Culture Tiger

This autumn has seen one of the most highly anticipated classical dance events of the year - Carlos Acosta’s directorial debut for The Royal Ballet with his new production of Don Quixote. Acosta has previously directed his own shows, such as ‘Tocoroco - a Cuban Tale’, but in his fifteen years at The Royal Ballet this is a major first for the company.  Don Quixote is one of the happiest ballets around and Acosta has delivered a production full of lightness and humour with a re-orchestration of Ludwig Minkus's cheerful score by Martin Yates. Not only are the cast incredible dancers, who make single-handed lifts and thirty two fouettés look effortless, they are also good actors which emphasises the show’s charming quality. There’s passion and playfulness between Acosta and Marianela Nuñez as Basilio and Kitri as they tease, fall in love, bicker and make up all over again. Physical comedy is boundless with the likes of Christopher Saunders’ Don Quixote, his sidekick Sancho Panza play...

As a Londoner born and raised with family in the theatre business, I have long been familiar with Gaby’s Deli in the West End. Gaby’s is the place to go to for when I catch up with a friend over lunch (with inevitable copious amounts of house red) or for grabbing some dinner before heading off to see a film across the road. For animated social occasions or times alone with just a book for company, the atmosphere at Gaby’s always suits. Less than a minute’s walk from Leicester Square tube station and close to a number of theatres and other attractions, Gaby’s is popular amongst an eclectic array of customers including actors, local office workers, media types and tourists. Opened in 1964 and run by Gaby Elyahou, this cosy establishment, plastered with theatre posters old and new, is the epitome of comfort food for its many regulars. Reasonably priced and generous portions of Middle Eastern and European cuisine satisfy lunchtimes and pre-theatre meals such as the Salt Beef Special, m...

This summer saw Shanghai Ballet’s London debut with an adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, a novel often cited as being quintessentially English even though it has universal themes of love, betrayal and sacrifice. Choreographed by Patrick De Bana, this production transforms the story from heroine Jane’s autobiography to a love triangle which brings more focus on Rochester’s first wife and “mad woman in the attic” Bertha Mason. Rather than starting off with Jane’s traumatic childhood, the production begins with her arrival at Thornfield Hall which can confuse readers of the novel.The only reference given to Jane’s past is the ghost of her friend Helen who jaggedly circles around her during moments of solitude. Patrick De Bana states that he was drawn to the character of Bertha and that was apparent in the choreography for the role as masterfully played by Fan Xiaofeng - passionate, vulnerable and with a growing sense of heartbreak, moving quickly en pointe like a angry moth ...

www.stjamestheatre.co.uk Oliver Reed - actor, prolific boozer and professional hellraiser - had a life and career so talked about to the point where he became like a mythical ancient god found in fables of romp and drama. Even if you know nothing about the drinks and the punch ups, Reed’s film roles showed a one-off individual who left a lasting impression. My first introduction to “Ollie” Reed was in Oliver! as brutal criminal Bill Sykes - a dark scary presence amongst the gaiety of ‘Oom-pah-pah’. For other audiences, a first Reed experience could have been 'Women in Love', which bore the first ever male full frontal nude scene in British cinema, or the heavily censored 'The Devils' with its explicit themes of sex, violence and religion.

Next week the Edinburgh Fringe kicks off with thousands of performers, established and new, giving it their all on one of many stages all over the city. There will be so much to see at Europe’s largest cultural festival so here’s a little tip from me - Whatever you do at the Fringe, go and see The Paper Cinema! Founded in 2004,The Paper Cinema creates live animation with elaborate ink and pen drawn paper puppets accompanied by live music and special effects. Earlier this week I rocked up to the Battersea Arts Centre to check out The Paper Cinema’s production of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’. Projected onto a screen, there are individual puppets and settings for every single scene. The characters and their surroundings become multidimensional through the painstaking manoeuvres of the puppeteers. Scenes, such as Odysseus sailing away while Penelope watches in the foreground or Odysseus and his crew running from the Cyclops with the latter’s gigantic feet crashing around them and trees speedi...

Last night I went to see the much-talked about Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet production of Roland Petit’s 1975 version of Coppélia at The Coliseum. The evening I chose to attend the show may have had a calmer atmosphere compared to the previous night which had a certain sensational bad boy in its cast. Semyon Velichko played Frantz, the boy enraptured by the life-like doll of the ballet’s title, with carefree charm and boyish swagger embodied in his leaps and facial expressions. As the real true love of Frantz, Natalia Somova’s Swanhilda was portrayed with sassiness and wit in her attempt to win back the silly doll-obsessed Frantz. The interactions between the two principles were both sexy and farcical.

This week has been a particularly thrilling one with the semi finals of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest from Malmö leading up to tonight’s grand final. On Tuesday night, viewers were stunned by a kilt-wearing giant carrying Ukraine’s Zlata Ognevich onto a rock, bedazzled by Ireland’s tattooed topless drummers and left aghast by Montenegrin dubstep astronauts failing to quality for the final. On Thursday, theatricality and drama were cranked up to the max with high pitched pop opera by a vampire cloak-clad Cezar from Romania and a dancer in a glass case mirroring the moves of Azerbaijan’s Farid Mammadov. This year’s contest will be a vintage year for Eurovision - viewers playing Eurovision-themed drinking games, such as a drink per smoke machine or folk musical instrument, will be pickled like gherkins.