Tag Archives: cold war

Ravens: Spassky vs. Fischer, Hampstead Theatre

We’ve had Chess the musical; now, here’s Chess the play. Tom Morton-Smith, who has experience wrestling recent history into dramatic form with the acclaimed Oppenheimer, turns his attention to the 1972 World Chess Championship in Reykjavík, in which American challenger Bobby Fischer battled the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky. … Continue reading

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Cyrano de Bergerac leads December’s Top 10 new London shows

From a starry revival to musical comedies and an incendiary Pulitzer winner. Read my full BroadwayWorld article here

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ANNA, National Theatre

The audience plays surveillance state in this pioneering collaboration between playwright Ella Hickson and sound designers Ben and Max Ringham. We experience the action through individual sets of headphones, corresponding to a hidden mic on our protagonist Anna – listening … Continue reading

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Chess, London Coliseum

Chess, by Tim Rice and ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, hasn’t had a major West End revival since its Eighties heyday, but it’s back with a bang in a semi-staged production that features aerial silk acrobatics, cheerleading stunts and drunken Cossack dancing. But … Continue reading

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Pick of the Week

Bridget Christie and flamenco in Edinburgh, family-friendly Green Man Festival and will The Man From U.N.C.L.E will be a Cold War hit, or just lukewarm? Read my full theartsdesk newsletter here

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Thriller asks big questions

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, David Edgar’s 1990s Iron Curtain Trilogy is staged together for the first time, offering wry, nuanced dramatisation of political and social upheaval. Middle play Pentecost addresses post-Soviet reconstruction and the complexity … Continue reading

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Listed: Wall Flowers – The Best of Berlin

It divided a city, but the Wall produced great stories, dramas and films. We pick our favourites. Read the full post on theartsdesk

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Hidden treasures, war poets and Dracula

In my Compass magazine Arts pages this month: Discover hidden treasures with Heritage Open Days New play explores Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon’s lives and work Fist pump to ’80s-tastic Rock of Ages Scary Little Girls’ blood-curdling Dracula Revered printmaker Colin See-Paynton shares his nocturnal encounters … Continue reading

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