Chez Léon is one of Paris’ last ‘routier‘. These affordable restaurants on the side of the roads (routes) throughout France, serve up traditional home-cooking. The kind you would expect at your French grand-mother’s. And they do it with pride.
Wendy Beckett’s Sappho is a new play inspired by the famous Greek poet, integrating the original poetry with contemporary music and dance. It will première in its English version at Southwark Playhouse Elephant from 3 May 3 to 25 May. The original Greek production was created in Hydrama Theatre in August 2022 before touring to Andros, Delphi and Rhodes. Wendy Beckett and Adam Fitzgerald co-direct, both making their UK directorial debuts. They lead a multi-national creative team with Halcyon Pratt, Fotis Diamantopoulos, and Mehdi Bourayou all transferring with the production from Greece. INTERVIEW…read more
The Son opened last night at The Duke of York Theatre in London. Written by French playwright Florian Zeller, whose play The Truth I had reviewed a couple of years ago, ’Le Fils’ was first performed in Paris at the Comédie des Champs Elysées with Yvan Attal, Anne Consigny, Elodie Navarre and Rod Paradot as the son. This English version is directed by Michael Longhurst in another translation by Christopher Hampton. It transfers to the West End, following a run at Kiln Theatre in Kilburn. The play kicks off with…read more
La comédienne et chanteuse australienne Bernadette Robinson interprète en solo Songs For Nobodies, une pièce musicale écrite pour elle par Joanna Murray Smith et mise en scène par Simon Phillips Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday, Maria Callas, Judy Garland, Patsy Cline … cinq légendes de la chanson et icônes féminines. Songs For Nobodies explore la vie des ces divas à travers le regard de cinq autres femmes qui les ont un jour croisées. Dans les toilettes publiques, lors d’une répétition avant un concert… cinq inconnues ont été touchées par leur rencontre…read more
Cheek by Jowl is a multilingual theatre company with a truly international reach and three companies of actors (UK, France and Russia). I first discovered them in France in 2004. The play was Othello, the place : the Theatre de l’Odéon at their ‘ateliers Berthier’ venue. I was so impressed by the level of acting and the vitality of the staging… and also struck by Nonso Anozie in the title role. He was extraordinary. Back then, I was a first year acting student at the Central School of Speech and Drama and had heard about Nonso, who had…read more
Franco – British theatre company Théâtre Volière is coming back to London with Marchland : a season of performances from the edges and in-between places of Europe. Based in Alsace, Théâtre Volière have always been fascinated by the turbulent history of this border region between France and Germany. Marchland is their response to the crisis of identity currently sweeping Europe. A recurring ‘rendez-vous’, Marchland will run each February from 2018 to 2020 at the historic Bridewell Theatre turned into a unique pop-up space. The former swimming pool will be transformed into a central European café and fitted…read more
Suzy Storck, by French playwright Magali Mougel, directed by Jean-Pierre Baro, recently opened at the Gate Theatre. The play plunges us into the title characte’s life. Literally. Watch your step as you make your way through the toy-littered floor of Cecile Tremolière’s set. Performed by the magnetic Caoilfhinion Dunne, Suzy Storck carries the weight of the world. She lives with a man (Jonah Russel is utterly believable as Hans Vasilly Kruez) who doesn’t take ‘NO’ for an answer when she claims not to want children. He makes her give up her…read more
Cycling in the city, I came across the beautiful Cutler’s Hall in Warwick Lane : a sign of London’s Norman past. The Worshipful Company of Cutlers, aka the guild of knife-makers, was granted royal charter in 1416 and guided by the motto ‘Pour Parvenir a Bonne Foy’, to ‘Succeed in Good Faith’.
120 Battements Par Minute is the film of the ‘rentrée’. After winning the ‘Grand Prix’ at Cannes 2017, it came out on French screens a few weeks ago and has been winning audiences’ hearts since. It will be shown at the London Film Festival on October 7th and 10th. Set in Paris in the early 90’s at the height of the Aids epidemic, it follows the lives, loves, clubbing sessions and deaths of a group of activists from Act Up Paris in their fight against the virus. Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=114&v=ai2WhkTWfKM Read an article…read more
The most famous French rapper, MC Solaar, is known for his elaborate lyrics, built on rhymes, poetry and literary references. We hadn’t heard from him in 10 years, so his new album ‘Géopoétique’ (already a Solaarian word play in the title) coming out this November, is hotly anticipated. Solaar’s texts are often studied in class, in France and Great-Britain. To follow in that tradition and to mark the return to school today, here is the first song of the album, with lyrics and translation. A ‘sonotone’ is a hearing aid;…read more
