‘What’s the Buzz?’ – Volume 13

Theatre

A Very Expensive Poison

Since the runaway success of Enron, in 2009, playwright Lucy Prebble has developed a reputation for making complex moral, financial and political issues feel inviting and thrillingly theatrical.

Now she brings subterfuge to The Old Vic with a world premiere inspired by the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko.

We are taking a group to see the play – please click here for further details.

Books

The long-awaited third part of Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, is due to be published in March 2020. It is now respectively 10 and seven years since Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies were published, each winning a Booker prize and each translated into more than 30 languages.

Television

What else! but the return of two faves:

Hot, Hot, Hot Phoebe Waller Brige’s Killing Eve Season 2 starts on BBC1 on 8 June and stars Jodie Comer (who won a BAFTA for best actress) in the title role

AND

Little Big Lies – Season 2 which returns to SKY Atlantic on 10 June. Meryl Street joins the cast and is reportedly receiving US$800,000 per episode!

Restaurants

Corbyn & King have opened a new restaurant – Soutine (on the site of the old Carluccio’s – 60 St. John’s Wood High Street, NW8 7SH). It is a fusion of French classics and Russian food in a stunning art deco setting. What’s not to like?

Exhibitions

Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing, The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace 24 May to 13 October

While Leonardo da Vinci only produced 20 paintings in his lifetime, he made thousands of drawings detailing his investigations into the world around him.

This exhibition charts da Vinci’s remarkable life from the prodigious early drawings, right up to the tormented images he made in his final days after suffering from a stroke. Every page is full of wonders, teeming with studies in proportion and investigations into the inner workings of the human body.

Films

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – directed by Quentin Tarantino, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie (so brilliant in I Tonya).

It tells the story of two men dealing with fading stardom, and Sharon Tate, whose tragic, horrific death exposed the dark side of Hollywood.

The film has received rave reviews at The Cannes Film Festival and opens in the UK this Summer.

The opinions in Maria Says are Maria’s (with some input from Julian). There is no intention to offend or to suggest that other views might not work just as well for others – we live by learning. However we steer away from politics, religion and intolerance. Also, we do not receive any reward for recommendations; we decided years ago to remain independent and not carry advertising or promote places, goods or services because we are paid to do so and we shall stick to that.