Kelly Reilly and Brendan Gleeson in Calvary ©Irish Film Board
ArtUrsula von RydingsvardYorkshire Sculpture Park, from 5th April
Ursula von Rydingsvard is one of America’s outstanding contemporary sculptors. A Ukrainian-Polish refugee now in her seventies, who arrived in the US in 1950 from a defeated Germany, she has worked directly with cedar for 35 years, manipulating with chisel and circular saw variable lengths of 4” by 4” cedar beams to construct her sculptures. Astonishingly, this is the first large-scale survey of her work anywhere in Europe. Peter Murray, Executive Director of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, is a long-term admirer and two of von Rydingsvard’s pieces have been in situ in Yorkshire for a while, including the outdoor piece Damski Czepek (2006). This large cave-like structure is modelled on a simple bonnet, with wooden ribbons curling out on the ground. Such distortions of scale reflect a highly charged personal response to her primary inspirations— natural forms, the human body, simple tools and household objects. Some of her monolithic sculptures resemble entire geological formations, others are like gigantic spoons. She has said that in the displaced persons’ camps she grew up in, the bonnet you wore to church, the spoon you ate with, became objects of inexhaustible significance. Here we will see how they have inspired a lifetime’s work. Emma Crichton-Miller
FilmCalvaryOn release from11th April
In a village on Ireland’s Atlantic coast, Father James (Brendan Gleeson) hears a confession. The voice behind the grille talks of his childhood abuse by a Catholic priest, long dead. Since he cannot reclaim his own innocence, the man announces his intention to take another blameless life. A week on Sunday, he will kill Father James himself. Gleeson and writer-director John Michael McDonagh collaborated on a previous tale of absurd happenings in the rural west of Ireland, The Guard. This time, however, their tone is serious. Against the bleak beauty of the landscape, a good man struggles with evil in all its bizarre variety. As Gleeson’s opening scene demonstrates, few actors can command the screen with such compassion and nuance. His presence compels us along the painful (and painfully comic) progress to his pre-destined agony. The strong supporting cast, which includes Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran and Chris O’Dowd as far from simple locals, gives this contemporary Stations of the Cross political edge and anger. Like Father Ted written by Kierkegaard. Francine Stock
FestivalThe London Coffee FestivalOld Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, 3rd to 6th April 2014
Does coffee’s close link to “cerebral power” help to explain the appeal of coffee-based drinks? Balzac thought so, and came up with a uniquely vile way of taking his. “Using finely pulverised, dense coffee,” he drank it cold, undiluted, and on an empty stomach.
Variety is one element in coffee culture today—and with it comes connoisseurship. In its fourth year, the London Coffee Festival champions the thinking man’s approach to coffee, especially in artisanal form. The programme includes tastings, workshops, and barista demonstrations, as well as music and art exhibitions. The overall approach is based on experiment. You can try, for instance, to tell the difference between the same coffee brewed in four different ways. The study of espresso gets its own academy, where visitors can learn about the science of grinding, temperature, pressure, and milk. In the Kahlua Coffee House, terms such as flavour-matching, terroir, and provenance dominate the discussion of coffee cocktails. Laura Marsh
DanceThe Winter’s TaleRoyal Opera House, 10th April to 8th May
Undeterred by the fact that The Winter’s Tale is regarded as one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays,” choreographer Christopher Wheeldon has chosen it for his second full-length commission for the Royal Ballet. Following his successful adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, Wheeldon and the dream team of composer Joby Talbot and designer Bob Crowley are united again to turn the enigmatic romance of unexplained jealousy, family strife, tragedy and late redemption into a two-act ballet. Closer inspection reveals a certain logic in his choice—the passage of time has hints of The Sleeping Beauty, the character of Leontes, the jealous husband whose actions precipitate events, recalls Swan Lake’s Siegfried and Giselle’s Albrecht—both ambivalent characters who must embrace their guilt to redeem themselves. There is, finally, the sheer fairytale theatricality of the statue that comes to life at the end of Shakespeare’s fable. With six principal parts, it allows the company a good spread of substantial roles, particularly for recent defector from the English National Ballet, Vadim Muntagirov. It’s an enticing prospect, though how Wheeldon will visualise Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction—“Exit, pursued by a bear”—is anyone’s guess. Neil Norman
TheatrePrivacyDonmar Warehouse, 10th April to 31st May
The theatre’s first reaction to the whistleblowers Julian Assange, Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning and Edward Snowden is registered in this new piece by rising playwright James Graham, who shot to prominence two years ago with This House at the National Theatre, a brilliantly organised anatomy of the inside workings of politics, set in the debating chamber of the House of Commons in the tumultuous second half of the 1970s. Here, inspired mainly by Snowden’s revelations about government surveillance in the US and UK, Graham deploys indepth research as well as interviews with politicians, journalists and analysts.
All good drama exploits the space between what we say and what we think, and Graham shows every sign of following the example of Alan Bennett’s spy dramas and David Hare’s political epics in catching something fresh and important in the culture. How much do we give away when we share information? And does pure privacy even exist anymore, in theory or in practice?
Rumours of celebrity casting suggest that, in the aftermath of the phone-hacking scandals and the Leveson inquiry, wider issues of press freedom might be rolled in, too. Big Brother is watching. Michael Coveney
