Reality vs Imagination… choose your side

February 24, 2012 in Theatre | No comments

I have only just read Honour Bayes‘ article for The Guardian’s Theatre Blog today. In short, she calls for theatre companies to abandon the cute, the twee and the whimsical, and show a preference for grit, daring and, well, balls. In her words, she’s “getting a little fed up of ‘enchanting’ theatre. You know the kind: shows awash with cute animations, overhead projections and ukulele soundtracks.”

When I had read the article, it was directly after seeing the brilliant new Scorcese film Hugo, which has enough cutesy wonder to possibly send Honour into fits of dry-retching, and yet it had me captivated from the word go. In fact, if I submit a list of favourite films, most of them would fit in this category, with Science of Sleep, Amelie and Midnight in Paris featuring quite highly. Apart from the obvious francophilia, these films are all imaginative, playful and slightly twee exercises in storytelling. Similarly, my favourite theatre experiences have probably been shows like The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes, Nevermore and pretty much anything by Ronnie Burkett, where wonder and imagination take a huge amount of precedence over the grittiness of reality, or trying to confront the audience like in Blasted or Audience.

In short, I feel I need to make some form of defence against “feelgood theatre”…

To begin with, it’s important to consider the context. People don’t like hearing the phrase ‘in the current economic climate’. However, as I have drawn attention to this fact, it allows me to use the phrase. What quite often happens in harsh economic times, is a resurgence in creative forms of escapism. The 1920s saw this with the golden age of cinema, and the birth of the modern comic book. It makes sense, as when the entire world is looking pretty scummy, what is more appealing? A gritty, confronting piece that makes you challenge your views on the current government, or a piece of escapism that enchants you, makes you excited about life and sparks your creativity? I’m not saying that daring theatre can’t do this, but it’s not its particular forte…

Speaking of feelings, there’s also something to be said about the way a truly imaginative and charming pieces of feelgood theatre can make you feel. I’m not just talking about the warm, excited feeling you get from grinning from ear to ear for 90 minutes, but that spark that feelgood theatre can often give you that makes you want to create. It’s hard to encapsulate the feeling, but I’ve tried to sum it up before as ‘that feeling that makes you want to go out and do something’. Not in a reactionary way, but in a way that contributes something creatively to the world, in the hope that you will make someone else smile and pass on the same feeling.

I’ve been accused before of being an eternal optimist, but in my opinion, it’s the quirky ‘feelgood’ theatre that we need more of. I’m not saying shelve the stuff that Punchdrunk are doing, or Lyric’s recent spate of confronting theatre like Blasted and Saved. All I’m saying is that in my books, there is definitely room for more inspiring, fun, creative, whimsy. Thinking of Hugo, why not doing some stage adaptations of Georges Méliès a la Kneehigh’s gorgeous adaptation of Umbrellas of Cherbourg?

Any thoughts?

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140 character theatre reviews – a Twitter experiment

June 25, 2011 in Social Media | No comments

At #DandDuk the other night (of which a write up will happen soon), someone mentioned how they tweet a review as they get out of the theatre and sometimes during the interval. It’s something that I’ve heard or seen other people do, from bloggers to professional critics, and I think it’s a neat little way to review a show, especially in today’s ADD society.

From this I had an idea. Create a Twitter account that auto-tweets 140 character reviews from theatre bods if they hashtag them. The tweet wouldn’t be a standard RT, but the initial review with an attribution to the author at the end of the tweet. It would act as an aggregation of theatre reviews that anyone could look at for a quick snapshot of what others thought.

After tinkering around for about 15 minutes, I had something working. However, I wanted to make sure that the account only tweeted out reviews from trusted people to stop the channel being abused. I also didn’t want to have to moderate it, as I wanted it to be completely automated.

The result was @140thtr.

The premise is that a list of bloggers (who can be found here) can tweet their review with the hashtag #140thtr, and it will appear in the @140thtr feed within half an hour (cycles on Twitter are a bit problematic).

I was astounded by how easy it was to set up with a mixture of php, Yahoo! pipes and a handy service like TwitterFeed. However, at the moment the names of the reviewers are manually entered. What I aim to do in the future is to tie it into the above list, so as soon as someone is on the list, they are automatically approved. I’ve figured out how to do it, but the results are a little ugly at the moment, so I’ll play around with it and see.

If you want to be added to the 140thtr list, then let me know on Twitter or comment here.

 

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How to get free theatre tickets in London (a guide for bloggers)

June 13, 2011 in Social Media | 4 comments

Reviewing shows as a blogger can be an expensive business. When I started back in 2009, I was strictly told that I was allowed to spend no more than £20 on theatre tickets per month (considering my salary at the time, this was rather generous). This prompted me to look for ways that I could see theatre without paying, or at best, paying a relatively small amount. Since I have recently stopped reviewing shows, I thought I’d share the ways I’ve found to reduce the cost of shows.

However, there is a rather important caveat… You can’t be particularly picky about the shows you want to see, and you mustn’t expect to only see West End shows. Most of the shows I have seen in the past year haven’t been things I would’ve necessarily sought out on my own. However, it’s broadened my views and opened my eyes to the world of theatre beyond the West End and the majors.

Young and free

One of the first things I investigated when I got here was the A Night Less Ordinary scheme. While the scheme sadly ended in March due to budget cuts, there are a few theatres still offering under 26 schemes. The first one that I joined was Barbican Centre’s freeb program, which is done through a simple online form. This allows you to buy up to 2 tickets for a range of shows. The beauty is that the second person doesn’t need to be under 26 either (just don’t take them to the counter if they look too old). However, tickets do go quickly, so you need to get in there fast. The best bet is to ‘Like’ the freeb page on Facebook, as they’ll let you know when a new lot are on sale.

Another gem from A Night Less Ordinary is the National Theatre’s Entry Passprogram. While you need to fill in an archaic paper form and wait a few weeks for your card, your first show is free and any subsequent shows are £5. Apparently the Donmar have a similar scheme called Donmar Discovery, but it is nigh impossible to get tickets (as it is with most of their shows).

Use the Twitters

If you want free or cheap tickets, make sure you are using Twitter effectively. Follow the major theatres, as well as staff from the theatres (especially marketing and PR). Also, follow accounts like FreeLondon, who tweet when someone is offering free things. If you keep following these people and paying attention, you can pick up some great offers. For example, a theatre-bod I follow on Twitter recently tweeted that he had a bunch of free tickets toUmbrellas of Cherbourg. Hair were offering £20 for press night, due to unsold tickets.

If you already have a network of theatre tweeps who you follow and have some kind of relationship with, set up a list of theatre people (here’s mine as an example), add that list to Tweetdeck and filter the column with a few simple keywords like “‘free ticket’ OR ‘+1′ OR ‘spare ticket’.” You’ll be surprised how many people you know are looking for people to take spare tickets. While I’ve never gone to the effort of setting up a dedicated column in Tweetdeck, I’ve managed to see some fantastic (and dreadful) shows through this method. Through this I’ve also managed to make some fantastic friends out of people I had only spoken to a few times on Twitter, which brings me to my next point…

Network like a whore

Using a tool like Twitter is fantastic to network within the industry. Almost exclusively through Twitter, I have managed to build a great network of theatre people within the UK from scratch, and am lucky enough to now call a lot of those people friends. Events like Twespians (disclosure: I run this with the lovely Laura Tosney) then cement these relationships by bringing them offline over a few drinks.

The benefit of this is two-fold. Not only will you make friends with a new group of people who have similar interests to you, but you’ll also be building a network of industry contacts who, when you feel comfortable, may be able to help you get tickets. This isn’t using people, however, as when you have +1s for yourself, you’ll have a group of friends who you can offer tickets to.

Don’t be afraid to ask

Finally, once you build some credibility with your writing (committing to a time schedule for posting, cross posting to sites like Up The West End and building a network are good starting points), don’t be afraid to ask theatres and PR people for press tickets. It’s easy to find details online (A Google of ‘theatre name press officer’ sometimes does the trick, as does a LinkedIn search), and failing that @ the theatre on Twitter. Be honest about the level you blog at (installing Google Analytics is a good way to monitor how successful you are), talk about the network you have and ask if you can be added to the press list. Contacting agencies like AKA, Premier PR, Arthur Leone and The Corner Shop PR are a good idea as well. You won’t always get a yes, but sometimes you will.

If they do say no, it may not hurt to ask why (in a friendly way). Keep writing and ask again at a later point.

Also, contact existing sites like Fringe Review (contact me if you want to get involved with them and I’ll put you in touch) or Whatsonstage to see if they are looking for reviewers. The advantage of these is that they do a lot of the leg work for you in arranging tickets. However, once again don’t expect a yes straight away. Ask why, keep writing and ask again at a later point.

If you have any comments or want to hurl any abuse at me then feel free to leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter.

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A letter of resignation – why I’m no longer a ‘theatre blogger’

June 10, 2011 in Social Media, Theatre | 2 comments

I am tendering my official resignation as a blogger-critic. It has taken me two months to decide this, and this post was going to be a long diatribe about the personal reasons behind it (which I did write and can be found here instead), but instead I have decided to write down the reasons why reviewing theatre got the axe.

Hopefully this will make other bloggers sit back and reasess why they are blogging and whether reviewing is the right thing for them to be doing.

Passion

It probably comes as no surprise that you need passion to become a decent blogger, not only for watching theatre but also for writing about theatre. The first alarm for me was when theatre going started to feel like a chore. However, the problem wasn’t with the actual theatre going experience, but the fact that I wasn’t necessarily seeing the things I wanted to see, and was dreading having to write about it the next day. This, exacerbated by the time constraints placed by most theatre reviews websites and publications, meant that I would rush through a by-the-book templated review that had no passion in the writing or opinions. Hopefuly this means that I can return to the lovely prospect of seeing theatre without obligation.

Shortened version: If you aren’t passionate about seeing theatre (and all kinds of theatre) AND about writing for theatre, then don’t bother.

A unique voice

At last count there are approximately 500 million theatre bloggers within London (also, studies show that almost 85% of statistic are made up). Within that there are some talented and dedicated writers. Ought to be Clowns, West End Whingers, A Younger Theatre and Carousel of Fantasies (no matter how much I disagree with the author) come to mind when it comes to well written, well thought out criticism, and in the case of the first two, a nice dose of wit to accompany.

However, out of the 499,999,996 others there is an awful lot of ‘meh’ that exists out there as well. Another realisation was that I was firmly in that portion, as I failed to find a unique voice amongst the crowd.

Shortened version: Find a unique voice that differentiates you from the sea of bloggers. If you don’t, you’ll probably drown.

Respect for my peers

I’m going to make a confession. In the past six months I have probably read three theatre reviews on blogs. If I don’t even read these reviews, then why should I expect anyone to read mine? I descended into a realm of arrogance that made me assume I didn’t need to read the work of my peers, when in reality, it was probably one of the main contributors to my second point about unique voice. In fact, the only reviews I did read were to make me angry enough to write.

It holds true within any industry that you constantly need to look at the work of your peers to make sure you are remaining relevant and engaging, and not just parroting what someone else is saying. In the tech industry, the same mistake was made by Microsoft, who refused to look at the work other companies were doing. As a result, they are now playing a huge game of catch-up to remain relevant within the industry.

Shortened version: Read the work of your peers. It will make you a better writer and keep your work in perspective.

The stagnation of theatre blogging

This is something that I spoke about at Twespians Fringe in March, and if I were to pick one, my main reason for stopping. To me, theatre blogging is becoming slightly stagnant. In my opinion, the main cause of this is that there are too many people reviewing shows and not writing about theatre in a more general way. At the moment, theatre commentary is mainly covered by the majors, like The Stage (Shenton’s View comes to mind) and Guardian bloggers, with a few noteable exceptions in the blogging realm like A Younger Theatre. The more bloggers we have talking about the future of theatre, innovation within theatre and problems within the industry, the quicker we can push the industry forward.

To draw a parallel, in design there are a plethora of writers who write about the industry and where it needs to be going (look at A List Apart for an example). They pull from all sources of inspiration, write about it and then get on stage and talk at conferences, meetups and barcamps. In turn, more people hear/read about this, form their own opinion, and start writing about the industry as well. As a result, the industry has moved forward in leaps and bounds within the last five to ten years.

We could do the same for theatre.

My suggestion? Take a week and pick an issue that you feel passionately about, or something cool you saw in another industry that you can tie back into theatre. Craft a post over a number of days (without seeing any shows) and then post it. Chances are you’ll get more people reading it than your ordinary reviews posts.

Shortened version: Don’t only write reviews. Branch out into commentary, opinion and awesomeness within theatre.

While this means that I will officially stop writing reviews as of today. However, if you still want to invite me to your show, please do. If I see something that I think is worth writing about, I’ll still write about it. However, it won’t include a star-rating, have the word ‘review’ in it and could possibly go off on a million and one tangents. Who knows, it may even include some pretty pictures.

So, in conclusion, I am officially stopping my aspirations to be a blogger-critic. I am now going to officially start my tenure as a theatre blogger. Who blogs about theatre. Not just reviews it.

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Review (of sorts) – A Butcher of Distinction at The Cock Tavern Theatre

April 9, 2011 in Review, Theatre, Uncategorized | 1 comment

This week I went along to see A Butcher of Distinction at the Cock Tavern Theatre for Fringe Review. My review hasn’t been published yet (update: It now has here.), but I wanted to share a by-product. Recently, I’ve been thinking about looking at different ways of presenting information. In my other life, I’ve been having some dealings with sketchnote artists, and so I’ve been filling a notebook with random sketches. So, I thought about combining these two…

So here’s the first of my theatre review sketchnotes, trying to marry both talking about the play and my thoughts on the play…

What do you think?

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Review: Mogadishu at Lyric Hammersmith

March 10, 2011 in Review, Theatre | No comments

Mogadishu is the 1998 Bruntwood Playwriting Competition winner by new playwright and ex-London secondary-school teacher Vivienne Franzmann. The play revolves an incident where black pupil Jason (Malachi Kirby) pushes the white teacher Amanda (Julia Ford) to the ground. She’s then reluctant to report him in an attempt to save him from becoming another ‘Afro-Caribbean’ statistic. However, Jason constructs his own version of the event, where victim becomes the offender, and things get dangerously out of hand.

The play is a pastiche of various influences, from The Crucible to Kidulthood, no doubt sharpened by Franzmann’s 12 years teaching in London. This feels like theatre that is made to make white middle-class audiences feel slightly uncomfortable and use words like ‘gripping’, ‘powerful’ and ‘thought-provoking’, simply because it deals with race issues. However, while moving and funny, and well written for the most part, it does feel like Franzmann resorts to cliches on both sides of the fence a little too often.

However, the production itself is expertly delivered by Matthew Dunster. The set design, sitting somewhere between an urban school and a prison, couples with the sound design, add a palpable sense of menace throughout the entire piece. The cast, while predominantly young, were for the most part quite strong, with only a few disappointments not affecting the overall performance. Shannon Tarbet as Becky stood out in a sea of slightly caricatured young people, with moments of true brilliance shining through, later succumbing to the poor writing of teenage angst later in the second half. Kirby, as the antagonist Jason, had an uncomfortably menacing stage presence that was expertly reigned in when dominated by his father. The adults were strong across the board, with Ford and Fraser James standing out. However, it was Hammed Animashaun as Jordon who stole the show every time he came on stage, with his natural talent and comic delivery putting everyone else to shame.

Despite the negative sentiment throughout this writeup, I did actually enjoy Mogadishu. It was well paced, funny at times and gripping at others. What irritates me is the broad brush strokes that are used to create the characters and the story, that didn’t quite satisfy the big hype that surrounded it before I stepped into the theatre.

Mogadishu is playing at the Lyric Hammersmith until 2 April.

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Review – Ordinary Days at Trafalgar Studios 2

February 23, 2011 in FringeReview.co.uk, Review, Theatre | 1 comment

Just posted my review of Ordinary Days at Trafalgar Studios over at Fringe Reviews.

Here’s the full review:

Ordinary Days acts as a snapshot of everyday life in New York via two sets of characters and their stories, told through songs and vignettes. Deb and Warren provide the shallower, almost comic relief style, relationship, whereas Jason and Claire act as a kind of romantic lead couple, albeit in more postmodern, post 9/11 couple kind of way. The music establishes Ordinary Days firmly in the recent school of New York composers more recent school of New York composers, with comparisons to shows like I Love You, Because and I Sing! not unwarranted.

One of the things that strikes you with this show is the calibre of the cast. Comprised of West End stalwarts, the four performers breeze through the material, giving the material the perfect amount of humour and emotion. Julie Atherton, in particular, is a revelation as Claire. Her cold, almost detached demeanour, coupled with one of the most gorgeous voices I’ve heard in a long time, makes you want to know more about the character. Alexia Khadime, fresh from her turn as Elphaba in Wicked, has great comic timing with her character and a great voice to boot. Both Daniel Boys and Lee William-Davis play and sing the characters perfectly. However, I did see more than a glimpse of Austin from I Love You, Because and was not surprised to see that Boys played the character at the Landor Theatre.

The stage is functional, simple and evocative, with a clear, modern New York feel. With another piece, the geometrical shapes and sleek tiles that comprise the set may come across as cold, but with Ordinary Days it works perfectly as tiny pieces representing the whole city. The direction as well feels snappy and keeps the pace moving, which for a musical with only one act is extremely important. This also gives the show a pacey feel, which provides a perfect chance for Claire’s revelation to crush you in her final song.

Some may comment that the songs sound a little too similar, and the show is a little too short to get to know the characters. However, aside from these minor flaws, Ordinary Days is a great example of the calibre of new work currently coming out of the New York musical theatre scene. Composer Adam Gwon fits perfectly in with the likes of Kerrigan and Lowdermilk, Cunningham and Salzman and Scott Alan. However, this stands out, as it has a little more depth and feels a little more ‘real’ than these other shows.

After a successful run at the Finborough Theatre in 2008, it’s heartening to see a West End run for Ordinary Days. I hope that more people will see this gem of a show.

Reviewed by Luke Murphy February 17, 2010

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Review: Romeo and Juliet – Pilot Theatre

February 12, 2011 in FringeReview.co.uk, Review, Theatre | 1 comment

I went along and saw Pilot Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet last week. I’ve been looking forward to seeing a Pilot Theatre production for quiet a while.

I posted my review for Fringe Review (who I’ve just started reviewing for as well) last week. Here’s the review in full:

Pilot Theatre has become known as one of the better touring companies, devoted to producing plays about and for young people. Off the back of their hugely successful production of Lord of the Flies, Artistic Director Marcus Romer has decided to tackle another classic young person’s story: Romeo and Juliet.

As a production aimed at young people, he has succeeded in presenting a faithful, yet accessible production of a much loved classic. Chloe Lamford’s simple, unobtrusive set works well with Romer’s bare staging, with little of the multimedia flair that Pilot have become known for. The costuming is modern and simple, not clearly evoking any given setting, and the characterisation is simple yet effective, with a range of English accents on display.

It seems what Romer has done is strip back this production to the bare essentials, in an attempt to highlight the beautiful words and tragic story that has now almost become cliché. In fact, the only real artistic licence that has been taken is the addition of music by composer Sandy Nuttgens that underscores the entire production. While at times this works to perfection by adding emotion to a scene in an almost filmic fashion, at other times it comes off as melodramatic.

The cast were adequate, with most doing justice to the characters. Oliver Wilson’s Romeo and Rachel Spicer’s Juliet played the doomed couple as hopeless teenagers, which worked well but left me feeling far less sympathy for them than what was expected. The standout performance was definitely Richard James-Neale’s Tybalt and Friar Lawrence. His energy and ability to portray character perfectly meant that whenever he took the stage he shone above all the others.

However, while this was a completely adequate production of a classic piece of theatre that has been played to death across the world, it left me feeling rather empty towards the end. The portrayal of Romeo and Juliet as two bratty, hormonally driven teenagers is possibly the most accurate portrayal one could think of. However, this viewpoint seemed to alienate anyone above the age of eighteen by making it rather hard to relate to the protagonists.

In saying that, this is a production that is clearly aimed at teenage audiences. The modern retelling is relatively close to the Baz Lurhmann version that made Romeo and Juliet cool in the nineties, and while not breaking any new ground, provides an accessible and faithful production ideally suited to Shakespeare virgins and theatre reluctants.

Reviewed by Luke Murphy 3rd February 2011

Romeo and Juliet is playing at the Unicorn Theatre till the 12th Feb. It then continues it’s UK tour. For more details go to youkissbythebook.com

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The Stage, ACE and News International…

February 9, 2011 in Theatre | 1 comment

Alistair Smith of The Stage  published an article last week on the “embarrassing climb-down” by the Arts Council of England (ACE) on their announcement of a media partnership between ACE and News International (responsible for The Times, The Sun and News of the World). This partnership would have enabled ACE to have featured editorial space dedicated to a variety of artforms, with exclusive promotions and offers that probably wouldn’t have normally received coverage in national press. The aim, as far as I can see was to bring lesser known or appreciate artforms to a wider audience, much wider than publications who would normally cover this subject, like The Stage for example.

However, this is not what the article was about. The article was bringing to light that The Stage had forced ACE to issue a statement to say that the partnership was not going ahead, due to commercial issues arising from the fact that ACE are a government funded organisation.

I think this is a great shame to be honest, as this would’ve provided a great opportunity for arts to be featured in the country’s leading newspapers, and is fantastic of an organisation as large as News International to partner with an arts body to show their concern over the state of the arts industry and the lack of attention it gets in mainstream media. While I see the commercial issues, I fail to see the problem, provided there is full transparency of the partnership and that news-worthy articles weren’t made exclusive to News International.

To be completely honest, the issue as raised by Smith seemed petty. The article read as if The Stage felt ACE weren’t playing with them and therefore toys needed to be thrown out of the proverbial pram. For me, it’s symptomatic of a spate of articles that I’ve read from The Stage recently where they seem to be far more interested in reporting on breaking stories, in an attempt to increase their self-importance than actually thinking about what they’re readership wants to read about. What results is something akin to local newspaper journalism and not something you’d expect from the nation’s only theatre trade publication.

My advice for what it’s worth (which may not be much) is that The Stage should go back to their community and ask them what they want to hear about, rather than attempting more hard-hitting, investigative journalism. There are stories and events out there specific to people within theatre that are begging to be covered (the recent Devoted and Disgruntled comes to mind…). Why not try and give them the coverage they deserve?

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Review: Du Goudron et des Plumes at the Barbican

January 31, 2011 in dance, Review | No comments

As the lights come up on this production, I was reminded of the last time I was sitting in the Barbican Theatre to see the dreadful Nearly 90, which I couldn’t even bring myself to write about considering I only sat through half of it. Again, I had booked the tickets without really knowing what this production was, as it was all part of the brilliant freeB scheme that I shall sadly no longer be able to partake in come next month. The past year I have seen absolute genius and absolute trite wankery on the Barbican Theatre stage, and as I investigated the show two days before I was worried that it may be the latter once again.

Du Goudron et des Plumes is a circus piece by Mathurin Bolze for Compagnie MPTA, and is playing at the Barbican as part of the London International Mime Festival. It’s roughly inspired by the classic novel Of Mice and Men and primarily takes place on a floating platform by five very elastic performers.

Very quickly after the floating platform rises from the stage and the performers start throwing themselves around the set, comprised of wooden planks slotted in to said platform, it becomes clear that this is fast falling into the genius category. Constantly sitting somewhere between acrobatics and dance, with some of the most amazing choreography I’ve seen (and not even in a dance piece!), Du Goudron et des Plumes keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The immensely clever use of set pieces, video and lighting are inspired. What’s more, you are constantly trying to follow the meaning behind all the action, which while never makes itself overtly clear, still remains gripping instead of falling into the trite wankery that these kind of pieces often do.

In essence, this is an exciting piece of theatre. It has all the wow factor of something like Cirque du Soleil, but with none of the pretense and what I’m guessing is a fraction of the budget. It tramples all over contemporary dance works like Nearly 90 and Come Been and Gone, without actually being a contemporary dance piece. It’s achingly beautiful and expertly performed. If only it had a longer season…

Du Goudron et des Plumes closed at the Barbican on the 29th January 2010.

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