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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
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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
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I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
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Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Fiona Mountford's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Dylan Tighe.
Cast: Helen Schoene, Raad Rawi, Aine Stapleton
Description: An adaptation of Euripides's drama, with live performance interacting with pre-recorded visual imagery. Written and directed by Dylan Tighe.
Trains: Tube: Notting Hill Gate 
Phone: 0207229 0706
Website: www.gatetheatre.co.uk
As the title suggests, this is no ordinary retread in Euripides’s footsteps. It is the winning entry in this year’s New Directions Award, which encourages young theatremakers to experiment with their craft. A certain amount of directorial showing-off might, therefore, be excused but Dylan Tighe pushes our tolerance way too far.
The opening performance art-like tableau is a wonderful indicator of what’s to come. Someone gargles in a fish-tank, a man in a balaclava eats a boiled egg, a naked woman watches a toaster and a French programme on myth plays silently on a television screen (we’ll get Italian later). Oh, and it all unfolds behind gauze. Naturellement.
If you have a working knowledge of the original Medea — who killed her children to punish her ex‑husband and his remarriage — you might just find things to admire in this bewildering, self‑referential, artfully deconstructed labyrinth. There are several references to the British citizenship test; Tighe should have pushed his promising idea of Jason marrying Glauce for the “right” passport further.
There are scarcely any spoken words, the longueurs seem endless and it doesn’t help that every second ticks away before us on a clock on a monitor. It’s an object lesson for all aspiring directors: to learn where inventiveness stops and mess begins.
Until 18 July (020 7229 0706, www.gatetheatre.co.uk).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
This was without doubt one of the worst productions I have ever seen - incoherent and breathtakingly pretentious. One saving grace was that what little banal dialogue there was was largely inaudible. On balance, probably worse even than Hampstead Theatre's recent unprovoked attack on Brecht's "Turandot". If you want an intelligent contempoarary take on Greek drama, catch the Arcola's "Thyestes" before it closes.
- Robert Digby, London, England
The best piece of performance art I have ever seen
- Vidal Sassoon, Los Angeles/London
