Review: Into the Unknown

The Barbican are currently hosting a huge exhibition exploring the genre of scifi. They're describing it like so:

The genre-defining exhibition of art, design, film and literature.

From the 19th century cabinet of curiosities, to the vastness of space. Through future cities, into the inner landscapes of human perception.
Uncover the mysterious lands of Jules Verne and Ray Harryhausen where Science Fiction narratives first took root. Venture on an odyssey into our solar system, with vintage artwork promoting Soviet visions of space alongside immersive work by Soda_Jerk. Visit a gallery of aliens, and stand alongside iconic spacesuits from a galaxy of blockbusters including Star Trek and Interstellar.
Imagine dystopian worlds with Margaret Atwood and 28 Days Later. Then, with nowhere left to explore but human consciousness, delve deep and experience the transformation and mutation of the body through the eyes of Jack Kirby and Ex Machina.
Curated by historian and writer Patrick Gyger, this festival-style exhibition consists of more than 800 works, many of which have never been seen in the UK before. Continuing across the Centre, it includes artwork from Isaac Julien, Larissa Sansour and Conrad Shawcross, and an installation from the creators of Black Mirror.

And it's incredible!

Into the Unknown is a glorious and detailed exhibition, filling the Barbican's Curve gallery to the brim and then extending its tendrils out through the whole building, with additional exhibits in the Foyer and the Pit theatre.

The amount of content in the main Curve space is immense: it's more than you can realistically take in in one visit. If you're a scifi fan, you'll feel like you've died and gone to geek heaven, but even if it's not your genre of choice, it's still a fascinating look at the evolution of design in the field.

The artworks outside of The Curve are intriguing, and offer a balance to the exhibition, making sure it rises above just being a collection of memorabilia. As a result, Into the Unknown feels exciting and relevant.

Overall, Into the Unknown is yet another example of how good the Barbican are at designing the 'experience' of art exhibitions, beyond just hanging things on walls. Highly recommended.

4/5: A whole other world of style and substance
The Curve: Barbican
Until 2nd September

Review: Obsession

Tonight's theatre offering was Obsession, directed by Ivo van Hove, and staring Jude Law, at the Barbican. They say:

Jude Law plays the magnetically handsome, down-at-heel Gino in a new stage adaptation of Visconti’s penetrating social drama directed by Ivo van Hove.Drifter Gino, powerful and graceful as a puma, encounters Giuseppe and his much younger, trapped wife Hanna (played by Halina Reijn) at their roadside restaurant and petrol station. He and Hanna are so irresistibly attracted to one another they begin an affair while plotting to murder her husband. But the crime does not unite them in this chilling story where passion can lead only to destruction.
Visconti’s first feature film Obsession (1943) gave rise to Italian neorealism, a cinematic movement highlighting the struggles of ordinary people in a time of upheaval. As Van Hove’s fourth Visconti production, it features a company of Dutch and British actors led by Law, whose charismatic stage and screen performances have established him as one of the foremost actors of his generation.

When you look at the setting, you know it's Van Hove right away: a beautiful, stripped back space that will, you suspect, get more messy as the play progresses.

That is pretty much a metaphor for the whole production, really.

Obsession could have been brilliant, but the pieces don't fit together. Even Jude Law and Halina Reijn's chemistry couldn't carry the mismatched space/music/dialogue, which is a shame because they're really good. The moment of intimacy they share near the beginning is one of the most erotic things I've ever seen in a theatrical production... but then we are left to observe a series of discontinuous vignettes that don't hold together as a whole.
There's the representation of a car that is lifted up and down, spraying oil on the actors. The thing with the accordion. The bit at the end with the seascape, which is beautiful, but totally out of keeping with everything else that happens. The random nudity. The treadmill. You find yourself wondering how a director who, when on form, is so utterly brilliant could also throw these things together and call it a play.

On the whole, Obsession isn't a complete disaster, it's just frustrating. It's kind of worth seeing for Law and Reijn, but there are better things on in London right now. If you have spare time and money I can half-heartedly recommend it, but beyond Law and Reijn's performances, there are a lot of things amiss.

3/5: Moments of beauty caught up in a bit of a mess
The Barbican
Until 20th May

Review: Richard III

Schaubühne Berlin's double bill of Richard III and Beware of Pity (with Complicite) have been taking the Barbican by storm this month. I was fortunate enough to catch Richard III in person, and will be following up with the recording of Beware of Pity.
Of Richard III, the Barbican's website informs us that:

Resplendent in evening dress, showered in glitter, the victorious Yorks celebrate. Damaged and disfigured, Richard finds no peace among this elite to whom he has never fully belonged. Murdering his way to the throne, exposing conflict and mistrust in his wake, the outsider makes us complicit, addressing us directly to reveal his manipulative plans.

Of course, as ever, the blurb does not come within a mile of describing what occurs on stage. And in Schaubühne Berlin's version of Shakespeare's historic tragedy, 'what occurs on stage' encompasses quite a number of things.

The stage and lighting design, courtesy of Jan Pappelbaum and Erich Schneider, are edgy and stripped down. With the single set virtually unchanged throughout the play, a lot of the setting is done through the lighting design, which encompasses projection and a live camera feed, to great effect.
Similarly, Nils Ostendorf's music is striking, and the presence of a live drummer creates a raucous
sound scape that reflects the events of the play spiralling out of control. All of the details add up to a scenario that gains such momentum it cannot help but end in a crash.


Directed by Thomas Ostermeier, this version of the Shakespeare classic is riotous, unapologetic, and a bit mad. Lars Eidinger as the titular anti-hero is an immense presence, and he doesn't so much as perform the role as totally own it. Eidinger is by turns carnivalesque, then sinister, then outraged that anyone would accuse him of all of the things he's actually guilty of: he is a Richard who pursues villainy, rather than creeps to it.
Some have argued that Ostermeier, in giving free reign to Eidinger's colossal personality, has made Richard III a character study, tearing away the play's inherent politics. I would disagree. We live in a world where successful politicians are colossal personalities, and we offer deference to the leaders who shout the loudest. As a result, Eidinger's grotesque rendering of the role maps onto the hinterland between celebrity and political cultures.

Schaubühne Berlin have provided us with a Richard III for our age: political power wielded for personal profit, a divided country, at war with herself. It never ceases to amaze me how well Shakespeare's stories have lasted, and how, in the re-telling, they still hold warnings for us now.

5/5: Brilliant, vital madness
The Barbican
Ended 19th February

Review: The Vulgar

The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined is the current exhibition at the Barbican Centre. They say:

‘Vulgarity exposes the scandal of good taste’ Adam Phillips

Potent, provocative and sometimes shocking, the word vulgar conjures up strong images, ideas and feelings in us all. The Vulgar is the first exhibition to explore the inherently challenging but utterly compelling territory of taste in fashion, from the renaissance through to contemporary design. Examining the constantly evolving notion of vulgarity in fashion whilst revelling in its excesses, you are invited to think again about exactly what makes something vulgar and why it is such a sensitive and contested term.

What this means in practice is that curator Judith Clark and writer/psychoanalyst Adam Phillips - partners in life as well as work - have joined to create a spectacular and challenging display, reflecting on the idea of taste, as viewed through ideas about what constitutes 'vulgar'.
 The exhibition tracks different notions of taste and vulgarity, and each conceptual framing is accompanied by an exhibit of connected fashion pieces or artefacts. The thinking that underpins The Vulgar means that the whole show has a coherence, so it follows that the contrast between relatively simple classical-inspired shifts, and huge baroque ball gowns isn't actually jarring.
Even when you encounter things that you find garish, you are forced to reflect on why this is so and where this prejudice comes from: it is a very clever intellectual twist, which differentiates this exhibition from usual gallery shows centred on fashion.

The intellectual grounding for the exhibition makes it impossible to sign off with a comment along the lines of 'even if it's not to your taste...' But suffice to say if you have an interest in fashion, then you'll get something out of this show, even if you hate the kind of work represented within: check it out.

4/5: Thought-provoking fashion and fashion provoking thought

Barbican Centre
Until 5th February

Faustus - Not Hell (nor I wouldn't want to be out of it)

Search for the RSC's current Doctor Faustus (now playing at the Barbican) and you'll find the following description:

Two actors enter. Each lights a match and watches it burn. Whoever’s goes out first ‘loses’ and must play the fated doctor, while the other plays the demon Mephistophilis, in this notorious tale of vanity, greed and damnation.

That was intriguing enough to get me to buy a ticket, and I'm really glad I did.

From the moment the actors walk, unannounced, onto the stage, to the inevitable tragic ending, Maria Aberg’s brilliantly updated Marlowe charts the highs and the lows of the erring Doctor's life with slickness and style. Naomi Dawson's design for the show is striking, especially the summoning of Mephistophilis, and the sound design, courtesy of Orlando Gough and Claire Windsor, equally so. It is also clear that Doctor Faustus does not suffer from being trimmed to a one act play, either.

And then we consider the opening conceit - that Sandy Grierson and Oliver Ryan don't know who will be Faustus and who Mephistophilis before they are on stage. This is achieved so subtly that the tension built from it is incredible - as if whole audience has leant in, holding their breath.
Grierson (as Mephistophilis on the night I attended) and Ryan produce beautifully subtle and deeply unsettling performances that seem completely timeless in quality.

If you can get yourself to the Barbican before the show's close, do so. You are in for a magical night.

4/5 - A Devilish delight: summon up a ticket
The Barbican
Until 1st October