Our team of arts lovers give their verdicts on this week’s hottest events…
Shakespeare Inc. at the Rosemary Branch Theatre – by Emma Gatten
You expect certain things from a self-styled “romp”. At best, a joy of self-aware, Carry-On-style innuendo. At worst, weak puns, poor comedic timing, and obscure in-jokes.
Shakespeare Inc. unfortunately veers to the latter.
Combining every single conspiracy theory about the origin of Shakespeare’s work, the play imagines an incompetent Shakespeare used as a business front for all of Elizabethan England’s literary figures, including Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere and Sir Francis Bacon.
Implausible though this is, the bigger issue is the acting and script, which leave a lot to be desired.
Shakespeare Inc. runs until March 21 at the Rosemary Branch Theatre, 2 Shepperton Road, London, N1 3DT. Tickets £12, £10 concessions.
Free On at Vulpes Vulpes – by Olivia Alabaster
After venturing down a little alley-way in Clapton and knocking on a door, you enter the Vulpes Vulpes art gallery (the name is Latin for red fox, in case you didn’t know).
Free On, which opened last Friday (05.03.10) is described by its three contributing artists as a work of collaboration. “Rule one is that there are always three things,” they proclaim. “If there was a fourth thing it would be made to stand at the back during photo shoots and wouldn’t be allowed to have any tattoos.”
It is with this whimsical sense of humour that the various works of art seem to have been made – deconstructed videos and Tetris games, married to home-made music or “sound,” most with input from each of the artists, Adam Burton, Ben Garrod and Lee Stone.
There are also some ’80s-looking geometric patterns which turn out to be the coolest barcodes you’ve ever seen. If you hold your camera-phone up to the image it reads the code and then links to a particular website.
Now that’s convergence.
Free On runs until March 21, at Vulpes Vulpes, Unit 4, Prout Road, Clapton, E5 9NP. Open Saturday to Sunday, 11-6pm. Admission free.
Gavin Bond at the Idea Generation Gallery – by Arj Singh
Gavin Bond, one of the UK’s hottest contemporary music and fashion photographers, has brought his collection of pop star portraits to this small East London gallery.
Bond intends to show the world’s biggest stars in an unfamiliar light, displaying never-before-seen photos from shoots for Q and GQ magazines.
His work is often visually noisy, with seemingly stock Photoshop effects relied upon heavily. It rarely comes off.
When he does decide to strip back, Bond often photographs his subjects on a plain grey background. His intention is to get under the skin of the modern superstar. Instead, he manages to illustrate just how ridiculous the rock-star posturing of the likes of Chris Martin really is.
The latter could be highly amusing and enlightening -but, unfortunately, it’s done without a trace of irony.
Gavin Bond: Music runs until 23rd March 2010 at the Idea Generation Gallery, 11 Chance Street, Shoreditch E2 7JB. Open Monday to Friday 10am – 6pm, Saturday to Sunday 12pm – 5pm. Admission free.
I had the good fortune to catch Shakespeare Inc at The Rosemary and am wondering whether Emma Gatten was in the right theatre or the right show on the night she claims to have been in attendance?
As a writer myself who has had a few of his plays produced I can only scratch my head in amazement at Ms.Gatten's take on what was clearly a highly polished and dazzlingly acted production. I, and my partner, were not alone in this view either -the bar downstairs was in complete and merriful agreement it would have appeared.
Takes all sorts, I suppose
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