YOUR GUIDE TO THIS WEEK IN CULTURE
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Comedy Dance & Physical Spoken Word Theatre
Today in London: Tuesday 2 October 2012
By TW Editorial | Published on Monday 1 October 2012
It’s officially Phileas Fogg’s Wager Day, in that the big wager is made on 2 Oct in Jules Verne’s ‘Around The World In Eighty Days’.
Whether you should celebrate this by reading some Vernes or embarking on a rather long journey I’m not sure. But if there’s time left over, here’s some things happening in London today…
TODAY’S COMEDY CHOICES
New Art Club – Quiet Act Of Destruction, Soho Theatre, 2-13 Oct
Rave-reviewed loons Tom Roden and Pete Shenton interpret their new opus – part stand-up routine and part “church garden party” – via the dual media of “physical beat boxing” (whatever that is) and audience participation. Taking much (well, some) of its scenario from a real-life quarrel over the naming of a Cambridgeshire train station, ‘Quiet Act Of Destruction’ incorporates games, tasks, dancing, angry villagers and a diverse soundtrack. A must-see if you’re into any/all of the above.
Weirdos Comedy Night – Off The Hook, Kings Cross Social Club, 2 Oct
Determinedly DIY and ever so slightly deranged, the Weirdos Comedy Club previews an in-progress rendition of 1991 Neverland fantasy ‘Hook’. John Kearns, Matthew Highton, Holly Burn and Ben Target honour Williams, Hoffman, Rufio and co with an uproarious homage that’s free to see.
TODAY’S DANCE CHOICES
Akram Khan – DESH, Sadlers Wells Theatre, 2-9 Oct (pictured)
British-Bangladeshi dance great Akram Khan crafts a bold contemporary monologue in the Olivier-winning ‘DESH’, Bengali for ‘Homeland’. Billed as the famed and acclaimed choreographer’s most personal creation to date, its themes draw deeply on Khan’s dual heritage, emoting “the resilience of the human spirit in the rhythms of labour, in dream and story, and in transformation and survival”. No small feat, that.
TODAY’S SPOKEN WORD CHOICES
DT Max & David Baddiel – A Life Of David Foster Wallace, Southbank Centre, 2 Oct
David Baddiel and essayist DT Max cram an evening of studied adoration for ‘Infinite Jest’ scribe David Foster Wallace into the SB Centre’s grand-sounding Level 5 Function Room. And this is what’s supposed to happen: “DT Max discusses Wallace’s writing with writer David Baddiel who considers that Wallace became a hero for a new generation of American authors who rejected the Bellow-Roth-Updike-Mailer way of being, before they take questions from the audience”.
TODAY’S THEATRE CHOICES
Damned By Despair, Olivier Theatre, 2 Oct – 17 Dec
Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina’s sowrd-wielding 17th century epic, as has been translated for a modern English audience by Frank McGuinnes, debuts at the NT’s Olivier Theatre tonight. Period drama pro Sebastian Armesto portrays the pious Paulo, while Bertie Carvel – straight from his Olivier-winning triumph as Ms Trunchbull in Tim Minchin’s ‘Matilda – plays a blinding about-face (not to mention costume change) as his “evil” counterpart Enrico.
