A full body cringe workout
In the best possible way
Late again. Sorry. Basically I’m on deadline for a book, which has to be filed by the end of the month, so I’m in a state of mild panic and also not going out and seeing as much as usual (though I did find time to blitz Heated Rivalry, twice, for which I make no apology whatsoever).
As a result, this might be a little shorter than usual (also, I’ve covered a lot of what’s on – January starts slow). I did manage to get to a couple of things this week, however.
What I’ve seen
Natalie Palamides: Weer at the Soho Theatre Walthamstow made me HOWL. A one woman show, it’s a sort of deranged, low-fi parody of all the terrible, wildly problematic romantic comedies of the 90s.
Palamides plays both the male and female protagonists, with one half of her body costumed as each, hurling herself around the huge stage and occasionally getting soaked, until she’s half naked and covered in God knows what.
It’s carnage. It’s also hilarious, clever, painfully knowing, and shockingly physical in a perfectly controlled, seemingly totally uncontrolled way. And if you were there in the 90s – if you came of age during that period, which I did – it is dramatically triggering, but in a way that makes you grateful to be a grown-ass woman today.
I was screaming, and my entire body got a workout from the cringe. Superb. It’s running until January 24.
Hawai’i: a kingdom crossing oceans, at the British Museum until May 24, is a lovely and really quite interesting exhibition. It takes as its starting point the royal visit of King Liholiho and Queen Kamāmalu of Hawai’i to Britain in 1824, a diplomatic visit intended to strengthen ties between the two countries and help Hawai’i protect its independence as a sovereign nation, then explores the treasures of the BM’s collection from the country and sheds light on its history and culture, including some of its ceremonial and religious practices, focusing on indigenous knowledge.
It’s not huge, and really just can only scratch the surface, I think, of a country about which I know almost nothing (having been there once but since it was for work I spent most of it either on a film set or in a car or at the most horrifically touristic luau I think the Big Island had to offer) but some of the items, the feather capes in particular, are really breathtaking.
