For Once, play by Tim Price, Hampstead Theatre, presented by Pentabus Theatre, 4* out of 5

April and Gordon are the middle-aged parents of a teenage boy, Sid. They live in a small village in the English country-side where Gordon is much involved in the various committees, organising the villages social activities. Each member of the family tells their part of the story of how a terrible event has affected them, their relationships with each other and their relationship with the other people in their village. Conflicts and tensions emerge and are brought to a head.

At the base of any good play is good writing. “For Once” is a very good play and Tim Price a very skilful and talented playwright. The characters he has created have depth, are intelligent and well rounded. Their development and their interaction are presented with sensitivity and insight. The production under the direction of Orla O'Loughlin is of high quality. Tim Price has given the actors some very challenging scenes to play. Geraldine Alexander (outstanding!), Patrick Driver and Jonathan Smith rise to the challenge.

The Pentabus theatre's brochure says that at the heart of their work is “our rural location which affords us a unique perspective on, and relationship to, the world”. This is very well demonstrated in “For Once”. The Hampstead Theatre is to be commended for giving city audiences the opportunity to see the work of Pentabus in this gripping, moving play.

http://hampsteadtheatre.com/page/3031/FOR+ONCE/282

CAST:

Sid                              Jonathan Smith        

April                            Geraldine Alexander

Gordon                       Patrick Driver

CREATIVES:
Design: Anthony Lamble
Lighting: Phil Gladwell
Sound: Chris Shutt

Loyalty, play by Sarah Helm, Hampstead Theatre, not quite 3* out of 5

Laura is a journalist for the Independent Newspaper. She is the partner of Nick, Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Tony Blair in the months leading up to the Iraq War in 2003. They have 2 children and a Polish nanny.

The play enacts Laura's reminiscences of the period leading up to the Iraq War to the point when the post-Iraq-war report by the UN inspectors is issued which confirmed that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. Most of the play is set in Nick and Laura's bedroom, a sex-free zone, appropriately equipped with telephones, a line-encryption device for secure phone calls and panic buttons to ward off would-be assassins. Contrary to the Notting Hill set, Laura and Nick live in Stockwell. Nick's boss, Tony Blair, is amazed that anyone closely associated with his government would choose to live in a downscale area of London whose existence he is only dimly aware off. “The Oval” cricket ground is the nearest landmark significant enough to have entered Blair's consciousness. The possibility that Blair might be feigning geographical ignorance in order to wind his Chief of Staff up with a bit of banter, does not seem to enter Laura's mind.

The deal between Nick and Laura is that Nick tells her everything that goes on in his job and she can listen in to all conversations. In return, she will not write about any of these topics nor leak any sensitive information. As a result, we the audience, find out through Laura's ears and eyes about the conversations taking place between Tony Blair, George Bush, Rupert Murdoch and other protagonists in the period leading up to the Iraq War.

The tension in the play is about, where the loyalties of the main characters and especially Nick lie, as the UK is being “cheated” into participating in an Iraq War by the Americans. Nick is smart and somewhat conflicted. Tony Blair is a ruthless, charismatic politician with the ability to get right-thinking leftish, middle class intellectual party-members to do what he wants in order to please him. These individuals think that at the last moment he might decide not go to war with Iraq or, even better, persuade the Americans not to do so either. Failing that, he will at least finally address a cause of the great British Foreign policy frustration, something on might describe as the penis envy of British foreign policy makers: in return for UK support in Iraq, he will get the Americans severely downgrade their very special relationship with the Sate of Israel below the level of their special relationship with the United Kingdom. The expectation is that the US government will put pressure on Israel to make significant concessions to the Palestinians. This is particularly important to Laura who was Jerusalem correspondent for her paper once and worked closely with a Palestinian camera-man there who during the Iraq War has taken an assignment with the Reuters news agency in Iraq.
 

Sara Helm's play Loyalty is based on her actual experiences, as the life partner to David Powell, Tony Blair's chief of staff. She presents it to us as a piece of fiction based around actually identified real characters. Thus, it appears that she intends for this play to be understood as largely factual. A big problem with this is that since it is also presented as fictional, she does not engage her responsibility for its factual content. Nevertheless, the main interest of this play for the audience is that its author has been through the experience in real life.

Unfortunately, as a play, its quality is slightly below the BBC drama department's efforts to depict significant recent political events such as the expenses scandal in the UK Parliament. For people who are the target group of news papers such as the Independent, Guardian and Observer, this play confirms the views they mostly hold about Blair, Bush, Murdoch and themselves, as well as their thoughts about what went on in the lead-up to the Iraq War. Other than Laura, Nick and their Polish nanny, who at one stage half-jestingly draws a parallel between Blair and Hitler, the characters of the play are stereotypes with no inner life, no inner conflicts and not many ideas. We learn nothing about them, except that they are exactly like they have been depicted by their political opponents. What is more interesting to see is how a journalist and a senior civil servant try to live as a couple given their largely incompatible responsibilities. Laura and Nick and the way their relationship survives the Iraq War is what is best about the content of this play. The set and production for Loyalty are of good quality and the acting performances very competent.

As a play, Loyalty suffers from its one-sided political stand-point: good is good and evil is evil and sometimes the twain shall speak to each other on the phone. Only Nick is more complex: he is good, but as a good civil servant he must also sit on the fence and help evil to commit its evil deeds, in the hope that evil will suddenly turn good and live happily ever after.  The stereotyping of decision makers such as Blair and Bush raises the question whether the theatre is a suitable medium for “faction” of this type. 

Having all your expectations and opinions confirmed does not really make for great theatre. Compared to what other theatres in London have been able to achieve with new writing talent and political subjects (Tricycle, Royal Court, Arcola and Finborough to name a few) “Loyalty” at the Hampstead Theatre is a rather disappointing experience.

Cast:

Patrick Baladi
Stephen Critchlow
Anna Koval
Lloyd Owen
Maxine Peake
Michael Simkins
Colin Stinton

Creative Team:
Writer: Sarah Helm
Director: Edward Hall
Designer: Francis O'Connor
Lighting: Ben Ormerod
Sound: Paul Groothuis
Casting: Gabrielle Dawes

The Village Bike, Play by Penelope Skinner, Royal Court Theatre, London, almost 4* out of 5

The Hungarian writer George Mikes once observed: Other people have sex, the English have hot-water bottles. Judging by Penelope Skinner's play, the English have come a long way.

Becky and John are a young couple living in rural middle-England. Becky is expecting baby and senses that pregnancy has made her less sexually attractive to her husband. Her plan is to do whatever it takes to get good sex back into her marriage: yoga, riding a bike and a sexy nightie form part of the arsenal with which she would like to seduce her man. John however has become broody, completely focussed on the impending pregnancy and determined to read everything about motherhood and interpret his wife's outbursts accordingly. The one thing he has absolutely no inclination to engage in with his newly pregnant wife is sex. Becky however is determined to get what she's after: there's the stash of old porno films that used to enliven her sex life with John in the past. Failing that, there's the middle-aged, widowed village plumber who might well be a candidate for fun and games. Even better there's Oliver, a dashing young man who sells her the second-hand bike she wants, in order to keep fit, and whose wife's away for the summer.

The Village Bike is original, direct and funny. It is about sex, it turns many stereotypes upside down. The first act of the play is outstanding. The second part re-establishes the old order of things as the woman who goes after what she wants is faced with the consequences of her behaviour on the people around her. Women cannot not get away with what men easily get away with. Women have to pay a price that men don't.

By having her play follow prevailing moral double-standards that disadvantage women in fulfilling their desire for sex, Penelope Skinner missed an opportunity to follow through on the comedy, dark humour and above the subversiveness of the first act. Nevertheless, The Village Bike is a strong and entertaining play.
 

Skinner is an alumna of the Royal Court Theatres play-writing workshops. With the Village Bike she has given us a dark, funny and dramatic play of high quality. The director Jo Hill-Gibbens has done an outstanding job to ensure that the production moves along without a dull moment and holds the audience's attention. An excellent cast is led by Romula Garai as Becky. She is among the most talented British actresses of her generation and gives a sympathetic, totally believable portrayal here of a young woman who is ready to take risks in order to get what she wants. 

http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/the-village-bike

The Village Bike - Becky (Romola Garai) and John (Nicholas Burns) 

Nader and Simin – A Separation, Film written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, 4* out of 5, highly recommended

Nader and his wife Simin are at the family judge about their divorce. They had planned to leave Tehran and go abroad with their 11 year old daughter Termeh. But now Nader's father is showing symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease and Nader does not want to leave. Simin wants Nader to think about his daughter's future rather than his father's present. She does not really want to divorce him at all. If he would go abroad with her before the visa expires in 40 days. 11 year old Termeh has her own agenda: keeping the family together, whether in Tehran or abroad. But Nader is determined, proud and stubborn when it comes to defending what he thinks is right and is his right. He will let Simin go. He will agree to the divorce, but he wants to keep Termeh. Simin is more pragmatic than Nader but a strong and determined woman. Without her daughter she will not go abroad. So, Simin moves to her parents who are supportive of their daughter and respect their son-in-law. When Simin and Nader arrange for a housemaid to ensure their Nader's father is supervised, they find Razieh and Hodjat, a very religious couple living in relative poverty. Hodjat has lost his job and needs to satisfy his creditors. Razieh, who is pregnant and has a young daughter, is seeking work without Hodjat's knowledge, to make ends meet. Then events take a dramatic turn.

This film is a high quality family and court room drama full of suspense. The problems the protagonists have to deal with and the way they react are familiar. We can identify and empathise with every character. The inner and outer conflicts are the consequences of events and character traits that we have come across in ourselves and people we know.
 

The fact that the story plays in today's Iran adds a special twist. The legal and state institutions are unfamiliar and seem strange to us. One instance is the emergency telephone helpline Razieh calls for sorting out a practical question according to the precepts of Iranian Shiite version of Islam. But the protagonists' actions and feelings, their aspirations and the manner in which they navigate their state and legal institutions seem very familiar, easy to understand and to empathize with for any Western audience.
 

Don't miss this suspenseful, thoughtful, high quality drama. Great cinema, the film thoroughly deserves the Golden Bear Prize it received at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.

The Theatre of Life: Remapping the Middle East at the LSE (“Libyan School of Extremism”?)

The motto of the London School of Economics (LSE) is “rerum causas cognoscere”: to know the causes of things. In my Amsterdam home the LSE coffee-mug carrying this motto is practically an extension of my right hand. As an LSE alumnus, I regularly receive LSE's public-relations journal LSE-Connect. On page 28, its latest issue (Summer 2011), carries an apology by the editor. The object for the apology is a piece on the LSE's Middle East Centre which had appeared in LSE-Connect's Winter-issue. This item had contained a map of the Middle East which omitted the name of a country that should have been on it: That country was Israel.

The editor of LSE- Connect, Claire Sanders, makes the point that this omission gave rise to negative reactions from many LSE alumni. As a result she apologizes for any offence caused. She also goes on to say that the map in question had not been provided by the Middle East Centre whose task is quality research on all countries in the Middle East, including Israel. The editor goes on to inform her readers that the omission was an oversight and has been “put right” on the electronic version of the magazine on the LSE's web-site. Putting it right however did not involve adding Israel to the map but removing the map altogether from the item on the Middle East Centre on the web edition of LSE-Connect magazine. The editor further emphasises that the erroneous map had not been provided by the LSE Middle East Centre.

So, does someone who has been taught at the LSE believe he now knows “the things and their causes”? Let's look at things first. Let's assume that all we are told by LSE-Connect's editor is true. If so, does she tell her readers all that is relevant?

Unfortunately not. A little research turns up additional relevant facts that throw doubts on the causes put forward:

• A separate map of the Middle East on the Middle East Centre's website also omitted Israel's name. So even if the map used by LSE Connect was not the same, the map of the LSE centre had made the same mistake.

• When alumni pointed out this mistake to the then Director of the LSE, Howard Davies, he stated that it had been an oversight by the printers. He also stated that The Middle East Centre had “corrected the error” on its website by removing the map (and not by putting in a corrected map).

• Two out of 4 members of the Management of the LSE Middle East Centre are prominent campaigners for the boycott of Israeli Universities. The Middle East Centre states that it aims to work with universities in the countries of the Middle East that it is researching. How credible is this, if half of its management is committed to boycotting universities in Israel? What coincidence that the printer made his mistake just on this country!
  
  
• A critical report on the LSE's Middle East Centre was published in February by the NGO Student Rights which fights extremism on campus. ( I am a member of its advisory board).
  http://www.studentrights.org.uk/cms/rc1/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/LSE-Middle-East-Centre.pdf

Well, perhaps these are just too many coincidences for an LSE alumnus who is proud to have studied at the LSE and was encouraged to look at “things and their causes”. The apology which suppresses relevant facts is more appropriate for an institution whose mascot is a weasel rather than the LSE whose heraldic animal is the beaver. An institution whose current interim Director was the head of its Geography Department, Professor Judith Rees, should be able to correct errors on a map by producing an accurate one (not just removing the faulty one altogether). The gaping holes that once had incomplete maps of the Middle East should swiftly be replaced with maps showing all the countries of the Middle East correctly.

My LSE coffee mug is still in Amsterdam; but I suspect even a mug would find it difficult to take certain explanations proffered by the LSE at face value.

Motto of the London School of Economics

The Secret of the Notebook, book by Eve Haas published by Harper & Collins (2009), 4* out of 5

The Jaretzkis are an upper middle-class Jewish Family from Berlin who in 1934 flee from Germany to the safety of the Hampstead neighbourhood of London. Hans Jaretzki is a prominent architect of the Bauhaus School. On her 16th birthday he shows his daughter Eve a notebook that has been in the family for generations. The notebook contains an inscription by Prince August of Prussia (1779-1843) the illustrious nephew of the Frederick the Great of Prussia to his wife Emilie Gottschalk. Emilie is Hans Jarecki's great-grandmother. The Jarecki family, though Jewish, are thus descendants of Prince August. Prince August is not just any member of the German Royal family: he is a General and a key organiser of the Prussian Army who will play a major role in Napoleons defeat and represent Prussia at the Vienna Congress that establishes the European Political order following the Napoleonic Wars. His adjutant is von Clausewitz, whose writings are still the gold standard of military strategy and required reading in modern Military training schools.

In 1970 Eve Jarecki-Haas, who has inherited the notebook on her father's death begins a long search into her family history supported by her husband Ken Haas. How come a Jewish family can claim to be descendants by morganatic marriage from a most prominent member of the German Hohenzollern Royal family? And how did Eve's grandmother, the grand-daughter of Prince August, who lived in Prague at the time of World War II become a victim of the murderous German-Nazi machine that targeted the Jews of Europe?

The Secret of the notebook is the literary equivalent of a musical fugue consisting two thrillers wrapped into one. The first concerns the machinations at the Prussian Court during the Napoleonic Wars and beyond in the Potsdam and Berlin of the early to mid-19th century. The second takes us into the Europe of the late 20th century. The totalitarian communist regime in East Germany is very much intact and unaware of its imminent demise.

Eve (Jarecki-)Haas book tells the story of her search and the many twists and turns of her family history that it reveals. She is an accomplished writer and raconteur. For anybody with even a passing interest in European history the book is a page-turner with a plot-line that would do justice to the most fertile mind of writers of historical fiction. But this is a fascinating true story and an exciting read.

http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/News_and_Events/News/Pages/The-Secrets-of-the-Notebook-by-Eve-Haas.aspx

Prince August of Prussia

Hanna, action film, written by Seth Lochhead, David Farr, directed by Joe Wright, starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, 4* out of 5

In the cold wilderness of the North of Finland, 16-year old Hanna Heller is being trained for a dangerous personal mission by her father Erik an ex CIA Agent. Years earlier, Erik Heller was involved in a secret experiment to create ruthless and effective soldiers with the help of genetic engineering techniques. Soon Hanna will embark on her mission, in which she will pit her wits and fighting skills against a rogue senior CIA agent (played by Kate Blanchett) and her brutal German neo-Nazi helpers.

Hanna is a James Bond-style action film with a hard edge. The main hero and the main villain are both female. After Lisbeth Salander of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, Hanna Heller is the next interesting female action-hero to appear on our screens. The film combines humour and suspense with exciting action scenes playing in Morocco, Spain, France and Germany. The direction and photography are of high quality. Hanna the film has an intelligent plot and is highly entertaining. Cate Blanchett in the unusual role of the evil villain is a success. Saoirse (pronounced Surshah or Seershah) Ronan in the main role is a star in the making.

For fans of action films everywhere, Hanna is definitely worth seeing and an interesting addition to the existing gallery of action-heros. Screenwriter Seth Lochhead initially developed the screen play as his project for a screenwriting course at the Vancouver Film School. Plans for a sequel or two are probably in the making already.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993842/

And I And Silence, by Naomi Wallace, Finborough Theatre, London, 4* out of 5

In the southern part of the 1950's US, Jamie and Dee are both 17 years old and in prison. The two girls, both from difficult underclass backgrounds form a friendship: Jamie is black, Dee is white. By making plans about how they will make an honest living in domestic service and help each other at the end of their nine year sentence they are able to sustain hope and belief in the future. The friendship even survives Dee's transfer to another prison three years into her sentence. What was possible in confines of a prison proves impossible when, having gained their freedom, the two young women are released into freedom. The friendship and love between Jamie and Dee holds, but the young women are stretched beyond breaking point by the cruel, hostile world they are faced with.

This understated play holds the audience's attention from beginning to the end, it is moving and poetic; its title is a line from an Emily Dickinson poem. What the play has to say about prison, friendship across racial boundaries and sexual harassment of women in domestic service still holds true across too many countries and cultures.

Beautiful performances from the four actresses, the older Jamie (Cat Simmons) and Dee (Sally Oliver) and their young selves (Cherrelle Skeete and Lauren Crace), confirm the Finborough Theatre as a premier London address for new plays of high quality. It was good to see the performance sold out with a predominantly young audience. This play and production deserves nothing less.

http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/productions/2011/production-and-i-and-silence.php

Ruby Wax Losing It - Two Women Show, created and performed by Ruby Wax & Judith Owen at the Menier Chocolate Factory, 3.75* out of 5

With the help of singer songwriter Judith Owen, Ruby Wax turns the laser beam of her zany comedy on her life: growing up in Florida with eccentric Viennese Jewish parents, getting into acting school in Britain, the give and take of marriage (explained in inimitable Ruby Wax style), being a mother and descending into the personal hell of depression. The latter being very challenging not only for oneself but also one's nearest and dearest.

Wax and Owen also cover the process of emerging from the experience of battling depression. Increased self-knowledge, gained through psychotherapy and reflection helps. Very useful too is knowledge about the illness and, not least, assistance from appropriate drugs. Judith Owen's songs lyrically and musically supplement Ruby Wax's stories. This combination works.

Throughout the show Ruby Wax turns the observational laser beam on herself and those around her. Everyone, particularly a depressed person, needs a friend who understands and is supportive; Judith Owen and Ruby Wax clearly are such friends to each other.

Clinical depression is a mental illness and as such carries a stigma that physical illness does not. Well-meant advice from friends and family to “perk-up” is not helpful. The show was originally developed for other depressed people and performed in clinics specialising in its treatment. Wax and Owen seek to create understanding for the fact that depression is also has aspects of a physical illness of the brain. Antidepressants really help put the physical mechanisms of the brain back in order. Understanding the mechanisms and “thought-circuits” that lead into the depth of clinical depression can sometimes help the sufferer stop its onset. At the end of the show there is an opportunity to ask questions of the two protagonists.

Notwithstanding its partly pedagogic intent, Losing It manages to be funny, intelligent, honest and moving. 

https://www.menierchocolatefactory.com/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=5474A766-CDC9-4BC6-BF64-90FBC52034A2&sessionlanguage=

The Holy Rosenbergs, Drama by Ryan Craig, National Theatre London, Cottesloe, 1* out of 5

The Rosenbergs are a London based Jewish family with big troubles. Mother Lesley and father David Rosenberg's kosher catering business which the family has run for generations is in terminal decline because of a food poisoning scandal. Danny Rosenberg, their son, the Israeli Aircraft pilot has just been killed over Gaza. His funeral is tomorrow (but seeing the behaviour of the family on the eve of the funeral, that aspect seems like a sort of side-plot). The younger Rosenberg-son, Johnny, who does not want to join his dad's catering business, is in trouble, too. He likes to pick bar-fights in pubs in order to get himself beaten up. On the eve of his brother's funeral he is off to set up a gambling website on the internet and to meet friends in the pub and get himself beaten up again. Life for him, the ex-art student is hard: his brother was an Israeli war-hero and he himself is just a shmuck. Admittedly, one with a lot more understanding of himself and the other family members than the rest of his family. The confluence of all this would already yield enough brain numbing implausibility for several episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful.

But it is only the start: because what the author thought was missing at this stage was a Bridget Jones without the weight problem and only a hint of a love interest or two. This character is Ruth, a lawyer and the sister of the dead pilot. And there is the White Knight from the UN Human Rights Council, the half Scottish half English International Lawyer Mr. Crossley (not D'Arcy but close) fighting the forces of evil: Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

The Jewish community of the Rosenberg's synagogue is outraged by Ruth being involved in the war crime investigation. So they send the Rabbi and the head of the Community to put pressure on her father to persuade her not be present at her brother's funeral. Otherwise there might be protests at the funeral.

Surely, Danny the fighter pilot and dead scion of the Edgware Rosenbergs, deluded kosher caterers to the Jewish multitude, will not turn out to be an Israeli war criminal? I know, you can't wait to find out!

The messages of the drama, as I could discern them are: understand the poor Jews in our midst, they do not own dogs because they think they have to quickly escape the next holocaust; and they are thinking: “if we had to leave the dog behind that would be terrible for the dog; better not have one in the first place”. That concern may seem burden enough, but there's more. Jews are represented in the world by a state that is supposed to be civilized like the United Kingdom. But this state doesn't have a concept of the need for justice and the rule of International Law (that state is Israel and it has a prison camp called Gaza, which it bombs regularly, as Mr Crossley explains). But hey, thank God there's Britain with its Crossleys and d'Arcys and the odd confused Jewish daughter of a caterer from Edgware to show Israel the light.

I imagine Ryan Craig wanted to write an outraged piece against Israeli actions in Gaza for the Guardian's “Comment is Free” website when he had the unfortunate brainwave to write a didactic play in stead: “Goldstone-Report” meets “Bridget Jones” and caters “Barmitzwah Boy”. How any theatre, let alone the National, would agree to put on the resulting inane play is another question I would rather not contemplate. I suggest the responsible parties be sent regularly to the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, which knows a thing or two about creating high quality productions of political plays.

The Holy Rosenbergs is the worst play I have seen in nearly forty years of visits to the National Theatre – and I have seen some pretty poor ones, although only rarely. One must feel sorry for the excellent actors for having to perform in it night after night.

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/62809/productions/the-holy-rosenbergs.html

Win Win, Film Drama, Written and directed by Thomas McCarthy, 4* out of 5

Mike Flaherty is a struggling small-town lawyer trying to make a living in a small New Jersey town suffering from the after-effects of the 2008 Financial Crisis. Outside his job he is a husband and a father and occasionally engages in home repairs as he cannot afford plumbers or tree surgeons. And he volunteers as a coach to the unsuccessful high school wrestling team. As his financial situation gets tighter, he suffers from anxiety attacks and decides for a small but important financial gain to unethically obtain the guardianship of a client heading toward dementia. Things start getting complicated when the client's 16 year old grandson shows up.

In a recent article for the anniversary issue of the New Yorker, Rebecca Mead, a scholar and expert on the novels of the 19th century female author George Eliot highlights the author's “quiet celebration of the unremarkable.” To illustrate, Mead quotes the final sentence from the novel “Middlemarch” “The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs”.  Had she lived in the 21^st century, George Elliot would have liked Thomas McCarthy, author and director of the film Win Win. 

Win Win is a film about the capacity of ordinary people to make a big difference for the good, when despite all their shortcomings and ethical ambiguities they strive to do the right thing. Without being gushy, it also shows the paramount importance that family can have as a  locus of enduring meaning, safety and support.

The low key acting performances in this film are all of high quality. Paul Giamatti (as Mike Flaherty) is as good as ever. Amy Ryan, as his wife, is outstanding. For the role of the 16 year old Flaherty picked a young school-wrestler without acting experience; the talented Alex Shaffer gives a very competent and credible performance.

This is an intelligent, enjoyable and entertaining film. Go and see it soon.

Archipelago, Film/Drama, written and directed by Joanna Hogg, 3.75* out of 5

This film is a subtle, tense and at times, comic portrait of an upper middle class family holiday on the Isles of Scilly. Patricia (Kate Fahy) is joined by her grown up children, Edward (Tom Hiddleston) and Cynthia (Lydia Leonard). The holiday appears to have been prompted by Edward's announcement that he is about to quit his recently embarked upon job in the City (London's Financial District) in order to teach children in Africa how to avoid infection with HIV aids.

Edward is quite uncertain about his own decision. He gives the impression to be generally unsure about everything he does, possibly hoping to solicit the care and attention of attractive women. Patricia professes half-hearted support to Edward's plan, while Cynthia who has organised her life in line with the implied demands of her parents, finds Edward is acting irresponsibly. Moreover she is none to pleased that his self-indulgent behaviour gives him more tender family care and attention than she gets for a successful career and the ability to look after herself financially.

The grand absent, is Edward's and Cynthia's dad. He phones his wife regularly to be brought up to date and promise that he will join the rest of the family soon. One suspects that he has sent his wife into battle on his behalf to persuade Edward to give up his silly idea. Edward, Cynthia and Patricia remember him from time to time through side remarks and through Edward's imitations.

The family takes painting lessons from a local artist and a young student cooks for them. Edward finds her interesting and attractive and tries to disrespect the customary class borders between the family and their staff and service providers.

Archipelago is a subtle and successful portrait of English upper middle-class family relations. Pregnant silences, avoidance of embarrassment and upset, occasional outbursts are very truthfully put together in a kind of documentary style. Strong acting performances contribute to a high quality film experience. Amy Lloyd, the cook, is actually a cook who once studied acting for a few months. So amateur and professional acting and professional cooking blend into a quiet, subtle and enjoyable English family portrait.

Lakeboat – Prairie du Chien, two plays by David Mamet, Arcola Theatre London, 4* out of 5

In a recent BBC documentary Mark Knopfler, formerly of the band Dire Straits, talks about how he wrote the lyrics to the hit song “Money for Nothing”. In an electrical goods store in New York a delivery man who was bringing in refrigerators looked at a bank of television screens showing the MTV channel, when it had just started out. Knopfler followed the fellow around and claims that he took down more or less verbatim what he said. (For those of you who have forgotten the resulting lyrics or most unlikely never heard them, they are reproduced below.)

Judging by the feel of authenticity with which the dialogues capture the voices of the boatmen, David Mamet seems to have done something similar when he wrote his short play “Lakeboat”.

Dale Katzman, an 18 year all English Literature student begins his summer job working in the galley on a lakeboat for a Chicago based steel concern. In Katzman's conversations with the members of the crew, Mamet gives us brilliant portraits of the people making their living from working on these boats. In turn funny, moving and far beyond the politically correct, Mamet artistically shows us the different boatmen-types and their relationships. One can well imagine David Mamet being the young student working on that Lakeboat and being accepted into these men's lives. It is the dialogues that make this play; but there is a “red-thread” in form of a mystery story that holds it together. The set, direction and above all the sheer energy that emanates from the excellent actors keeps the audience's attention from the beginning to end.

The second play, Prairie du Chien,  is about people who meet for a short journey on an inland passenger boat. Strangers to each other they try to while away the time by telling stories or playing poker. Again it is the snippets of conversation and the authenticity of the voices that Mamet masters brilliantly. And yes, there is some excitement, too. Again excellent acting performances.

Of the two plays, Lakeboat is the stronger one, but Prairie du Chien is not far behind.

Despite the Labour Government's profligacy, and the Conservative-Liberal Governments cuts to Art's budgets, the Arcola Theatre is alive and vibrant and in an improved new building. For sheer quality, it is a glittering diamond within the London theatre scene and never disappoints. Visit it often and join the Arcola Appeal. 

http://www.arcolatheatre.com/

LAKEBOAT and PRAIRIE DU CHIEN
12th April - 7th May 2011  Starting time: 8.00pm Lakeboat - It is ship worker Dale’s first day on board the Lakeboat. The tall tale of his predecessor’s disappearance whips through the crew, as Dale discovers their mundane lives and fantastic dreams. Prairie du Chien – In a claustrophobic railroad car rolling through the night, violent tales of obsession, jealousy and death unfold as passengers while away their long journey across Prairie du Chien. An intriguing double-bill of rarely performed plays from acclaimed American writer David Mamet, winner of a Pulitzer price and Tony Award nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow, and Academy Award nominations forThe Verdict and Wag the Dog. Play Productions Ltd presents LAKEBOAT and PRAIRIE DU CHIENBy David Mamet Directed by Abbey WrightDesigner Helen GoddardLighting Designer Emma ChapmanAssistant Lighting Josh CarrComposer and Musician Tristan Parkes Casting Director Vicky Richardson Cast: Nigel Cooke, Ed Hughes, Chris Jarman, William Jeffs, Rory Keenan, Mark Lewis, Roy Sampson, Steven Webb, Nigel Whitmey Mark Knopfler: Money for Nothing I want my, I want my M.T.V. Now look at them yo-yo's, that's the way you do it You play the guitar on the M.T.V. That ain't working, that's the way you do it Money for nothing and your chicks for free Now that ain't working, that's the way you do it Let me tell you them guys ain't dumb Maybe get a blister on your little finger Maybe get a blister on your thumb We got to install microwave ovens Custom kitchen deliveries We got to move these refrigerators We got to move these colour T.V.'s The little faggot with the earring and the makeup Yeah buddy, that's his own hair That little faggot got his own jet airplane That little faggot he's a millionaire We got to install microwave ovens Custom kitchen deliveries We got to move these refrigerators We got to move these colour T.V.'s We got to install microwave ovens Custom kitchen deliveries We got to move these refrigerators We got to move these colour T.V.'s Look at that, look at that I should have learned to play the guitar I should have learned to play them drums Look at that mama, she got it sticking in the camera Man we can have some And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises? Banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee Oh, that ain't working, that's the way you do it Get your money for nothing get your chicks for free We got to install microwave ovens Custom kitchen deliveries We got to move these refrigerators We got to move these colour T.V.'s Listen here Now that ain't working, that's the way you do it You play the guitar on the M.T.V. That ain't working, that's the way you do it Money for nothing and your chicks for free Money for nothing and chicks for free Get your money for nothing, get your chicks for free Money for nothing, chicks for free Look at that, look at that Get your money for nothing, get your chicks for free (I want my, I want my, I want my M.T.V.) Money for nothing and chicks for free Easy, easy That ain't working

Is 3D Film Making Here to Stay this Time?

Werner Herzog made his beautiful and moving documentary film The Cave of Forgotten Dreams in 3D. A reader of my blog entry on the film left the following comment: “I'd be interested in your view of 3D. Is it a fad or is it here to stay?”

Predictions are always difficult to make, particularly when they are about the future. Nevertheless, this blog entry is my attempt at answering the question.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams would have been just as moving and powerful in 2 dimensions as it was in 3. 3D did not distract me, or enter my conscious awareness while I was watching the film, despite having to wear heavy tinted 3D viewing glasses.

Powerful digital infrastructures are rapidly becoming ubiquitous in urban agglomerations worldwide. Consumers can acquire equipment that allows them to tap into these infrastructures for a wealth of creative applications including entertainment. Therefore 3D is most likely here to stay this time around. Means of delivery and production of 3D films will probably develop rapidly. Once the need for wearing weird uncomfortable tinted glasses is overcome, 3D will gradually become the preferred method for presenting top of the line visual entertainment. This development is similar to the move from black and white to colour in the film-industry of the late 1940s, after Selznick's production of Gone With the Wind.

Is that a good thing?

While embracing this and other advances in technology with enthusiasm, I will miss the 2D film world. But then, I also still love the power of expression and emotion of black and white in film and still-photography; and even the unique dramatic effects of silent films like Fritz Lang's Metropolis , Sergej Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and Chaplin's masterpieces of the silent era.

Is it not exactly the struggle of great creative minds with the restrictions or conventional rules of the medium they use for expression that renders the most wonderful and lasting works of art? I believe it is, but every new technology has its new limits and restrictions and the world is full of creative people, so most probably we need not worry. Let us just hope that new technologies will stay around long enough to allow talented film-makers the time to become bored and frustrated with their limitations. That way they'll have to come up with creative artistic ways to overcome them.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, directed by Werner Herzog, Documentary Film, 4.5* out of 5

The subject of this documentary is the Chauvet Cave in the Ardèche region of France. The cave is named after one of the speleologists who discovered it in 1995. It is closed to the public. The reason for this is to protect its contents, the remnants of animals and the artefacts of humans who lived about 35000 and 25000 years ago. Of these remnants none are more marvellous than the cave paintings.

In order to make this film, Werner Herzog and his team received unprecedented access to the caves and to the multidisciplinary team of researchers who are only too aware of their luck and privilege to be allowed to work on this unique treasure trove of art, archaeology and more. The film is presented in 3D. It shows us the cave and its setting with a plasticity that helps the viewer experience a unique insight into mankind's very distant past.

What makes this film great is its subject. The documentary-maker and the filming does not get in its way. On the contrary, he manages to present it and the professional and personal thoughts of the scientists working in the cave in a very straightforward manner. What makes this film deeply moving and gives it a long after burn effect is seeing the paintings of the animals and of the one human being depicted in the cave. Even if, like me, one has only a very rudimentary understanding of painting, sculpture and art history, seeing these cave paintings touches one deeply. Looking at the horses, bison, rhinoceroses drawn by human beings about 35000 and 25000 years ago, I had to revise my idea that humans then were primitive. The paintings reminded me of drawings I had seen by Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall in the 20^th century. Yet, human beings living tens of thousands of years ago as hunter gatherers were capable of producing cultural artefacts with apparently the same sensitivity and degree of imagination. These people in their thinking and looking at the world were clearly much closer to us in their complexity and creativity than I had thought.

The only weakness of this film is a superfluous preaching epilogue that spoils the last 5 minutes. The strength of Herzog's film is that it unearths interesting facts, gives us context and emotion and beautiful pictures of a unique subject full of beauty and humanity. See this film – its beautiful and haunting images will stay with you.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1664894/

Norwegian Wood, directed by An Hung Tranh based on the novel by Haruko Murakami, film (Drama/Romance), Japan, 3.75 * out of 5

The story follows the friendships and love life of its protagonist Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama) as a teenager and later as a student at Tokyo University. The period of his studies falls into 1968 when as in many capitals in Europe the students in Tokyo rise up against their government and figures of authority. The student revolt however is only the backdrop to the story that concentrates on Watanabe's relationship with the women in his life. In his school days his close friends are a couple are Kizuki and Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi). They are childhood sweethearts that spend every minute of their free time together. At 17 Kizuki commits suicide for no apparent reason. As Naoko tries to get over Kizuki's death Toru and Naoko become ever closer. But Naoko finds it impossible to cope and goes to a sanatorium in the forest. Toru Watanabe meets Midori (Kiko Mizuhara) at university an outgoing self confident girl, a greater contrast to the sensitive, shy Naoko can hardly be imagined.

Norwegian Wood is an interesting beautifully photographed and directed film. Toru Watanabe is quite credible as the somewhat, withdrawn good looking student who attracts interesting women and is sexually confident in his emotionally quite taxing relationships. Excellent acting performance also from the other members of the cast.

The film is based on Haruko Murakami's 1987 cult novel of the same title. The original Japanese Title “Noruwei no Mori” would translate as Norwegian Forest. This is contrast to the meaning of Wood in the Beatles Song Norwegian Wood, which refers to furniture made of wood. The song is a favourite song of Naoko's and much of the important action in the novel plays in the beautiful forests in Japan, so the double meaning of “wood” in its title is quite appropriate.

Norwegian Wood is an interesting, challenging and beautiful film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270842/