For King and Country: As Swaziland celebrates 50 years of independence, the king took to the stage to make an astonishing announcement June 8, 2017 Portraits of the Lion and the Great She Elephant — King Mswati III and his mother — stare down from the wall of the immigration office. The animal print pattern of the king’s tribal dress seems a world away from the border-bureaucracy of entry stamps and customs forms, but it’s part of the dichotomy of [...]
Barber Shop Chronicles review: Inua Ellams’ razor sharp play draws profound connections between disparate men June 8, 2017 Set in half a dozen barber shops across two continents, Inua Ellam’s energetic, funny, banter-driven play seeks to join the dots between the experiences and opinions of black men in geographically disparate locations. And there are are plenty of dots to join in a play that ricochets between barber’s chairs as far apart as Johannesburg [...]
Estée Lauder summer beauty must-haves June 5, 2017 | City Talk With the summer holiday season on the horizon, take inspiration from our beauty edit of the top travel essentials to pick up at the airport. Whatever your chosen destination, whether it’s the French Riviera, South Africa, Tel Aviv or a yoga retreat in Ibiza, we’ve got it covered, with fail-safe beauty buys from Estée Lauder [...]
887 at the Barbican review: an unmissable evening for fans of Lepage’s brilliant brand of stagecraft June 2, 2017 French-Canadian auteur Robert Lepage returns to the Barbican with a solo show suffused from first second to last with his inimitable brand of heartwarming and absurd stagecraft. It's ostensibly a memoir about Lepage growing up in a working class tenement block in Quebec, with the building brought spectacularly to life by an incredible scale model, [...]
Zero Point at the Barbican review: a visually stunning but eventually tiresome mash-up of ballet and Japanese butoh June 2, 2017 For a while, Darren Johnston’s Zero Point is mesmerising: the bodies of a dozen or so Japanese dancers twist and warp as they contort through beams of light. Projections turn them into living blocks of static. At times they dance alone in the dark, your eyes only making out vague outlines of limbs. The audience, [...]
Into the Unknown at the Barbican: an anarchic journey through the world of science fiction June 2, 2017 Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction is a brilliantly anarchic history of the genre, succeeding both as a surface-level crowd-pleaser and a rigorous collection that will give fresh perspective to even the most ardent of nerds. The curation takes inspiration from the blockbuster exhibitions hosted by the V&A – from the moment you [...]
Heading to the America’s Cup? Here’s where to go and what to do in Bermuda June 2, 2017 There are few things more intimidating on the water than suddenly finding yourself in the middle of a practice race for the America’s Cup. The oldest trophy in international sport is being contested in Bermuda for the first time in June 2017, but teams have been based on the Atlantic island for months, training for [...]
The long weekend: Brecon Beacons, South Wales June 2, 2017 We explore Wales’s illustrious and ancient mountains. THE WEEKEND: Spend an inspiring weekend amidst gorgeous rolling countryside and valleys, dramatic mountain ranges, breathtaking waterfalls and forests. The Brecon Beacons National Park is a haven for lovers of the outdoors at every level of exertion, from leisurely strolls along the River Usk, stopping at traditional Welsh [...]
Interiors: Inside the newly-opened London Flower School and why the capital is the home of floral artistry June 2, 2017 In King’s Cross, the newly-opened London Flower School is bustling with Chinese students indulging their passion for plants. Floral art is so big in Asia that up to 80 per cent of students at UK flower schools arrive from China, Korea and Japan. Why do they come so far? Because London is the world leader [...]
Focus On Clapham: Commons, good schools and cosy gastropubs means families stay put in SW4 June 2, 2017 Clapham is not a straightforward neighbourhood. Unlike Dalston, it isn’t synonymous with hipsters; it isn’t known for its international wealth like Knightsbridge; and it isn’t the naturalised home of the English gent like Hampstead. It’s best described as a south London suburb that has welcomed wave upon wave of migration from other boroughs. The Georgian [...]
