Week 42

Britain's gone crazy over The King's Speech. I was so excited when I saw a trailer for it last year and couldn't wait to see it. Finally in my busy diary there was an easy week and on Wednesday we braved the crowds in the cinema. Please note, that in the UK Wednesday is a 2-4-1 night in cinemas, so they always are packed, as people take advantage of a good deal. But this week the queue was extra long in Islington Vue and as we were midway they announced that all showings were sold out. Instead of a movie we headed for a pub (a wonderful Angelic on Liverpool Road).

Saturday night at home is a sad thing, so we rushed off to the cinema. Well, King's Speech was again sold out, which is actually not that surprising – all the middle class royalists in Muswell Hill came in droves to see Colin Firth stammering. But all films were sold out for the night! And so we find ourselves in Blockbuster across the road – the most depressing store on the high street. There are lots of third rate comedies and action movies with never-heard-of heroes. We settled on It's Complicated staring Meryl Streep. The trailer looked fun, yet I heard critics slating it. But what do they know – Meryl Streep doesn't do kaka! Unfortunately, this was kaka, so boring with one or two laughs. This is a sort of movie my boss loves – no offence, no deeper meaning, no sense and a happy ending.

That was all this week. But I have some goodies waiting next week.

Week 41 - When We Are Married; Becky Shaw; BBC SO

One of the first plays which took me aback was Time and the Conways at the National a few years ago. It is written by J.B. Priestley and since then I always try to see his production on London stage. However, none have yet repeated the awe inspiring feeling. The same applies to When We Are Married currently running at the Garrick Theatre. It did have some good laughs and an amazing set on stage, but the play didn't touch my heart. The cast contained lots of 'local celebrities' (I didn't recognized anyone) who performed well, but boozy singing and old men acting drunk diminished the comedy element. 

A much better, actually superb, evening was spent at the Almeida in Islington. After the UK première of Becky Shaw, a satire of contemporary American life, I was left with a feeling equal to that after Time and the Conways long time ago. The action was fast, the characters sarcastic and the ending unpredictable – a perfect recipe for a great modern play.

The week finished with a great concert by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. I am always careful with this SO, as they play a lot contemporary and unknown music to me and very often their concerts can be dull. This weekend the programme sounded like it could one of those. However, it was an evening of discovery and beautiful moving music. They played de Falla, Piazzolla and Ginastera creations. These three composers are from Argentina and Spain and their music contains many ingredients of the southern cultures. I particularly enjoyed Ginastera's Estancia dances, which the orchestra played with real passion. 

Week 40 - Deathtrap; Gauguin; Diaghilev

The major autumn gallery shows end in the begging of January and last week I had a lot of catching up to do. On the bank holiday we went to the Tate Modern to see Paul Gauguin, Maker of Myth. A big mistake – not only the end of exhibition, but also a bank holiday means an immense amount of people. A queue to see every painting and by the time you reach the last room you don't really care what's on the wall. All you want is to escape. That could be my New Year's resolution – not to leave until last minute to see exhibitions. Anyway, back to Gauguin. His paintings are pleasant on the eye but none of them struck me as masterpieces. Actually, I wouldn't hang them on my walls. His praised paintings from Tahiti tell a false tale of contemporary times as they illustrate pagan rituals and myths, although at that time Tahiti was already a Christian country.

At the V&A the last days of exhibition on Diaghilev's talents also draw in massive crowds. When Diaghilev started his celebrated Ballet Russes in Paris in 1908, he transformed the world of dance. The exhibition features the costumes, the brochures, the sets and everything looks so luxurious and exotic even to today's audience eyes. The impresario worked with the biggest names of those days – Stravinski, Chanel, Picasso, Satie. After the Great War, when the dance company struggled financially, their annual summer residence in London would provide enough funds for new productions. The crowds at the V&A prove that the British are fascinated with the Russian culture now as much as they were in Diaghilev's days.

Deathtrap is also ending its run at the Noel Coward theatre and I am so happy I managed to get tickets for this comedy thriller with as many twists as laughs in it. The laughs were provided by the magnificent Simon Russell Beale acting and the twists by Ira Levin's writing. 

Week 39 - Cinderella; Crazy for Gershwin

Matthew Bourne's Cinderella at Sadler's Wells was a great start to 2011. It was a characteristic Bourne's piece – lots of twists on the plot and fabulous decorations. Just a few examples of the plot twists – the action takes place in the London Blitz, Cinderella in addition to her sisters also has three brothers and her soldier finds her in hospital, not by trying the shoe on every girls' feet. The godmother became a shiny white haired mischievous man, who looked quite off-putting. There were a few fantastic dance movements and clever ideas. For instance, I didn't know there are so many ways to illustrate a clock with the human body. Unfortunately, there also were lots of miming. In fact, the third act was just that. When the lovers found each other, I was expecting a grand love dance, but we just got some flapping on the stage. 

During the festive period we had a chance to experience some pop classical music. Critics might dismiss his productions but Raymond Gubbay is a brilliant impresario in bringing classical music to the masses . Crazy for Gershwin at his annual Christmas Festival at the Barbican was a prime example of his talent to please the people. The crowd was mainly the Daily Mail readers with the best of perm hair and fleece jumpers. On the stage a big band played while some second rate singers and dancers tried to impress the crowd. I do love Gershwin, but all this seemed over the top and spoiled the music. Credit is due to Mr Gubbay for getting the people to the concert halls, but for me this experience was enough and I will keep avoiding his productions. 

The Review of the Year 2010

Oh, what a year it was! I don't think I will ever again have such a packed cultural year, sometimes an event a day. It's been a true pleasure and here are my best of the best:

Venue of the year must be the Barbican. Not every production there is great, but their generous schemes allow to broaden the mind with international theatre and abundance of classical music. And of course, I love the architecture with its mixture of ancient and brutalist.

I must agree with most critics that the National and the Royal Court had superb year with nearly every production on top form and I was lucky enough to catch most of them. Just a few to mention – London Assurance was the funniest play I have ever seen, Laura Wade's Posh explained the roots of the current political establishment, Clybourne Park talked about race like no one before.

The discovery of the year belongs to the National Gallery for it's guided tours – can't get enough of them.

War Horse and Secret Cinema disappointed the most. Secret Cinema is such a great idea, but they outgrew themselves and became a massive disorganised money spinning machine. The puppets at the War Horse were impressive, but the story and everything else is as ordinary as anything in the West End.

In the art galleries I most enjoyed the splendid Treasures from Budapest at the Royal Academy of Arts and Van Doesburg and the International Avant-Garde at the Tate Modern. While I visited my friend Sima in Rome in February, we saw a fantastic retrospective of Caravaggio's work. When she came over to London, we both loved something a bit more modern – a survey of designer Ron Arad's work at the Barbican. 

My books of the year are Ian McEwan's Amsterdam and Colm Toibin's Brooklyn. One Day by Davis Nicholls was charming and funny and sad – a guilty pleasure. 

Week 38

As the festive period is in full swing, not much time left for culture when you have all those parties to attend. Nevertheless, I found some time in my packed diary for the brilliant Les Parents Terribles at the Trafalgar Studios, part of Donmar's West End season. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much. The main lead acted by Francis Barber was fantastic. Barber’s Yvonne is a Parisian bourgeois mother with Oedipal syndrome - her son Mikey is her life. However, he is 22, falls in love and is ready to leave the gypsy caravan, as their home is known. The twist is that father, a failed scientist, had an affair with the same girl. All the secrets and scheming is conducted by Yvonne’s sister, whose precision and love for order contrasts with the mess in everyday life of this family. The playwright Jean Cocteau created Les Parents Terribles in 1938 and borrowed many devices from Chekhov and Molière. Originally the play caused an outrage and even in this modern production the family looks sinful.

Another week, another prize winner book. This week I read Anita Brookner's 1984 Booker prize winner Hotel du Lac. A lyric little story how a woman in her late thirties escapes London to a sleepy Swiss resort and solves her unimportant problems. I appreciated Brookner’s style, but there was so little action and I couldn’t feel sorry for any of the upper middle class characters. Thinking about it, out of all Booker prize winners I read, only a few were great. Mostly the winners are quite mediocre… but maybe it’s just my taste.

Week 37

The winner of the Nobel Literature prize for 2009 is Herta Müller and last week I read one of her books. I never heard of her and the Nobel prize is great to publicise unknown yet brilliant writers. Müller was born in Romania, but spent most of her life in Germany. Even so, her books mostly portrait the grim reality of Nicolae Ceauşescu's regime. The Appointment is not an exception. The book concentrates on a young woman's day while she travels to her appointment with secret police. She was summoned because of sewing notes into the pockets of suits bound for Italy asking recipients to marry her so she could escape the country. The narrative flashes back to her earlier life and little by little we found out about her family, two marriages and friendships. Müller writes like a spider mites its web – unseamlessly the action moves from now and here to the past and memories. The book is a good illustration of people's capability to live with a mad regime. 

After the Royal Festival Hall reopened to the public after £111m refurbishment in 2007 I saw Carmen in there, but it was so long ago and I sat so high up with the gods, I forgot how beautiful it is inside. The hall is very spacious and decorated in white, which looks quite minimalistic and clean. The side walls are covered with wavy balconies which to my eyes are the most elegant circle in London theatres and halls. Thanks to the interior of the hall I had something to concentrate on, as the concert by the Philharmonia Orchestra was rather boring. A safe choice of Schuman's symphony left the public unmoved, although it as very impressive how the conductor Christoph von Dohnányi lead the orchestra without notes – he had it all in his head.

Week 36 - Another Year; Treasures from Budapest

I haven't been to cinema for ages, so it was great to watch a movie on a big screen last week, not on our tiny TV. Mike Leigh is one of my favourite directors and his latest feature Another Year has all his trademark attributes. At the centre of the story is Tom and Gerri, a content family of a geologist and councillor living in London suburb and spending weekends in their allotment. Actually, their life seems so idyllic, that it is unreal. Throughout the year various relatives and friends visit their house and most of their lives are grim – much unhappiness, loneliness and overeating. However, for me the friends seemed realistic and human, whereas Tom and Gerry's life was too ordered. The repeated visitor is Gerri's collogue Mary. In her fifties and single, she is putting a brave face and also smiling, but we see that in her friend's home she finds desperately needed company and warmth. The characters are at times too stereotyped and the pace could be slow. It is not the greatest of Leigh's films, but nevertheless, enjoyable. 

Treasures from Budapest at the Royal Academy contains some true jewels from the Hungary's Museum of Fine Arts. When one thinks about cities with immense art collection, Paris, Viena and Berlin come to mind, not the smaller states in Central Europe. How surprising to discover that Budapest has a museum to compete on global art tourism market. The collection was started by Esterhazys dynasty, whose members collected art through centuries and donated it to the nation. In London exhibition we are invited to the tour from 14C religious art to 21C modernists. Raphael's icons, da Vinci drawings, Rembrandt's portraits, impressionists and many unseen paintings by Hungarian artists – they all here. How much more treasures were left in Budapest? 

Week 35

Everything's connected. A few weeks ago I read Omega Point by Don DeLillo, in which a character is a film maker. He mentions a movie entirely filmed in one shot and that caught my interest. The film is Russian Ark directed by Alexander Sokurov and released in 2002. It is a poetic excursion around the Hermitage seen through the eyes of the Traveller. He is accompanied by the European. The couple walk from room to room and meet many of the former palace residents (amongst other Catherine the Great and the last Russian tsar Nicholas II). They encounter not only historical figures but also today's tourists. So not much actions here, but what you get more than enough is preaching to the Russians by the European. It all does look poetic, but to the point of being boring. One is left with the notion that the director first thought of creating a film in a single shot and only then decided on the story. All in all, Russian Ark is an appreciative yet failed attempt to create a milestone in cinematography.

The final scene of the movie has a massive ball with live orchestra. It was great to recognise the conductor as Valery Gergiev from the many LSO concerts seen in the Barbican hall. Everything is connected. 

Week 34 - Novecento; Blasted

Some years ago I lived through an Alessandro Baricco phase, reading most of his translated works. Looking back now, I don't think this Italian writer is that great. Nevertheless, a sensation of nostalgia and excitement rippled through me once I got the tickets to his monologue Novecento at the Trafalgar Studios. Novecento is about a great pianist who was born on a liner to America and never set a foot on terra firma. The storyteller is his friend, a fellow musician who is played by Mark Bonnar. Bonnar pulls off the performance well and the one and a half hour flies by, although at times there is too much details and explanations. 

Disturbing. A perfect word to describe Blasted by Sarah Kane revived at the Hammersmith Lyric. Among other cruelties, there is rape, cannibalism and abuse graphically shown on the stage. But the play is disturbing because it leaves you with a wide range of questions. Some are rather technical – What did the playwright mean? Where is the play set? When? What links the characters? And others are philosophical – What is the point of war? What does it mean to be human? What are the limits of love? The play starts with a man and a teenage girl in a plush hotel room. The next morning we find out that there is a war. Maybe it's in the Balkans (but both characters are clearly British)? The hotel room is blasted by the bomb and the man struggles to survive with a soldier. That is the plot in the nutshell. Confusing and disturbing, but it was an interesting form of escapism. It doesn't have to be all West End and happiness, one can escape to hell to appreciated the reality. 

Also this week saw Shun-Kin by Complicite at the Barbican.