Arts & Culture
Originally published on Tuesday, 13th April 2010
UJ Culturist April 2010
With everything from Picasso to Psycho, proto-electronica to classic cinema, ladies and gentlemen of this fair city we proudly give you: April!
Something curious happened to me on the way to UJHQ this morning. Everyone (and I do mean everyone) was doing something rather unique: they were smiling. Or at least no one was looking grumpy at any rate. Funny how it’s so contagious… So it is with my own huge grin on my face, and introducing everything from Picasso to Psycho, proto-electronica to classic cinema, ladies and gentlemen of this fair city we proudly give you: April!
FILM: Psycho in Context
Until April 30, £6.40-£9
BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT
website
All psychos have their origins and their consequences. That suit who flipped when you ‘brushed past him too hard’ on the tube was surely en route to a job he loathes, from a house he can’t stand and a wife who wishes him dead. And just look at Hitchcock’s cinematic masterpiece and all the incredibly films that it has influenced: les Diaboliques, Barton Fink, L’Avventura, erm, Psycho 2…
PERFORMANCE: CircusFest
Apr 7 – May 16, 10am-6pm, £7-£25.
Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8EH
website
Gather ‘round, gather ‘round, ladies and gents!
The bizarre, apocalyptic Trash City may be our pick of this celebration of the leftfield circus (how could you turn down a human pinball machine and Johnny Woo and Empress Stah-led traveling gay disco?), but with the deliciously morbid Marisa Carnesky, powerful low-key Acrobat: Propaganda and screenings of Dumbo on offer there really is something for all the family.?
FESTIVAL: Land of Kings
April 23, 7pm-4am.
£15, £12 adv. (£30 incl. three course banquet)
Throughout E8 & N19
www.landofkings.co.uk
Highlighting a heady selection of multidisciplinary talent, Land of Kings is a microfest of Dalstonian proportions. From cabaret to mash-up, jazz hip-hop to belting rock, subterranean installations to an intriguing three course affair from the Rebel Dining Society. One day, one wristband, every box you could possibly want ticked. Assuming one of those boxes doesn’t read: ‘anywhere but East London’.
ART: The London Original Print Fair
April 29 – May 3. £8
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, W1J 0BD
www.londonprintfair.com
The London Original Print Fair is celebrating hitting a quarter century with a delightful selection of, strangely, original prints – including etchings by Peter Blake and Damien Hirst, rare works by Picasso and Rembrandt and less renowned artists like Hot Chip and Grace Jones. There’s also a great range of talks for ye art lovers, a print trail running through Burlington Arcade and a loan exhibition from the British Museum Print Collection to keep even the less financially flamboyant among us entertained.
MUSIC: Ether
Apr 16-24
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
website
Absolutely one to catch this month, the Southbank Centre’s innovative annual music/art/tech festival this year includes a retrospective of the proto-electronic composer Edgard Varèse, the Stereo MCs crossing swords with The Bays, plus there’s The Herbaliser, Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Trio, Chrome Hoof, the legendary Gil Scott-Heron, Micachu & The Shapes and a live show from the inimitable Chris Cunningham.
FOOD: Tim Siadatan at The Hackney Pearl
April 21. £24 for 3 courses (advance booking essential)
The Hackney Pearl, 11 Prince Edward Road, E9 5LX
website
Taking over the kitchen at The Hackney Pearl in this month’s guest chef spot is Tim Siadatan. Graduate of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, formerly of St. John, Moro and a couple of top restos in Oxford and Sydney, Tim is set to open his own space in Highbury Corner next month. But before that happens, get a sneak preview of his tasty-sounding Italian menu at one of Hackney’s favourite locals.
LAST CHANCE: THEATRE: Soap
Ends April 25, 3pm & 8pm. £20-£25
Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, W6 9RL
website
Getting sweaty beneath the soap suds.
Hot, wet and very, very sexy, Soap is the latest feat from the men behind La Clique and Les 7 Doigts de la Main – and it’s absolutely breathtaking. Taking all the unfeasible gymnastics and slick production that you’d expect, the performance dream team combine them with a more adult sensibility, creating an feat by turns terrifying and hysterical, raucous and beautiful – and we promise that you’ll never look at a bathtub the same way again.