Louise Penn - Page 2

The Genesis has been astonishing audiences across the globe with its showcase of trust and spectacle. For just over an hour, the Copenhagen Collective take over the Peacock Theatre with 16 top-class acrobats, assembled from across the world. The Genesis is a show of equal opportunities and diversity, with female bases lifting, and male flyers move with grace. Sensational, profound, and very human.

This timely revival of Philip Ridley's first play, The Pitchfork Disney, brought back to the London stage by Lidless Theatre, Zoe Weldon and King's Head Theatre Productions, marks a major moment in the partnership between Lidless and Ridley.  The Pitchfork Disney is no less relevant and revolutionary today as it was in 1991. This is a remarkable revival that cries out to be experienced.

This intriguing and contrasting programme of folk songs and dances offers the woodwind, brass, and percussion sections of the orchestra to shine, and the virtuosity of the trombone soloist is a true treat. With work by Vaughan Williams, Tippett, Arnold and Grainger complemented by a concerto by Schuller, this concert offers both familiar and experimental pieces for those seeking something beyond the traditional classical music path.

This programme of music seems to thrive on themes of togetherness, resilience, and support that may have also influenced the Russian composer at the mid-point of his life, the Hungarian maestro nearing the end of his, and even the bright young man setting out to shake us the music scene in Europe to excess. Will Mäkelä be the next young man to rock the foundations of the classical world? Wait and see.

The Gathered Leaves has been away from the stage for a whole decade, but still intrigues. As each metaphorical leaf falls, we can’t help but keep watching thanks to the skill and commitment of the writer, director, cast and all involved. A theatrical treat. With topics such as autism, dementia, racism, infidelity, and mortality threaded throughout The Gathered Leaves, there is much to explore and absorb in this play. It feels real without ever being forced or preachy.

Bringing Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra back to the BBC Proms, last night’s concert offered a programme of Beethoven’s 'Symphony No. 7 in A major' alongside Bartok’s dark one-act opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. 

This is a production that falls into the above average category but not yet a 'great' achievement. It tries to do a little too much and falls short in some of the storytelling, despite having a real sense of heart and commitment. A lot of imagination, love and money has gone into this, with great video work and powerful dancing, but the orchestrations didn't work for me.

Dominated by a new James MacMillan work, and a lively couple of pieces by Shostakovich reflecting on the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, this concert from the LSO, with their Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda and violinist Nicola Benedetti, offered a lively evening of music. Full-blooded and dynamic, Shostakovich's 12th Symphony, 'The Year 1917' dominated the evening, while MacMillan's Violin Concerto No 2 had its London premiere in safe hands.

With NOW standing for many nows, thens, nowheres, future nows, past nows, and present nows, Jasmin Vardimon offers up revisited classic choreography fused with new material to create a beautiful and intense way to celebrate the company's 25th anniversary. Offering a window into the world through movement, music and video, NOW is a playful and political piece.

Crystal Pite’s deeply moving work has themes of safe passage, displacement, community and mortality. Light of Passage, taken as a whole work with the three sections together, builds into a cohesive whole on the theme of who we are, where we are going, and what we feel. Although there are moments of repetition and the occasional sense of the abstract, I did find that Light of Passage succeeds on an emotional level in reaching an audience, who cheered enthusiastically by the curtain call.

In the new Sadler's Wells East venue, we are invited to observe and then enter the world of Club Groove in a pulsing, energetic, modern dance piece allowing the audience to mingle on the dance floor. The story is slight but the vibe is unmistakable. This production opens with a half-hour of powerhouse movement before becoming fully immersive. Look at me, it challenges, and you do.

An evening of expressive and emotional music from three great modernist composers is hard to fault as the LSO perform pieces by Walker, Bernstein, and Walton in a powerful Anglo-American programme.

Virginia Gay's Cyrano is billed as 'after Edmond Rostand' and is far more than a faithful adaptation of the classic tragic tale of doomed romance. In reimagining the play, Gay finds an interesting central role for herself as the overlooked and lovesick Cyrano, wishing for more from her friendship with the bubbly Roxanne, and finding a facade of words to hide the hurt she feels at comments about her ugly looks.

From the bold new musicals aimed at Gen Z audiences, to classic play revivals and experimental dance productions, London has offered a variety of shows across its stages this year. Louise Penn celebrates her pick of the work of the West End and smaller off-West End spaces.

Billed as a 'weird and wonderful gathering', Eva Recacha's full-length work The Picnic is inspired by the painting The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, dating from the 15th century.  The Picnic is about pleasure, power, privilege, passion, playfulness and partying. It is as hedonistic as it is human, as vibrant as it is visceral, as supportive as it is strange.

A sweet revival of Frederick Ashton's best-known and loved ballet returns to Sadler's Wells. Showcasing both comedy and complexity in its solos and routines, La Fille mal gardée brings a splash of sunshine to the stage. Beatrice Parma makes a striking debut as Principal dancer in the role of cheeky young Lise.

This is a toolkit to help creatives in a business which is often hard to navigate, and I feel it is an excellent addition to the material currently available on the subject. It is written in a chatty and approachable style, and the bitesize structure is perfect for reading on the go.

For Forced Entertainment, a linear story or a place without the space to play would be unthinkable. Signal To Noise is a piece of theatre like no other. I highly recommend you let the creativity wash over you. You won't see anything else like this, and you will definitely come away with something to think about.

David Edgar's new stage play about Elia Kazan and Arthur Miller places us mainly in Connecticut, 1952, but struggles to tease out the personal and political complexities within a creative friendship. There is a strong play within Here In America, but it would benefit from being stripped back to the essentials - less Marilyn Monroe, more Marxism. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See what our critic had to say.</span>