally acknowledged in ultraorthodox Jewish communities that a man or woman of marriageable age must either be married or in want of a spouse.  In the Israeli film Fill the Void (Hebrew with subtitles), a costume drama playing in one such community in Israel, writer and director Rama Burshtein tells the story of how the young care-free Shira (Hadas Yaron) is unexpectedly thrown into emotional turmoil when, in the midst of the search for a suitable husband, her elder married sister, to whom she is close, dies giving birth to a boy. 

A few months after these events, Shira’s mother Rivka (Irit Sheleg) is faced with the possibility that her widower son-in-law Yochai (Yiftach Klein) might be offered a match with a widow in Antwerp. This would separate her from her beloved late daughter’s baby-boy. 

When she sees how Shira and Yochai look after the baby, she suggests to Yochai to consider a match with Shira. Irit’s plan is controversial not only with her husband but also in the community. For the the match go ahead requires not only the prospective husband and wife to agree with it but also the consent of the Rebbe, the religious and spiritual leader of the community. Moreover, Irit’s headstrong disabled sister Hanna has a different plan of her own. 

With beautiful costumes and set and scenes filmed at a slow pace, Rama Burshtein has succeeded in making an atmospheric film, particularly through the skilful use of photography and music. She gives a sensitive and sympathetic insight into the life of the community depicted in this film. Fill The Void does not deal with religious conflicts; it tells a universal tale, that of the powerful matriarch challenging those around her to respond and succeed in preserving their own identity and pursuit of happiness. 

Burshtein is helped by a strong ensemble of actors, with Irit Sheleg, and especially newcomer Hadas Yaron standing out. Hila Feldman also shines in the small but difficult role of Frieda.

Fill the Void is a demanding film, making the viewer work, as a number of key scenes are open to interpretation, particularly regarding the motives and emotions that lie behind the decisions and actions of the different characters. 

One sign of a quality film is that it leaves us with considerable food for thought and intelligent discussion; Fill the Void certainly does that.  

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2219514/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

No Place to Go, written and performed by Ethan Lipton and his Orchestra, Gate Theatre, London 8* out of 10

I have just returned from a week in New York, NY, a lively city full of friendly and resilient people who would not want to live anyplace else. So it was appropriate, if unexpected, that yesterday afternoon I would enter the Gate Theatre in London’s Notting Hill to find it having been turned into a New York comedy club. 

On the stage are Ethan Lipton and his three piece orchestra. Ethan is one of those New Yorkers who have grown up in the city they love. Just like Mayor Bloomberg he has made a career of cleaning raw data to turn it into useful information and just like Mayor Bloomberg he has a second job. Unlike mayor Bloomberg, Ethan was a fairly low-level part-time employee and unlike Mayor Bloomberg his other job subsidised and thus made possible by the first one by the first one, is that of a writer and performer. 

Ethan and his band proceed in words and song to tell us the story of his employer, the information providing company, relocating from Brooklyn to planet Mars. Well, it may not really be Planet Mars but for a man from Brooklyn relocating to anywhere outside New York City might as well be relocating to Planet Mars; except perhaps having to relocate to New Jersey, the other side of Manhattan, which would be marginally worse than living on Mars.

In “No Place to Go ” Ethan Lipton and his band have put together a heartbreaking authentic story taking us through an emotional roller coaster of a middle-aged man and his colleagues facing up to the inevitable which hits them unprepared. It is a story that rings painfully true in the voice of the employee, a perspective from which it is rarely articulated. The force of gravity of our market system means that that roller coaster will drag us down. The force of human spirit means, that as we do not go gently into that good night, which the search for shareholders value has in store for many a knowledge worker in our postindustrial age.  The human spirit, even middle-aged, searches creatively for coping strategies. “No Place To Go” is a deeply true and moving story told in an original manner in soliloquy and song. It comes from the heart of New York City, post 9/11 post financial crisis. And New York City has a very human heart. 

Despite some shortcomings in the acoustics that occasionally made it difficult to follow some of the lyrics, No Place To Go, worthy winner of the OBIE award and voted Best Lounge Show In New York, is definitely worth seeing.

http://www.gatetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/no-place-to-go.aspx

The Manor, Film by Shawney Cohen 7* out of 10

Shawney Cohen is running the bar in The Manor, the nightclub and associated hotel his father Roger took over and made the family business when Shawney and his brother Sammy were children. Roger, born in Egypt emigrated to Israel and then to Canada where he started penniless as a taxi-driver. He married Brenda, the daughter of holocaust survivors. Successfully running a night-club with its lap-dancing girls in the small Canadian city of Guelph requires street-smarts and a certain robustness. The nightclub has made Roger’s family a comfortable living, but a lap-dancing club is not a respectable business for a "nice Jewish family", is it? Moreover, as it seems that both sons will follow their father into this shady family business, the psychological problems and family conflicts can no longer be kept under the surface. The Manor chronicles the trials and tribulations of Cohen family, as its members try, each in their own way, to cope with their problems - business, health, personal.  Should they arrange themselves with the "golden cage" that is the family business or free themselves from its materially comfortable yet psychologically and socially toxic embrace?

Though a documentary, The Manor feels like a family drama/comedy. It is the first documentary made my Shawney Cohen. He paints a a sensitive and moving portrayal of his family, without covering up conflicts or character flaws.  The extent to which members of the family are able to switch between suppressing conflict and openly discussing problems and their desire to look out for each other despite all the personality conflicts makes this a spellbinding film. Despite all the unfavourable odds there is a spark of love and connectedness among all the protagonists which gives rise to the hope that that this family will manage to deal with its problems in persistent, cautious and authentic. Meanwhile The Manor, warts and all,  is a very watchable family portrait. Another example of UK Jewish Film Festival bringing a entertaining quality film to an appreciative audience at the Tricycle Cinema. 


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2499162/

Enough Said, Film written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, 8*out of 10

Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a massage therapist, divorced, and mother of a teenage daughter. When she joins her friend Sarah (Toni Colette) for a cocktail party she meets Marianne (Catherine Keener) a potential new client and Albert (James Gandolfini) a potential new love interest. Eva’s daughter will soon be off to college and Eva is trying “pre-adapt” to the time when she will have left home. And for Eva things are about to get really complicated. How will she fare in untangling the pile of emotional spaghetti that life, not entirely without Eva's own complicity, is about to serve up? 

With Enough Said Nicole Holofcener has done a remarkable job. She tells a plausible story about middle-class, middle-aged people who behave like normal middle-aged people would and manages to turn it into a highly entertaining drama/comedy. Moreover the film is perfectly cast with star actors who know how to deliver the subtly understated performances Holofcener’s writing and direction ask for.  The moments of humour are organically woven into the story; they do not appear contrived as in many of the romantic comedies coming to us from the United States. 

Unfortunately, the great James Gandolfini (unforgettable for his portrayal of the neurotic Mafia-boss Tony Soprano) died suddenly while on holiday in Italy this summer. We’re left here with his perfect portrayal of the eminently huggable Albert - and an immense sense of loss.

http://www.enoughsaidmovie.com/#section-trailer

Blue Jasmine, Film written and directed by Woody Allen, 8* out of 10

Having lost all her money and Manhattan-socialite lifestyle, after her super-rich husband Hal (Alec Baldwin) has been arrested as a fraudster, Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) has had a nervous breakdown and is seeking recovery and shelter with her sister Ginger in San Francisco. Ginger (Sally Hawkins) is as different from her sister as can be: she has been living in modest circumstances with her two young boys from her first marriage to a building contractor with her working-class boyfriend Chilli (Bobby Cannavale). Having climbed to social and financial heights as Hal’s wife, Jasmine had always tried to avoid any social dealings with her working-class sister’s family, whom she considered an embarrassment.

Broke and psychologically destabilised by what has happened to her, Jasmine tries to find a surer footing from which she can climb back on the social ladder. But what’s the best plant for her? Picking up her studies from way back, training to become an interior designer or looking for a suitably powerful man who is looking for a wife capable of carrying out the appropriate social duties to support his professional ambitions? But as Jasmine, supported by Prozac, Lithium and dry Martinis tries to focus on the future, thoughts of her past continue to intrude and haunt her: how much did she know or at least suspect about her husbands fraudulent dealings? How did Ginger’s ex-husband loose the money he had planned to use to set up his own business?

Woody Allen’s topical drama tells the story of Jasmine’s downfall its effect on her and the attempt she makes to get back to lofty financial and social position.  He shows that he can write and direct a powerful drama, with finely drawn characters who ever so often confound our expectations just a little. Jasmine and Ginger, in particular are two contrasting and memorable women’s roles. Jasmine acts outwardly strong and assured but is fundamentally fragile, running on empty.  Ginger appears outwardly less secure than Jasmine and quite vulnerable, particularly after the arrival of her formerly so successful sister; but she can fall back on inner strength, resilience and judgement. Within an excellent ensemble cast, Cate Blanchett’s outstanding portrayal of Jasmine is matched by Sally Hawkins’ Ginger. With Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen, now in his seventies, shows that his creative abilities and his skills as a story teller are undiminished. 


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2334873/

Salzburg, Austria: A Coffee House, An Actress and A Musical

Salzburg, Austria. I am sitting in the Café Sacher, opposite the city’s main theatre. The Café Sacher is part of the Hotel Sacher whose big brother is the Hotel Sacher in Vienna. 

Before becoming the Hotel Sacher in the late 1980s, the place was called the Oesterreichische Hof, and before that the Hotel d’Autriche. Over several centuries this has been the premier address to reside at when visiting Salzburg.

In Salzburg’s coffee houses cakes meet culture, art and science and cakes are culture, art and science. Not a 100m from where I am sitting is the house where the Mozart family lived. Even closer is the house where Christian Doppler the 19th century scientist who discovered the “Doppler-effect” was born, a discovery of paramount importance to modern astronomy. About the same distance away is the city’s main theatre. 

On the table next to me an elderly gentleman is reading his newspaper. It is the expressionist painter Kortokraks, the subject of a recent documentary film, and a friend of the more famous Oskar Kokoschka. 

I grew up in this city and remember when the Café I am now sitting in bore not the name of the well known Viennese cake, but that of an equally well-known chocolate specialty from Salzburg, the Mozartkugel; it is a small sphere (Kugel being the German for sphere) consisting of marzipan and gianduja nougat covered in dark chocolate.

The Viennese Café Sacher is of course the home of the famous Sachertorte, or as my waitress likes to emphasise the original Sachertorte, as in “Guten Morgen, mein Herr, darf ich Ihnen eine original Sachertorte bringen? Mit Schlag? Und einen Verlängerten dazu?” (May I bring you an original Sachertorte? With whipped cream? And an Americano to go with it?) 

It won’t be a Sachertorte for me for me today, at least not to start with. The cake that I traditionally eat here is a delicious concoction made of an almond base with a rich chocolate-truffle layer on top. “Also eine “Sarah Bernard”, der Herr?” the waitress asks, pronouncing the “Bernard” in the most French manner possible; so, Luckily they still have my favourite cake. Embarrassingly however, for a coffee house in which signed photographs of famous opera-singers, conductors, theatre directors and actors decorate the walls from top to bottom, they have got the name of the cake wrong! The “Bernard” in the Café Sacher’s menu refers to the most famous French actress of the Bel-Epoque, the late 19th century, Sarah Bernhardt, pronounced as the French first name “Bernard” but with an audible “t” at the end. 

This 5* hotel’s famous café with its impressive pedigree and its location at the heart of the European performing arts misspells and mispronounces one of its most tasty specialties. 

This clearly calls for a campaign to accurately reinstate the link between the tasty sweet and the grande-dame of the European stage and early film which it has been named after. 

I begin by explaining to my waitress that the lady who gave her name to the cake shares the second syllable of the surname and her Jewish roots with the creator of the Salzburg Festival, the German actor and director Max Reinhardt. 

The waitress recognizes the importance of the matter and immediately refers me to the next level up. This is the male waiter, in Austria addressed as “Herr Ober”. The regulars may replace the “Ober” by the first name; to them he is “Herr Franz”. Herr Franz informs me that I might be right, but “Bernard” looks and sounds “so much more French”! This line of argument however, will not cut any mustard with me. 

Herr Franz assures me, he will raise the issue with upper-management and expects a correction to follow. I’ll have to check on my next visit to Salzburg whether my campaign to restore the formidable Sarah Bernhardt to the rightful place in the sweet history of cake making will have borne fruit. 

For now, I am just in time to catch some open-day events at the Salzburg Landestheater across the street from the Café Sacher. Entry is free and an interested audience gets a chance to watch 30 minutes rehearsal for the forthcoming production of Goethe’s Dr. Faustus Part 1. The director and the principal actors perform part of the play and then explain and demonstrate how they go about performing a fighting scene. 

It looks like this Dr. Faustus will be a fine production in modern dress and a very interesting musical score that is integrated into the play. The director seeks to make the complex play accessible to a varied audience and even more ambitiously will attempt to do this for the much more esoteric Dr. Faustus Part 2. 

Clearly, theatre in Salzburg has come a long way since I last sampled it here. Now my curiosity has been piqued and I want to see more. 

The next event of the open-day programme is a free one-hour performance with a medley of songs from a number of musicals. Although I am not a musical-fan, I decide to join the audience in the packed theatre. And I’ll not be disappointed. 

There are excellent singing voices and strong dramatic and comic acting interpretations of great songs, some performed in English, some in German. The songs are from La Cage Aux Folles (the very moving “I am what I am”), Nunsense, Titanic, Kiss Me Kate, The Adams Family, I Have Never Yet Been to New York, and finally a number of songs from the sell-out production of the Sound of Music. It has taken until 2008 for the Sound of Music finally to be performed in the city where most of the action takes place. But now it feels like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical has finally come home to where it belongs.

My coffee-house and theatre-day in Salzburg draws to an end. I have had the chance to sample an interesting and popular programme with which the Salzburg Landestheater is not only attracting larger audiences but also establishing itself as a venue of note in the German speaking theatre - and there is nothing wrong with that.

 

              Sarah Bernhardt Torte

Rudolf Kortokraks

http://www.daskino.at/film_21476_Kortokraks

Sarah Bernhardt

 
     Café Sacher Salzburg


Max Reinhardt

The Sound of Music - Salzburger Landestheater 

http://www.salzburger-landestheater.at/subnavigation/oper/show/the-sound-of-music-wa

The Proposal – The Bear, 2 short plays by Anton Chekhov, St James Theatre, London, 9* out of 10

For a 21st century city-dweller who is smartphone-connected and desirous of participating fully in many aspects of life - private, professional, social, cultural - so many needs wants and requests, real and imagined, are vying for his attention that certain activities must be undertaken simultaneously.

So it is a good thing that thanks to the St. James Theatre office and other workers in London’s Victoria district can now munch their organic lunch-time salads, while at the same time watching some highly entertaining quality theatre in a very pleasant cultural space. 

They are currently being marvellously entertained by two short pieces signed Anton Chekhov, a 19th century Russian genius, who had a great sense of humour and an eye for the most human of our human traits - losing our cool completely, when it comes to wooing or being wooed by, a potential life-partner. 

In The Proposal the 35-year-old land-owner Lomov (Matthew McPherson) intends to make a marriage proposal to his neighbour’s daughter (Nadia Hynes). But to the chagrin of the latter, other topics than love and marriage arouse the potential couple’s passions.

In The Bear we meet a Smirnov (Gary Sefton), a middle-aged landowner whose solvency depends on immediately collecting a debt from a recently widowed attractive lady (Caroline Colomei) who appears determined to grieve forever for her deceased but undeserving wealthy landowner husband. The angered Smirnov becomes something like Vladimir Putin’s manic cousin including a compulsion for showing off his muscle-packed torso to the adoring multitude (; the Russian for “bear” is medved, without –iev, but still).  In trying desperately and not very successfully to collect the debt Smirnov in turn unleashes the widow’s suppressed passions to the point where quivering duelling pistols can take on phallic proportions.  

This double bill is true farce at its most farcical and yet Chekhov’s talent imbues the plays with an acute understanding of human nature, giving them a special quality; the characters on stage are ridiculous - and disconcertingly like you and me in what we might think of as our less glorious moments!

In the energetic production directed by Edward Hulme, the enthusiastic cast of the Butterfly Company make the Studio Theatre’s space their own.  They also establish great contact with the audience. Both male leads clearly enjoy skilfully squeezing every drop of comedy out of their hilarious characters.

Pure afternoon delight.

http://www.stjamestheatre.co.uk/events/the-proposal-and-the-bear-double-bill/

http://wearebutterfly.com/#/whats-on/4569060731

 

What Maisie Knew, Film directed by Scott McGehee & David Siegel, 8* out of 10

Maisie (Onata Aprile) is the precocious 9-year-old daughter of art dealer Beale (Steve Coogan) and ageing rock star Susanna (Julianne Moore), who have hired the young Margo (Joanna Vanderham) as her nanny, with whom Maisie has developed a strong bond. What is a very dysfunctional home at the best of times, becomes a truly toxic environment as Beale and Susanna go through a nasty break-up. Margo is involved with Beale, while Susanna soon takes up with the young bar-keeper Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgaard).

The adults around Maisie are so wrapped up in their own affairs and desires that they appear to either ignore her altogether or use her in order to further their own ends. Maisie soon understands that in order to get through this, she will have to look after her own needs and take a lead in managing her relationship with the rather irresponsible adults around her. In the stormy waters which they have created, she looks for a suitable place to throw an anchor, in a desperate attempt to find at least some stability for herself.

Despite being a adaptation of the eponymous novel written in the 1890s by the American author Henry James, "What Maisie Knew" is a heart-breaking story of our time: self-obsessed adults misuse their position as parents to pursue their own ends, leaving their child to fend for herself. 

With the help of an excellent ensemble of actors, directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel tell Maisie’s story in convincing “scenes from a marriage” style. Juliann Moore stands out as a woman with guilt feelings for being an inadequate parent which she is asking the victim of her inadequate parenting to assuage.  But, the success of this film depends on how credible the portrayal of Maisie is - and Onata Aprile delivers an outstanding performance.

P.S.
After seeing the What Maisie Knew, I did ask myself whether it was really possible for a young girl to be as mature in dealing with the consequences of chaotic adult relationships as Maisie is. Quite by accident I came across the 1998 documentary film Divorce Iranian Style by Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini. Halfway through this documentary a young girl, the daughter of the clerk in an Iranian divorce court, who has spent her childhood observing its procedures, speaks on camera to the filmmakers about her observations on failing adult relationships. It is an amazing document, which has settled the question for me – children like Maisie can speak to us in fictional and factual form across time and cultural barriers. Here a link to this documentary film on YouTube: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sqFzQKlKKo

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1932767/