Tuesday 16 March 2010

Cultural girl about town

I've been pottering about like a little pottery thing lately and have been enjoying multiple visits to galleries, films and a random one day course on the Green Man. It must be Spring!

I went to see Alice in Wonderland, and it was all right. I think my expectations were so low by the time I went to see it that I took it all quite well. I wasn't very impressed with Alice, she seemed to suck all the joy out the film. Johnny Depp to seemed to be struggling. As for the White Queens eyebrows, well there is no need for that! She looked equally as unpleasant as the Red Queen, who I did like. Most of my love in this film goes to the animals, I liked the cat, the dog and the frogs! Don't bother though, really.

I then went to see a Guy Maddin double bill: Careful and the Saddest Music in the World, mental and marvellous are the only words I can find to describe these. Incest in the Alps and beer bathing singing contests are some more. Go and see them. I want to see My Winnipeg now.

Finally at the weekend I went to the Simon Anand exhibition at the V&A of photos taken before actors go on stage. It was wonderful and full of famous faces having a fag, putting on lippy, looking whimsical in grease paint. This was followed by Henry Moore at the Tate Britain. Who would've thought he was such a good artist. His war and mining pictures were amazing. It was really good to see a lot of his earlier and more random work. Shame you couldn't touch them though. I gave the one outside the Tate a big hug afterwards.

Monday 8 March 2010

Curiouser and curiouser

No its not the supposedly rubbish Alice in Wonderland! I went to the Old Red Lion to see a play called Alice's Adventures in the New World.

It had a brilliant summary on the promo info which made it essential viewing in my book:

It is 1882. You are a seventeen year-old girl and you have just discovered your deceased mother is still alive and living in America. You set off to find her and meet:


a) an artist with an opium addiction
b) a depressed Socialist preaching free love
c) a hypochondriac debutante
d) a cattle rustler whose four husbands have all mysteriously disappeared
e) Oscar Wilde

f) your mother or
g) all of the above.

If you get a chance you should really go and see it. With an all female, corset wearing cast - the male characters were distinguished by a paper moustache - its very clever and even breaks into a song and a little dance every now and again.

We were left a bit deflated by the ending but the journey itself was superbly acted, funny and touching.