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Classical & Jazz VIEW ARCHIVES
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The Endellion, those tough guys of the string quartet world, opened this year's music fest with a diverse programme of Elgar, Britten, Mozart and poems by Auden read by John Sessions. It made for ... |
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The Summer Music Festival finally got the first bit right: a warm summer evening. On came a young man in a lounge suit. He was Ashley Wass, a world-beating pianist with a wonderful line in self ... |
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The devil finds work for idle hands, so runs the proverb. This is something Tom Rakewell finds to his cost as sex, money and other tempations of the flesh lead him down the path to madness and death. ... |
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Take two of the most sublime pieces of music ever written, and perform them in one of the most exquisite architectural settings in Britain and you are already on the way to a success. Add beautiful, m... |
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Vienna was the theme of Cambridge Orchestra's first concert of the season but their programme was far removed from light-hearted waltzes. Under the colourful leadership of Darrell Davison, the ban... |
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A concert by the Sinfonia is always a special occasion - they are one of the best local orchestras; big sound and big heart. The packed house at West Road first heard a short but moving tribute to one... |
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You know you're at a special concert when there's a double dose of queuing - at the beginning and the end. West Road was packed for an extraordinary concert though the Britten band is never or... |
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If you paid for this concert by the note, it would have needed a lottery win to get in what with Beethoven's five-movement 6th Symphony and Prokofiev's torrent of minims and crotchets in his e... |
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Back in 1991 when this reviewer visited Lithuania, the country seemed depressed and exhausted after decades of Soviet oppression and mismanagement. The one bright spark was the country’s musical... |
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I can't believe how lucky we are to have the Britten Sinfonia on our doorstep. This amazing ensemble seems to grow from strength to musical strength drawing on amazing technical virtuosity and a p... |
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It's not often that you see orchestra member at the end of a concert, congratulating each other. And so they should have for this was an astonishingly good concert. The Sinfonia under its you... |
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How do they do it? Each Britten Sinfonia concert seems more exciting than the last and the latest offering at West Road was no exception. It was an evening of huge diversity and great virtuosity: four... |
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Cambridge University Opera Society’s (CUOS) Don Giovanni sets the 18th century tale of evil cad gets his comeuppance (or down-ance as he ends in hell), in a very modern world of paparazzi, neon-... |
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It was Frank Zappa who once said that “jazz isn’t dead, it just smells funny”. Well, there were certain moments the other Friday in Kettles’ Yard when the odour became decidedl... |
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Cambridge's 5-star orchestra was back at West Road with a programme that seemed more like a mini music festival than a single concert. Here was an embarrassment of aural riches with a central theme: r... |
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Mozart’s Don Giovanni is a strange opera: largely comic, with a bit of tragedy, and a generous serving of sheer weirdness thrown in at the end as the dastardly don is taken off to hell. These th... |
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It takes real nerve and immense talent to pull off a magisterial work such as Mahler's mighty 5th Symphony. It also takes astonishing confidence to pair that brooding and ultimately triumphant work wi... |
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Cinema VIEW ARCHIVES
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This third instalment of the saga of the lovable ogre begins with the newly-weds, Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz), filling-in for the ailing King of Far, Far Away (John Cleese). As he... |
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Die Hard 4.0 marks yet another attempt by the Hollywood machine to resurrect a successful but somewhat historic franchise featuring an aging star in the main role. Rocky Balboa took the concept and pr... |
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The fifth instalment of the Harry Potter phenomenon, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, directed by David Yates, a newcomer to the Harry Potter films, is definitely more adult than the previou... |
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Hairspray, the 2007 version, is a film based on a musical based on a film. So this is not a remake of John Waters 1988 cult classic starring Ricki Lake, but a celluloid version of the broadway musical... |
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When I come to write my autobiography it shall begin something like this; 'The first 32 years passed without incident. Then I saw Transformers in 2007 and my life was changed forever'. Serious... |
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It is rare that a film manages to captivate and charm in the initial production credits. But as the familiar 20th Century Fox logo was panned over with the “bah bad ahh, bah bah bah bah bad ahh&... |
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Based on a 2004 play by Alan Ayckbourn, one of the most prolific and widely performed of English language playwrights, this easy-paced adaptation is based in a wintry Paris and explores human relation... |
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The lights dim and it’s all aboard for this crazy 21st century Noah’s ark saga, as we join Steve Carell, currently Hollywood’s favourite comedy son, reprising his role from 2003&rsqu... |
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Brilliant Japanese animation Tales from Earthsea, from Studio Ghibli and directed by Goro Miyazaki, is a treat for older children, animation fans, and foreign film enthusiasts.The film is based o... |
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The summer season churns on at the multiplex; more sequels and trequels, more CGI-saturated blockbusters, more animated animals singing and flailing their way through tapdance routines. But don't ... |
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This is the cinematic equivalent of lighting a high-power repeater firework and having the director strap you to it before you can retreat to a safe distance. It’s insane and it’s the Bour... |
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The concept of the 'odd couple' has always been a popular one for Hollywood: take a pair of extremely mismatched characters, and throw them headlong into a situation in which they both need to... |
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Sure, Hallam Foe is charming to a tee, but in that meticulously messed-up and tousled indie way. Full of kooky details up to the rafters, it tries to look effortless, but in reality ends up far f... |
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Run, Fatboy, Run is a London-set romantic comedy starring man of the minute Simon Pegg, and directed, rather bizarrely, by ex-Friends actor David Schwimmer. It follows the tale of the unfortunately na... |
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Samuel L. Jackson, playing hotel manager Gerald Olin, leans conspiratorially inwards, dangles a key in the air and whispers, “It’s an evil… f***in’… room”. This i... |
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The audience collectively gasped. One moment in Atonement speaks volumes about the priorities of a British audience. Amidst the carnage of World War Two Dunkirk a memorably over-egged tracking shot cr... |
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Hollywood golden boys Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez recently embarked on a rather novel cinematic venture. Their aim was simple: pay homage to the trashy exploitation films of the 1970s and 8... |
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Following weeks of hype and rave reviews, I was expecting Superbad to be something more than just a puerile teenage comedy. The '70s kitsch opening titles, parodying the iPod adverts, were certain... |
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Something even worse than a terrible film is a film that has the potential to be great, but that squanders the opportunity, leaving you with a frustrating glimpse of what might have been and a sense o... |
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What the Polish delicatessen on Chesterton Road, Cambridge has in common with the latest Ken Loach film It’s a Free World is certainly not Pierogi, the popular Eastern European dumplings. Yet as... |
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New York firefighters, Chuck and Larry, are best friends and everyday heroes. When the recently widowed Larry (Kevin James) realises that, in the event of his death, his children will be left with not... |
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Lurking behind a somewhat uninspiring title hides the story of a law firm’s fixer who ends up with one too many irons in the fire. We already find Michael Clayton (George Clooney) an underpaid d... |
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Having watched the trailer, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was simply a late addition to this summer’s generous helping of Hollywood slapstick comedy. Instead, the film surprises by s... |
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Sicko is a great film with a dismal start. A predictably shocking gallery of horrors pushes too hard to make its initial point: a man who’s cut off his fingers with a buzz saw here, a couple for... |
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Building equally on legend and historical events, director Shekhar Kapur returns to Tudor times nine years after 1998’s Elizabeth. With Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush reprising their roles as ... |
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Created in response to the lack of African films showing at UK cinemas, the Cambridge African Film Festival is thriving. Now in its sixth edition the festival is themed this year around issues of gend... |
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The easiest way to describe this film is to imagine ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ without the weddings. It’s a character-driven funeral farce that draws a large proportion of it&rsqu... |
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Ignoring the recent media hype about protests against the film version of Brick Lane leaves one up against, well, a brick wall. Unshod of any controversy the film can be seen for what it really is: a ... |
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The cutting truth about The Darjeeling Limited is that the preceding short and prologue shown at film festival screenings, Hotel Chevalier, tells you all you need to know about director Wes Anderson&r... |
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Kenneth Branagh has attempted the impossible: to bring Mozart's great late opera, The Magic Flute to our cinemas and in his words, to reach a new audience. Does he succeed? Well, like the opera, i... |
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If the sight of Christopher Lambert selling guns from an ice-cream van appeals to you then watch this film. Otherwise it’s a case of Donnie Don’t. Southland Tales ranks as being one of the... |
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The kids will love it but a bit of a shrug will probably be most adults’ reaction to The Golden Compass, the big Christmas film this year. It’s not an unpleasant way to spend two hours yet... |
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Devotees of Gus Van Sant take note: he’s moved out of the shadow of his recent inspiration, Hungarian director Bela Tarr. After two riveting films (Gerry and Elephant) and one dull one (Last Day... |
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This Romanian Palme d’Or winner from 2007 will make you cry, laugh and then probably cry some more. A relentlessly dark yet farcical tale of a backstreet abortion in the last days of communism, ... |
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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly opens with a lengthy series of disorienting, flickering images, partial views and out-of-focus shots. It is strangely beautiful, but frustrating - and how much more s... |
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It’s positive - Juno’s a hit! Teen pregnancy dramas don’t need to be all doom-and-gloom especially when they have a script this sassy and a star in the making in the guise of Ellen P... |
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Love, loss and moving on give innumerable stories substance. Down-to-earth settings in a non-descript New York café and Las Vegas bar, characters with a gritty reality of ‘someone you mig... |
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A large percentage of cinema-goers who will see the Be Kind Rewind trailer before deciding to see the film will certainly be caught off-guard by this. What initially appears to be another plain old sl... |
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Hanging off the bones of the true story of the ‘Walkie Talkie Robbery’, The Bank Job covers the tale of a gang of petty thieves and their attempts to tunnel under a bank vault whilst a ham... |
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Take a generous handful of prosthetics, a liberal sprinkling of the C-word, and one bungled kidnapping, and what do you get? A genre-bending, average feature film working with a limited budget.&... |
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Ever wondered what variety of person uses life-sized, anatomically correct ‘love’ dolls? The answer according to Lars and the Real Girl would be shy yet cuddly bachelors capable of bringin... |
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Exposing the hurt of adolescence in a film is a mixed blessing. Get it right and a grown-up audience will be transported to a memory of such utter pain that the film will be declared a succe... |
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As the pun in the title indicates here is a film with two brothers who fundamentally don’t get along. One’s a fascist; the other’s a communist. In a word: discord. Such is the in-bui... |
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Navigating a conversation with Mike Leigh is a tricky proposition. Short of stature and with a beard, his eyes droop within a rounded head. Words like avuncular may have been created specially to desc... |
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"We are not a Super 8 Film Festival. We are a SUPERB short film festival where the films are shot in Super 8“, says Simon Mullen, filmmaker and one of the extremely enthusiastic organisers ... |
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Persepolis rocks! Quite simply it’s the most entertaining cartoon you are likely to see this year. Which is quite the achievement given the dry subject: recent Iranian history. Surging forward w... |
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Theatre VIEW ARCHIVES
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How in tarnish are those little critters from a primary school gonna bring off a grown up dude show like Oklahoma? The answer was 'brilliantly'. Bringing off this great Rodgers and Hammestein ... |
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Alan Plater's play with music certainly lit up a theatre that is normally dark. This rousing 1940s big band show certainly packed them into the Arts Theatre and disproved the hoary old notion... |
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Musicals about Frankenstein and his monster are thick on the ground. What else is there to be said (or sung)? Joined at the Heart, a new musical, promises at least one big first: the first musica... |
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Outdoor Shakespeare has become one of the required elements of a British summer, even one as damp and generally disappointing as this. Woodlands Court at Girton College was suitably open-air for Macbe... |
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Deadlock bills itself as a "shattering psychological thriller". Our own description would be something closer to "farcical comedy", but that isn't to say this is a bad play, si... |
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George Bernard Shaw's 1912 play is really packing them in at the Arts Theatre this week - and too bloody right! This is a cracker of a production that had the audience howling with laughter, clapp... |
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You know how it is with Shakespeare. You long for it and just before you go, you remember what that critic said about the Nutcracker: 'With each new Nutcracker we come closer to death'. With a... |
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It is a risky business to write a romantic comedy about a fictional master of romantic comedy theatre. All that navel gazing about what makes a great comedy work for the stage must surely reflect on t... |
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Alan Ayckbourn is the type of playwright who packs them in at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, and the opening night of How The Other Half Loves was no exception. Despite being somewhat younger than our qu... |
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Who wrote the plays of William Shakespeare? Was it really William Shakspar of Stratford-upon-Avon, under whose name certain plays appeared, but in whose background and education nothing seems to corre... |
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"Buy yourself something nice". This phrase, which could be the tagline of the Opera Group's new production, The Shops, can also be construed as a penetrating critique of consumerism and ... |
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I spent the first half of Cymbeline, presented by the Marlowe Society and directed by Trevor Nunn, wondering why it wasn't performed more often. The play seemed to have all the ingredients of many... |
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Shakespeare's Winter's Tale is a hard play to like - all that pastoral nonesense, the inexplicable jealousies and the madcap turns of plot. The director's job in this play is to make the w... |
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Euripides’ Medea is a problematic play. Medea, the ‘barbarian’ (that is, non-Greek) princess from Colchis, whom Jason fell in love with during his quest to capture the Go | |
