Just For Lookin' Thru

Shakespeare's play is rewritten by Carl Grose and adapted by Kneehigh's Emma Rice, on 'loss, confusion, hate, and war'. It has humour and hoodies, music and song, mistaken identities, the lost and found, divided and reconciled, all mixed up with a classy score, noise, smoke, flashlights and quirky props. It's loud, strange, funny and dramatic. Mike Shepherd plays King Cymbeline and Emma Rice his second Queen. Once his nurse she has become his drug supplier while he is depressed and dependent following the loss of his sons who were stolen away in infancy. His daughter Imogen, played by Hayley Carmichael, is later lost to him by marrying against his wishes. Her husband Posthumus, played by Carl Grose, sails to Italy and encounters a pimp, instead of Shakespeare's Iachimo, and prostitutes instead of his army. Two of these are played by male actors, including Mike Shepherd, and are grotesquely funny. Kneehigh always have fun with staging and props. This play employs...

Following Franz Capra's wonderful film starring Cary Grant is a tough call, but this is a well staged play. The set is a delight with a staircase, landing, windows and doors that provide plenty of interest before the actors begin. Wayne Sleep plays the part of the unscrupulous surgeon, Dr Einstein and, being so tiny, is contrasted well against the enormously tall Damien Myerscough as Jonathan, for good comic effect. Myerscough uses some nice quirks which make the audience laugh, and plays the violent and disturbed criminal very well - not an easy role when expected to be menacing and laughable by turns. Louise Jameson and Sherrie Hewson are cast as the two elderly spinsters, Martha and Abby Brewster, and whilst Hewson is spot on, Jameson is miscast. Hewson plays her role with an engaging sweetness and carries off innocent eccentricity perfectly, incorporating elderly body movements and mannerisms which are never overdone. Hewson is an experienced comedy actress. Jameson is more use...

Burney's eighteenth-century novel gives a fascinating insight into 18th century upper class life. It is a study of hypocrisy and selfishness, shallow characters with money, with emphasis on the mistaken importance of appearance, and not of character or substance. Cecilia is saintly but misjudged, talked about but not interrogated. Others all speak for her and about her, and the idea of feminine powerlessness and silence is heavily pursued, as is the idea of the failure of those around her to perceive true quality. It is Dickensian in places, especially because Cecilia is a saintly virgin, but also because Burney writes about the suffering of the poor, who depended on handouts, charity, and employment. When employed by the rich, Burney writes of the appalling frequency of their going unpaid, which leads to destitution, illness and death. The rich live the high life, run up debts, and have nointention of paying their bills. There is an extraordinary depiction of men. All fail Cecilia...

Helen Mirren stars as modern day Queen Elizabeth II in this imagined re-creation of one week in the lives of the Royals, the week in which Princess Diana was killed in France. Interviews with Helen Mirren, during and after filming, quoted her as saying that, after exploring the Queen's life, and acting the part, she came to love her. Forearmed with this thespian vote of confidence I also expected to be won over. The film is hard to categorize because it appears to contain real events, cut with what can only be fictional conversations between the Blairs at home, and the Royals at home. Seen as a fiction it is not clear what it intends to convey. If it purports to be fact, which it cannot be as these conversations took place in private rooms, then its conclusion is also unclear. We see the Royal family at Balmoral, with a caricatured Prince Phillip, being predictably rude and short-tempered, The Queen appears completely out of touch with the modern world, and without any...

Clive Owen stars in an apocalyptic future vision of Britain and steals the film. He is understated at all times, tender, sensitive, afraid, and always sincere and utterly humane. However he behaves, he is absolutely believable and, when he laughs, it feels as though we are watching Clive himself, with great warmth and humour evident, and not acting at all. This is delightful because he was miscast in 'Arthur', when he appeared wooden and remote. Here he co-stars with Julianne Moore who puts in a more than usually lively appearance. She plays Julian, the leader of a band of terrorists and, although this is stretching credulity, she has a good stab at being ruthless and impassioned. Clive, on the other hand, plays Theodore, the average guy caught up in events that overtake him, and who has no reason to get involved, other than him being a decent man. Michael Caine has a cameo role as Jasper, an ageing hippie, which he clearly relishes. The set-up is a devastated world, w...

This lightweight frivolous novel centres around an implausible heroine called Joey who is rich, clever, and beautiful, yet aggressive like a man. She lacks any softness or femininity and is written as a sportswoman and swimming champion. This last accounts for her surviving when her husband, Chaz, throws her off a cruise ship on their first anniversary cruise. However, he doesn't know she has survived. The plot is farcical and contains some stereotypes, such as the thick thug, Tool, who has a soft side, and has Joey fortuitously meet an ex-detective, Mick. Inevitably they become lovers and he is able to help her to get revenge. The thug comes around to their point of view, simple beast that he is. Hiaasen takes the ridiculing of Joey's treachorous husband to a level reminiscent of Tom Sharpe's writing. There are some funny images but it is unsurprising, an acceptable summer read.

Dina Korzun holds the attention in this moody piece from Ira Sachs. She has very little dialogue, and there is not much spoken in the film. All the intent and meaning come from the atmosphere and facial expressions. It takes some time to get going, or the audience gets used to the slow pace. Korzun plays Laura, the much younger Russian girlfriend of an aged Rip Torn playing Alan, a Memphis music producer with a foul temper. Laura seems so passive through most of the story that she could be anaesthetized but, when she falls for her partner's son, Michael (played by Darren Burrows) she betrays a depth of emotion that has not been accessed in her relationship with his father. In this she has been playing a role for survival; an escape from a worse life in Russia. Korzun plays the role with magnificent and delicate sensitivity which is at times breathtaking. The story itself is an odd one. The audience is presented with the scenario of an escapee Russian living with a successful ...

This novel is tough going at the beginning due to the crazy prose and frenzied sections on characters, detailing how and why they are each unstable. There is no linear narrative or sense to be made. However, some sense begins when narratives cross over, where character descriptions and actions refer to the behaviour of other characters, so a mental picture gradually begins to form. The best part here is a section describing the emotions associated with flight terror which has previously been treated with flippancy. Here it is gripping; it draws the reader into the reality of bomb raids and the fear of premature death in a metal coffin, all fire, noise and confusion. There is also an enjoyable and lengthy section on the madness of commerce which focuses on Milo Minderbender's purchase and redistribution of produce simply to create a market, and is a daft but funny critique of the capitalist system. The following section discusses religion which is looking good, but requires close at...

Penelope Cruz stars as Raimunda in this touching, funny drama with elements of the thriller. She has something of Sophia Loren about her; she is always watchable, her huge dark eyes glisten with tears and her smile is riveting. The film opens with a visit to her demented aunt and Cruz plays the lynchpin of a family of women, worried for Aunt Paula, concerned for her anxious sister Sole, and is mother to 14 year old Paula. She plays a strong character, yet teeters about in the tightest skirts imaginable, low cut tops and impossibly high heels. Raimunda's husband is an unappealing slob but he doesn't distract from the female-centred drama for long. Raimunda works as a cleaner and the family are poor. An unexpected opportunity occurs for her to make some money by re-opening a closed restaurant, next door to her apartment, for a month to cater for a film crew working nearby. This brings in outsiders to the small village, adds life and colour to the film, and prevents the claustroph...

Teething trouble, poor sleeping at night, stomach cramps, projectuile vomiting? Does your baby suffer from any of these common but troubling complaints? Consider taking the poor mite for a treatment of cranial-sacral osteopathy. Cranial-sacral osteopathy is a very subtle treatment which eases the pressure on the delicate skull bones. A baby's skull is known to be very soft, with the fontanelle (the central part on the top of the head) soft to the touch. During childbirth it is no surprise that the infant's head undergoes severe trauma. Part of this trauma is necessary, that is the compression and then decompression which kick starts the delicate body rhythms into action. This is why babies delivered via Caesarian section (by appointment, not in an emergency) can be quiet and sleepy - because they did not experience this compression and decompression. One treatment should be enough for the baby in this case, to stimulate the rhythm of the cranial rhythmic pulse. Where there has ...