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With a single dessert and just two glasses of wine our bill was kept in check - but the effort of doing so was not much fun
Babbo
Film
This is a film with beautiful performances and a visual style that urges you towards reflection
Bright Star
Theatre
Although the first half of Kwei-Armah’s production is pacy, funny and intelligent, the energy level then drops off
Seize The Day
I loved this film from start to finish. Take the girlfriend, tell your mum - I'd see it again tomorrow and will buy the dvd.
I saw this last night and can't remember the last time I was so moved in the theatre.
I have been to many of London's so-called best Japanese restaurants and none have been as good as the food that I've had at Aqua Kyoto
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
