QUINTESSENTIALLY | Insider | Culture

It’s been a busy last couple of years for starry productions of Hamlet, what with David Tennant at the RSC, Jude Law at the Donmar, John Simm up in Sheffield and now Rory Kinnear in Nicholas Hytner’s new production at the National. This sudden spate of stagings might make even the most committed Bard fan slightly weary, except of course when it’s as gripping and vital as this.

Hytner’s first innovation is to set the play explicitly in a police state. All the characters are being watched, either by the ever-present CCTV or by the suited apparatchiks, forever muttering into their earpieces. The political undertones, so often soft-pedalled in performance, are here brought to the fore. Claudius – riskily but successfully played by Patrick Malahide as a vaguely Putin-esque despot – addresses his public speeches to ever-present  cameras. Dissenters, whether they’re the players, Laertes’ army or even Hamlet himself, are led away by armed men or threatened with torture. Against the ubiquitous sense of violence and paranoia, the question is asked, implicitly; ‘Does one man’s life really matter?’

The answer, thrillingly, is ‘yes’, because Rory Kinnear’s quite astonishing performance more or less redefines what an audience expects from Hamlet. Kinnear has a magnificent speaking voice, perfect comic timing and the rare ability to swing from high tragedy to low comedy in an instant. What he does here, and it’s both mesmerising and eventually highly moving, is to humanise Hamlet completely. His prince isn’t mad, or transfixed with incestuous desire for his mother, or an impotent wretch unable to avenge his father’s murder. Instead, he’s a young man devastated by grief who gradually comes to realise his destiny is one suffused by violence and loss.

This energetic, intelligent staging moves at a tremendous pace throughout its three-and-three quarter running time, keeping the action as gripping as any modern political thriller. It’s always tempting fate to come out with superlatives, but I can’t remember seeing a clearer, more gripping or more emotionally rich production of this great play.

While dabbling with any kind of theme runs the risk of death-by-kitsch, designer Kinney Chan has made certain Shore’s palatial 10,000 square foot venue is destined for longevity.

Shore, one of Hong Kong’s latest bar/restaurants, has a design that plays on the contrast of land and sea. Their impressive alfresco terrace has arrived just in time to make the most of the city’s inviting autumn weather.

On entering the main bar, guests are transported to the depths of the Pacific, with the subtle crystal and coral patterns weaved through the floor giving it a truly aquatic feel. The rough, sandy walls evoke cliffs erupting from an ocean floor.

With an enormous 1,500 square foot outdoor area replete with white cabanas, the patio offers diners and cocktailers artificial surroundings that all but convince you you’re on holiday. Call it an atmospheric placebo effect. My drink recommendation: the ‘Upper Shore’, a fairly lethal combination of gin, rum, tequila, vodka, triple sec, peach schnapps and juice. Not one for those weary of mixing spirits…

Upstairs in the main restaurant, guests are back on dry land in dense woods with rich moss greens. Tables are spaced far apart, making Shore an ideal destination for business lunches or even romantic rendezvous. The menu focuses on expertly prepared classics, with dry-aged, bone-on steaks from Australia, USA and Canada served alongside fresh, sustainable fish and seafood.

Shore is one of the few restaurants to cut and dry-age their steaks in-house, using organic produce where available. Notable dishes include the pan-roasted fish of the day – when I went, it was Australian ling – cooked sous-vide; perfectly tender and accompanied by pepper fondue, green olive tapenade and anchovy fritters.

The kitchen is headed up by Jason Black, a name familiar to many in the city. Having masterminded the menus at Zest and Frog Face Fish, Jason has taken things back-to-basics with Shore. His is a no-nonsense approach to food and the menu he has created is unashamedly honest, abounding with the kind of food you can really get stuck into – not a ‘foam’ or ‘jus’ in sight.

Aside from the savoury fare, guests of Shore must save room for something sweet. The year Jason took off to study the art of patisserie in France is evident in his sublime sugary creations. The chiffon cake is unbelievable: an intense shot of flavour complemented by dried plum and cranberry compote; the mulled wine sauce and pain d’epices ice cream lend the dish that special dose of festivity. When the weather gets cooler, I highly recommend their French hot chocolate – a deliciously thick, bittersweet concoction served with chocolate butter biscuits; is a playful take on milk and cookies that oozes indulgence.

Bonus points to Shore for abolishing the 10% service charge which all HK restaurants seem to add, leaving diners to tip as they see fit.

Shore

3/F & 4/F

The L Place

139 Queen’s Road Central

Hong Kong

Reservations – +852 2915 1638

As Frieze mania draws to a close, the capital is playing host to a number of enthralling and original surrounding exhibitions and events this weekend.

The labyrinth of tunnels beneath Waterloo Station have been taken over by the Lazarides Gallery, who have installed a mind blowing exhibition called ‘Hell’s Half Acre’. The space has been transformed into a large-scale evocation of Dante’s literary masterpiece Inferno in which a group of young, cutting-edge artists have produced a multi-sensory interpretation of hell, a strange consort of voodoo dolls, taxidermy, suspended bodies and barking staffies. For something a little lighter, seek out Conor Harrington’s fleet of suspended model ships and their shadows, as well a Jonathan Yeo nude in 3D. Until 17th October.

Catch the ‘Anticipation Show’ in Selfridges’ Ultra-lounge. It has fast become a celebrated, annual showcase of the hottest artists of the moment, and is curated by Kay Saatchi and Catriona Warren.  Photographers Noemie Goudal and Robin Friend make stunning contributions with their antithetical takes on the natural landscape.  And painter Robert Dowling is no doubt a star in the making material with his clean, monochromatic wall pieces. With arresting video installations and jaw dropping sculptural work from Blue Curry on show too, get yourself down there for a glimpse of the future. Until 10th November.

For a star studded affair with big names and big pieces, check out ‘The House of the Nobleman’. A special exhibition curated by ‘All Visual Arts’ Wolfe von Lenkiewicz and Victoria Golembiovskaya, you’ll see heralded gems from the likes of Edouard Manet and Picasso jostle alongside iconic Yves Klein and Ron Arad design pieces. The makers and shakers of Modern and Contemporary art await your perusal. Rarely will see you such a heavyweight list of artists all showing under one roof. Until 20th October at Boswall House, 2 Cornwall Terrace, Regent’s Park, NW1. By appointment only.

www.cornwallterrace.co.uk/boswallhouse.

All Visual Arts have masterminded another knock-out show in the form of ‘Vanitas: The Transience of Earthly Pleasures’ – a group exhibition exploring the Northern European, seventeenth century painting tradition and all its mortal motifs and meanings. A haunting mix of works by contemporary artists and original Dutch masters, the curators have cleverly used the sumptuous setting in all its faded grandeur of the former Sierra Leone embassy to extraordinary effect. Until 17th October at 33 Portland Place, W1B 1QE.

www.allvisualarts.org.

After the success of last year’s Art Barter, ‘Mini Barter’ is kicking off today, and runs through tomorrow evening. Based on the same principle of exchanging art for goods other than money – be it Tuscan villas, piano lessons or bareback riding on the beach – whatever you can offer might well be just their thing. So when you tire of notional spending at Frieze and too many £ signs, head to Maurice Einhardt Neu Gallery, pick a piece and have a punt. This year’s artists include Mat Collishaw, Polly Morgan and dynamic duo Tim and Sue Webster.

www.artbarter.co.uk.

The Faust myth seems to be all the rage in London at the moment, what with the ENO’s recent production of Gounod’s The Damnation Of Faust and now this new staging of the oft-told story by the Icelandic company Vesturport. It is, however, more than likely that you won’t have seen anything quite like this kinetic production, which cheekily takes its ‘adapted from Goethe’ tag and twists it until it almost yelps. At the same time, anyone who’s seen Vesturport’s earlier stagings of Woyzeck or Metamorphosis will know that they’re in for a visual treat.

The first twist on the Faust legend is that, rather than a young man searching for the secrets of the universe, the scene opens on a retirement home where an old actor, Johann (Thorstein Gunnarsson), entertains the other residents with hammy Shakespearean recitations and lusts after the beautiful young nurse, Greta (Unnur Osp Stefansdottir). As fate would have it, the devilish Mefisto (Hilmir Snaer Gudnason) appears, in acrobatic form, to offer him a deal – his soul for earthly achievements – and, in time-honoured style, Johann agrees.

To say much more would spoil the remarkable achievements and surprises of the multi-talented Gisli Orn Gardarsson’s production, which moves from laugh-out-loud hilarity (there’s a running joke involving Faust’s name straight out of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein) to deeply moving scenes towards the end, as Johann comes to realise the true price of the bargain he has struck. The score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis proves key, moving from moody atmospherics to banging rock to heartbreakingly beautiful piano-led lamentation. This is classy, funny and often viscerally thrilling theatre. On the night I saw it, the audience reaction at the end was more like that of a particularly successful gig than a conventional play. You’re unlikely to have much more fun on a night out in London at the moment.

Until 30th October. www.youngvic.org

The melding of acoustic and electronic instrumentation has oft been the subject of many a musician’s efforts, usually within the realm of popular music.  The use of synthesizers, for instance, has been in vogue since the 1970’s and these have featured on a great many recordings from David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ to contemporary Hip Hop.  Slightly less common however has been the fusion of electronic instruments with classical orchestration, a theme which the BBC’s ‘Electronica 1′, the first of three futuristic concerts, sought to explore.

Kicking off proceedings was a dapper looking Jarvis Cocker who lent the evening a sense of informality in what could have been an overblown and pompous affair, regaling the crowd with his informed witty banter in between performances.

The first of these was a rendition of Bernard Herrmann’s soundtrack to The Day the Earth Stood Still, conducted by the very capable and enthusiastic Charles Hazlewood, who seemed grateful to be sharing the stage with such an array of talent.

Of particular note here was the dexterous playing of the theramin by Celia Sheen and Lydia Kavina (the grand niece of Leon Theramin no less) who were rightly placed at the front of the stage facing each other, on either side.  They both managed to wield spine chillingly eerie notes, quite literally out of thin air, subtly moving their hands within the electromagnetic field of their machines.

Next up was a performance of Johnny Greenwood’s ‘Smear’ (himself choosing to shun all attention by sitting in the audience). No stranger to working with classical orchestration, having been the composer in residence for the BBC Concert Orchestra since 2004, Johnny’s piece was reminiscent of his work on the soundtrack to There Will be Blood featuring a multitude of violins and cellos creating a sound not unlike a swarm of giant mosquitoes: spooky indeed. Accompanying the ensemble was yet another obscure electronic creation, the Ondes Martenot Synthesizer, a rather odd looking small piano which might seem more at home in an eighteenth century chateau, emitting sounds halfway between a theramin and a Moog synth.

The stand out piece of the evening was Will Gregory (of Goldfrapp fame) and his rendition of ‘Journey into the Sky’ a performance featuring a full orchestra (larger than the previous performances) and four Moog synthesizers (out of Will’s private collection).  Introducing the piece as a “work in progress” and asking the audience to “bare with us”, the performance proved there was no reason to worry, as I’m sure all ears were left as delighted as mine by the varied symphonic movements.

Lending a somewhat more obscure note to proceedings was a performance of Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky’s ‘A Poem in Cycles and Bells’, the new electronic addition this time being a hard disk recorder playing abstract sounds through different effects, juxtaposed with the classical orchestra.

The penultimate piece of the night was Miklos Rozsa’s ‘Spellbound Concerto for Orchestra’, again featuring one of the theramin players making one realize just how such an instrument would provide the perfect accompaniment to any Hitchcock film.

The final piece of the concert was a rendition of electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk’s ‘The Model’ arranged by Anne Dudley of the Art of Noise.  Only on this occasion did the delicate balancing act of electronic and classical seem to falter, down to a slightly malfunctioning Moog synthesizer which pierced a little too loudly in relation to the other instruments – failing to reproduce the melody it was supposed to – something my eyes and ears couldn’t help but notice.  This was but a minor glitch in an otherwise highly enjoyable evening which can be listened to again on BBC Radio 3 on the 19th of November at 7:00pm.

I once met a young chap who could never walk past one of those old Victorian pubs without shuddering. Old stone arches terrified him. He often wore sunglasses in cloudy weather, and once he sat me down and related how, once, on a sunny day in Florence, he was walking along one of those cobbled streets with the tall pink and blue houses on each side; he had a thought and looked up and froze; the narrow slit of white sky between the rooftops did something to that precious mind that filled him at once with horror and happiness. Now, this anecdote is by way of introduction to the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale. Why you ask? I have no idea…but I’ll try and work it out in the next few paragraphs.

The three-day vernissage at the beginning of September is often the point of this annual schmoozefest of everything that might or might not be worth looking at. Architectural tribes converge, and drink sweet Bellini’s and take dinner on rooftop terraces, and you often hear them snickering about many of the uncanny post-modern art installations that do much to lower the tone that year; this time round, a room packed with talking heads, babbling through 2,000 hours worth of dead-tape by curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist, is just one example of the strident narcissism on display (Architects are known to have very big egos, and it often gets in the way of their imagination).

But it’s not all bad. In fact, some of it is pretty inspiring, and sometimes, even goes far as being genuinely uplifting. There is a real scale cloud, scythed in two by a winding bridge that forces its way through large, Grecian pillars – the journey created by Matthias Schuler to investigate our reading of ephemeral space and its boundaries. A tantalising spray of water, lit up by a geometric procession of flickering lights adds a cool touch to the Corderie dell’Arsenale – the converted ropeworks where much of the biennale is showcased. In the Singapore Pavilion, A Model of the Compact City is ‘an invitation to look at how compact cities might reduce our demand for land’, a masterful corridor of light that explores the relationship of people to the tight spaces they live in. The installation ‘Emergency Exit’ by Agnieszka Kurant is my personal favourite – a three-dimensional frieze of ‘urban portable holes’ that seeks to go beyond the logic of urban reality and into time-space discontinuity; places of uncertainty and doubt where everything is a paradox, a trick of the eye, the sort of thing Einstein would have come up with if he had been commissioned.

And would you believe it, there is a theme behind all this strange landfill. Every year, a single curator is given the task of selecting something to call it all by. In times past, themes have been chosen that could mean literally anything, and often, nothing at all – which is just as well when some joker decides that walking through bits of fluff is an ‘aesthetic experience’. ‘Metamorph’ was 2004’s word of choice, and this year, Tokyo-based architect and chief director, Kazumo Sejima, has gone for ‘People meet in Architecture’ – nebulous enough so that her superstar list of exhibitors can do what they want, whilst leaving room for other titbits that keep more humble punters interested.

‘Architecture plays a significant role in shaping our psychology, and wind’s its way deep into people’s consciousness.’ Kazumo Sejima nods fervently as she discusses the popular ‘Cloudscapes’ exposition. ‘It speaks about how we ultimately perceive space, and it helps us relate to ourselves. That’s what the exhibition is about this year.’

I might ask after that young chap I met once; might ask her view on how fear and loathing and happiness come into all of it…but I just don’t think it’s worth the hassle. An arch is an arch after all. And so is a cloud.

The Architecture Biennale runs until November 21st.
www.labiennale.org

Celebrating Quintessentially’s 5th birthday in Hong Kong and raising money for our philanthropic arm, the Quintessentially Foundation, I’m delighted to announce that we’re bringing top London nightclub Boujis to Hong Kong for the very first time. Our charitable pop-up club in Sheung Wan will be open from 14th to 16th October 2010 for three exclusive nights only and will give back to the community in the form of charitable workshops as well as exciting evening events. We’re absolutely thrilled that HSBC Private Bank and CSL 1O1O are on board as the official partners of the club.

The pop-up is taking place at The Space, a new extension of local art institution The Cat Street Gallery. The club will showcase an international mix of the hottest DJs from London at the club nights alongside daytime community workshops to raise money for the Quintessentially Foundation benefiting local Hong Kong charities.

During the day, kids will take part in music, art, cooking, photography and design classes while in the early evening, we’re selling tickets to an exclusive mixologist event and working with The Financial Times on a lifestyle quiz with fab prizes. As the lights go down, Boujis will be taking over and transforming the space into Hong Kong’s most exclusive club, with DJ Klaus flying in the decks of London’s Boujis to ensure the party continues well into the morning.

Joining forces with Boujis, hot dining destination 208 Duecento Otto and Moët Hennessy Diageo will be coming on board as the F&B partners for the event while interior style-setters Halo Asia will outfit the space with their iconic furniture.

“We think Sheung Wan is Hong Kong’s equivalent to the New York Meatpacking District in its early days. With its hipster vibe and budding art and design scene, it seems a natural home for the city’s first charitable pop-up club and we are delighted to support such an exciting event and give back to the local community,” says Yenn Wong, owner of 208 Duecento Otto.

The Quintessentially Foundation focuses on improving the lives of disadvantaged local communities worldwide. Proceeds from the table and bar sales from the three club nights will go to supporting Hong Kong causes, including the Ambassadors of Design, Changing Young Lives Foundation, Hong Kong Cancer Fund, Hong Kong Eating Disorders Association, Mother’s Choice, Pathways, Room to Read, The Women’s Foundation and Variety Hong Kong.

The party will take place from Thursday 14th October to Saturday 16th October 2010. Doors open at 9.30pm. For guestlist entry, please email: boujis@quintessentiallyfoundation.org with your name and email address, or call +852 3758 7416.

The Space, 210 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong