Fresh from those brains residing behind the square-eyed team at Secret Cinema, we are presented with The Other Cinema, a brand new live and immersive cinema experience. While us London dwellers are rather spoiled by the plethora of pop up cinema, transporting us into the frame in all manner of inventive costumes and ruses, anyone outside the capital seems to have been neglected by this cinematic trend.

Enter The Other Cinema. Aiming to create a global network of pop up cinemas, reinvigorating the sense of community and social adventure that once accompanied going to the cinema before multibuys and multiplexes. Each month, The Other Cinema will screen a classic film in a unique location whether it be former picture palaces, libraries, churches, parks, universities, hospitals and even oil rigs. One can only hope transport is included in the ticket price for the latter…

While one of the defining factors of the zeitgeist that is ‘Secret Cinema’ is the participatory factor, The Other Cinema wants to take it that bit further and encourage anyone to run their own cinema screening.  Creator and founder of Secret Cinema and Future Shorts, Fabien Riggall sees The Other Cinema as a way to ‘bring back the idea of local cinema and allow the most important films, both old and new, to get seen and talked about.’

Getting everyone talking this Valentine’s Day, and hopefully a sign of the great things we can expect from the projector, The Other Cinema launches with a spectacular screening of David Lean’s Brief Encounter at the stunning art deco East End theatre, The Troxy.

As we’ve come to expect, this is a live and immersive cinematic experience in this former Picture Palace as The Other Cinema returns The Troxy to its former glory complete with usherettes, live music and an organist. And of course, dressing up is wholly advocated with guests being encouraged to don old school black-tie and carry a flower for a lover or a stranger… There will also be simultaneous screenings of Brief Encounter (pictured) taking place in Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Norwich.

As one of my all time favourite films, I am inevitably going to be somewhat biased at this screening. And with no lover to give my flower to (though possibly a little too late for that, methinks) I instead plan to embrace The Other Cinema for it’s true aspiration, as an innovative emerging platform for cinema fans to live the dream and the movie.

Like it’s now less-than-secret forefather, The Other Cinema looks set to sell out but with a five-day run from 14 – 18 February, there’s hope for all you cinephiles and first-daters eager to impress to join this exciting new community.

Book your tickets here.

The Other Cinema will be screening Brief Encounter from 14 to 18 February at:

The Troxy
490 Commercial Road
Shoreditch
E1 0HX

Tel: 020 7790 9000

This post is from The London Word and should not be republished elsewhere without prior permission. Please check out our site for more great stories and features.

The Other Cinema

If ever there was a city that likes to embrace its seedy underground it’s London. And this time, I don’t mean suspect Soho back alleys, I mean literally subterranean. Beneath Waterloo Station. Taking a more literal meaning of the latest ‘underground’ scene, in the last year the Old Vic Tunnels have been transformed into a surprise cultural metropolis.

One of the best cultural discoveries I made last year, this labyrinthine collection of cavernous rooms sprawled beneath the streets has already housed art exhibitions, music gigs, cinema screenings and theatre and now it is being honoured with its own festival – the aptly titled VAULT.

Organised by Heritage Arts, VAULT is a brand new three-week arts festival from 9–26 February, boasting an impressive array of fringe theatre, film and music, letting you get deep down and dirty under the streets, just like the good ole days. Here’s a few ideas to guide you through your subterranean adventure, consider us your shining beacon through the darkness beneath.

Boutique cinema stalwarts, The flicker club will be in residence throughout the festival, screening movies adapted from short stories and novels with surprise celebrity guests providing a reading before their big-screen incarnation begins. With previous guests including Steven Berkoff, Joan Collins and Sir Ian McKellen, the flicker club have some impressive fans and as they team up with Hammer, of the Horror persuasion, we can safely presume the big guns will be out in the vaults. Expect to see Twins of Evil, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Plague of Zombies. They’ll probably play some films too.

Kindle Theatre unite live music and theatre, combining rock, metal and soul with text and poetry in their provocative retelling of Clytemnestra, the archetypal tale of a woman scorned, told through her loyal band, The Furies. In a unique reboot of Puccini’s La Bohème, Silent Opera truly work us out of our cultural comfort zones, combining silent disco with live opera. Smashing the classic into the high-tech using personal headphones to set opera loose in the tunnels alongside live performers, Silent Opera is one not to be missed.

Streetwise Opera, a company committed to involving those affected by homelessness in the arts, invite us into the magical world of folklore in Fables – A Film Opera, a selection of short films created by some of the UK’s leading composers and filmmakers and 125 performers who have experienced homelessness.

Richard Marsh and Katie Bonna present Brand New Love Story, a brand new love story based on  that all too familiar tale of boy meets girl and their ill-fated belief that maybe this one-night stand could last forever. Elsewhere, Pangolin’s Teatime will be on hand to satisfy the shadow puppet quota in your lives with bizarre cultural critique voiced by hundreds of puppets a-top a stick in The Great Puppet Horn.

And if the delights lurking in the vaults from 7pm each day (3pm at weekends) are not enough, Friday and Saturdays see VAULT open for Lates with live music and dancing until the wee hours. The B-Movie Ball, curated by Kenton Halliday features film screenings, live bands, dancers, DJs, magicians and tarot readings. And of course fancy dress.

If you still want more –  or you lose your mates in the tunnels – head to the welcoming bosom of late night cabaret in Baxter’s Basement where twisted hosts Baxter Valentine and Bobby Windeback will be entertaining until chucking out time. Entry is free when you buy a ticket for any show on Thursday and Saturday so it would be rude to head above ground before meeting this motley crew.

Not that we encourage debauchery but there’s something liberating about the dark, dank and humid and with such a diverse programme, consider VAULT a gentle nudge in the direction of the unknown – and the chance to be part of the underground movement when it was still, well, relatively underground.

Tickets start at £5. For full details of the VAULT programme visit the website.

VAULT takes place from Thursday 9 to Sunday 26 February at:

The Old Vic Tunnels
Leake Street
Waterloo
SE1 8SW

This post is from The London Word and should not be republished elsewhere without prior permission. Please check out our site for more great stories and features.

VAULT at the Old Vic Tunnels

Aside from one short story collection, Franz Kafka’s work was largely published after his death. He failed to finish any of his novels aside from The Metamorphosis, and before his death even left a note requesting for all of his work to be burned. Luckily for us, his literary executor ignored this request, and Kafka become known as one of the great humourists in literature.

In part, his failure to complete many of his works was due to a lack of confidence and self-belief that plagued him throughout his life. In particular, his relationship with his father was strained. It is this aspect of his life that Kafka v Kafka, currently showing at Brockley Jack, examines.

Using Kafka’s Letter to my Father as a starting point, the play takes the form of an extended confrontation between father and son. Franz’s mother and one of his sisters provide a constant presence both as a reminder of the families past, and to keep the two apart during the more heated exchanges. Together the family swirl around the room, somewhere between reality and a dream, taking anything tangible on the stage with them.

Jack Wilkie and Gareth Pilkington excel in the roles of the tortured writer and his menacing father. Their exchanges are laced with real emotion. The son, who can’t escape his fathers treatment of him as a child. The father, who worked so hard to provide for the family, and can’t understand the logic that drives his child to hate him. One of the big successes of the show is in its ability to look for the motives that drive the characters, and their actions.

Lighting is used to illuminate the shadows on stage onto a screen behind, adding to the sense of heightened realism. At one stage, when his father picks up a table, Franz winces visibly. On the backdrop, the positioning of the shadows makes it look like he’s physically being attacked by the table. This is a simple, yet incredibly effective technique which provides a sense of uncertainty for much of the performance. Sound effects laden with echoing sounds of water droplets, and slow motion sequences that hint at previous violence are also frequently deployed, although with more mixed results.

There are some issues with the play, such as the under-use of the female contingent of the Kafka family, and the over reliance on slow motion, but the show ultimately remains engaging throughout. The dialogue is sharp, with knowing nods to some of Kafka’s famous works, and some clever metaphor. It sheds some light into the mind of one of the twentieth century’s most popular writers, and the internal conflict that drove his career.

Kafka v Kafka is running until 4 February at:

Brockley Jack
410 Brockley Road
Brockley
SE4 2DH

Box Office: 020 7269 9929

Image by Anna Nguyen

This post is from The London Word and should not be republished elsewhere without prior permission. Please check out our site for more great stories and features.

Kafka v Kafka at Brockley Jack

Two Temple Place, a lavish, mahogany estate situated a stone’s throw from the Thames, is completely packed with patrons. You see, the gallery is hosting its very first exhibit, the works of William Morris – a nineteenth century socialist, artist and textile designer. The media is all a-rave: ‘Breathtaking!’ exclaimed The Telegraph. ‘Ornate!’, chimed The Observer. I’m standing next to two excitable gentlemen in tweed, looking at a lacklustre faux-medieval tapestry and I’m so bored I want to dissolve through the floor just to avoid the long traipse back to the entrance.

The exhibit comprises mostly of crafts (ceramics, stained glass, wallpaper and so on) upheld in the pre-Raphaelite aesthetic and upholding motifs of medieval legends and virtues. The tapestry, spanning the wall of the entire room, depicts faded embodiments of sins and virtues. It’s all incredibly depressing, emanating the musty smell of old clothes and reminiscent of sorting through a the belongings of someone dead. Everything is tinted grey.

William Morris worked in close collaboration with Edward Burne-Jones, a British designer whom he met at university. The two produced artworks on the themes of love, honour, legends and religion. Flowers, gold and strong-jawed women abound. Some in-progress works are interesting from a mathematical point of view, the way wallpaper design is carefully calculated to work in perfect harmony with itself.

The musty romanticism is oftentimes sweet: the forbidden love of Tristan and Isolde, of Lancelot and Lady Guinevere. Still, the imagery is repetitive and the medieval values filtered through a nineteenth century lens is simply not engaging to the modern viewer.

Maybe the exhibit is unappealing because the medieval is simply not in vogue at the moment. Sword fights on horseback and fair maidens have mostly been relegated to the domain of World of Warcraft geeks and LARPing. In the hierarchy of socially acceptable interests it sits just below sci-fi and just above taxidermy. Combine that with a cursory interest in tile manufacture and embroidery and you end up with something terminally un-hip.

Perhaps something derivative, with black skull overlays and ironic glitter spray, hung quietly in a particularly hipster-infested area of Dalston might prove to be more interesting. Then again, Two Temple Place is experiencing an unprecedented rise in visitor numbers these days, so what do I know.

William Morris: Story, Memory, Myth is on until January 29 at:

Two Temple Place
2, Temple Place
Embankment
WC2R 3BD

Tel: 020 7836 3715

This post is from The London Word and should not be republished elsewhere without prior permission. Please check out our site for more great stories and features.

William Morris at Two Temple Place

‘Those with well-cushioned sensibilities need not make the journey,’ said a New York Times travel article about the vibrant and long ‘up and coming’ south-east London neighbourhood of Deptford. Two years since the review was originally published (under the title ‘A Trip to the Edge’) and things really seem to be changing in this rough-around-the-edges district, for better or for worse. Oversized blocks of shiny ‘luxury’ flats are encroaching upon its skyline and delis selling fine pastries are popping up along its boisterous high street.

Well aware of Deptford’s shifting status, artist Amy Lord has set up a community-spirited art project in a local shop-front gallery, which aims to plumb the area’s rich history. The Takeaway Shop invites people to share hundreds of historical photos and stories that she has gathered about the area, and to make their own take-home archive.

As a local, I am excited to find out more. Invited into the hushed shop-front, tucked away from the main drag, Amy first shows a group of us how make a simple book. Then we get to choose from folders of endlessly fascinating photos and facts about the ‘hood, to cut out and stick onto the pages.

As well as old views of my everyday haunts I choose a daily menu of the area’s workhouse in 1831 (heavily featuring ‘peas soup’ and ‘milk pottage’), and the story of Olaudah Equiano, a slave-come-abolitionist who once arrived at the docks in Deptford to be freed, only to be quickly sold back into slavery.

The area has long been associated with the arts, and I am struck by an image of a Goldsmiths life modelling class from around 1900, in which students wearing waistcoats and bow ties create precise anatomical sculptures. It’s a far cry from the rebellious posturing associated with the Damian Hurst generation, as is Amy’s quiet, thoughtful project.

The best thing about The Takeaway Shop is that the archive is alive – not only can you make your own book, but you are also encouraged to share your experiences of the area. Those around me at the bookmaking table talk about their personal knowledge and fondness for the neighbourhood, and a corner of the gallery is dedicated to people’s own photos of Deptford today.

‘I think it’s important to know the area you live in, its history, what came before it, and who lives here now,’ Amy says of her motivation for creating the project. This seems especially important now things are changing. Lets hope that in Deptford’s intrepid future we don’t not lose sight of its colourful past.

From January 20-27 The Takeaway Shop will be at:

82 Tanners Hill
Deptford
SE8 4PN

This post is from The London Word and should not be republished elsewhere without prior permission. Please check out our site for more great stories and features.

The Takeaway Shop

Perhaps John Burnside (pictured) already knew he would be announced the 2011 TS Eliot prize winner on Monday for his book, Black Cat Bone, because he was certainly chirpy at the readings the night before. ‘I don’t usually drink water because fish breed in it,’ he quipped at the lectern before moistening his throat.

This year, the Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall saw 1,700 poetry-lovers heavy breathing before the eight-strong shortlist of poetic cream. The list was already mired in controversy because organisers The Poetry Book Society have just taken on a three-year sponsorship deal from hedge fund Aurum. Nominees Alice Oswald and John Kinsella pulled out on ethical grounds leaving Carol Ann Duffy, Leontia Flynn, David Harsent, John Burnside, Sean O’Brien, Bernard O’Donoghue, Esther Morgan and Daljit Nagra.

Nagra kicked off proceedings and dutifully stuck to host Ian McMillan’s diktat of no more than ten minutes per poet – unfortunately not setting an example to the rest of the anarchists, some of whom pranced through their entire books or fancied themselves as comics for the night. Nagra read two long poems with customary mish-mash, English/Punjabi flavour, one on star-crossed lovers and one on Shakespeare’s globe/globalisation, which were very enjoyable.

Leontia Flynn, too, was a pleasure, delivering poems about Facebook or her father’s Alzheimer’s with a scatty, conversational charm from her book Profit and Loss. There were occasional frissons of excitement: Harsent’s radio voice was lulling but the audience perked up when he started reading about, ‘the little widget of her arsehole, damson‐sweet’.

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy read last from her book The Bees and was particularly dry and quite funny, grimacing at mentions of royalty to remind the cynical poetry crowd that her hands are tied when it comes to having to write public poems. And then it was over and the melee spilled out to network, gossip or get their clammy books signed by the poets, in anticipation of the winner’s announcement the following day.

The TS Eliot Prize Readings took place on Sunday 15 January at:

Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road
Waterloo
SE1 8XX

Photo by Adrian Pope

This post is from The London Word and should not be republished elsewhere without prior permission. Please check out our site for more great stories and features.

TS Eliot Prize Poetry Readings

Enjoyed primarily, but not exclusively, during the festive season, The Nutcracker is a two act ballet that debuted in 1892 in St Petersburg. Performed to one of Tchaikovsky’s most glorious and famous scores it is restaged and reimagined across the world year after year.

Two adaptations that brought the Christmas spirit to London this season were Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker at the O2 Arena and Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! at Sadler’s Wells.

In the wake of The Royal Ballet’s successful staging of Romeo and Juliet at the 02 last June Peter Wright and Birmingham Royal Ballet had a high precedent to follow during their four-day take-over of the cavernous venue.

Centred around a magnificent Christmas tree the story follows Clara as she is swept into a fantasy world of snow fairies, toy soldiers and mystery – where she saves the life of her beloved Nutcracker and is transformed into the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Originally designed for the significantly smaller Birmingham Hippodrome this production is opulent in both its set design and special effects, including a Christmas tree that swells in size to frame the stage. Unfortunately though for me the magic was lost due to the location of my seat. Despite being in one of the most expensive chairs in the house the right hand side of the stage view was completely concealed from sight and I also had a bird’s eye view of the goings on in the wings on the left hand side.

Making matters worse a steady stream of people passed my seat as they made their way to the refreshments counter and by the end of the first act the traffic had become irritating. As a venue for ballet the O2 certainly lacks the intimacy that one usually relishes.

Thank heavens for the dancing then, as the demands of the huge arena were met wholeheartedly by the dancers whose efforts were projected onto a cinema screen above the stage. The snowflake scene was executed and portrayed particularly beautifully and the big pas de deux a handsome match for the emotional music.

For a production with a lot of charm the O2 truly let it down and I suspect that it was a more enjoyable evening for those who were new to ballet than seasoned fans.

Taking a more contemporary line Matthew Bourne’s hit show Nutcracker! returned to the closer quarters of Sadler’s Wells to expectant audiences and despite being seated in the gods I had full view of Anthony Ward’s imaginative set.

Celebrating its twentieth birthday the production has a wickedly playful tone and so utilises the delicious orchestral offerings that Tchaikovsky’s dazzling composition offers.

Opening in Dr Dross’ very grey Dickensian orphanage for waifs and strays, adult performers are cast as the very young orphans and the childish interactions between cast members work brilliantly.

Chris Trenfield is genius in the role of Clara’s Nutcracker and as he turned from giddy doll to a topless handsome man women in the audience swooned. Furthermore, when he and Clara shared an almost too grown-up duet as a corps of muscular men posed behind them more swooning ensued – a reminder that parts of Bourne’s productions are not to be taken too seriously.

When Nutcracker abandons Clara for Sugar tension is introduced and it is in the thick of her frustrations that we meet the Sweetieland characters. A personal favourite was the drug-smoking Knickerbocker Glory played by Alastair Postlethwaite whose attempts at seducing Clara failed in amusing fashion. The flirty marshmallow girls also succeeded in raising a smile as they tottered around the stage. Of course, Clara gets what she wants in the end but her triumph is just a little bittersweet.

Going to see The Nutcracker is a much-loved Christmas tradition and even though the festivities have passed there’s still time to enjoy the best of these two shows as Matthew Bourne’s fun, colourful and engaging number continues to run at Sadler’s Wells.

Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker ran at the O2 arena from December 27 to 30, 2011.

Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! runs until January at 22:

Sadler’s Wells
Rosebery Avenue
Islington
EC1R 4TN

Box Office: 0844 412300

This post is from The London Word and should not be republished elsewhere without prior permission. Please check out our site for more great stories and features.

Matthew Bourne’s ‘Nutcracker!’

Length has always been something of a sore point, particularly if it is too small, too short or altogether just forgettable in its brevity, but there are some art forms where size doesn’t matter. With your mind firmly out of the gutter, I am of course referring to films, short films to be precise. Often overlooked in favour of its 90 minute plus counterparts, the short film is rightfully given a celebratory platform in the London Short Film Festival. Now in its ninth edition, the LSFF (see, brevity works), is widely recognised as the premiere UK showcase for cutting edge, home grown independent film. Screw you, Sundance. (Only joking, please let us come in April).

With screenings, industry events and late night shenanigans going on around London until Sunday 15 January, LSFF is swiftly concreting its reputation not only as a laudable date in any film fans calendar, but also for the party-seeking crowd as film, music and drinking merge themselves into a worthy threesome. It’s a hefty programme, but here are some suitably bite-sized highlights for this week.

Film meets Music, meets You at Screen Social in the ICA Bar on Thursday 12 January. Screen Social is a film and music mash-up aimed at those of us simply who like both, with a bold and inspiring mission statement to bring together a whole load of people who love film, but also music videos, animation and motion design.

LSFF teams up with Midnight Movies, this is a late-night Nightcap of surrealist dreams and nightmares – basically a terrifying night of cinema and cracked out japes to the tune of Jake & Dinos Chapman’s disturbing The Organ Grinder’s Monkey, featuring Rhys Ifans (pictured). Kicking off at 11.30pm, things are going to get dark.

Winners from the Underwire Film Festival 2011, a short film festival dedicated to reflecting the top British female talent working across the film industry, will be screened at Shortwave Cinema on Saturday 14 January, for free, from 2pm.  Films include Best Director Chritsine Entwisle, Our Ordered Lives, Best Cinematographer Annika Summerson, House and Best Screenwriter Hope Dickson Leach with Morning Echo. A perfect way to while away a Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday 14 January, the Horse Hospital hosts OHMMM (Orchestra of Home Made Musical Machines), an art noise band made up of, you guessed it, home made musical machines. They’ll be performing a live improvised score to a specially commissioned ‘Noise-Umentary’ about the band Jazz Kunst. If you prefer your noise less arty, head to Rich Mix for Whirlygig Cinema & The Cabinet of Living Cinema as they present Making Tracks, a programme of short  films alongside brand new live scores in a marriage of music videos, experimental film and animations.

On Sunday, the Closing Night Awards Ceremony at ICA will tie up the festival with a screening event during which the winners will be announced and screened, including Shooting People Film of the Month, British Council Award for Best New Short, Animate Projects Award for Best Experimental Short, Little White Lies Award for Best Lo-Budget Short and LoCo Award for Best Comedy Short.

There will also be a series of New Shorts screenings scattered throughout various venues in London so make sure you visit the website for full listings. Judging from previous years, expect everything from the heinous to the hilarious, disturbing to the downright sexy.

Full programme, times and locations are all available on the London Short Film Festival’s website.

Also, make sure you check out the official Festival trailer, produced on one reel of super-8 film by Straight 8.

London Short Film Festival runs until Sunday 15 January at various venues around London.

Image: Rhys Ifans in The Organ Grinder’s Monkey

This post is from The London Word and should not be republished elsewhere without prior permission. Please check out our site for more great stories and features.

London Short Film Festival 2012

As the wind howls outside finally blowing the door shut on 2011, we emerge from our festive food comas to be blinded by the proverbial beacon of shining light welcoming us into 2012. This is the year we have all apparently been waiting for since that Blair chap (remember him?) gave the hallowed news seven years ago – the Olympic year has arrived. Perhaps it’s the incessant – and somewhat disconcerting – mantra that ‘all eyes will be on London’, but if one thing is for sure the Smoke has stepped up its game in 2012. While we’re holding off on full Cultural Olympiad, aka London 2012 Festival, coverage for now, just to keep you dangling on the edge of the impending cultural climax we’ve been promised, here’s a quick scan of what’s happening in 2012…

ART
It’s a year of British stalwarts as London’s galleries honour homegrown talent including David Hockney at Royal Academy of Arts (from 21 January), Lucien Freud at National Portrait Gallery (from 9 February)  and Damien Hirst at Tate Modern (from 5 April). At the V&A, British Design 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age (from 31 March), showcases the best of British design and creative talent, exploring the innovative works created by designers born, trained or working in the UK including Alexander McQueen evening gowns, a six-metre model of Concord and classic textiles by Laura Ashley.

In February, the V&A lead the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations with a special exhibition of portraits in Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton. Then, showcasing the newly designed fashion gallery opening in May, Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 boasts over 60 gowns designed by British designers for royals and celebrities including Princess Diana, the Queen Mother, Liz Hurley and Beyonce.

FILM
Marking the bicentenary of Charles Dickens in February, the BFI hosts their extensive ‘Dickens on Screen‘ season, including the World Premiere of Dickens in London alongside screenings of some of the greatest film and TV adaptations including Little Dorrit (1988) and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1982) which will be screened as an all-day event including a Q&A with Trevor Nunn, John Caird, David Edgar and David Threlfall. Also in February, director-musician-headscrewer David Lynch is given a worthy, and aptly titled, retrospective David Lynch: A Reputation Precedes…, including his first surreal short, The Grandmother, cult classic Eraserhead and of course, Blue Velvet. You might think you don’t want to watch, but you most definitely will.

In October, we’ll get to see the newly invented BFI London Film Festival under the rule of new artistic director Claire Stewart after Sandra Hebron bowed out last year. There’s also the usual deluge of pop-up screens around the city making multiplexes null and void for a few months and the exciting reveal of the Barbican’s brand new cinema in September. Oh and in case you missed the news, the infamous Sundance Film Festival is coming to London for the first time ever at the O2 from 26-29 April. So that’s pretty bloody exciting.

DANCE
High-kicking the dance year off, The Place hosts its 23rd Resolution! season, presenting 78 new dance works from emerging choreographers. Choose from this extensive line up of nightly triple bills from 6 January-17 February and take a chance on the inspiring, innovative, surreal or downright baffling. Witness the best threesome you can expect to see at the Royal Opera House as Liam Scarlett, Christopher Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor join forces under the guidance of Royal Ballet director Monica Mason for her final hurrah before she retires and for what promises to be a beautiful and innovative evening of dance (from 5 April).

In May, the Barbican presents Einstein on the Beach: An Opera in Four Acts, the first ever UK performance of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass’s rarely performed work with unique choreography by Lucinda Childs, merging opera, theatre and performance art. Taking us through June, the Barbican showcases ten works by the late Pina Bausch in a marathon of breathtaking, exhilarating and challenging choreography from this dance legend.

THEATRE
New year resolution to ‘challenge yourself’? Step up to the plate, Ontroerend Goed, our favourite, terrifying, sexy, invasive and penetrating theatre companies. Bringing one of their most controversial performances yet to the Soho Theatre, Audience tears down the wall between performer and audience asking us, how do we like to be watched? You have until 7 January to decide if you’re brave enough or whether you should resign that resolution as quickly as the one where you said you wouldn’t drink in January.

Expect to see plenty of celebrities stomping the boards this year as the Adelphi Theatre serves up a delicious slice of Sweeney Todd starring Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton for a hefty run from 10 March-22 September while Cate Blanchett stars in the Barbican’s headline show, the Sydney Theatre Company’s Gross und Klein from 13 April. However, while I may be trying to avoid the O-word, when it comes to theatre in 2012, there seems to be one clear headline stealer, our very own Bill Shakespeare.

Led by the RSC, the World Shakespeare Festival puts Shakespeare’s Globe at the centre of the world in Globe to Globe where 37 theatre companies will present 37 plays in 37 languages. The festival starts in April and runs until September but don’t worry, this won’t be the last you hear of this incredible line-up.

GIGS & FESTIVALS
A perky start to 2012, the Southbank Centre hosts the three-day Festival for the Living (27 – 29 January), full of talks, performance, poetry and music inspired by the subject of death inviting philosophers, artists, undertakers, doctors and anthropologists to help us embrace something we’d usually prefer to remain buried. Gig wise, yes the Alexandra Palace gigs from Florence and the Machine and The Black Keys are already sold out but if you can gird your loins and wallets until summer, we’re being treated to another impressive influx of inner city music festivals in the shape of Field Day featuring Beirut, Andrew Bird, Metronomy and The Vaccines, Lovebox are celebrating their 10th birthday and The Boss himself is rocking up at Hyde Park for this year’s Hard Rock Calling.

So it’s going to be a busy one for Culture team but we shall endeavour to button up our jackets and wave our writerly flag over this fair city to keep you up to date with what you should be doing. As they say, all eyes are on London – and you don’t think they’re going to let you get away with sitting still, do you? This is a sporting year after all…

Image: David Hockney, ‘Woldgate Woods, 21, 23 & 29 November 2006′, 2006. Oil on 6 canvases. 182 x 366 cm. Courtesy of the Artist. © David Hockney. Photo credit: Richard Schmidt

This post is from The London Word and should not be republished elsewhere without prior permission. Please check out our site for more great stories and features.

Welcome to 2012!

Having battled the biting wind and rain-splashed pavements to seek protection from the elements, why don’t you pull up a chair, get cosy and enjoy a good yarn at the Battersea Art Centre’s storytelling season.

Kicking off the season I went to see Jimmy Stewart Analyses Love and Happiness in Humans (and Rabbits). And it’s certainly hard to feel more festive when sitting by an open fire with a glass of mulled wine and waiting to hear a story involving the incomparable Mr  Stewart.

The story, written and performed by Tassos Stevens, features Jimmy Stewart as a Martian on a quest to understand love. The audience plays planet Earth, with the location changing each time to include theatres, living rooms, lecture theatres, pubs, and parks – (although thankfully this time we’re firmly indoors). It’s a bizarre tale, involving our narrator holding up autocue cards before he says his next lines. There’s also some audience interaction in the form of asking us to write down what love is like, which sounds cringey but led to some humorous answers (‘Seeing unexpected zebras’, one woman wrote. My answer was simply ‘Aaaaaggghh!’).

Perhaps the combination of the wine and fire tempered my concentration, but I have to confess this wasn’t a storytelling journey I was completely on board with. Nevertheless, a fairly enjoyable bit of Christmas nonsense.

But if that doesn’t take your fancy there are plenty more seasonal highlights at the BAC, with  comedy-poet John Hegley’s Christmas show, John Hegley’s Christmas Crackers (until Dec 31), packed with dogs tails, dads and Daleks, verses about voles, and an attempt at some unicorn noises. There’s also a story about the man who thought his television was a pet. Hegley mixes poetry, songs and screwball stories to lead you on a surreal Christmas journey with dancing, too. More dates have also just been added to the critically acclaimed The Adventures of Wound Man and Shirley, Chris Goode’s touching story about two unlikely friends – a boy with a girl’s name and an unconventional superhero and their misadventures, showing until Dec 30. The BAC has also transformed Town Hall Road (next to the theatre) into a lively and buzzing Christmas Market – great for buying last-minute presents!

And if that’s not enough, to conclude the festivities Norman Jay is hosting his Good Times New Year’s Eve Party to end the year in style. Continuously switching venues and changing line-up’s to move with the times, Jay’s party genre sweeps across London, landing this year at the Battersea Arts Centre. It includes three rooms of music and even more entertainment.

So no excuse to be bored this winter, then.

Battersea Arts Centre
Lavender Hill
Battersea
London
SW11 5TN

Box Office: 020 7223 2223

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BAC Storytelling Season