Close-Up Culture

Independent journalism on the things we love

Close-Up: An Interview With Comedian Alex Edelman

American comedian and writer-performer Alex Edelman is bringing his award-winning show, Just For Us, to the Menier Chocolate Factory. Alex joins us on Close-Up Culture to chat about the show, his creative process, what shapes his comedy, and much more. Just For Us begins previews on 11 January, ahead of an opening night on 18 January and performances…
Jo Harrop At The Boulevard – Live Music Review

WHAT a super music venue The Boulevard is, situated in the beating heart of London’s Soho. Full of glass and towering stairs, it is becoming a come-to place for lovers of jazz. Moody. Groovy. The fact that it is housed in an old Paul Raymond strip joint adds to the ambience. The sleaze has of course…
The Wedding Speech – Theatre Review

PRINCESS Donnough delivers a simply sensational performance in The Wedding Speech at the Hope Theatre in London’s Islington. For seventy minutes, she magnificently holds the stage as she reveals the fraught relationship between her character Rosemary and Rosemary’s mother. Her performance is energetic, immersive, spellbinding and intimate – and she draws you into Rosemary’s world…
Ladies Down Under – Theatre Review

LADIES Down Under, the second play in Amanda Whittington’s Ladies Trilogy, is the latest offering from the Woodley Theatre in Reading. Fun it is too as the four fish-filleters from Hull all confront personal issues on a trip to Australia. There’s plenty of music (Waltzing Matilda), singing, colour and humour to make the night a…
The Critic – Theatre Review

WHAT a treat it is to visit The Calder Bookshop & Theatre in London’s Waterloo – right next door to the magnificent Spanish tapas bar Meson Don Felipe (its sardines and Patatas Bravas are to die for). It’s a throwback in time. Almost Dickensian. Arrive early for the night’s performance and you will be drawn…
Avocado Presents: Improv – Theatre Review

NO one knows quite what to expect when they turn up to the weekly performance of Avocado Presents: Improv at the intimate Barons Court Theatre in London. Nor for that matter do performers Hamza Mohsin and Jake Migicovsky who have little idea as to where their 60-minute show is going to take them. Welcome to…
Not Now – Theatre Review

NOT now? No, now. This marvellous vignette of a play from the masterful David Ireland is 50 minutes of sheer delight. Angel delight, theatrical delight. See it before its run ends at the Finborough Theatre (Chelsea, London) on November 26 – you will not be disappointed. Ireland, writer of Cypress Avenue and whose play Yes…
A Butcher Of Distinction – Theatre Review

NOTHING – not even a double strength Espresso Martini – can prepare you for the gruesome way A Butcher Of Distinction, playing at the Barons Court Theatre in West London, unfolds before your very own eyes. The longer it goes on, the more uncomfortable and unsettling events become. Quite brilliant – one of the best…
South African Road Trip: Good Hope – Review

IF you want to inject a mighty dose of hope into your life, the South African Road Trip: Good Hope will provide just the boost you require. More uplifting than a bottle of Fever-tree Damson & Sloe infused tonic, it will fill you with a belief (for a while, at least) that the world is…
The Play With Speeches – Theatre Review

THE Play With Speeches is an ambitious piece of theatrical work from the pen of playwright James Woolf – which is currently getting a welcome airing at the rather delightful Jack Studio Theatre in Brockley, south London. Fine evening fare. Although not without fault – it’s rather too long and a little far-fetched in places –…