Arts REVIEW: The Girl of the Golden West: ENO The ENO’s revival of this unfamiliar Puccini opera has successfully shown us the honest human story in this adolescent melodrama without trashing its very sweet and delicate heart. it can be so easy to mock, so difficult to produce free of irony, but the story is deftly handled here. By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts REVIEW: Xerxes at ENO This is a great production, full of froth and fizz and presenting a non-stop evening of entertainment, with as many musical highpoint as comedic moments and well worth going along to the ENO to see this gorgeous revival. By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: Dance: Casting Traces It was a subtly disturbing piece, full of reflection and meta reflection, us watching – being watching – watching ourselves watching while being watched, in the end it spiralled into softness, a mirror in a mirror, and I allowed the dancers the music and the ever moving set to just be and get on wit By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: Normal Heights Walker should be congratulated, this play is charming and seriously touching while never dipping into mawkishness or melancholy. Even in his saddest moments Uncle Edward shines with hope, and when going full pelt into the shining light of living life fully is a force of nature. By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: Thebans at ENO This was a bold, innovative and really rather smart production which gripped from its opening moments until the last anguished pure note. By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts Overlooked: Lizzy Mace: Fringe Review Charming, understated and funny, Mace sneaks up on us unawares and moves us from pity to hilarity in one swift ruthlessly observed remark. Don’t underestimate this overlooked show By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts The Magic Flute: ENO : Review From its clever opening to the dramatic close this new production directed by Simon McBurney’s of Complicite caught the attention of the audience and kept it held close like one of the delightful flapping paper birds that followed Papageno around. The setting feels organically oppressive, set in som By Eric Page • 4 min read