RSC: Tartuffe in Birmingham

Posted on January 8, 2019 by Ronald Weihs

The RSC’s new version of Molière’s Tartuffe is a remarkable piece of work. It transports the plot to Birmingham, and sets it in a Pakistani Muslim household. Tartuffe is a fake holy man, who has gained influence over Imran Pervais, and is imposing his fundamentalist version of Islam on the family, while he persuades his patron to sign over his … Read the rest

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Richard II at the Almeida: the real Beale

Posted on January 5, 2019 by Ronald Weihs

It was with great anticipation that I went to the Almeida to see Simon Russell Beale in The Tragedy of Richard II. He had been a brilliant Timon of Athens at the National in 2012, in a startling production by Nicholas Hyntner that connected Shakespeare’s stark fable to the Occupy movement and Wall Street corruption. I knew that this … Read the rest

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Tate Modern Photo-ops

Posted on August 19, 2018 by Ronald Weihs

Picasso retrospective

Art lover at the Tate ModernChildren playing in Turbine Hall

I love the Tate Modern. There’s the shows, of course — the free ones from the permanent collection and the blockbusters. There’s the mysterious Tanks and the clever Artist Rooms. There’s the building, with all its curves and angles and long, long escalators, and the wonderful smooth sloping Turbine Hall. There are the people who swarm through it, … Read the rest

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Gallery 46: Photos of homeless in 1970s London

Posted on August 12, 2018 by Ronald Weihs

Gallery 46 is in Whitechapel at 46 Ashfield Road, one of two adjacent Georgian houses. To be admitted to 46, you knock on the door of its neighbour. The gallery occupies three floors of the otherwise empty house.

The exhibition was “A Sort of Home”, photographs by David Hoffman of homeless people, some taken in a “wet crypt” under St. … Read the rest

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