Rebecca Peyton in Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister, currently running at the Finborough Theatre. Photo: Michele Engeler

Since Saturday last, I’ve witnessed an unusually high amount of grief for an average week in January.

First I saw the Greek film Attenberg on DVD (out on Monday 16 Jan), directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari (see my review here). It is an intensely quirky and non-conformist look at, among other things, grief and death. We follow Marina – played by Ariane Labed – whose father is dying.

Marina has a best friend Bella, played by Evangelia Randou, with whom she shares a baffling sense of humour and a love of silly walking a la Monty Python, but this is a different relationship to the one she has with her father whose illness is slowly killing him.

Marina and her father are close. They enjoy pretending to be gorillas together and talk frankly to one another. They are, it seems by the end of the film, soulmates.

Marina’s grief is slow burning. There’s no crying and no melodrama.  She objects a couple of times to her father discussing funeral arrangements, but that and falling face down onto a bed in a resigned ‘giving up’ moment is as far as she gets in terms of an expression of grief. It’s a cerebral, contained representation. Marina is resigned to what has and will happen.

The second injection of grief I experienced was in a play. Catharsis was central to the Greek’s attitude to theatre. To witness another’s rage, happiness, tears, to live vicariously through a character’s intense emotional reaction, was a way of making sure that none of that dangerous feeling was let loose on the world.  Rebecca Peyton’s play Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister, takes you on a vivid, tangible journey through her own experience of grief.

Running every Monday and Sunday at the Finborough theatre until January 23, the play is written and performed by Peyton. She stands on a blank stage and tells us frankly about what happened to her sister. Kate Peyton was killed in 2005 in Somalia when she was working as a journalist. She had been sent  there by the BBC and was subsequently shot in the back.

Rebecca’s entire piece stems from her grief; her need to tell people what happened and to express the shock, pain and frustration felt at the prospect of never seeing her older sister again. Onstage, Peyton relives the moment when she is told over the phone that her sister has been shot. Shot but not dead, those moments hold a kind of forced hope for Peyton. She clings to the idea that her sister will recover. Then later, while Rebecca is talking to her mother over the phone in the back of a friend’s car in Charing Cross  her mother lets out a visceral, guttural noise as she realises her daughter has died of her wounds. Rebecca re-enacts that noise, which sends shivers down the spine and brings tears to the eyes. We can almost imagine that feeling. We are almost reliving it with her.

Hamlet is another play filled to bursting with grief and what it can make people do. I saw the generally applauded version (Charles Spencer gave it two stars while most other reviewers gave it four) from Ian Rickson, starring Welsh actor Michael Sheen, at the Young Vic which is nearing the end of its run. I’ve always loved Hamlet, but watching this version I noticed how much grief is central to  the words and motivations of the characters.

In the first scene where we see the prince, his mother Gertrude and step-father Claudius together (here in a 70s-era mental hospital with the cast sat round on chairs as if they were in some kind of counselling meeting), grief is mentioned many times: ‘…’Tis unmanly grief’ says Claudius ‘It shows a will most incorrect to heaven.’ He chides Hamlet, and calls him selfish in languishing over the death of his father.

Hamlet’s speech which begins ‘Seems Madam? nay it is, I know not seems’ stands out in this production. The betrayed prince tells his mother and Claudius that his woe comes from within, he is helpless to control it and that it does not conform to people’s expectations – the ‘fruitful river in the eye’ the ‘customary suits of solemn black’ the ‘dejected haviour of the visage’.

Hamlet suggests that, when felt genuinely, grief is uncontrollable. It comes with no form and cannot be measured. Just as with Rebecca Peyton’s reaction to her sister’s death, grief manifests itself in unexpected ways. It makes one cry out involuntarily, it can propel someone to make something, to write something and to take revenge. It can also make a person see life differently, as it does with Marina in Attenberg.

I was lucky enough to see a screening of The Descendants this week too. It’s out January 27, and I would recommend trying to get to see it. It is George Clooney’s most recent and is by Alexander Payne, the director of Sideways – the unexpected hit about wine and depression starring Paul Giamatti from 2004.

This too featured grief in its rawest form. A mother is thrown from a speedboat and is left in a coma. She leaves her two young daughters and her husband (Clooney) pondering on the importance of life of death, of the people we love and of missed chances. I can’t say too much about it, but it is worth a watch.

Something blue: Wilton's Music Hall is in dire need of help

It’s hard to keep up with the blog. I admit. But I feel resentment for the guilt YOU’RE all making me feel, so I’ve decided to make a semi-promise to be more regular with it. It’s a semi-promise, because the truth is, I can’t promise because I’ll break it,  but I will try not to.

Either way – if there’s longer between posts then there’s more to cram in. I’m not totally sure if that’s a good thing, but there have certainly been some GREAT things I’ve seen recently. Some other things not so GREAT but that’s the way of the world.

I hope everyone has noticed Apocalypse Now has been revived in cinemas recently. It’s one of my favourite films, but I’ve never seen it on the big screen. Last week I rectified this. We went to the BFI to see it and it was brilliant. The big screen transforms it, everything was heightened, funnier, more devastating. I’ve been watching Martin Sheen recently in the first series of the West Wing and it’s strange to watch him again as his younger self, playing Captain Benjamin Willard.

So that was something old, but I also experienced something new on Friday last week. Zoo Lates… Anyone? Late Zoo? Zoo lates. London Zoo in Regent’s Park is open late on Fridays throughout June and July and it’s quite a bit of fun. You can do all the usual things that you do at a zoo – see the aardvarks, camels, giraffes, penguins, but you can also do fun things like the Silent Disco. I’ve wanted to try this out for a while, and they have one at the Zoo Lates and it’s so much fun. The idea is that you pay a deposit for your headphones, then you start dancing to one of two channels, that everyone else in the area has tuned into. So to anyone without headphones it looks like everyone’s gone insane. But to the people in the know, it’s like going to a fab, hilarious disco that’s outside (it rained lots when we were there – but that didn’t stop us).

The animals were good too, of course, and apart from being treated to a flash dance mob we were also able to see the new penguin enclosure.

Last week I went to the opening of Luise Miller at the Donmar Warehouse, a play by Fredrich Schiller, which first appeared on stage in 1784. At the Donmar the show is directed by Michael Grandage – soon to step down as Artistic Director of the 250 seat theatre in Covent Garden – and had a superb cast which included Alex Kingston (of Doctor Who and E.R.) and Ben Daniels.

You can clearly see the play’s Shakespearean influences – Romeo and Juliet and Othello to be specific – but the beauty of this production is that the text and plot  seems fresh, new and  exciting. Luise Miller tells of tensions between politics and love in the Eighteenth century German court. Luise is the daughter of the court musician, while Ferdinand is the son of The Chancellor and  they have of course fallen in love. This is much to The Chancellor’s disappointment, as he wants his son to marry the prince’s ‘bit on the side’, for political advancement reasons.  It all gets a little complicated – although not too complicated, thanks to the excellent directing and snappy adaptation by Mike Poulton. Needless to say it’s not a particularly happy ending. But it’s certainly worth trying to get a ticket.

Wilton’s Music Hall is falling down and there seems to be very little that the Arts Council are willing to do about it. If you haven’t ever been there to see something then go – if only to see the building itself. It’s a beautiful old music hall, which is in dire need of restoration. Having recently been rejected in an Arts Council bid for money, Wilton’s is balancing on a knife edge of survival. The building is barely holding itself up.

On there at the moment is Into Thy Hands – a new play by Jonathan Holmes – the Artistic Director of Jericho House, the company which brought Katrina to London in 2009. It’s about John Donne – poet, lawyer, courtier and lover. It’s a fairly dense text which tries its hardest to represent the real Donne, but it’s a little to long and stodgy for my liking. That said, it’s at Wilton’s so the combination should serve a fun night out.

I’ve spoken to quite a few directors recently for the Why I Love series in the Telegraph, including Kevin Macdonald – the director of the recent film Life in a Day – check them out on my Telegraph page.

This post is going to have to come in two tranches as I’ve also see Howl, Miro, Summer Exhibition, not to mention the band Hero & Leander and a lot more in the last month. So I’ll post again in a week to update.

King of the Aesthetes: Oscar Wilde statue in Dublin (C) Jobriga/Flickr

It’s been a busy week. Last weekend was beautiful with sunny, summer sun but last week it just went down-hill a bit. Today’s not too bad though, so I’ll make this fairly brief…. Got to get out and get some of that Vitamin D.

All sorts of interesting things have I come across in this last week. I finished reading Wolf Hall – the brilliant book about Thomas Cromwell that won the Booker prize a year or two ago. I hesitated before reading this: it’s huge, and it’s about the Tudors. I will freely admit I know little about this period in history. But in actual fact the book is impossible to put down.

Hilary Mantel gets under the skin of this fascinating character – Cromwell – who influenced such important events in his time of favour with Henry VIII.  She has an incredible way of evoking the time and I never felt detached from the story – something that I find happens with books set in the Tudor period. The events are so far away and so different to our world. Mantel manages to show us the Tudors were human beings.

Testament to how much people loved this book is an experience I had on the tube when I first started reading it. It was a fairly packed carriage, but a man leaned over to me and said: “It’s brilliant isn’t it?” – I thought he was talking about the packed carriage and said – “Sorry, what?”. He went on: “I couldn’t put that book down, it gets under your skin, she’s a fantastic writer, what she does with language is amazing”. He then wanted to talk about the book, but I find chatting to strangers on tubes difficult at the best of times, let alone a packed carriage and half-way through a sentence.

I also discovered David Foster Wallace this week – I haven’t read anything by him, but I have read about his work and the man himself. The Pale King has just been published – it’s published posthumously as Wallace killed himself back in 2008. He sounds like an intriguing figure – someone reminiscent of Hunter S Thompson, but also a little like the scientist John Nash. A brilliant man, who understood mathematical theories, but struggled his whole life with mental health issues.

We went to see the V&A’s Cult of Beauty exhibition yesterday. It’s a huge exhibition devoted to the Aesthetes - a group of artists and designers who decided that having beautiful things around them was paramount. “Art for Art’s sake” was their motto. I don’t necessarily believe in this – I think all art should have some purpose – whether it be informative, political, therapeutic or for self expression. However I applaud the Aesthete’s attempt to raise the beautiful up and make everyday things objects of desire.

William Morris, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and many more contributed in very different ways to this movement. The V&A’s exhibition is brilliantly curated, in large, spacious halls that mean it’s not hard to get to all the pieces. One of my pet hates is when an exhibition is so busy you can’t see for the people, but this exhibition as laid out so that just didn’t happen (unlike the British Museum’s Afghanistan exhibition).

I also went to see three plays last week. The first was in a funky venue I hadn’t been to before, The Rosemary Branch – a pub theatre not too far from Old Street. They have a double bill on at the moment – Lines and My Name Is Rachel Corrie. I only got to see My Name is Rachel Corrie, but Lines – a new play by young writer James Fritz – looks very interesting. It’s a verbatim play about Ian Tomlinson – very topical.

My Name Is Rachel Corrie is a very different verbatim play and is about Rachel Corrie, a young Jewish American woman who went to Palestine to try to help out in the conflict over there. She was killed  in an act of pointless violence and this play tells her story. What comes across so well in the show is this young woman’s incredible vivacity, passion and intelligence. She was dedicated to making a difference, but found everything about what she was doing frustrating. The actress Sophie Angelson takes the part of Rachel Corrie, and she’s very strong.

Gosh – I’ve gone on and on about things this week, and I said I’d be brief. So there’s only really time to mention the other things which I would definitely say are worth checking out. Of Gods and Men came out on DVD last week – it’s the story of 7 monks beheaded over ten years ago in a monastry in Algeria. It’s moving, poignant and brilliantly shot. Definitely watch this if you can.

A play lost for 50 years or so has recently arisen – Wife to James Whelan by Abbey writer Teresa Deevy in the thirties was filed away in a draw for a long time. Irish company Charm Offensive have put the show on at the New Diorama theatre in London and it’s a gem of a show that is an everyman story, full of life’s tragedy and humour. Go see it.

A still of biker on the TT race from TT: Closer to the Edge

What a week for the arts. Cuts, cuts and more cuts. There have been some very sad announcements for some companies in the UK after the Arts Council announced the National Portfolio funding plans. The ICA has lost a large amount of funding as has the Almeida theatre. Derby Theatre and the Exeter Northcott are two of 206 who have lost their funding completely.

I wrote a brief piece about the winners and losers for the Telegraph.

There will be knock on effect of all these cuts throughout the arts world. Some are saying there could be more cuts, while others are calling the cuts a disaster. Generally though, it felt as though people recognised the difficult job the arts council had in the face of the governments budget plans.

But there’s still a lot of arts to savour! See below for inspiration.

Last week I went to a press screening of a new documentary TT: Closer to the Edge. It’s based around the terrifying, adrenaline-fuelled motorbike races on the Isle of Man. Before I went I had the feeling that it may not appeal what with all the speed, crashes, bike enthusiasts.

But thankfully the documentary is brilliant. It tells the story of a race that inspires people to live right on the edge – which is a cliche, but it’s very hard to describe it any other way. We follow one main rider – Guy Martin, a maverick, eccentric, cheeky thrill seeker who is intent on winning at least one of the races.

The film is in 3D – which is a treat. It heightens everything you’re watching, making it feel as though you might actually be riding the bike as well.

There is real tragedy on show here though and the film does not shy from the truth of the disasters that befall some families. Every year someone is badly damaged, if not killed and the year the documentary was filmed was no exception.

The film is released on the 22 April and I’d say go and see it! It’s funny, poignant, tragic and essentially shows how obsessive and at the same time free, human beings can really be.

Also seen last week was Mike Leigh‘s Ecstasy at Hampstead theatre. It’s one of the first plays programmed by their new artistic director Ed Hall (son of Peter) and it’s a sure hit. Plans have been announced that it is transferring to the West End, so although the run at Hampstead finishes soon, you’ll still get a chance to see it.

It’s set in a bedsit in the 70s. A young woman drinks on her own, brings back men to have sex with and sits, and reads. She’s lonely, depressed and an alcoholic. The action happens over one night where she goes out drinking with her friends – all of whom have slowly drifted from her, with families and new jobs. It’s classic Leigh – we see real life, real pain and real humour all bundled into one. Some people find his work depressing, but I think it’s full of hope. Go and see this if you possibly can.

Also on at the moment is Battersea Arts Centre’s One on One Festival. This was on last year and it’s classic BAC. Artistic Directors David Jubb and  David Micklem have put their brilliant producing skills to the test once again and come up with a festival of delights.

The premise of the festival is that the pieces are for just you, for one person. So if that alone scares you – then don’t bother going. You are put in all sorts of interesting, frightening situations. But it’s different for each and every person.

This year Belgian theatre company Ontroerend Goed revisit BAC with their piece Internal. I didn’t see the piece this year as I saw it at Edinburgh festival in 2009 and once is enough for this piece. It’s billed as kind of theatrical speed-dating and is very intense, but a beautiful, brilliant experience that makes you question everything about theatre and yourself and stays with you for a long time.

All in one week! Thrill seekers!

Another Secret Cinema event. Photo: Spanner Dan from Flikr

I can’t say much about this event. It’s top secret. I can’t tell you where I went, what happened and even what we watched. But that’s the name of the game.

It’s Secret Cinema. The organisation has been creating cinematic events for … well who knows? There are a lot of questions surrounding Secret Cinema that I just can’t answer. Suffice to say the events spread through word of mouth, facebook, twitter, all forms of social networking to reach over 6000 people.

And once you’ve been, it’s unlikely that you’ll forget the experience. People pay a not inconsiderable sum without knowing ANYTHING about what might be in store for them. It’s a complete unknown right up until you enter the building and even then if you haven’t seen the film you might still be guessing what it could be for a while.

I went on its opening night on the 11th Feb and it was certainly an experience. The company has recently got sponsorship from Windows phone so don’t expect this to be some sort of shoddy, film student event. Money has been spent.

The whole event works around the chosen movie. You arrive at a designated place, dressed in whatever style clothes they ask you to dress in and are escorted on a journey almost to another world. This time round we went back in time. Sets are recreated around you and you suddenly step into the world of the film. There are actors also dressed up who lead you into small areas, interesting story lines and then there’s a big finale – a kind of performance interpreting moments from the cinema.

I have to say that although the overall experience was great – it was also fantastic to watch this movie, which I hadn’t seen before – I did also think it was expensive though. Especially because there was a bar, restaurant, fish and chip place all that were charging A LOT for food. I thought that for the 25 pounds you pay one should at least have got a free drink or some sort of nibble. I have also heard that people had bad experiences with the food and waited a very long time if they ate in the restaurant.

The run is on until the 27th. I would recommend – especially as the film is a delight, but take cash!!! There’s no mention of a cash point nearby and it would definitely be annoying not to sit with a drink and savour up the atmosphere of the place.

The King Lear Statue in Chicago. Copyright: la fattina/flickr

Good morning everyone,

As chaos reigns outside, tax increases, NHS crises, Egyptian uprising, I’m sitting in front of my computer and thinking about the arts. No doubt there’s crises there too…. But there’s also a lot of great things happening, a few of which are below.

On Tues I went to see pianist Gwilym Simcock play at the Forge in Camden. It was the launch of his new album, Good days at Schloss Elmau. His work is a blend of classical and jazz styles, and it makes good sense. He’s off on a worldwide tour but will be back in the UK from June, I’d try and check him out.

His songs usually have interesting themes and ideas behind them. Their titles link exactly to what the song is about – more than most song titles I think. It makes listening to his songs that bit more enjoyable as you are witnessing a feeling or an action manifesting itself in the music.The tracks began to sound fairly similar after a while, but to be honest, it didn’t matter. His album is out now and his website is here.

Also seen last week was a new theatre company’s debut performance of Othello. Swivel, a company of young and creative professionals several of whom work for the creative industry, performed Othello at the Baron’s Court theatre, just round the corner from me. It was great to see a company just launching and they look as though they have some very experienced producers behind them. That’s what we like to see: finding money in as inventive ways as possible.

Nothing! Oh nothings. It was all sons, daughters and nothingness on Thursday last week, where I went to see the Donmar’s King Lear via live satellight link up in a cinema. Quite an incredible experience. Not least because the satellight broke down half way through and they stopped the entire performance, with Derek Jacobi mid-flow. It was a success however and it’s amazing to think of all those people around the world that were watching at the same time.  The show has finished now, but there will be a long tour, so catch it if you can. It’s truly amazing.  See my blog on the evening at the Telegraph

ALSO – CHECK THE INTERVIEWS PAGE FOR A LINK TO MY INTERVIEW WITH DEBRA GRANIK.

The old Arcola Theatre in Dalston. Photo: Kate Pugh from flickr

It’s a new year, and one more resolution. To keep as much up to date as possible on Daisy’s Everything Blog.

It’s been a full few months since I last posted so it’s impossible to update on everything that’s happened. So let’s just stick to the here and now and recent.

It’s a new start for the Arcola Theatre in Dalston as well in 2011. They have just moved into their new home on Ashwin Street, the old Colourworks Factory. It’s an old, industrial factory which used to mix paint for the likes of Turner. In fact their new play The Painter opened last week and it’s great, with a fantastic cast at its centre. Toby Jones is very strong as the artist himself, while he’s surrounded by a trio of wonderful women. Keep your eyes peeled for my review on Kultureflash.

The new theatre is quite a work in progress, but will quite obviously be fantastic when it is fully up and running. The Executive director Ben Todd (also the brains behind Arcola Energy) gave me a tour on Saturday 15th Jan (three days after the first night).

There are rooms filled with junk, rubble and all sorts. While some parts of the roof still leak, but the team are determined. Here’s a little video I did of the new theatre and Ben, with a brief appearence from Mehmet Ergen (the Artistic Director). VIDEO

Aya theatre are also performing Peter Handke‘s Kaspar in a pop up space in London Bridge. It’s hard work, but worth it. The very cerebral play is about language, its limits and restrictions and how language can be a force for control rather than of freedom. This theatre company have created a stimulating and interesting version, which I recommend. See the review here on Kultureflash

I’m also excited about Black Swan which opens this evening. The ballet/horror has lots of exciting talk about it and Sukhdev Sandhu one the Telegraph’s film critics has given it 5 stars. Read his review here

See the EVENTS tab for a few other things that will be worth checking out that are coming up. Including a new Hammer and Tongue gig near Old Street and the launch of the new Ambit.

Oh – and, I’m also looking forward to the Off West End awards – www.offwestend.com – I’ve been helping out on the panel and we’ll be battling it out for the winners some time next week. The announcements will be at the end of February. Watch this space!

The Greenwich and Docklands International Festival is arriving in London on the 24th June which sees many different outdoor shows using the interesting areas around the historic docklands in Tower Hamlets. The theme is Earth this year and I reckon it will be worth having a look at.

Also on the cards in July is the InTRANSIT festival Kensington and Chelsea. The festival brings Susurrus by David Leddy - which was performed at Edinburgh last year and sold out pretty darn quickly. It was a site specific performance in Edinburgh and it has been reimagined for Holland Park gardens. Well worth a look at.

For those of you who haven’t yet caught Ditch by Beth Steel – I can totally recommend that, for the fantastic set and space (the tunnels under Waterloo station) that the Old Vic have created. The play itself is well performed, the script not totally there yet, but the atmosphere holds your attention throughout. It’s on till the 26th June, so catch it!

Check out the slideshow I put together on the Telegraph’s website on the new Tate show Exposed.

Dartington Festival is happening next week – an accumulation of the works from students at the end of the year, but this will be the last ever festival, as Dartington is moving. So if anyone finds themselves out west then check it out! Here‘s the Facebook group.

Also on the cards in the next week or so is Road to Mecca at the Arcola, No Idea at the Young Vic and the House of Bilquis Bibi at Hampstead theatre. All worth checking out I feel.

Big Ben. Photo: Wallyg flickr

It looks as though the Tories have it in the bag with the help of the Liberal Demorcrats after the general election. The obvious issue that comes up is that the system needs a reboot. Especially with the majority of people  not voting for a Conservative government.

Check out the Facebook group stop the Tories and save the arts

And also Democracy on Facebook is an interesting one. But of course it’s all a little too late for all that but  worth a look to see how people are interacting with democracy in this digital age.

Make sure you stay on top of what’s going on with the BBC. The Conservative policy on one of our most important institutions is worrying, so don’t forget to voice your opinions when/if the time comes.  See this article in the Guardian about freezing the licence fee and comment is free on the same website by Emily Bell.

The east london line has now been launched – and Eastlondonlines has been all over it – with a launch for the site on the 23rd May – come to that!

I’ve been working on a feature on Dartington College of arts – the final date of existence for the college, founded in the early sixties is in August. It’s merging with Falmouth and there will be no more college on the Dartington Estate, where Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst moved in, in the 1920s.  The 16-20th is the date for the final Dartington festival.

Keep checking this blog for more updates on the merger and the future of the internationally recognised college.

In other arts news – I review Eurydice at the Young Vic as well as the White Guard – well worth a checking out – here’s my review on Kultureflash. See REVIEWS on this blog.

It’s one year since Vulpes Vulpes opened it’s doors to the public. What an interesting and brilliant gallery this has been. The one year birthday party was on Friday and wait with bated breath for the fantastic photos that came out of that…

Treated to three beauties in one night, BAC never disappoints. The Poof Downstairs was comic hilarity with Jon Haynes, one half of Ridiculusmus. But Haynes has branched out all on his own… his co-stars seem to have abandoned him however. RETURN was a film, but a poem, but a play, but a… well it was all three, performed by the delicate and sincere, yet funny Polarbear. And then there was Sporadical by Little Bulb Theatre. They never fail to disappoint. This great young company presented the family reunion of a lifetime with folk musical and fantastic sounds. In all a fab evening at Battersea Arts Centre.

But Hark! There’s more. How about Henry V at Southwark Playhouse – check that fab show out – by new young bright thing director Emily Lim. It runs a smooth 90 minutes and has choreography from Tangled Feet Leon Smith. This is a GREAT production and does the Bard proud. See reviews on Kultureflash and in the REVIEWS SECTION.

Last night also saw another debate between politicians at the Tate Britain. The National Campaign for the Arts are hosting as many arts debates as possible, chaired by the luminous Joan Bakewell. We saw Ed Vaizey, Shadow Arts minister, Margaret Hodge, Minister for Culture and Tourism and Don Foster Liberal Democrat Culture, media and sport shadow secretary battle it out between them infront of a plethora of arts professionals, concerned about what might become of the arts after the next general election? And what might their answers be? Check out the EVENTS page for more info.