Morning:
13°c
London faces a wave of bus and Tube strikes that could cause chaos for millions of passengers as unions walkout over pay and conditions
More...
An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Sarah Frater's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Monica Mason.
Cast: The Royal Ballet, Martha Wainwright
Description: A mixed programme of contemporary dance, featuring a revival of Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins and Mats Ek's Carmen.
Trains: Tube: Covent Garden 
Phone: 0207304 4000
Website: www.roh.org.uk
Email: onlinebooking@roh.org.uk
Extra info: Air Conditioning, Food
Sin and tonic: Edward Watson, Zenaida Yanowsky and Gary Avis in The Seven Deadly Sins performed by the Royal Ballet
There was a massive scrap when Ross Stretton staged Mats Ek's Carmen for the Royal Ballet back in 2002. Ross who? Mats what? You might well ask. Stretton was the Royal's short-lived director (2001-2002), Ek a little-known Swedish choreographer, respected in Europe but not much liked in the UK. At least not for The Royal Ballet.
They are all classical grace, and Ek is a man with disruptive ideas. Instead of ballet's harmonies and symmetries, he has them moving in ructions, convulsing their bodies and miming grotesqueries. And as with his idioms, so with his ideas. His Carmen is not the luscious Hispanic fantasy that sugars the pill but a mongrel run-about, on-heat and off-message.
This surprise and slightly underrehearsed-revival, with the excellent Tamara Rojo as Carmen, reminds you of Ek's humanity, and also his radicalism.
Ek mocks our expectations of flamenco, from our sniffing at 1970s tourist tat to our current obsession with "authenticity", and then he demolishes the emotional crash barriers we have built around Carmen.
Beauty is disruptive, as is sex, as is no sex. Loyalty counts for little. The good are not rewarded, the bad not punished. His showing it helps.
Ek's Carmen is astringent and emollient. The other two ballets, Will Tuckett's The Seven Deadly Sins and Christopher Wheeldon's DGV, paled alongside. Good conducting though.
In rep until 21 February. Information: 020 7304 4000, www.roh.org.uk.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
