Veteran British playwright and director Peter Brook’s new production is The Prisoner. It has opened in Paris before moving on to Thonon les Bains and Clermont-Ferrand. The Prisoner is written by 93-year-old Brook and his regular partner Marie-Hélène Estienne but as usual with his productions, much of the work is the result of improvisations and … Continue reading “Peter Brook Production in Paris, Thonon and Clermont-Ferrand”
San-Francisco-based theater company Word for Word has announced its annual tour in France. Once again the company will bring prose (five short stories) to life on stage using their original technique. For each show, the company chooses prose pieces and produces them as theater without adaptation. Intonation, actions, scenery and props bring the pages to … Continue reading “American Theater in Angers, Nancy and Paris”
Despite the breath-taking effects, at its heart The Shape of Water is a good old-fashioned monster story. Two hundred years after the publication of Frankenstein, it’s the tale of shunned outsiders who show more humanity than the “normal” humans. Guillermo del Toro’s latest film is set in 1962 Cold War America. The military have captured … Continue reading “The Shape of Monsters”
In this era of fake news, Stephen Spielberg’s latest film looks back at the true story of the Pentagon Papers. Publishing news of this leaked government report put investigative journalists and newspaper publishers at real risk of prosecution. And yet, against the odds, they went ahead and set the scene for the Watergate scandal. The … Continue reading “Publishing the Pentagon Papers”
The lead role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri fits Frances McDormand like a glove. The story of a fierce, unconventional woman touched by tragedy in small town America, it’s honest and brave, like its star. McDormand has made a career on stage and on screen of inhabiting the kind of characters that stay with … Continue reading “Three Billboards and a Mother’s Fury”
Hamilton, a hip-hop musical about one of America’s Founding Fathers, is one of the most unlikely Broadway hits ever. It is finally arriving on this side of the pond, playing to sold-out houses in London’s West End. Hamilton is the brainchild of Lin Manuel Miranda, singer, dancer and author of In the Heights, his first … Continue reading “Hamilton Musical Arrives in London”
Michael Morpurgo is best known around the world as the author of War Horse, which has been very successfully adapted for stage and screen. However the English author has written more than 150 books for children and teens. An exhibition at the Museum of Childhood in London presents many of his creations, and gives fascinating … Continue reading “A Writer’s World: Michael Morpurgo”
The Last Jedi, episode VIII of the famous saga which began in 1977, is finally in cinemas. For fans, it’s not a minute too soon. It’s been 30 years since the emblematic hero last properly featured in a Star Wars film. And two years since episode VII, The Force Awakens, in which Luke Skywalker appeared … Continue reading “Star Wars Strikes Back”
As the latest film adaptation of the Agatha Christie classic Murder on the Orient Express hits our screens, Alison Bouhmid investigates women thriller-writers’ works, spanning a century of mystery writing. It is undeniable that British women writers have consistently been attracted to and excelled in detective fiction (though the genre was invented by a man, … Continue reading “Murder in the Bookshops”
Who would have imagined two films about tennis duels from the 1970s would hit cinema screens at the same time? More than just some entertainment for tennis fans between seasons, they provide fascinating psychological portraits and a discussion of gender roles in sport and society. Each film centres on a single, iconic match. In Borg … Continue reading “Battle of the Tennis Films”
