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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,
Kieron Quirke's rating
Reader rating
Dir: William Oldroyd.
Cast: Melanie Jessop, Tom Burke, Oliver Birch, Laura Elphinstone, Robert Goodale, Harry Hadden-Paton, Cate Hamer, Chris Kelham, David Killick, Laura Martin-Simpson, Roger Swaine
Description: The 17th-century Venetian painter Galactia, chosen by the government to create a celebratory painting after a war victory, decides that to expose the truth is both a necessity and a personal right. Dark play by Howard Barker.
Trains: BR: Hackney Central 
, Tube / Bus: Buses: 22/22a/30/35/38/55/106/236/253/277 
Phone: 0208985 2424
Website: www.hackneyempire.co.uk
Extra info: Pub
Hard work: but Scenes from an Execution is worth the effort
A high brow strained in intense concentration is required to appreciate this uncompromising mixture of art theory and high tragedy from Howard Barker. Yet if you're willing to deepen those furrows, there's plenty of reward to be had from William Oldroyd's cool, intelligent production.
First staged in 1986, Scenes From an Execution tells of Galactia, a fictional, post-Renaissance artist in Venice commissioned by the Doge to paint a glorious, celebratory memorial of the naval Battle of Lepanto.
Committed to painting the truth as she sees it, Galactia paints a mass of mutilated flesh presided over by cruel, calculating generals, and is imprisoned for her pains.
On a hyper-modern all-white set, with bright light standing for the presumably Caravaggio-like gloom of Galactia's painting, the drama is played out. Involved arguments about the nature and ownership of art are enlivened through bold, characterful performances: Robert Goodale pragmatic, self-pitying and remarkably likeable as the Doge; Tom Burke broody, charismatic and insufferably self-regarding as Galactia's non-talent lover and rival Carpeta.
Barker's prose is rarely less than purple, often lividly so. Melanie Jessop's Galactia gets a lot of it to speak on her way to jail, and, as with many rebel artists, a good chunk is self-aggrandising jabber.
At times my distaste for this rhetoric translated into ennui, but even when you're desperate for her to shut up, there remains an alluring, dangerous energy to the woman.
At the end, when she stands before her displayed painting, realising perhaps that her own political intentions mattered no more than the authorities', her quietness is as much a testament to the power of art as the many words which came before.
• Until 27 January (020 8985 2424, www.hackneyempire.co.uk).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
