London Culture

I love a good cultural outing, and I’ve been up to a fair bit lately in London, which has a range of fantastic plays and exhibitions on offer at the moment. Popping to see a collection of beautiful paintings or an engrossing play is the perfect antidote to the monochrome February skies that weigh so heavily on the spirit.

In half term I took full advantage of my lovely week of holiday to catch up on some of the things I had been meaning to get to for a while. Firstly, I took my nephews to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, so that we could all learn about space; this was not massively successful in that three boys under 8 are always liable to cause some kind of disaster wherever they go, and before we’d barely walked into the building I was having to rush us past the damage they’d inflicted on a meteorite that had managed to survive for several billion years before these little cherubs had bulldozed their way into it, but they did love the Planetarium, where we watched a fascinating show on Dark Space and the Quantum Universe. Even the littlest of my babies, who is 3, was transfixed by the stars above his head and I was very impressed by the clear yet still cerebrally challenging voiceover that explained a lot of the theory I had seen displayed via the medium of peas and carrots in the excellent The Theory of Everything. If you’ve got any passing interest in space, whether you’ve got kids in tow or not, a day out at the Royal Observatory and Planetarium is highly recommended. It makes a nice change from an art museum, plus, it’s right in the heart of Greenwich Park, which offers glorious sweeping views across the London skyline as well as acres of greenery to explore. Greenwich itself is also well worth a visit; you can have fun hopping over the line where time begins, have a look around its other major museum, the National Maritime Museum, wander around the famous indoor market (if you’re there on the weekend), climb aboard the historic ship Cutty Sark, get the best ice-cream in London at Phillies (almost next to the enormous 18th century church, St Alfege), walk under the Thames via the Edwardian foot tunnel between Greenwich and Poplar, and take a boat back down the river to Westminster, which will offer you glorious views of the city.

My next museum visit was to the much anticipated Sargent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Singer Sargent is probably my favourite artist (though sometimes I decide I prefer Boldini – his portraits have such energy, such as this one) and I couldn’t wait to see a good amount of his remarkable portraits together in one place. I am lucky in that I have been spoiled through having lived and travelled widely in the US; Boston’s Fine Art museum and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum have exquisite collections of his work, and I will never forget seeing The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit alongside those massive vases in the enormous room they are in (were in? I haven’t been back for a few years…can anyone enlighten me?) at the Museum of Fine Arts. There are also several very good Sargents in New York, and my absolute favourite Sargent (Lady Agnew) is in Edinburgh, which I saw a couple of years ago and was utterly mesmerised by.

The Portrait Gallery showcases, in my opinion, two particularly outstanding pieces; Dr Pozzi at Home, and Edouard and Marie-Louise Pailleron, which are truly breathtaking, but the others were not particularly exciting and nor were they particularly representative of Sargent at his best, in my opinion. I was disappointed that more works had not been borrowed from foreign collections, and, as I often find at British exhibitions these days, many of the paintings were from the Tate, where they would have been free to view at any time prior to the exhibition anyway. I know all of the reviews have been glowing, but for me, the exhibition was a big disappointment. It was housed in too small a space, too many people had been allowed in at the same time, making it very difficult to see the works, and the price, at £16, was extortionate for what was on offer. When I think of all the portraits of artists and friends of Sargent I have seen around the world, this exhibition was utterly lacklustre. I felt very short changed indeed. Where I did not feel short changed, however, was next door, at the National Gallery, where there is a fantastic free exhibition of the Norwegian artist Peder Balke’s beautiful landscapes of 19th century Scandinavia. I was utterly mesmerised by his amazing depictions of the sea and sky and, as I am going on a whistlestop tour of Denmark, Sweden and Norway over Easter, it made me very excited for the beauty I am sure I will see when I am there.

More success was had at the theatre; I very much enjoyed Di and Viv and Rose, which was funny and moving and so very true about female friendships, and hilarious about the experience of being at university. It’s definitely worth seeing if you’re in town. I also saw Tom Stoppard’s new play at the National, The Hard Problem, which I found thought provoking, though somewhat formulaic and simplistic, which I was surprised by, as Tom Stoppard has been harping on about theatre audiences not being as clever as they used to be and not ‘getting’ his cultural and scientific references, which made me worried that I was going to be the Dunce in the back of the theatre. In actuality, I don’t think I missed anything (probably because I’ve been reading up on Quantum Physics as my latest intellectual sideline – before you think I’m a genius, I’m essentially poring over Quantum Physics for Dummies), and I actually found the science and philosophy behind the action very basic and rather cliched. The play was also utterly lacking in heart, which I do tend to think is rather a theme of Tom Stoppard’s plays; I remember seeing Arcadia in New York and thinking it was the most intellectually engaging play I’d ever seen, but it didn’t move me in the slightest. I’m all for thinking and and being challenged to consider the deeper meanings beneath our existence, but I do wish that Stoppard would inject a little more passion and personality into his characters. The actors did their best with what were essentially just types, and though the action sped by and I was absorbed in the plot, I left not really feeling anything, and personally, that’s what I go to the theatre for. I like my throat to tighten and my hand to flutter nervously to my chest; I don’t want to be a dispassionate observer of events. But the rest of the audience seemed to think it was marvellous, so you can take from that what you will. Sometimes I wonder whether it’s all a bit Emperor’s New Clothes with people like Stoppard. The theatrical equivalent of Damien Hirst, perhaps?

Looking forward to the next few weeks, I’m excited to go to the new exhibition at Two Temple Place, which is just as interesting to visit for the building as for what it houses. I also can’t wait for the Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibition at the V&A, which will be especially interesting as I saw its original incarnation at the Met back in 2011, and I’m intrigued by the Tate’s exhibition of early photography, Salt and Silver. I’ve got tickets booked for Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness! at the Young Vic, and for Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman at the National, so I shall be quite the culture vulture as I wait for the weather to warm up and the skies to brighten!