David H at the RAA

Whereas the DaV exhibit at the NG is known as London’s premiere art exhibit in ’11, the RAA’s David H show is already reputed as the show to see this year. I was stunned by the vivid colour used to depict an otherwise melancholy English countryside in the larger-than-life-sized works.  M was impressed by the aged artist’s use of technology: the mammoth wall hangings are prints of the artist’s work executed on an iPad. Of course, one would never know looking at the art that they are merely reproductions of what was created on an Apple product. At the RAA, the joke is on the technophobe and the jester is a technophile.

“Master Class”

In a major departure from the English-themed theatre we’ve been attending the last few months, last night we saw “Master Class”, the biographical play about Greek opera singer Maria C. TV actress Tyne D does an outstanding impersonation of the “canary” as the starlet’s wealthy Greek husband Ari calls her. My favourite scene in the show is when Tyne D performs a one-woman re-enactment of a conversation between Ari and Maria: Ari courts Maria with his money – they share no pretensions that theirs is a union based on love or mutual admiration. Maria yearns for the freedom that comes with great wealth and Ari for the “class” Maria brings to his name. Their relationship is only one facet of Maria’s dramatic personal life, in that way not unlike the characters she performed on stage.