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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Nick Kimberley's rating
Reader rating
It may be low-budget, but And While London Burns has the grandest set in operatic history: the City of London itself.
In truth "opera" is hardly the word. It's closer to melodrama as Mozart would have understood it: spoken drama (libretto by John Jordan and James Marriott) interwoven with music (by Isa Suarez).
Mozart, though, would not have understood the form which the 70-minute performance takes. You download it to an MP3 player, then listen while walking through the locations it describes. The download is free, although one location requires an entry fee of £2.
The aim is to disentangle what the libretto calls the "carbon web", the network of wealth and exploitation, often London-based, which strangles the planet by fuelling our oil addiction.
A murder story, then, but from the start it's plain whodunnit: oil companies. Some will find it tendentious; others (count me in) will have their darkest fears confirmed. As the narrator (Douglas Hodge) describes London's globally warmed fate, you almost feel the Thames rushing to engulf you.
It is not opera as we know it, but an ingenious way of reanimating this monstrous city, showing some of what lurks in its shadows.
• www.andwhilelondonburns.com
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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