Stage: Art, absinthe and anarchy

Chat Noir!
writer-director Will Kunhardt
with Joe Morrow, Issy Wroe Wright, Alexander Luttley, Coco Belle, Neil Kelso
musicians Alex Ullman, Guy Button, Kieran Carter, Aine McLoughlin, Will Fry
composer Steffan Rees • movement Catriona Giles
sets Thomas Kirk Shannon • costumes Susan Kulkarni
lighting Mike Gunning • sound Luke Swaffield
chef Ashley Clarke
The Lost Estate, West Kensington • 24.Mar-31.Jul.26 ★★★★

For events created by the Lost Estate, the audience arrives in costume ready to be transported back in time for a luxuriant evening of food and entertainment. This time, we venture through a velvet-curtained Parisian rift in time to arrive at Le Chat Noir, a disreputable cabaret club in 1896 Montmartre, dripping in faded Art Nouveau glory. There, proprietor Rodolphe Salis (Joe Morrow) leads us through a decadent experience that tickles literally all of the senses.

The tasty meal is expertly served in Belle Époque style, with a pâté starter and coq au vin main (although it should be noted that the veggie chartreuse option felt oddly unsubstantial), concluding with a tangy tarte au citron. This is accompanied by lashings of drinks options, including champagne, wine, a dazzling array of cocktails and mocktails, plus an absinthe infusion. In between the courses, the show unfolds in three acts that explore how art and insanity so happily mingle together.

Issy Wroe Wright

Opening with Art, Rodolphe introduces each of the seriously talented Chat Noir artists: singer Yvette Guilbert (Issy Wroe Wright), mime Paul LeGrand (Alexander Muttley), burlesque dancer Cléo de Mérode (Coco Belle) and illusionist Joseph Bautier (Neil Kelso). They show off their skills as a group and in evocative solos, accompanied by a superb live five-piece band that dives right into the middle of the action. All of this comes with a witty blast of attitude, as Rodolphe celebrates the delightful pointlessness of art, which of course is what makes it essential.

After the main course, Absinthe takes a big shift away from bawdiness into the swirlingly hallucinatory, as the performers gyrate in eerie lighting, using smoke and seductive choreography. This is dreamy and ethereal, with an intriguingly emotive kick. But we're relieved when Anarchy restores the riotous atmosphere. Rodolphe asks us to think less and laugh more, announcing that the company will make up the rest of the show on the spot. So while it is obviously well-rehearsed (thankfully!), there is a thrilling sense of chaos as the ensemble performs various lively solos that coalesce into a raucous run-through of Bizet's Carmen.

Neil Kelso

Quoting Baudelaire, Rodolphe urges the audience to stay drunk on wine, poetry or virtue. Through all of this, the audience joins in on the absurd hilarity, interacting with the performers individually or adding a chorus of meowing cats. The way the Lost Estate builds this experience is exceptional, from technical expertise in the lighting and sound to excellent food and, most of all, first-rate performances. This may be a pricey night out, but it's a great excuse to dress up for an immersive experience that keeps us entertained for three and a half hours before sending us floating out into the night.

Joe Morrow as Rodolphe Salis

Alexander Muttley & Guy Button

Coco Belle

For information, CHAT NOIR >
See also the Lost Estate's THE GREAT CHRISTMAS FEAST >

photos by Nick Ray, H Leatherby • 2.May.26

Stage: We own this city

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
by Bertolt Brecht
translated by Stephen Sharkey
director Seán Linnen
with Mark Gatiss, Mawaan Rizwan, LJ Parkinson, Kadiff Kirwan, Christopher Godwin, Joe Alessi, Janie Dee, Amanda Wilkin, Cameron Johnson, Mahesh Parmar,  Rebekah Hinds, Santino Smith, Amanda Wilkin, Valerie Antwi, Mark Hammersley, Samuel Nunes de Souza
music Placebo • sound Johnny Edwards
sets & costumes Georgia Lowe
lighting Robbie Butler • movement Jennifer Jackson
RSC Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon • 11.Apr-30.May.26 ★★★★★

Written by Bertolt Brecht in 1941 but first staged in 1958, after his death, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is a bone-chilling parody that uses Chicago gangsters to explore how the Nazi party came to power in early 1930s Germany. Working from a razor-sharp new translation by Stephen Sharkey, this staging at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre reveals the relevance of Brecht's words using inventive staging, a fearless cast and Placebo's electrifying music. This shattering production wraps around us until we can't breathe, then delivers a killer punch.

Presented as a circus-like "gangster spectacle", the play becomes a carnival in which the audience is complicit in the shenanigans. Director Seán Linnen sets this out like a big top show in the round, augmented by Georgia Lowe's inventively shifting sets and jaunty period costumes. Music, lights and fierce choreography punctuate the story. And throughout the script, Brecht steps aside to list direct parallels with events tracing Hitler's consolidation of control. Of course, more present-day echoes are never far from our thoughts. "The city's sick. You need me," Arturo appeals to the working class. "And don't worry, I'll look out for you." Demanding loyalty and flattery, his methods are murder, extortion and embezzlement, all of which accelerate into a wildly rambunctious courtroom farce.

LJ Parkinson

It's fascinating to watch Arturo (Mark Gatiss) first appear as a gaunt, oily loser surrounded by people even more sketchy than himself. They strong-arm their way into the underworld, taking on Chicago's cauliflower mob at their own game, spreading lies to create confusion and mistrust before sweeping into power. Then Arturo turns his attention to neighbouring town Cicero, even while betraying his most loyal allies. As he grows in influence, his appearance becomes more refined. He works with a hammy Shakespearean actor (Christopher Godwin) to build a more masterful public persona. And his eyes become increasingly hollowed until he emerges triumphantly in blood-red military garb. Gatiss vanishes into the role, so watching Arturo's transformation from a scrappy chancer into a mesmerising rabble-rouser is riveting. His smiling villainy is often heart-stoppingly bleak, only broken in the short, sharp jab of an epilogue in which he addresses the audience out of character, leaving us shaking in our seats. 

The surrounding ensemble is packed with scene-stealers. Stand-outs are the three goons that circle around Arturo: Mahesh Parmar (stepping up as understudy for the absent Mawaan Rizwan) sets the show's cheeky, hyperactive tone as Giri, an unpredictable yes-man who collects souvenirs from his hits (echoing Göring). LJ Parkinson has an astonishingly magnetic physicality as Givola, whose colourful front as a florist conceals cruelty (see Goebbels). And Kadiff Kirwan finds surprising textures as the beefy enforcer Roma (aka Röhm). The others play multiple roles that bristle with power, rage and wrenching vulnerability.

Kirwan

While there are contemporary references scattered throughout this production (including a riotous Monty Python flourish), a more obvious connection is to Charlie Chaplin's 1940 masterpiece The Great Dictator, another Nazi pastiche with a heart-stopping sting in its tale. There's also a freak-out moment that owes a debt to Dickens. And while other recent productions have nodded more directly at current political figures (ahem!), this show minimises those for a more universal, evocative kick. This is a tale about the dangers of populist politicians who deliberately blur the truth to manipulate and control the masses. It's not actually about a specific villain; it's about human nature.

For information, ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY >

photos by Marc Brenner • 29.Apr.26

Critical Week: Hang in there

I've taken it a bit easier this week, film-wise, only watching three movies. Charlize Theron faces off against a villainous Taron Egerton in Apex, a properly ripping guilty-pleasure wilderness survival thriller that Netflix really should have released in cinemas. And then there were two films starring Anne Hathaway: she reteams with Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci in the 20-years-later sequel The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is entertaining even if it's let down by an inconsistent script. And she also stars alongside Michaela Coel in David Lowery's offbeat two-hander Mother Mary, which looks and sounds amazing but kind of loses us with an overly blurred narrative. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Last One for the Road
Departures • Wild Foxes
ALL REVIEWS >

I also ventured out of London for the first time this year, taking the train a few hours north to Stratford-upon-Avon for a live performance of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the RSC's Swan Theatre, starring Mark Gatiss. Set in 1930s gangland Chicago, it's a shattering parody of Hitler's rise to power, staged and performed in a way that feels unusually engulfing (review coming soon).

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching the animated adventure Swapped, Leo Woodall in Tuner, Karl Urban in the sequel Mortal Kombat II, the British drama Ish, the Billie Eilish concert doc Hit Me Hard and Soft and two live performances: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at Sadler's Wells and Bullyache's A Good Man is Hard to Find at Sadler's Wells East.

Critical Week: Follow that star

Even though this is a relatively quiet time in the cinematic calendar, with the odd blockbuster arriving in the run up to the Cannes Film Festival, I've had screenings every day and night this week. This has been a bit of a challenge with tube strikes in London, but I've found ways around them. The big movie this week was the Michael Jackson biopic Michael, starring his nephew Jaafar Jackson, who gives a stunningly physical performance (Juliano Valdi also deserves praise as the young Michael). The film is very smooth around the edges, with only the great Colman Domingo allowed to inject some dark complexity into his role.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Rose of Nevada
I Swear • Cherri
ALL REVIEWS >

This week's crowd-pleaser was the festival favourite Power Ballad, a new music-infused comedy-drama from Irish filmmaker John Carney (Once, Sing Street). It stars Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas, and has a lot to say about generational music industry issues. It's also packed with great music. John Magaro is excellent in Omaha, a rather downbeat drama about a man who takes his two kids on a grim road trip across the American West. It's beautifully played, and has a strong emotional kick. 

Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Mads Mikkelsen lead the Danish black comedy The Last Viking, as brothers who have repressed their past trauma in very different ways. It's another terrific reteaming with writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen. And Kazunari Ninomiya stars in the claustrophobic Japanese thriller Exit 8, as a man trying to get out of a maze-like metro station. It's utterly riveting and ripples with underlying ideas. I also caught two live dance performances: The Center Will Not Hold at Sadler's Wells and We Caliban at Sadler's Wells East.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching two films with Anne Hathaway: alongside Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada 2 and with Michaela Coel in Mother Mary. There's also The Last Spy,  a doc about 100-year-old CIA spymaster Peter Sichel. And I'll travel up to Stratford-upon-Avon for a live performance of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the RSC's Swan Theatre.

Dance: Across the sea

We Caliban
concept, choreography & direction Shobana Jeyasingh
dancers Harry Ondrak-Wright, Holly Vallis, Raúl Reinoso Acanda, Oliver Mahar, George Gregory, Tanisha Addicott, Gabriel Ciulli, Tabitha O’Sullivan
text consultant Priyamvada Gopal • dramaturg Uzma Hameed
composer Thierry Pécou • sound Fred DeFaye
sets & costumes Mayou Trikerioti
lighting Floriaan Ganzevoort • projection William Duke
Sadler's Wells East, Stratford • 21-23.Apr.26 ★★★

There's a strikingly loose visual style to this fascinating take on Shakespeare's The Tempest, as dancers energetically dive into swirling choreography that's more expressive than precise. This helps to draw out personal insights in a story that plays with a central theme of colonialism, specifically the superiority one culture can feel toward another. The impressive staging includes dazzling lighting and projections. And even if it feels both on-the-nose and rather elusive, the show is thoroughly gripping.

It opens on Prospero (Harry Ondrak-Wright), his daughter Miranda (Holly Vallis), his brother Antonio (Oliver Mahar) and their learned community. In a power struggle, Prospero and Miranda are set adrift, washing ashore far from home. In this foreign land, they encounter Caliban (Raúl Reinoso Acanda) and his own learned community. But Prospero and Miranda insist on teaching them their civilised ways, even as Miranda falls for Caliban, which is something Prospero is definitely not happy about.

The stretchy, spinning choreography features astonishing shapes and powerful lifts, performed slowly for maximum impact. It's also intriguingly rough around the edges. Dancers sometimes link together, entangled in sexy formations. There's scrappy violence, and group sequences that are almost, but not quite, in unison. It's eye-catching and often thrilling to watch, especially as intense emotions churn between the characters. One provocative touch is to have the performers carrying books to symbolise culture. Of course Prospero believes his book is better than the Caliban books, while Miranda tames the "savage" Caliban using art, including ballroom dancing lessons. But then, he also teaches her lusty moves in a tender, exploratory sequence.

Cool lighting designs augment the movement, surrounding the dancers with spotlights that bounce off a string curtain to create shimmering textures. The soundscape features music by Thierry Pécou, voiceover readings and snippets of dialog that accompany the on-screen text and video. A big storm brings these elements together with a dazzling array of light, sound and wind. And all of this reverberates with condescending colonial attitudes towards "uncivilised heathens". Against this, the earthy, warm-hued costumes have a hint of sci-fi about them, as if this is taking place on a planet Captain Kirk is about to beam onto.

Playing out through seven distinct scenes, there are highlights peppered throughout the show, most notably two superbly expressive duets involving Reinoso Acanda alongside Vallis and then Tanisha Addicott. With echoing movements, these feature impressively controlled displays of strength and balance. Then in the end, the plot continues into a rather chilly final sequence in which Prospero asserts his control. And the way the Caliban community is left changed forever is haunting.

For information, SHOBANA JEYASINGH DANCE >

photos by Foteini Christofilopoulou • 21.Apr.26

Dance: Dancing in the streets

The Center Will Not Hold
A Dorrance Dance Production
created and directed by Ephrat Asherie, Michelle Dorrance
with John Angeles, Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie, Manon Bal, Tomoe “Beasty” Carr, Michelle Dorrance, Zakhele “Bboy Swazi” Grabowski, Fritzlyn Hector, Caleb Lawrence Jackson, Michael Manson Jr, Charles “Lil Buck” Riley, Matthew “Megawatt” West
music Donovan Dorrance • costumes Amy Page
lighting Kathy Kaufmann • sound Christopher Marc
Sadler's Wells, London • 17-18.Apr.26 ★★★★★

A continuous blast of rhythmic physicality, this astonishing one-hour UK premiere traces an expansive range of vernacular dance, everyday community-based movement that is rarely learned formally. It follows a through-line from tap to street, house, hip hop and other American styles of fancy footwork. And the company is an eclectic group of performers who use their own body types and personal skills to choreograph the show, with solos that are improvised on the spot. It's utterly mesmerising to watch, propulsive and thrilling but also playful and engaging on a variety of levels.

The performance styles merge into each other with the help of fiendishly inventive lighting that makes the dancers appear or disappear, often glowing in a dreamily as they float across the stage seemingly defying laws of time and space. And a repeating motif finds them either trapped or highlighted in spotlight squares and circles. Accompanying Donovan Dorrance's soulful music, talented percussionist John Angeles is on-stage throughout the piece. He adds his own muscular presence, creating rhythms with drums, cymbals, a table, the stage and his own body as he joins in the movement. 

Repeatedly at the centre are Ephrat Asherie and Michelle Dorrance, who appear in a central rectangle, bouncing both together and against each other. This show was born from their 2022 duet A Little Room, then expanded and reimagined around them. And each performer is allowed to steal the focus. Standouts include Tomoe Carr with her fierce intensity and Caleb Lawrence Jackson with his over-sized afro and lightning-fast feet. And then there are Matthew West, Charles Riley and Zakhele Grabowski, who reject gravity as they throw their feet to the sky, spinning on their heads and hands with extraordinary strength. 

Costumes have a deceptive simplicity: black suits and trainers or tap shoes. Combined with the plain stage, this allows us to see the performers' physical motion as they catch the light in intriguing ways, especially when primary colours are applied. This is an innovative, thumpingly involving show that continually surprises us with insight, such as the way it reveals the innate elegance in popping and breaking. And the camaraderie between the dancers comes through vividly. They're clearly having a great time, so of course we want to get on the stage with them.

For information, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Christopher Duggan • 17.Apr.26

Critical Week: When the wine runs out

It's been another busy week for screenings, and this year's festival season kicked up a gear with the announcement of the programme at next month's 79th Cannes Film Festival. Already everyone is trying to work out who will feature in next year's awards season. Three of the films I watched this week featured terrific offbeat performances: Charli XCX leads the cast of the improvised romantic comedy Erupcja, which is set in Warsaw. It's rather uneven, but strikingly well shot and performed. Jude Law and Paul Dano are excellent in The Wizard of the Kremlin, Olivier Assayas' expertly crafted fictionalised biopic about Vladimir Putin. And John Magaro shines as legendary pianist Keith Jarrett in Koln 75, based on the true story of an 18-year-old promoter (played by rising star Mala Emde) who organised a groundbreaking concert.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Diamanti • Wasteman • Departures
The Wizard of the Kremlin
Rebuilding • Miroirs No 3
Eagles of the Republic
PERHAPS AVOID: Balls Up
ALL REVIEWS >

More in the mainstream, Mark Wahlberg  and Paul Walter Hauser star in the chucklehead comedy Balls Up, which has a sharp script thanks to Deadpool writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese. But it's resolutely unfunny. Set in Manchester, the British romcom Finding Emily stars Spike Fearn and Angourie Rice. It's charming and funny and very predictable. Bob Odenkirk is back in action in Normal, which also sticks very closely to the formula but engages us with its quirkiness. The entertaining romantic melodrama Almost Us is a bit awkward, but nicely uses its setting in Phoenix's Black queer community. And the French comedy-drama Colours of Time is an entertaining and astute look at how history echoes in everyday life today. 

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching the Michael Jackson biopic Michael, Paul Rudd in Power Ballad, John Magaro in Omaha, Mads Mikkelsen in The Last Viking and three live performances: The Center Will Not Hold at Sadler's Wells, We Caliban at Sadler's Wells East and Misconduct & Ladykiller at White Bear (Tube strikes notwithstanding).