“The truth isn’t important. Or it is, but it keeps changing.”

This double bill, care of the gloriously-named Geneva Foster-Gluck and her global travels, is a heady mixture of dance, film, acrobatics, animals and not a little philosophy. The first (shorter) act, Milkwood Rodeo, is the story of an Indian circus headed by the ringmaster Babu and populated by holy men, crazy men, odd job men, arch manipulators and one employee called Frank Sinatra. One day, Frank explodes at Babu “like a blister.” Accompanying his story is a ruffed lady on a rope who expertly twists every which way but loose and a series of atmospheric film clips.

The second act starts with a moment of pure theatre: three near-identical women move through the audience and onto the stage before we are introduced to famed ringmaster PT Barnum who has invited Charles Darwin to see things he has never seen before. The audience is asked to pretend that the year is 1859 when “what once passed for truth will become entertainment.”

While this act is less plot and more metaphysics, the action doesn’t let up as we are introduced to three exquisite female dancers, the circus lion, some cabaret and the star of the show, Vladimir the dancing bear who juggles and rides the tricycle and unicycle. The dancing ranges from more rope dancing to the most sexually – charged use of a hoop that I’ve seen in some time while Darwin and Barnum trade verbal blows on the nature of truth, faith, illusion and science.

The show as a whole is an interesting concept that crosses genres like a short-sighted jaywalker and I’m looking forward to where Ms Foster-Gluck takes this concept next.

By Franco Milazzo – who jumped in at the last minute to review this show – thank you very much!

Sugar Beast Circus is on tonight and Saturday in the Studio Theatre at Roundhouse. Tickets £10/8. Part of Roundhouse Circus Fest which runs till 16 May.

]]> From tomorrow, visitors to the Natural History Museum can inspect this stunning piece of permanent artwork by Tania Kovats. The arborous ceiling adorns a first-floor gallery, up above the main hall. Kovats won the recent Darwin’s Canopy competition, beating off Turner Prize winners like Mark ‘giant horse’ Wallinger and Rachel ‘Tate cubes’ Whiteread. The commission, known as TREE, is a giant cross section through a 200-year-old oak tree, and is part of the museum’s activities to celebrate 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin.

]]> http://londonist.com/2009/03/nhm_gets_alternative_oak_ceiling.php/feed 0 http://londonist.com/2009/03/the_book_grocer_61.php http://londonist.com/2009/03/the_book_grocer_61.php#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:14:00 +0000 Julie PH http://londonist.com/?p=11991

Image courtesy of an untrained eye under the Creative Commons license

A happy confluence of events this week – the launch of the London Word Festival and a bibliophile’s international holiday – and the book grocer’s finally risen from her seasonal slumber. Wintry weather or no, we think you’ll want to nip out from your book-strewn dens to take advantage of this week’s many lovely offerings as well.

Wednesday: Apples and Snakes converge on Brick Lane’s Vibe Bar to bring you an all-female revue Poetry Open Mic as part of the East End’s Wise Words festival (7.30pm, £3). Performers include Dzifa Benson and Kathryn O’Reilly.

Also on: Another Wise Words event, hosted at Amnesty International: Women Reporting from the Frontline features Sunday Times reporters Marie Colvin and Christine Toomey and C4 Unreported World reporter Ramita Navai (free, 7pm).

Thursday: Hip hip hooray for World Book Day. It may not be a bank holiday – yet – but surely your boss won’t raise an eyebrow when you cite religious reasons as the basis for your truancy? Among the day’s events worth playing hooky for: Barbican Library hosts a costume quiz, as staff dress up as their favourite literary characters and you, dear reader, get the chance to win prizes simply for guessing who they are (11am-5.30pm, free). Iain Sinclair – who will be making the rounds in the upcoming weeks now that Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire has hit the bookshelves – will be at Museum in Docklands for Word Up @ Late (6pm, tickets available first come, first serve; call 020 7001 9844). Head over to Oxfam Marylebone for the pleasure of listening to 14 young British poets, including Joe Dunthorne, Isobel Dixon, Luke Kennard, Daljit Nagra and Kathryn Simmonds, at the Manhattan Review launch (7pm, free; call 020 7487 3570 or email oxfammarylebone@hotmail.com to reserve a ticket). Or, for the unencumbered among us, cap off your evening with like-minded singles at the British Library’s Mingle event (7pm, £5). Speed Book Club, the library’s hybrid of speed dating and book swap, tantalises with its promise of new-found romance and new-found literature – and, well, one out of two isn’t bad.

Saturday: The nearly three-week-long London Word Festival kicks off with the first of its events this evening, and as with so much of the festival’s lineup, this event defies easy categorisation. If ‘live folk ballad printing experiment’ still doesn’t clarify matters for you, perhaps you better turn up for yourself to listen as folk artists Mary Hampton, Caroline Weeks and John Bilbrough explore the boundaries of the ballad and the broadsheet (7.30pm, £6.50).

Also on: What? That’s not enough, you self-punishing über-intellectual, you? Then stop in at Housmans for its screening of the the British premiere of Chomsky and Company, a French documentarians’ critical look at Noam Chomsky’s political thought (5.30pm).

Sunday: The London Word Festival moves on to its next exercise in cross-genre experimentation – tonight it’s the contemporary folk-extremism of the Southbank Award-nominated singer Bishi and singer-songwriter Lupen Crook at Bardens Boudoir (7pm, £7.50) in an all-acoustic set. Want a preview? Head here and here.

Monday: Words on Monday at Kings Place brings us The Nature Darwin Debate 2: What price biodiversity?, curated by Nature and featuring Revenge of Gaia author and scientist James Lovelock, MP Michael Meacher and Oxford University’s Sir Crispin Tickell (7pm, £9.50).

Also on: The London Word Festival hosts An Evening with Phil Jupitus and Tim Wells at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, with appearances by Barry Adamson, Amy Prior and Travis Elborough (8pm, £8). We’d explain it if we could, but why, when they do it better.

Tuesday: Novelist and Pride and Prejudice screenplay (and BAFTA nominated) writer Deborah Moggach comes to Foyles to discuss the challenges of Adapting Anne Frank for the recent BBC dramatisation (6.30pm, £5 PEN members, £8 nonmembers).

Know of an event that belongs in the Book Grocer listings? Please e-mail us at londonist-at-gmail-dot-com.

]]>

Image courtesy of an untrained eye under the Creative Commons license

A happy confluence of events this week – the launch of the London Word Festival and a bibliophile’s international holiday – and the book grocer’s finally risen from her seasonal slumber. Wintry weather or no, we think you’ll want to nip out from your book-strewn dens to take advantage of this week’s many lovely offerings as well.

Wednesday: Apples and Snakes converge on Brick Lane’s Vibe Bar to bring you an all-female revue Poetry Open Mic as part of the East End’s Wise Words festival (7.30pm, £3). Performers include Dzifa Benson and Kathryn O’Reilly.

Also on: Another Wise Words event, hosted at Amnesty International: Women Reporting from the Frontline features Sunday Times reporters Marie Colvin and Christine Toomey and C4 Unreported World reporter Ramita Navai (free, 7pm).

Thursday: Hip hip hooray for World Book Day. It may not be a bank holiday – yet – but surely your boss won’t raise an eyebrow when you cite religious reasons as the basis for your truancy? Among the day’s events worth playing hooky for: Barbican Library hosts a costume quiz, as staff dress up as their favourite literary characters and you, dear reader, get the chance to win prizes simply for guessing who they are (11am-5.30pm, free). Iain Sinclair – who will be making the rounds in the upcoming weeks now that Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire has hit the bookshelves – will be at Museum in Docklands for Word Up @ Late (6pm, tickets available first come, first serve; call 020 7001 9844). Head over to Oxfam Marylebone for the pleasure of listening to 14 young British poets, including Joe Dunthorne, Isobel Dixon, Luke Kennard, Daljit Nagra and Kathryn Simmonds, at the Manhattan Review launch (7pm, free; call 020 7487 3570 or email oxfammarylebone@hotmail.com to reserve a ticket). Or, for the unencumbered among us, cap off your evening with like-minded singles at the British Library’s Mingle event (7pm, £5). Speed Book Club, the library’s hybrid of speed dating and book swap, tantalises with its promise of new-found romance and new-found literature – and, well, one out of two isn’t bad.

Saturday: The nearly three-week-long London Word Festival kicks off with the first of its events this evening, and as with so much of the festival’s lineup, this event defies easy categorisation. If ‘live folk ballad printing experiment’ still doesn’t clarify matters for you, perhaps you better turn up for yourself to listen as folk artists Mary Hampton, Caroline Weeks and John Bilbrough explore the boundaries of the ballad and the broadsheet (7.30pm, £6.50).

Also on: What? That’s not enough, you self-punishing über-intellectual, you? Then stop in at Housmans for its screening of the the British premiere of Chomsky and Company, a French documentarians’ critical look at Noam Chomsky’s political thought (5.30pm).

Sunday: The London Word Festival moves on to its next exercise in cross-genre experimentation – tonight it’s the contemporary folk-extremism of the Southbank Award-nominated singer Bishi and singer-songwriter Lupen Crook at Bardens Boudoir (7pm, £7.50) in an all-acoustic set. Want a preview? Head here and here.

Monday: Words on Monday at Kings Place brings us The Nature Darwin Debate 2: What price biodiversity?, curated by Nature and featuring Revenge of Gaia author and scientist James Lovelock, MP Michael Meacher and Oxford University’s Sir Crispin Tickell (7pm, £9.50).

Also on: The London Word Festival hosts An Evening with Phil Jupitus and Tim Wells at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, with appearances by Barry Adamson, Amy Prior and Travis Elborough (8pm, £8). We’d explain it if we could, but why, when they do it better.

Tuesday: Novelist and Pride and Prejudice screenplay (and BAFTA nominated) writer Deborah Moggach comes to Foyles to discuss the challenges of Adapting Anne Frank for the recent BBC dramatisation (6.30pm, £5 PEN members, £8 nonmembers).

Know of an event that belongs in the Book Grocer listings? Please e-mail us at londonist-at-gmail-dot-com.

]]> http://londonist.com/2009/03/the_book_grocer_61.php/feed 0 http://londonist.com/2009/03/londonist_stays_in_11.php http://londonist.com/2009/03/londonist_stays_in_11.php#comments Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:00:53 +0000 M@ http://londonist.com/?p=11973

Bringing you the most Londony shows on TV over the coming week.

Monday

The Real Pink Panther: Lord Victor Hervey (C4, 20.00-21.00) Gentleman thief Lord Hervey was jailed in the 1930s for a couple of Mayfair jewellery robberies. All cracking stuff, but we want to know who the Real Inspector Clouseau was.

Law and Order UK (ITV1, 21.00-22.00) The second episode of the London-set show sees a kid getting kicked to death in Euston station. What a way to go.

Wednesday

Inside Out (BBC1, 19.30-20.00) The London magazine show talks to female bouncers and eye surgeons

Building the Olympic Dream (BBC2, 21.00-22.00) New documentary charting progress and preparation on the Olympic site.

Minder (FIVE, 21.00-22.00)

Ford’s Dagenham Dream (21.00-22.00) Documentary about the East London car factory.

Thursday

Jimmy Doherty in Darwin’s Garden (BBC2 20.00-21.00) The BBC Darwin season continues with a look at Darwin’s domestic botany at Down House, South London.

Soho Blues (FIVE, 21.00-22.00) Her Majesty’s Constabulary take a film crew for one final trip into the West End.

Friday

Chelsea Pensioners: Once a Soldier (BBC1, 19.00-19.30) Three female veterans explore the hospital.

Sunday

The Victorians (BBC1, 21.00-22.00) Paxo’s enlightening series this week looks at the final years of Victoria’s reign.

Were he still alive, Charles Darwin would have been celebrating his 200th birthday today (imagine how long his beard would be). His simple yet potent idea, evolution by natural selection, remains a hot potato. If one poll is to be believed, a third of British people believe that a god created the Earth less than 10,000 years ago. The Darwin anniversaries (it’s also 150 years since publication of On The Origin Of Species) are therefore a rallying point for rationality. Any number of new books, TV shows and events explain the basics and nuances of evolutionary theory, laying down the overwhelming evidence for natural selection and the ancient origin of life. Others focus on Darwin the man, and explore how he arrived at his conclusions.

Darwin was a Londoner, and London is the place to be to celebrate his bicentenary. Here’s a roundup of exhibitions and events:

Exhibitions

Darwin: Big Idea. The flagship exhibition at the Natural History Museum is a solid, slow-burning sojourn through the life of Darwin, from his circumnavigation aboard the Beagle to his pigeon shed at Down House. Runs till 19 April, £8.80 adults, £4.40 children.

In Darwin’s Footsteps. The British Library have a much smaller exhibition in their foyer. It covers similar themes to the above in more cursory fashion, with an emphasis on the people and books that influenced his thinking. Also contained a sleeping homeless person on our visit. Runs until 22 March. Entry is free.

Charles Darwin of Gower Street. There’s a blue plaque on the side of UCL marking the former home of Chuckie D. To celebrate their erstwhile inhabitant, the University’s library has a small collection of Darwin-related artifacts on display. Open till 19 April (extended from original closing date of 30 Jan). Entry is free.

Darwin at Down. The Horniman Museum have a photographic exhibition showing images of the Darwin family in their Kent home. Runs until 7 June, Entry free.

Down House. Darwin’s countryside dwelling of 40 years, a few miles south of Croydon, reopens to the public from 13 February. The house and gardens are maintained by English Heritage and were this year nominated as a World Heritage Site by the government. £8.80 adults, £4.40 children.

Events

Darwin Day at the Natural History Museum. Gallery characters, film screenings, special talks and a chance to taste Emma Darwin’s soup recipe form the backbone for a celebratory day at the NHM. Events start from 11.30, entrance is free.

Imperial College’s Faculty of Natural Sciences Darwin Day. For those wishing to get a more learned take on the subject, Matt Ridley, Armand Leroi and Randal Keynes (Darwin’s great, great grandson) will discuss the essence of Darwin’s genius, and the genetic revolution since Darwin’s time.

There’s plenty of further events coming up in the next few weeks. Check out the Darwin200 site for more details, support the HMS Beagle Project, which aims to rebuild Darwin’s ship and sail it round the world, and say hello to the man himself over on Charles Darwin’s blog. Oh, and here’s a guide to walking Darwin’s London if you want to enjoy the sunshine.

• Appalling tragedy in Croydon today as a young father is murdered on his way to visit his new born son.

Primrose Hill by Scarycrow via the Londonist flickr pool

London’s arts scene has a time-travelling theme this week. See the best of November’s openings and closings, and you’ll traverse time from the earliest myths to the most modern art, plus a final trip to Manchester’s contemporary pop scene before it leaves London altogether.

Think Impressionism was all about the French? Think again. Sisley in England and Wales opens today at the National. It’s a rare chance to see rugged British landscapes rendered all soft and impressionisty. From tomorrow, explore the greatest story ever told about a building as Babylon: Myth and Reality opens at the British Museum. Critics are already raving about the BM’s latest blockbuster; see for yourself from Thursday.

Another exciting blockbuster, Darwin opens on Friday, at the Natural History Museum. Look at Darwin’s original manuscripts, understand the impact of the bearded one’s radical ideas, and check out his specimens from live iguanas to horned frogs at this funky interactive exhibition. It’s on til March if you want to avoid the first-week crowds.

Theatre travels from the sublime to the ridiculous, as one should expect. The odd-sounding Chav Scum Kills God descends into hell at the Courtyard Theatre from today; at the same time as the RSC’s Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes brings revolution to London’s stunning Wilton’s Music Hall.

Take your kiddie-winks along to Michael Rosen’s ace-sounding Pinocchio at the Polka Theatre from Friday. And Doctor Who heads into theatre as Noises Off opens at the New Wimbledon from Monday.

Last Chance To See

Never Forget! finishes its run at the Savoy on Saturday, and heads off on tour round the country. Say what you like about musicals based on a bad Take That tribute band, we bloody loved this, and so did many others. Go for the sparkling, witty choreography. That, and remarkable rain special effects.

Saturday is also your last chance to see Julian Opie’s stuff at The Lisson Gallery. If you can’t make it, we recommend taking a look around their lovely website anyway.

Finally, Flamenco Flamen’ka flounces out of the Lyric this weekend. Missed it? We heard it wasn’t that good anyway.

Gorgeous image: Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) The Cliff at Penarth, Evening, Low Tide, 1897. © Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Acquired with the assistance of The Art Fund and the Gibbs Family Trust, 1993 (NMW A2695)

Last night, we attended the launch of Darwin 200 at the Natural History Museum. If he was still alive, Charles Darwin would be an actual living legend, due his 200th birthday on 12 February 2009. Clearly he’s dead but that’s no excuse not to have a national programme of activities around his life and work, especially since it’s also nearly 150 years since the theory of evolution was pronounced and “Origin of the Species” published.

To celebrate, Darwin currently has pride of place, seated on the main stairs at the Museum, ponderously gazing at the Brontosaurus in the entrance hall. Possibly wondering what on earth is going on.

The first event fittingly involves the NHM and will see a lasting legacy with a new commissioned artwork for one of the Central Hall’s first gallery ceilings, which has deteriorated beyond repair and been whitewashed (pictured). 10 artists have been selected to create proposals for a Darwin inspired canopy, which go on show at the museum today.

The proposals will be judged by a panel of art critics and curators, and the selected artist announced on 16 June 2008 when work will begin on the creation and installation of the artwork. The completed canopy will be unveiled on 12 February 2009, the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.

Our sneaky peak at the contending ideas leaves us thinking that Turner prize winners Wallinger and Whiteread might not have been trying very hard on this one, whereas Christine Borland’s “We Think” involves a sculptured human tree limb into which visitors place coins and make wishes. A negative tracing of said tree is made in dust on glass suspended from the ceiling with the coins eventually smelted down into a commemorative plaque. Now that’s thinking.

Go say hello to Mr Darwin, tell us your opinion of the canopy proposals and watch this space for more about Darwin 200.

Entry to the Natural History Museum is free and it’s open daily 10.00 to 17.50. The Darwin’s Canopy exhibition runs till 14 September 2008.

]]>

Last night, we attended the launch of Darwin 200 at the Natural History Museum. If he was still alive, Charles Darwin would be an actual living legend, due his 200th birthday on 12 February 2009. Clearly he’s dead but that’s no excuse not to have a national programme of activities around his life and work, especially since it’s also nearly 150 years since the theory of evolution was pronounced and “Origin of the Species” published.

To celebrate, Darwin currently has pride of place, seated on the main stairs at the Museum, ponderously gazing at the Brontosaurus in the entrance hall. Possibly wondering what on earth is going on.

The first event fittingly involves the NHM and will see a lasting legacy with a new commissioned artwork for one of the Central Hall’s first gallery ceilings, which has deteriorated beyond repair and been whitewashed (pictured). 10 artists have been selected to create proposals for a Darwin inspired canopy, which go on show at the museum today.

The proposals will be judged by a panel of art critics and curators, and the selected artist announced on 16 June 2008 when work will begin on the creation and installation of the artwork. The completed canopy will be unveiled on 12 February 2009, the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.

Our sneaky peak at the contending ideas leaves us thinking that Turner prize winners Wallinger and Whiteread might not have been trying very hard on this one, whereas Christine Borland’s “We Think” involves a sculptured human tree limb into which visitors place coins and make wishes. A negative tracing of said tree is made in dust on glass suspended from the ceiling with the coins eventually smelted down into a commemorative plaque. Now that’s thinking.

Go say hello to Mr Darwin, tell us your opinion of the canopy proposals and watch this space for more about Darwin 200.

Entry to the Natural History Museum is free and it’s open daily 10.00 to 17.50. The Darwin’s Canopy exhibition runs till 14 September 2008.

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