PREVIEW: Musica Secreta @ BREMF The programme also features rare gems of renaissance convent music from another Florentine manuscript commissioned by nuns. An atmospheric and informative evening By Eric Page • 2 min read
REVIEW: Opera: Orpheus in the Underworld @ ENO Lez Brotherston’s costume designs squirm with delight across Lizzie Clachan’s set is great fun, starting off worryingly school play like before exploding into a daft Arcadian swimming pool party on a Tarantino Cruise ship and then plunging into a seedy Soho peepshow world of London in the 1950’s. By Eric Page • 4 min read
REVIEW: Book PRIDE: Fifty Years of Parades and Protests – New York Times Although focusing exclusively on the American Queer metropolitan perspective, the book is universal and speaks to us all, LGBTQ+ folks across the world of our shared battles to where we stand today, a treasure trove of vintage protest photo’s By Eric Page • 1 min read
REVIEW: Books The Queeriodic Table by Harriet Dyer This book is a fun, upbeat and colourful collection of elements which combine in a complex delightful way to illuminate and express the wide array of delights that make our LGBTQ+ culture so vibrant. By Eric Page • 1 min read
REVIEW: Books Reckless Paper Birds by John McCullough These poems demand understanding and it’s this subtle sotto voice undertone to these poems which is the real triumph, alone they delight, together they enchant and whisper of the absolute triumph of imagination. The books left me breathless. Read it. By Eric Page • 1 min read
REVIEW: Agrippina @ Royal Opera House Conducted with real verve by Russian Maxim Emelyanychev The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are on top form, playing with a luxurious beauty which underscores the emotional action onstage and unfolds the delicious harmonic textures of this beautiful music with clarity, honesty and a passion. By Eric Page • 4 min read
REVIEW: Torch Song @The Turbine Theatre, Battersea ‘Torch Song’ touches all the right levers and its emotional honesty and endless characters a truth, often told directly to the audience makes this play a delight to watch. The hard earned humour is as earthy as it ever was and the beating heart of hope triumphant is the constant lamp light which lea By Eric Page • 5 min read
BOOK REVIEW: The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language by Paul Baker With a cast of drag queens and sailors, Dilly boys and macho clones, Fabulosa! is an essential document of recent history and a fascinating and fantastically readable account of this funny, filthy, and ingenious language By Eric Page • 1 min read
REVIEW: Amélie The Musical @Devonshire Park Theatre Listen careful I shall say this only wurnce; Amelie is a superbly entertaining, heart-warming and thrilling musical, ticking all the boxes, in all the right ways and leaving you with a huge warm smile as you head home. By Eric Page • 3 min read
REVIEW: Fame The Musical @Congress Theatre, Eastbourne Fame holds a special place in the hearts of many people. This show, although technically good and blessed with an obvious talented cast, failed to engage on any emotional level, only scored once or twice and was much, much less than the sum of its parts. By Eric Page • 4 min read
THEATRE REVIEW: The Sign of Four @Devonshire Park Good theatre should both entertain and challenge and this careful adaption for the stage by Nick Lane does that comfortably I enjoyed this decolonising narrative, which was handled with careful writing and committed dignified acting, and it certainly helps to present this late Victorian storyline to By Eric Page • 3 min read
A scene from Faust by Gounod @ Royal Opera House. Directed by David McVicar. Conductor, Dan Ettinger. (Opening 11-04-19) OPERA REVIEW: Gounod’s Faust @Royal Opera House Experience the decadence and elegance of 1870s Paris in David McVicar’s spectacular production of Gounod’s best-loved opera. By Eric Page • 4 min read
