American playwright Annie Baker has been dividing audience opinion since she wrote the three hour long, Pulitzer prize-winning The Flick, which was critically acclaimed but apparently had some audience members walking out in boredom. Ms Baker tends to write a lack of dialogue that puts Pinter’s pauses to shame. I went into John, her new three-hour production at the National Theatre, expecting a long, tedious evening. Instead I was completely mesmerised and could not wait to see what happened next.

John is set in a bed and breakfast and also deals with guests interacting with their hosts. However, the similarity ends there as John is a much more humane and spiritual tale about relationships and how we connect with the people in our lives. Mertis runs a bed and breakfast on the outskirts of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania which could be considered quaint if it weren’t for all the dolls lining the walls, staircases and any nook that can be found. A Christmas tree is already displayed despite it being only one week after Thanksgiving. The breakfast area is named Paris, and decorated like a French café with croissants for breakfast. Into this strange world comes Jenny and Elias, a young couple from Brooklyn who are stopping over on their way from Ohio. We sense from the start that all is not right, as prickly Elias seems to be constantly picking an argument with Jenny, yelling at her from upstairs, or demanding to know if she hates his loud eating and then accusing her of anti-Semitism. He is intent on seeing all the historical sites Gettysburg has to offer, while Jenny has to duck out due to debilitating period pains. After an aborted trip around the town, Elias goes off on a ghost tour of a cemetery, leaving Jenny alone with the sympathetic but unusual Mertis. It is at this point that we start to learn more about who these people are. Mertis has a husband, George, whom we never see, as he is too ill, of what we never find out. Jenny writes questions for a quiz show. Mertis kindly invites Jenny to join her for dinner with her blind friend Genevieve. After much wine is drunk, more revelations emerge, but always eked out throughout the play, emerging naturally as the characters eventually feel like revealing them.

Although it sounds like not much happens, everything happens as we discover the truth about Elias and Jenny’s relationship, hear about her dread fear of her childhood doll Samantha, a replica of which sits on a shelf in the bed and breakfast. Mertis asks both Elias and Jenny separately if they ever feel watched, to which they both have very different responses. This is a house which may be haunted, as Christmas tree lights mysteriously turn on and off and a player piano spontaneously bursts into song. And why won’t Mertis let the young couple sleep in the Jackson room?

The cast are nothing less than extraordinary. American actress Marylouise Burke who plays Mertis is a highly-experienced stage performer who is completely unknown here but won’t be after this. She embodies the elderly and quirky Mertis so completely in her every move and slightly sing song way of speaking. We are fascinated watching her slowly climb the stairs or set breakfast, happy in her routines, yet clearly harbouring so much more beneath the surface. June Watson is superb as the caustic and outspoken Genevieve, who may be a bit psychotic or a bit psychic, it’s never clear which, but it is unimportant to her friendship with Mertis who accepts her as she is. Tom Motherdale as Elias and Anneika Rose as Jenny were also excellent, inhabiting the moments of silence as much as the words in their painful interactions with each other.

This production feels like an interactive experience where the audience is totally immersed in the world of the play, drawn in bit by bit through clues about the characters’ lives, droplets of information said in passing or blurted out suddenly. This is theatre at its finest, don’t miss it.

To book tickets click here or call 020 7452 3000.

Reviewed by Lydia Parker.

Image: JOHN (Anneika Rose as Jenny and Tom Mothersdale as Elias). Image by Stephen Cummiskey.

Make a date with history as 2018 Britain celebrates a bevy of famous birthdays and anniversaries. 

Classical music lovers will be saluting the 350th birthday of Baroque composer Francois Couperin, the 200th birthday of Romantic era’s Claude Debussy and the centenary of American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story, Candide), as well as that of his peerless choreographic collaborator, Jerome Robbins.

Rock and pop fans will fete Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus as they turn 25, Kylie Minogue, Bono, Will Smith and Shaggy at 50, Madonna at 60, and Mick Jagger, the grand old man of rock, who will be 75. We’ll be fondly remembering the late Prince and Michael Jackson; both would have turned 60 this year.

Two hundred years ago, in 1818, young author Mary Shelley gave life to Frankenstein’s monster. Feel free to honour the occasion by re-reading her novel, taking part in Dorset’s Shelley-Frankenstein Festival, or seeing for yourself how the story’s been changed— just a titch— in Mel Brooks’ hilarious West End musical, Young Frankenstein.

2018 also marks 100 years since women in Britain first gained the right to vote. Amongst many centenary events saluting Women’s Suffrage will be a major exhibition at the Houses of Parliament, a feminist film season at Barbican Cinema and Old Vic Theatre’s world premiere of Sylvia, a dance, hip-hop, soul and funk modern musical celebrating the life of Sylvia Pankhurst and her pivotal role in the passionate campaign for women’s rights.

Last but by no means least, 1968—50 years ago— was a landmark year at the movies, release year for a feast of films now considered classics: Oliver, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Odd Couple, Funny Girl, Yellow Submarine, Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang and Rosemary’s Baby, to name a diverse handful. Expect no shortage of Golden Anniversary screenings, fan events and limited-edition merchandise for each.

2001: A Space Odyssey, will be particularly honoured. It was groundbreaking at the time and is still widely considered the best sci-fi movie ever made, with astonishing cinematography and music, Oscar-winning special effects and memorable back-talking computer, Hal. Diehard fans certainly won’t want to miss The Southbank Centre’s exciting anniversary screening in April with live orchestra.

Further information: oldvictheatre.com barbican.org.uk ukvote100.org

Article by Judith Schrut.  Contact Judith via her website

A Spectacular Audio-Visual Experience at the V&A: The Sounds of Music at the V&A

Article by Jenny Kingsley email

Since the tragedy of 9/11, when two planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City, there have been many literary, visual and performing arts responses to the day. What did the people trapped inside do and think when they became aware of the unfathomable threat that could end their lives? One such response to 9/11 is the opera Between Worlds, which was performed at the Barbican two years ago. Tansy Davies composed the music; Nick Drake wrote the libretto. The opera takes place for the most part inside the north tower on September 11, covering the time before dawn until the end of the day, by which time both towers had collapsed. Music, song and design are interwoven to create imagined scenes with people expressing their gnawing, desperate need to make contact with their loved ones. They want to be sure that if they die, a loving, enduring spirit will follow in their wake, rather than angst. Looking up, people on the ground, the ‘chorus’, share the captives’ sense of helplessness. Horror is eating them up, too.

Most people think opera is stuffy, elitist, for pompous connoisseurs, obsessed with ego-centric characters and their silly dalliances, adorned in expensive costumery, singing in front of sumptuous sets. Why do people spend so much on flummery? Between Worlds shows how relevant opera can be to our inner and exterior lives; each of us can relate, personally, to the sorrow, grief, fear, love and life experiences of the people in the towers. The tales of the doomed and the grievers could be our stories.

Indeed, there are many historical and contemporary operas that will resonate with all of us; and if, as a scathing critic, you visit the exhibition, Opera: Passion, Power and Politics at the Victoria & Albert Museum (until 28 February 2017), curated in collaboration with the Royal Opera House (ROH), you could find yourself thereafter a frequent member of the audience, listening to opera on Spotify while you are at the computer, or singing arias to yourself as the bath water turns cold. Opera could very well become part of your life.

The exhibition encompasses a collage of visual and performing art (more than 300 operatic objects are on view); it is not just a series of galleries with pretty pictures and explanatory, jargon filled panels. We see – and hear - how music, singing, lighting, set design, graphics, fashion, painting, drawing, printing, sculpture, jewellery making and carpentry work together to bring opera into being. Operatic excerpts and commentary on the audio guide (more a soundtrack than just a guide) enrapture us as we travel through the galleries learning about 400 years of operatic history. Each gallery focuses on a city and an opera that premiered in the city. When the exhibition was in the making, the then director of the ROH, Kasper Holten, determined that the “exhibition will show us opera as the soundtrack to the history of Europe. We hope to show audiences, both those in love with opera already and those who are still missing out, that the art form is alive and kicking and has as much to say to the society around today as it did 400 years ago”.

First we visit Venice in 1642 and explore the premiere of Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea. This tells the story, set in the first century AD, of the Emperor Nero’s infatuation with the beautiful Poppea who tries to make him divorce his wife and make her the Empress of Rome. The challenges of love, lust, greed, immorality, morality and betrayal vie with each other in an intriguing tale, which could be transposed to the pages of the tabloid press of 2017. We then venture in 1711 to London where we learn about Handel’s Rinaldo, the first Italian opera created for the English stage. It was set during the Crusades. This gallery displays somewhat hostile reviews in The Spectator magazine at the time of the opera’s premiere, yet the public loved the opera, in spite of the journal’s derisiveness, for its pageantry. In Vienna, we encounter Mozart’s comic opera, The Marriage of Figaro, premiered in 1786. The opera pokes fun at the arrogance of the aristocracy at the time and their presumption that they had the right to take advantage of the ‘lower orders’; the droit du seigneur is quite an issue here. Are there parallels with parliamentary behaviour today? In 1842, Milan welcomes Verdi’s Nabucco, a biblical story about the plight of the Jews as they are exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II. The narrative stirs reflection upon the plight of endangered exiles and conflicts in the Middle East in our times. Visiting Paris, we greet Wagner’s Tannhauser in 1861, a tale of lust culminating in damnation. Audiences did not appreciate the opera to say the least; maybe it made them feel uncomfortable. Wagner withdrew the work and despised Paris ever after. The once-scandalous Richard Strauss’ Salome, a setting of an Oscar Wilde play, premiered in Dresden in 1905. In St Petersburg, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk made its debut. It tells the story of a lonely woman in 19th-century Russia who falls in love with one of her husband's workers and is driven to murder. Stalin suppressed the opera two years after it premiered in 1934. In a newspaper, Stalin attacked Shostakovich for “trifling with difficult matters”…The opera, he wrote, was an “ugly flood of confusing sound”. Its themes of oppressive social surroundings and conventional mores and depiction of the Gulag challenged the righteousness of Stalin the omnipotent.

As we move from city to city we see pass opera related exhibits such as the amended and re-amended notes on Handel’s original score for Rinaldo, costume armour for the opera’s Crusaders, and a working, mechanised, colourful replica of a Baroque theatre, where mermaids in Rinaldo sing as we watch a ship pitching through a stormy sea before the clouds part and it reaches safety. Mozart’s own piano is displayed. The material from the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsenck includes Shostakovich’s autograph score, costume and set designs, posters and programmes. Archive footage reveals Shostakovich playing the music for Act III feverishly on the piano. We see Salvador Dali’s costume designs for Salome and opera related paintings by Manet and Degas. In a closing section we watch excerpts from 20th century operas, such as Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Einstein on the Beach, composed by Philip Glass, screened on the walls.

Would the exhibition be too ‘grown up’ for young children, those perhaps under 11? The music and artistic artefacts would undoubtedly appeal to anyone of any age. Would the large screen extract from George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, revealing domestic brutality, disturb? Given what children are exposed to by social media and television, and the prettified violence of fairy tales and children’s novels, it is debatable how affecting it would be. Think deeply! On a more benign note, young people studying music would be fascinated by the exhibition, mesmerised, appreciating how the power and vigour of both the libretto and the music relate to each other.

There are operas written especially for children, which are enjoyed by so-called adults, too. Recently, the company OperaUpClose commissioned and staged an enchanting opera, Ulla’s Odyssey. Homer’s Odyssey inspired Ulla’s, which grapples judiciously with contemporary issues such as climate change and female leadership. The audience, toddlers included, hailed the work with a standing ovation. Indeed, OperaUpClose Close is dedicated to increasing awareness and appreciation on of opera among the population at large. It presents contemporary and historic operas, in English, which are transposed to modern settings. The artistic director, Robin Norton-Hale, notes that 82% of the audience attending Ulla’s Odyssey at Kings Place were seeing their first opera, and “a staggering 92% of that group told us that they will now definitely see another opera in the future”. Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, for three adults and ninety children, The Firemaker’s Daughter, composed by David Bruce, which is based on the same named children’s novel by Philip Pullman, Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck and Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen are several of the most highly acclaimed and endearing operas for children.

Enlivening and enriching, the exhibition is living proof that opera is for each and every one of us, not just for ‘them’. Take deep breaths before you start singing about its wonders so that your voice will be all the more potent.

For further information, please visit www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/opera

Photograph credits:  

Ulla's Odyssey, OperaUpClose, Kings Place, Sarah Minns, Photo by Christopher Tribble  (photo with hand in air)

Ulla's Odyssey, OperaUpClose, Kings Place, Edward Hughes, Flora McIntosh, Sara Minns and Pamela Hay, Photo by Christopher Tribble  (photo in boat)

From the world’s greatest classical musicians to young artists making their debut, Wigmore Hall’s 2017/18 Season promises to be accessible to more people than ever before.

Situated in the heart of Marylebone, London’s Wigmore Hall is a unique venue to experience exceptional performances, set apart from other concert venues by the clarity of the acoustic in the iconic and intimate auditorium. Nowhere else in London can you get as up close and personal to the performers and musicians. If it is your first time visiting, or your five-hundredth time, the 2017/18 Season is packed with something for every musical taste.

In announcing Wigmore Hall’s 2017/18 Season John Gilhooly, Director of Wigmore Hall, who is responsible for all areas of the Hall’s programming, commented: “Our partnerships with artists have never been stronger. Musicians love the atmosphere in the Hall, they love the intimacy, they love being able to communicate with everyone in the audience. This is reflected in the number of projects they are prepared to take on specifically for Wigmore Hall. Everyone at Wigmore Hall is deeply grateful to our many supporters who enable us to present such a rich, diverse and adventurous programme and for making all artists feel like they’re returning home”.

Wigmore Hall has a strong history of supporting and profiling American classical artists. In past seasons the likes of mezzo- soprano Susan Graham and the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Centre have taken to the Wigmore stage. 2017/18 Season will be no different as the Hall is pleased to welcome some of the greatest American performers in the industry.

Joyce DiDonato, the acclaimed mezzo- soprano, will be performing a programme of Strauss and Debussy at Wigmore Hall this autumn, alongside the Brentano String Quartet. DiDonato will also be performing a piece written specifically for her by the American composer Jake Heggie that responds to the creative genius and tragic end of Rodin’s muse and lover Camille Claudel. DiDonato’s artistry and consummate professionalism promises to enthral the audience, and she will be sharing her experience and wisdom in a Masterclass a few days earlier.

Violinist Joshua Bell stands among today’s great performers. He is renowned for impassioned music making and will be in London this season with the musicians of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Bell and the ASMF are uniting further in a performance at Wigmore Hall that will show the clarity and beauty of works by Bach and Tchaikovsky.

Wigmore Hall welcomes the best of all instrumental performances and have a strong Jazz programme. For the last season, Jazz pianist, bandleader and composer Vijay Iyer has held a residency at the Hall. In the final concert of his series, Vijay is expanding his classic Trio with three great horn players to build the Vijay Iyer Sextet, for a concert not to miss. The extraordinary Dianne Reeves takes to the stage in March when she will be performing works from her GRAMMY Award- winning albums.

Whatever your interest or experience of chamber music, there is something for every taste at Wigmore Hall.

Click here to see what's on at Wigmore Hall this season.

Support Wigmore Hall

American Friends of Wigmore Hall was set up to strengthen classical music ties between the UK and the US. Funded by its membership, the organisation supports American artists and projects on both sides of the Atlantic, with a preference for those where there is a connection with Wigmore Hall.

If you would like to support chamber music and song and international musical partnerships, please consider making a donation to American Friends of Wigmore Hall.

American Friends of Wigmore Hall is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organisation (TIN 30-0125674). Donations to it are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

For more information please contact: Marie-Hélène Osterweil President of American Friends of Wigmore Hall - email americanfriends@wigmore-hall.org.uk or call +44 (0)20 7258 8220

Judith Schrut goes behind the red canopy on a Covent Garden back street to meet the folks be ind Joe Allen, as the iconic restaurant marks  40 memorable years as an American on the London scene.

What brought Joe Allen to Britain?

It was the mid-1970s.The real Joe Allen, who ran his eponymous restaurant in NewYork, recognised the keen British taste for Americana. He wanted to offer something beyond burgers, a more sophisticated feel. That came together with a chance to buy property cheap in Covent Garden, which at that time was run down and off the beaten track. He saw the opportunity for something unique.

How has Joe’s made its mark?

From the beginning Joe’s has gone out of its way not to be an American food or theme restaurant, but American-style dining, meaning a relaxed place for a great pre-or post-theatre experience and atmosphere, a solid menu, fabulous cocktails, and real cheesecake. And Joe’s rejected the class system and instead embraced London’s diversity way before it was openly acceptable to do so. When Joe’s opened it was the only place in London where you could be sitting next to a punk on one side and a suited City boy on the other. We’ve also been the starting point for loads of amazing young chefs and people who became key players on the UK restaurant scene, who helped re-define eating out in London. Rowley Leigh, Russell Norman and Jeremy King are all famous alumni. But it’s a myth that Graham Norton once worked here as a waiter!

What keeps Joe’s going after 40 years? What’s changed and what’s stayed the same?

Loyalty plays a key part of Joe’s longevity on the ever-changing London restaurant scene. Current owners Lawrence Hartley and Tim Healy, who took over 5 years ago, are both experienced and successful restaurateurs. But, more importantly, both cherish fond memories of visits to Joe Allen in their youth, and care deeply about its heritage. Joe’s has always relied on truly loyal staff, some of whom have been with us a very long time. Like Cathy, our general manager, who has worked here for over 25 years.

The London food scene has changed enormously since 1977- the sheer number of restaurants and the boom in quality and choice, for example- but Joe Allen just keeps going like it’s always been. We still have live piano every night, brunch on Sunday, and a traditional turkey dinner at Thanksgiving.

Tell us about a memorable moment at Joe’s.

On Joe’s opening day, 14 January 1977, a smash hit new musical called Chorus Line had recently opened at nearby Drury Lane Theatre. The show’s stars came and high-kicked their way down the stairs and across the bar to the show’s hit tune, Singular Sensation. Since then we’ve had many stars dancing on the bar or playing the piano. Peter Cook and Richard Harris singing, drunkenly, round the piano, was a pretty memorable moment for us.

You’ve had quite a few notable diners over the years. Why did they come?

Indeed, anybody who is anybody has been here. You can see their pictures on the walls. Rock Hudson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Wagner, and Stephen Sondheim, to name a few. They’d expect to sit at one of the tables along the far wall, known as “the Fifties”. Chita Rivera practically lived here when she visited London. Elaine Stritch had her own table. Kenneth Williams would always sit in the corner table and snipe at people. People came to be seen— not particularly for the food— which could be a bit wounding for the chefs! Joe’s has always been a place to relax and feel comfortable. Theatre people, especially Americans playing the West End, would come here after a show, dressed in jeans or no makeup, for down time, to feel home from home. They could bring their lovers, boyfriends, mistresses, knowing Joe’s firm policy: “we don’t kiss and we don’t tell”.

Your pianist Jimmy was a legend, wasn’t he?

The great Jimmy Hardwick was our pianist for 37 years, the longest serving house pianist anywhere. He played 6 nights a week from our opening night till the day he died, aged 88. He was a real character, genuinely a legend in his own lunchtime. With Jimmy, our regular customers each had their own tune which he’d play as soon as they walked in. This was known as a Jimmy Jam. He was such a talent, he knew every single show tune by heart. And if you were famous— or he fancied you— he might just let you sing with him at the piano.

Tell us three things about Joe’s that might surprise us.

Well, Joe Allen’s was the first restaurant in the UK to have an American-style‘hatch’and a beer slider on our long bar. We have a secret underground passage from Joe Allen to our sister restaurant, Orso. Also, we have an incredible collection of first edition theatre posters and photos of American stage and screen greats lining our walls, but notably no Brits in any of our photos.

Tell us about your menu and the famous secret burger.

Well, from the beginning Joe refused to have burgers on our menu. But diners wanted burgers, so they became our ‘secret’ menu item. They’ve always been our best seller, but they’re still not on the menu and never will be. From the menu we’d suggest starting with our Caesar salad, beautifully executed, followed by either sticky ribs or Mac Ragu, with a side of fries and coleslaw. Finish with pecan pie or our classic chocolate brownie smothered in ice cream. Or, if you’re a vegetarian, try the three-bean chili from our Green Menu. And a cold American beer, of course.

How is Joe’s marking its 40th birthday and what does the future look like?

We’re having a year-long party with lots of surprises and treats, including a £19.77 retro menu. As for what’s next, we’re super-excited about moving house very soon. But we really don’t feel we’re moving the restaurant: we’ll still be nearby, in Covent Garden, the whole team are coming with us and we intend to keep our soul!

Joe Allen’s is at 13 Exeter Street, London WC2, moving nearby soon. Our thanks to Geoffrey Davies for his photography, and to Lawrence, Cathy, Sadie, Francesco and the rest of Joe’s lovely team.

Contact Judith Schrut at judith0777@gmail.com