| An UnLimited Media Bulletin | Thursday 10 July 2014 |
'Women Of Mass Destruction 2' is a pretty provocative title, so I was immediately drawn to it, and even more interested once I had read what this show is all about. A platform for emerging female choreographers, it consists of four separate dance pieces from four different choreographers, each musing on the theme of the relationship between art and nature.
The show was conceived and put together by Lydia Fraser Ward, a freelance choreographer and theatre producer whose specialism lies in creating live performances in unusual spaces. She has a rather impressive CV, having held roles at Bush Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, London Bubble and Akademi South Asian Dance, and worked with the likes of Theatre503, Blind Summit, South East Dance, Pagrav Dance Company and The Lost Picture Show, as well as being a resident artist at IdeasTap, Creative Entrepreneur in Residence at Kings College London and a Fellow of the RSA.
I caught up with Lydia to find a little more out about her latest project. Read the interview here.
'Women Of Mass Destruction 2' is on at Rich Mix, this Friday. See the Rich Mix website - right about here – for more info.
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COMEDY/FESTIVAL: Balham Comedy Festival | The Bedford, Balham | 11-19 Jul The Bedford alehouse in Balham gives up its many rooms to this full-to-busting bag of top stand-ups, doling out solo shows from Reginald D Hunter, Susan Calman, Phill Jupitus, Tony Law, Milton Jones and Shappi Khorsandi over the next nine nights. In addition, Banana Cabaret will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a nightly 'Best Of' live review, and also Paul Daniels is coming down to do some magic. So, um, that's a thing. Details and tickets here. COMEDY/FESTIVAL: Ealing Comedy Festival | 11-18 Jul A westerly rival to Balham Com-Fest's SW12 appeal, this year's five-day ECF presents entertaining revelry with David Baddiel, The Boy With Tape On His Face and Kerry Godliman, who are all providing the laughs at today's first night gala. The remainder of the bill features Trevor Noah, Rich Hall, Paul Chowdhry, Andrew Maxwell, Hal Cruttenden and Lucy Porter. Details and tickets here. MUSIC/FESTIVAL: LeeFest | Highams Hill Farm, Warlingham | 11-13 Jul (pictured) Having started life as a party in enterprising then-teen Lee Denny's back garden, LeeFest has since earned its title as a legitimate event, with big headliners and everything. This year's LeeWeekender features myriad live showings by rag-tag Wakefield three The Cribs, Danish pop dyna-mo Mø (pictured), Scottish folkoids Frightened Rabbit and glitchy rap ubermenschen Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. That plus family (or non) camping, the finest food trucks, a no-tears paint fight, and an activity named 'disco dodgeball'. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Chelsea Handler – Uganda Be Kidding Me | London Palladium | 12 Jul She dated 50 Cent, sliced and diced Piers Morgan live on TV, and now close-to-the-bone US comic/chatshow dame Chelsea Handler is flying in, first class, to sock it ('it' being her live show, 'Uganda Be Kidding Me') to you. Based on a book of the same name, it's about an African safari trip gone-wrong, and her many extra travel misadventures besides. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Agnes Obel | Somerset House | 12 Jul (pictured) A Danish nightingale with a crisp and timeless trill, singer-pianist Agnes Obel released her new LP 'Aventine', the follow-on to her first, 'Philharmonics', earlier this year. She celebrates it tonight as part of Somerset House's Summer Series festival. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Neil Young & Crazy Horse | Hyde Park | 12 Jul Following appearances by Arcade Fire and Black Sabbath, it's folk-rock grandaddy Neil Young's turn to headline this year's British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park, winding up the night following support slots by The National, Tom Odell, and others. Neil and his long-time jam band Crazy Horse will rattle through their many, many, many Americana classics, and, it's likely, select tracks off their latest LP, 'Psychedelic Pill'. Details and tickets here. |
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ART/PHOTOGRAPHY: Virginia Woolf – Art, Life & Vision | National Portrait Gallery | 10 Jul - 26 Oct (pictured) Still a real lark (and a plunge!) following its launch last Thursday, this thorough showing-off of portraiture and rare artefacts from late author Virginia Woolf's early, mid and latter life is curated by art historian Frances Spalding. Amongst the highlights are paintings of Woolf by her sister Vanessa Bell and various other Bloomsbury Group contemporaries, photos taken by Man Ray, candid family images, and a sheaf of letters, diaries and manuscripts. Details and tickets here. COMEDY: An Audience With Pieter Dirk Uys | Soho Theatre | 13 Jul Paying spectators dictate the state of play at South African satirist and activist Pieter-Dirk Uys' Sunday Soho show, choosing one of fifteen boxes Uys has on stage, each containing different set of stories and characters from SA's dark political history. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: The Confession Room | St James' Theatre | 13 Jul A funny Brit supermusical starring 'Les Miserables' player Jon Robyns, 'The Confession Room' closely follows a group of guys and girls playing a game of 'truth or truth', and spilling their most embarrassing secrets. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Charmian Hughes + Grainne McGuire + Sarah Campbell + Jessica Fostekew | The Peckham Pelican | 14 Jul Billed (pretty lengthily) 'The Peckham Pelican Comedy Preview Society's Only Ever Meeting', this liberal helping of Edinburgh Fringe previews is quartered into four all-girl solo shows from the charming Charmian Hughes, smart Grainne McGuire, sharp Sarah Campbell and 'Comedy Human' Jessica Fostekew, who's doing her new bit 'Jessanory'. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Boy | Arcola Theatre | 14-26 Jul An all-ages war story marking 100 years since WW1 broke, 'Boy' is based on the real life and times of Jack Cornwall, an East London teen who "did extraordinary things, and paid the ultimate sacrifice". A collaboration with Avant Garde Dance choreographer Tony Adigun, it combines contemporary movement with street theatre techniques and a live score, in a bid to question why a child might decide to fight for his country, and what things we might risk our lives for. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Medea | National Theatre | 14 Jul - 4 Sep (pictured) Anchored by Helen McCrory in its title role, and with an original score by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory, Ben Power gives a new twist to Euripides' time-defying tragedy of the exiled wife who wants revenge on her errant husband. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Whirledart Cinema Comedy Night w/ David Trent + Stuart Laws | Whirled Cinema, Lougborough Junction | 15 Jul "Sincere and skilled" technological comic David Trent and the "relentlessly dedicated" Stuart Laws each take a spin at manning the Whirledart Cinema stage, presenting a 'his & his' selection of Ed-Fringe previews. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Fat Man | Ovalhouse | 15-19 Jul (pictured) This wry story of love, loss, and the risks of grieving-and-eating, a one-man play written and acted by Martin Bonger, posits ancient Greek hero Orpheus as a 'stand-up for the gods'. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: This Was A Man | Finborough Theatre | 15 Jul - 2 Aug Placing a magnifying glass on an ailing marriage between painter Edward Churt and his cheating wife, Noel Coward's somewhat 'lost' play gets a belated pro premiere under the directorship of actress Belinda Lang. It was written in 1925, and immediately banned for its vivid and irreverent portrait of infidelity. Details and tickets here. |
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ART: Malevich | Tate Modern | 16 Jul - 26 Oct (pictured) The Tate Modern pays its respects to radical Russian painter Kazimir Malevich, who changed the game in the late 1800s/early 1900s with his stark experiments in the 'suprematist' style. Bringing in his early landscape canvases, the show follows Malevich's leap into abstract depictions of war, power and revolution. Details and tickets here. COMEDY: Jack Dee's Helpdesk | Soho Theatre Downstairs | In a dilemma and need it fixed? Ahead of a short run at next month's Edinburgh Fringe, 'Lead Balloon' grinch Jack D is back on the SOS helpline at the Soho Theatre, and in a rare fit of kindliness will be dishing 100% sincere - and in no way disdainful - career, relationship and general life-advice to anyone asking for it. And when I say 'asking for it', I mean exactly that. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Holes | Arcola Theatre | 16 Jul - 9 Aug An award-winning TV writer for 'Fresh Meat' and 'Cowards', Tom Basden scripts this quick-sharp comic play about a group of four survivors of a plane crash, stranded and waiting to be saved. Amongst the cast are 'The Wrong Mans' actor Mathew Baynton and BAFTA-winner Daniel Rigby. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: BUG w/ Sara Pascoe | BFI Southbank | 17 Jul Stand-up and actor Sarah Pascoe auspiciously subs in for usual BUG host Adam Buxton, curating and linking to an array of astonishing, rare and, dare I say it, 'wacky' music videos and TV clips. Details and tickets here. OPERA: Porgy And Bess | Regent's Park Open Air Theatre | 17 Jul - 23 Aug Bedded in amid Gershwin's all-time great and heartbreaking score ('Summertime' and all), this adaptation of 'Porgy And Bess' stars Rufus Bonds Jr and Olivier-nominated Nicola Hughes as the crippled beggar and wild woman named in its title. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: The Nether | Royal Court Theatre | 17 Jul - 9 Aug (pictured) A sinister sci fi/crime thriller by Jennifer Haley, 'The Nether' stars Irish thesp Amanda Hale as a detective investigating a new virtual-reality realm in which possibilities are limitless, and which reaches into the darkest parts of the human imagination. Details and tickets here. |
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