Motors of history

This week on CW, Angus Kennedy reviews Daniel Ben-Ami’s provocative book, Ferraris for All, and argues that even those who prefer the spiritual things in life should welcome Ben-Ami’s critique of contemporary cynicism about economic growth. Sean Bell finds the spiritual and material combined in Matthew Crawford’s book, The Case for Working with Your Hands or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good. And in London theatre, Miriam Gillinson reviews Caryl Churchill’s English Civil War drama, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, and Matt Trueman finds himself at the centre of things in the Gate’s Domini Public.

29 July 2010

Goods are good

Ferraris for All: In Defence of Economic Growth, by Daniel Ben-Ami (Policy Press, 2010)

The implication of Ferraris is that the incessant focus on limits of all kinds today is about the idea of, the necessity for, limits per se rather than specific limits themselves. Any attempt to argue that such and such a particular limit – the ‘tyranny of oil’ – can be overcome – with biofuels - will be countered almost immediately with another limit – a claimed shortage of land.

‘You’ve had your lifetime’s meat’

Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Arcola Theatre, London

Churchill carefully turns her theatrical kaleidoscope, showing us this socio-political prism from every angle. She consistently inverses expectations with her characters and, in doing so, reflects a volatile and often unjust society, where no one gets what he or she deserves.

It should be the whole city

Domini Public, Gate Theatre at the National Theatre, London

Sometimes, there’s a twang of shame. Sometimes, there’s comfort in the shared confessionals. Sometimes, those things that you prized lose their value. Almost all of us, for example, believe that we are talented. Most have been on television.

Gets your motor running

The Case for Working with Your Hands or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good by Matthew Crawford (Viking, 2010)

Crawford’s well-aimed blows at scientific management principles, staff team-building exercises and the resistance of modern machinery to home servicing will strike chords with many, and he synthesises a fresh and thought-provoking outlook from his experiences. However, alongside the ambition of his remit, his basic argument - that we can make the world a better place by fixing stuff - is pretty modest.

Delightful sparks in strange places

Romeo and Juliet, Rose Theatre, London

If this quest for the comic in Romeo and Juliet had been adopted with conviction, then perhaps this could have been a pleasingly jolting, defiantly flippant production. But there is little consistency here - and, with a drastically cut and freely adapted text, consistency of tone should have been this show’s backbone.

‘That’s all you’ll be watching, anyway’

Aftermath, Old Vic Tunnels, London

The script is a tapestry of interviews held with Iraqi refugees now living in Jordan; there are some delicate, unassuming and illustrative stories here, which gently open our eyes to life amidst a constant, ever-changing, conflict.

Big Two-Hearted Hemingway

Lost in the life of a dead writer we’ve never met but whom foolishly we think know well

Hemingway hasn’t been, not since the 1940s, a mere writer and man, but a preposterous piece of Americana, a living riposte to a 20th century that seemed to otherwise deplete opportunities for masculine privilege and duty as the years of industrialisation, commercialisation, domestication, and entertainment-media saturation rolled on.

Art on your wall

Walls are Talking: Wallpaper, Art and Culture, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

Where Warhol leaves little to the imagination, some of the best pieces here are intricate and detailed montages of startling images and often highly-sexualised motifs. Hirst’s minute reproductions of bottles of pills, which look from afar like a computer circuit board, is actually laced with Biblical sayings. Religion as a drug, anyone?

A new perspective unveiled

Tuareg: People of the Veil, Horniman Museum, London

Unlike in other cultures, it is Taureg men who cover their faces with the cloth. A boy is given his first veil once he reaches puberty, marking his cross over from childhood to adulthood. The veil can also be tied in various ways, which is used to reflect the different regions, social class, age, and tribal affiliations within Tuareg society.

Transformative dance

Destino – A Contemporary Dance Story. Film screening and panel debate at the Royal Society of Arts, Monday 12 July 2010

The cities of London and Addis Ababa were shown to be so similar yet contrasting.  Interviews revealed similar levels of background traffic, low-rent rehearsal spaces and prestigious performance venues.  Yet, children face death everyday on the streets of Addis.

Au revoir

Geoff Kidder's World Cup Blog 2010: 1-6

The hostile reaction to the Dutch game plan is an indicator of how football has changed in the past 20 years. More and more physical aspects of the game are now penalised, such as the tackle from behind and slightly mistimed tackles, and so the Dutch approach which would have been the norm in a previous age is considered beyond the pale today.

Jumpers for goalposts

Geoff Kidder's World Cup Blog 2010: 1-5

Admiring the quality of play in the semi-final between Spain and Germany, I realise that barring an act of god, it will be many years and require a complete change of footballing culture before England can hope to produce 11 players who look this comfortable in possession of a football.

I don’t speak French, but my football is OK

Geoff Kidder's World Cup Blog 2010: 1-4

The best ice-breaker in the World Cup traveller’s arsenal is the cycle of naming teams or players in a slightly foreign accent untill both you and the local you are talking to come to an agreement about who exactly you will base your conversation on, and then exchanging sponteneous, barely informed judgements upon them through a combination of grunting and thumb-led indicators.

From the kneading to the sharing

Not By Bread Alone, Arts Depot, London

At some point, as you watch them pass messages like Chinese whispers passed hand to hand – sign language functioning like moving Braille – you think of the difficulties in creating the piece in the first place. Not By Bread Alone, you come to realise, represents two years of exhaustive teamwork, and that’s inspirational.

Sheer head-rush

You Me Bum Bum Train, Barbican at the LEB Building, London

That’s a brilliant fairground ride, not brilliant interactive theatre. If I’m honest, I really missed the bite. YMBBT is best when we’re not acting, but reacting. In this version too many scenarios indulge us, pandering to our egos by casting us in leading roles without having to cope with the stresses of an audience.