Theatre

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Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act ★★★

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Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act ★★★

Ida Rubinstein – dancer, actor, commissioner, passionate lover and beloved of both sexes, including composer Maurice Ravel (Rubinstein commissioned his Bolero, so Torvill and Dean have much to thank her for) – led “a life crowded with incident” as Oscar Wilde would say. Now…

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Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied Tunisia ★★★★

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Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied Tunisia ★★★★

A schematic pitiless sun glares down on levels of woodblocks, standing in for sand as designed by Max Johns, on an unfortunate man apparently buried up to his neck. The figure standing over him explains that he has been…

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The Last Cyclist ★★★★

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The Last Cyclist ★★★★

Conditions in the concentration camp Terezin (German Theresienstadt), near Prague, designed by the Nazis to hold Jews en route to the death camps, were harsh enough to ensure many died right there. Yet its name also evokes the extraordinary flowering of artistic life the prisoners…

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Little Wars ★★★★

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Little Wars ★★★★

As we wake to a war of words transatlantic style at a possibly pivotal moment in history, Steven Carl McCasland’s war of witty women provides a timely, telling antidote. It’s June 1940, the eve of the fall of France to the Nazis. Hunkered down in the French Alps, devoted couple Alice B Toklas…