This Hungarian duo – Veronika Harcsa on vocals and Bálint on semi-acoustic guitar – made a dynamic start to their performance and never let up. They were onstage for an hour and a quarter and played ten original songs, mostly from their new album Tell Her, plus a cover song as an encore. The two,…
| February 20, 2017
In a way, communism has always been playing on the masses. There are endless things hidden within the People – power, union and also a great deal of herd mentality. Matei Visniec’s What Shall We Do With the Cello? – performed by Atelier Theatre Studio as part of the Vault Festival 2017 – delicately opens…
| February 13, 2017
Ognisko Polskie, the Polish Hearth Club, is an exquisite venue: glistening chandeliers please the eye, red velvet lines the elegant staircases; this quiet haven in South Kensington is full of Old World charm. Last Saturday night, a traditional version of Chekhov’s play The Seagull was produced here. Set on a lake estate in Imperial Russia,…
| February 12, 2017
This was the premiere of Olesya Zdorovetska’s launch of her project, Telling Sounds. Sitting down, I immediately discerned a sprinkling of Eastern European accents, complimenting the authentic feel of Dash Arts. The stage was minimalistic; we were left to focus on Olesya and her Tsymbaly. Zdorovetska, clad in a vibrant red top, was enthralling. It…
| January 28, 2017
Tracy Letts’ adaptation of Chekhov’s 1900 play – directed by Phil Wilmott – gives an English, deadpan intonation to Russian humor. The expansive, often ironic comedy characteristic of Chekhov’s plays persists even though Letts has cut and altered considerable portions of the original text. The layout of the Union Theatre in Southwark, which has the…
| January 27, 2017
We weren’t quite sure what to expect, as we took our seats in the small, yet inviting, church of St Phillips in Earl’s Court. Yet after an expectant hush had settled, the stage was set for our performers. In filed the singers: all dressed elegantly in black, with the girls done up with red ribbons…
| January 24, 2017
Currently on view at the POSK gallery in Hammersmith is the exhibition Migrant’s Dream, organised by The Federation of Polish Student Societies in the UK in cooperation with the Association of Polish Artists in Great Britain. In the words of its curator Wiktor Komorowski (PhD candidate at the Courtauld Institute of Art) the topic of…
| December 20, 2016
Overland Inn are a French trip-hop duo who came together in 2006, with Etienne on guitar, occasional background vocals and what they call ‘machines’ – the latter of which are also operated by Chloe, who also does vocals and keyboards. They’ve spent the last four years or so in Prague and Between a Dog and…
| December 18, 2016
Just before the Barbican screening of his award-winning 2016 film We Are Never Alone, director Petr Václav took some time to frame his work in a conversation that started out with questions about Czech identity, and ended on post-truth masculinity and why We Are Never Alone is, essentially, a feminist film: women have a future,…
| December 12, 2016
Normally, l’étrangère exhibits works by contemporary artists, but the gallery is currently focussing on Franciszka Themerson (1907-1988), a Polish-born artist who contributed to the interwar avant-garde in Poland, before eventually ending up in the UK amidst the turmoil of the Second World War. What we see at l’étrangère is Themerson’s work from the early 1950s…
| December 12, 2016