The Toronto Guardian’s love affair with the UK remains unabated, and apparently we’re not alone: last year, Dear Old Blighty welcomed a record 1 million Canadian visitors, nearly half of whom came from Ontario. As always, the main selling point for us, across the entirety of the United Britain of Great Kingdom, is London. Whether it’s the culinary scene, the historic sites, the wonderful architecture, or the overwhelming amount of arts and cultural activities to choose from, there’s something for everyone. If you’re one of the 1 million (maybe even more!) Canadians contemplating a London trip in the coming months, read on for our highlights of London’s new cultural season.
London is known for its blockbuster art exhibitions, and this year is no exception. Over at the Tate Modern, Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and The Blue Rider showcase the groundbreaking art movement, featuring works from the title artists alongside familiar names such as Paul Klee and August Macke. But while Kandinsky might be the title draw, we were especially impressed by the works of Franz Marc – whose extraordinary tiger graces the exhibition poster – and the unusual, highly stylized works of the long-forgotten Marianne Werefkin, one of several female artists getting overdue recognition with this exhibition. Expressionists is on now until October 20, 2024, soon to be followed by the first-ever major UK exhibition of Mike Kelley, the mixed-media artist known for his strident commentaries on popular culture.
At the National Gallery – whose free admission, 2,300-work collection remains unparalleled – the undisputed highlight is Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, running now until mid-January 2025. While not quite on the scale of, say, the Rijksmuseum’s ultra-successful Vermeer exhibition from last year, the Gallery’s Van Gogh exhibition is a major moment, celebrating the Gallery’s bicentennial with a showcase of some of Van Gogh’s greatest works, borrowed from collections public and private across the world. Highlights include the Starry Night over the Rhône (on loan from the Musée d’Orsay), The Yellow House (Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam), and a host of views of Arles, where Van Gogh spent his final years. Upcoming National Gallery exhibitions include Discover Constable and the Hay Wain (October 17, 2024, to February 2, 2025) and the milestone exhibition Siena: The Rise of Painting (March 8, 2025 – June 22, 2025), following its debut at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
London’s West End – the British equivalent of New York’s Broadway, but with more Harry Potter actors – is home to the obvious (the umpteenth remount of Mamma Mia! or The Lion King) and the exceptional (David Oyelowo currently starring as Coriolanus at the National Theatre, Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece The Real Thing at the Old Vic). On our most recent trip, we had a chance to check out shows in both categories, to mixed results.
In the former category, the brand-new Stranger Things: The First Shadow – from the same team behind Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and boy does it show – is precisely what you get when you make a TV tie-in focussing on spectacle at the expense of, say, a functioning writer’s room. The First Shadow is the second show we’ve come away from in as many years where the special effects knocked our socks off, but where the atrocious writing left us practically bleeding out of our ears as if a telekinetic pre-teen just walked in the room. Things diehards will find something to enjoy here (provided you can turn off the timeline/canon part of your brain for this continuity-breaking prequel), but everyone else should give this a hard pass.
Exceptional theatre abounds in London, however, and Theatre Royal Haymarket’s newly opened remount of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot is a case in point. Starring the ideal pairing of Lucian Msamati (who you might recognize as Salladhor Saan from Game of Thrones) and Ben Whishaw (Q in the recent Bond films; also, sigh, the voice of Paddington in the recent CGI outings), this Godot aims more for the jocular than the jugular, sacrificing some of Beckett’s weightier themes for the sake of laughter. Still, Beckett’s play has always been considered more of a tragicomedy, and any production which features Whishaw – surely one of the finest actors of his generation – uttering the immortal line, “We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment”, is an instant must-see. (Side note: do yourselves all a favour and watch Whishaw’s breathtaking Richard II.)
Perhaps most importantly, the new opera season is now underway at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House, kicking off with spectacular productions of Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro (1786) and Verdi’s La Traviata (1853). Figaro is a perennial favourite around these and any parts, combining exquisite music, uproarious comedy, delicious irony, and a healthy dose of optimism about humanity (in a libretto where even the villain comes out looking pretty good). Soprano Ying Fang excels as Suzanna, while Luca Micheletti is an excellent Figaro alongside Huw Montague Rendall’s villainous Count Almaviva (who, in Rossini’s Barber of Seville, was the romantic hero!)
If anything, ROH’s La Traviata was even better than the last time we saw it, with Hrachuhí Bassénz’s heart-rending performance as central character Violetta matched by Ismael Jordi’s take on her paramour Alfredo Germont, here a half-romantic, half-bone-headed fool whose stark cruelty towards Violetta reaches its apex in the show-stopping Act II Finale. This particular production, by Richard Eyre, is one of the best we’ve ever seen, with stunning set design and a sense of place that suits the narrative well. Legendary British baritone Simon Keenlyside nearly steals the show as Germont’s father, who appears at two critical moments to out-sing and out-act everyone else on stage. Upcoming ROH operas include Tchaikovsky’s sublime Eugene Onegin (through October 14, 2024), Beethoven’s Fidelio (October 9-26, 2024), which we loved so much in its recent COC production here in Toronto, and Poor Things inspiration The Tales of Hoffman (November 7, 2024 – December 1, 2024).
Last but certainly not least, a visit to London wouldn’t be the same without dropping in our old friends at Punchdrunk. You can read more of our thoughts on their latest, Viola’s Room (now booking through December 2024), here, but suffice it to say it’s another worthy entry in the canon of immersive theatre. And with an audience of six or fewer, at that!
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For more travel tips on the best in arts and culture, check out our features on Japan and New York.
