Highlights

What’s Hot Camden?
Posted in: Bars & Clubs, Concerts & Gigs, Drama & Theatre, Events & Festivals, Food & Dining, Highlights

Food, drink, theatre, music and more in Camden Town!                                                                                                                                                                                                             Camden is one of London’s larger boroughs, yet often casually identified as just Camden Town. Visit during July-August and you’ll see why it gets all the attention. Camden Town’s shopping and entertainment epicentre is buzzing during the summer months. On a typical day, Camden Lock […]

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Features

London Place Names
Posted in: Features, Places

What’s in a name? London place names decoded We’re surrounded by street signs every day and casually type these sometimes odd-sounding addresses into Google Maps without a second thought about their origins. So, let’s delve deeper into the Roman history of London street names. Barbican The next time you’re out and about in Barbican, remember […]

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Reviews

Frieze Sculpture, Frieze Art Fair, Regents Park
Frieze Sculpture & Art Fair
Posted in: Events & Festivals, Highlights, Reviews, Shows & Exhibitions

Frieze Week: Man in underpants found wandering around Regents Park!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       If you are visiting Regents Park to catch Frieze Sculpture 2023, it’s likely you’ll also catch sight of a half-naked man wandering around the sculpture site in a dazed state. Indeed, last week from afar it looked as if park security had finally cornered […]

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Drama & Theatre

  • The Importance of Being Earnest (Theatre)
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Reviews

    This Oscar Wilde play was originally titled The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy For Serious People. Wilde added the extra as if concerned we might miss the point. And it’s heartening how the comedy elements have passed the test of time, perhaps because of ‘serious’ people forever finding new meaning in the once […]

  • Doctor Faustus (Theatre)
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Reviews

    Most are familiar with Christopher Marlowe’s play and the seven deadly sins which haunt Doctor Faustus in this Elizabethan tragedy. Few may be aware that Faustus is described in the traditional Chorus as being from ‘base stock’ and later a physician and professor of divinity at Wittenberg University. Even then, his undeniable thirst for greater […]

  • Curtain Road, Shoreditch
    Curtain Rd, Shoreditch: Where the UK’s Theatre History Began
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Highlights, Photos, Places

    Curtain Road in Shoreditch has its place in British history as the location for Britain’s earliest theatres. In 1576 the first purpose-built modern playhouse was constructed on this road and given the succinct title of The Theatre. Nice name! It comes from the Latin term Theatrum used to describe a Roman playhouse and was the […]

  • London Theatres
    London Theatres: Did You Know?
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Highlights, Places

    With the Christmas countdown in full effect it follows that panto season is in full swing. With the kids dragging you off to the theatre perhaps for their or even your first time here’s a few fascinating facts about London’s theatres.  London’s oldest theatre First built in 1663 on Bridges Street, the Theatre Royal Drury […]

  • lazarus-musical
    Lazarus (Musical)
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Reviews

    It’s almost a year since David Bowie made his final public appearance at the New York opening night of the Lazarus musical he co-wrote. Now playing through the autumn-winter season at the Kings Cross Theatre, Londoners have no excuse not to pay homage to one of rock’s greats in a production featuring many of his […]

  • king lear old vic
    King Lear (Theatre)
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Reviews

    With an 80-year-old woman, Glenda Jackson, in the title role of King Lear it has come a long way since Shakespeare first loosely adapted it from Leir of Britain, a mythical tale about an 8th Century BC Celtic king. This pseudo-historical figure was mentioned in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain. So […]

  • The Red Candle – Mermaids in the East (Theatre)
    The Red Candle – Mermaids in the East (Theatre)
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Reviews

    From Eastern lore comes a play about this beautiful tragedy of Japanese mermaids adapted by playwright and translator Nozomi Abe and directed by Yojiro Ichikawa. Originally titled The Mermaid and the Red Candles, it’s a tale about an abandoned mermaid who is raised by a childless human couple but whose destiny changes as she increasingly […]

  • hamlet
    Hamlet (Theatre)
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Reviews

    Shakespeare, the world’s greatest bard was both born and buried in Stratford-upon-Avon 400 years ago so it’s fitting that on this anniversary year Britain’s first all black production of Hamlet should be produced and performed in Stratford – Stratford, East London that is. Black Theatre Live’s partnership with Stratford Circus arts centre and Watford Palace […]

  • one-night-in-miami
    One Night in Miami (Theatre)
    Posted in: Drama & Theatre, Reviews

    Did this conversation between Cassius Clay (as he was then known), Malcolm X, soul singer Sam Cooke and American footballer Jim Brown actually take place? That’s debatable, but without doubt these three men were close pals of The Greatest and if we are led to believe they were together chatting in this hotel room after […]