Willow crossley
My antidote to a long, bleak January is to fill it with colour. I fill the house with huge baskets of scented hyacinths and paper whites, propped up and supported with mad, lichen covered twigs. Armfuls of sunny yellow Mimosa will perk up even the dullest of days and for a special early birthday treat to myself, Ill hunt down the first Icelandic Poppies of the year, dotting them down the red and pink stripy linen covered kitchen table in our jewel coloured ‘Willow' bud vases. More colour = more joy!”
Willow Crossley, Florist, Author & Designer
Restaurant: CINDER
St Johns Wood is the lucky new home to the second instalment of Jake Wood’s Cinder restaurant. Larger in size than its Belsize Park brother but similar in concept, aesthetic and culinary output. Wood’s dishes take inspiration from Peru, Japan, Italy, France and Greece and feature ingredients cooked on a Josper Grill. Cooking on an open fire has inspired Wood to create his restaurant concept and clearly it’s a winning formula as proven by this second opening. Dishes at the new Cinder include chicken thighs with confit lemon and garlic, cedar plank salmon with pickled cucumber and shallots and Mastelo cheese with a Kamalata olive glaze and oregano. London based wine importer The Modest Merchant is overseeing the wine list with wines chosen to highlight and compliment the food options. The space accommodates 46 diners in the main space which gives it a buddy but still cosy feel. Colourful plates and exuberant company makes for a great night at Cinder.
ART: REBEL REBEL
Rebel Rebel at the Barbican is the first major UK commission by Iranian artist Soheila Sokhanvari, a stunning show that celebrates and commemorates feminist icons from pre-revolutionary Iran. Sokhanvari transforms the Curve into a devotional space, populated with exquisite miniature portraits of glamorous cultural figures from Iran. The project spotlights the rarely told histories of these women, who pursued creative careers in a culture enamoured with Western style but not its freedoms. The immersive space is hand-painted floor to ceiling with geometric patterns based on traditional Islamic design. A soundtrack, composed by Marios Aristopoulos features songs by iconic Iranian singers from the period. The exhibition culminates with extravagant mirrored sculptures featuring internal projections drawn from Filmfarsi. With humour and verve, Rebel Rebel explores the contradictions of Iranian women’s lives between 1925 and the 1979 revolution – an explosive period of both liberation and commodification that proved short lived. It’s a phenomenal show that ends its run at the end of February. Head into the new year with a cultural kick.
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THEATRE: WRECKAGE
The Turbine Theatre is a new theatre on the banks of the Thames next to the newly completed and iconic Battersea Power Station. Presented by Bill Kenwright and founded and led by Artistic Director Paul Taylor-Mills, the theatre is located under the Grosvenor Bridge railway arches at Circus West Village, in what was the first part of the Power Station’s regeneration located at the foot of the iconic Grade II* listed landmark. The Turbine Theatre is an intimate theatre with big ambitions. Everything they do revolves around one simple idea: powering the imagination. On the 5th January a new production called Wreckage opens until the 23rd January- 'I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you.’ Sam and his fiancé Noel have been together for years. They have a house, a cat and their whole lives ahead of them. But when a sudden and permanent distance crashes into their relationship, it falls upon Sam to discover where their story goes from here. Harlow Playhouse present this new work by Tom Ratcliffe. Wreckage is a touching story about continuing bonds and love that only evolves, and never dies. Tickets are priced at £20 and you’re on the footstep of a heap of food and drink options for either before or after the production.
Festival: London International Mime Festival
London International Mime Festival is an established, annual festival of contemporary visual theatre. Essentially wordless and multi-disciplinary, its programme embraces circus-theatre, puppetry/animation, object theatre, mime, live art and physical theatre. Founded in 1977 at the Cockpit Theatre as a one-off event to showcase the work of British mimes, theatre clowns and other physical and visual theatre artists, the festival rapidly grew in scale, quality and reputation. Now into 2023 the Festival is bringing us wedding party plans going hilariously wrong to famous puppet death scenes. From tales of the flesh to the secret life of polystyrene and a museum coming spookily alive at night, LIMF 2023 brings premieres of contemporary circus-theatre, puppetry, live art, extreme dance and non text-based drama from near and far. The programme of events takes place at a variety of popular London venues including the Barbican, Peacock Theatre and Shoreditch Town Hall from the 16th January to the 5th February. It’s time to banish the archaic preconceptions about mime and experience this fabulously unique talent right here on our doorstep.
Experience: Saint Jude
Groundbreaking immersive entertainment company Swamp Motel are back with a brand-new location-based immersive experience blurring the boundaries between theatre and technology once more. Saint Jude has been created in partnership with cutting-edge, creative AI company Charisma. Following the success of their smash-hit immersive theatre experience The Drop – which last year saw audiences thrown into London’s criminal underworld Swamp Motel- are creating an inventive new site-specific show that begins the second you walk through the door of a mysterious government building in Westminster. Saint Jude is the world’s first organisation that allows you to communicate with people trapped in lifelong, irreversible comas. Using cutting-edge technology, you’ll be able to talk to ‘Sleepers’ – hopeless coma patients lost to the depths of unconsciousness. Saint Jude’s innovative software translates the Sleeper’s brain patterns into speech in a split second, allowing you to communicate with them directly from the coma. From this month, Saint Jude is opening its doors and inviting the public to plug in and become a beacon of hope to people who were once considered lost causes. ….But not everything buried in the dark should be brought to light….What will you uncover on your first day working at Saint Jude?
BAR: ALMA
Sucre is a hugely popular Argentinian restaurant in the heart of Soho on Great Marlborough Street. When it opened in 2021 it had a cheeky little cocktail bar downstairs called Abajo. Well, Abajo is now A-Gone-o and instead it’s been renovated, reimagined and relaunched as Alma! And the relaunch has brought the 70’s with it! The interior has been designed by Victoria Vogel who has turned the space into a high-end hangout with a '70s Bond villain aesthetic and accents that highlight the building's original 18th-century features. With disco, soul and funk spinning on vinyl five nights a week, we’ll all be Alba/Abba Dancing Queens. In terms of the beverages, legendary bartender Tony Pescatori of ex Nightjar fame, is in charge of the drinks list. Cocktails include: The Palm - Ciroc Vodka, Fresh Date and Mango Juice, Yemeni Myrrh, Veuve Clicquot Brut Champagne; Clay - Chivas Mizunara Whisky, Ming River Baijiu, Osmanthus Tea, Makrut Lime & Green Szechuan, Umeboshi, Preserved plum and Kunama - Trois Rivières Agricole Rum, Grand Marnier, Ethiopia Women's Bulessa Cold Brew Coffee, A Splash of Wray & Nephew Rum, Amaro Santoni, Ethiopian Korekima spice. Yumminess all round. No surprises that the bar snacks are provided by the gastronomy pro’s upstairs so our stomach’s will be doing their own little dance along to the music. Get your disco shoes on party people. There’s no quiet January going on over here.
Theatre: Noises Off
Opening on the 19th January, the Theatre Royal Bath Productions present Felicity Kendal, Jonathan Coy, Matthew Kelly and Tracy-Ann Oberman in the fortieth anniversary production of one of the greatest British comedies ever written. Hurtling along at breakneck speed, Noises Off follows the on and offstage antics of a touring theatre company as they stumble their way through the fictional farce, Nothing On. From the shambolic final rehearsals before opening night in Weston-Super-Mare, to a disastrous matinee in Ashton-Under-Lyme seen entirely, and hilariously silently, from backstage, before we share their final, brilliantly catastrophic performance in Stockton-on-Tees. The production is cast with icons of the acting area- One of the UK’s best-loved actors, Felicity Kendal plays the role of the forgetful Dotty Otley. Having shot to fame in The Good Life, Felicity has won numerous awards for her stage work. Matthew Kelly has won the Olivier Award for Of Mice and Men, Jonathan Coy played George Murray in Downton Abbey and Tracy-Ann Oberman is a television, theatre and radio actress, most widely known for her roles in EastEnders and the Channel 4 comedy Friday Night Dinner. It’s a stellar production and a must see for anyone that hasn’t experienced the joy and comedy of Noises Off before. Tickets are priced from £25 and the action all takes place at The Phoenix Theatre on Charing Cross Road.
Charity of the Month: STIQ Day
STIQ Day has been launched to get people thinking about their sexual health and encourage more people to get regular sexual health checks. No one likes to think they’ve caught a sexually transmitted infection (STI) but without a test you just can’t be sure. This year STIQ Day takes place on 14th January, a date chosen because many common STIs such as Chlamydia can take two weeks to be detectable. If your festive season included unprotected sex then you should be thinking about getting tested around that date. Also with just one month to go before Valentine’s Day anyone hoping to enjoy the celebrations to the full should do so knowing that they are infection free and will not be putting someone else’s sexual health in danger. Getting a sexual health check is easy and shouldn’t be embarrassing or shameful; sex is a normal part of adult life so sexual health checks should be to. It’s a quick, simple process that not only puts your mind at rest but could protect your fertility or even save your life – or that of your partner. Check out the website to see all your options and how you can get involved.
App of the month: Co-Star
Did you know across the globe we check our phones a combined 8 billion times a day. Frightening. The same technology that makes us the most advanced generation renders us the most anxious in history. Based on 2,500 years of reflection on rhythmic orbit and planetary motion, astrology is an advanced art for the modern world and one that can bring some much needed calm via the exact item that can cause the anxiety- using the Co-Star app. Astrology is a complete system based on the exact positions of stars and planets in our sky. Every element is significant. In combination, they tell a complex story of who we are. Using NASA data interpreted by humans, https://www.costarastrology.com/ Co–Star delivers personalised readings in real time. It starts by using the day, time, and place we were born to create an astronomical snapshot of the sky. This picture creates an in-depth personality analysis on character traits, behavioural tendencies, and emotional leanings: our astral chart. This chart is mapped against the current locations of the planets, signs, and aspects to show what our chart means today: our horoscope. Then it’s compared to the charts of our friends to reveal how we get along: our compatibility. Using artificial intelligence, Co–Star translates data into language we can read, understand, and share.