P.12→

Xavier Bray, director of The Wallace Collection, on loaning artworks, battling bugs and broadening the gallery’s appeal

THEATRE

3-5 MARCH

HELTER SKELTER

The Cockpit Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.co.uk

Based on the life of a vulnerable adolescent, Susan Atkins, and her indoctrination into the notorious Manson Family cult in 1967, Helter Skelter tells the story of a utopian dream that descends into a nightmare of violence. In the Californian desert, Susan spirals towards an act that cannot be undone.

MUSIC

8 MARCH, 7.30pm

ELAINE MITCHENER: WOMENS WORK

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Experimental vocalist, movement artist and composer Elaine Mitchener presents a programme devoted to contemporary female composers, its title taken from a pioneering 1970s magazine dedicated to the overlooked work of female artists.

TALK

9 MARCH, 7pm

RUTH PADEL: SONGS FROM THE LABYRINTH

The Hellenic Centre

16-18 Paddington Street, W1U 5AS helleniccentre.org

Author Ruth Padel talks about her novel Daughters of the Labyrinth, which explores the buried past of the Jews of Crete, and Cretan singer and musician

Kalia Baklitzanaki performs some of the music referenced in the book.

1. A partment House, Wigmore Hall

2. Regent Street Cinema

3. The Tempest, The Cockpit

4.

MUSIC

12 MARCH, 3pm

BECHSTEIN SESSIONS: NOBODY’S JIG

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

The Bechstein Sessions are informal performances in Wigmore Hall’s Bechstein Bar. Nobody’s Jig explores the intersection between folk and early Baroque music-making traditions, giving voice to an old and intimate tradition of song repertoire.

ONLINE TALK

18 MARCH, 7pm

UNDERSTANDING SLEEP (& HOW TO GET MORE OF IT!)

Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk

On World Sleep Day, this free online session led by sleep expert Julie Wright offers practical guidance on how to incorporate good habits to support sound sleep, and explores the many benefits this can have for mental and physical health.

EXHIBITION

UNTIL 9 MARCH

YUKAKO TANAKA: FLUCTUATING FLUCTUATIONS: NOW=THEN HERE=ELSEWHERE

Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

13-14 Cornwall Terrace, NW1 4QP dajf.org.uk

Yukako Tanaka presents four installations, an online public conversation and a workshop, all of which explore the relationships between art, science and philosophy.

FOOD

10 MARCH, 12pm

FOOD MARKET

AT 55 BAKER STREET

Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk

The Baker Street Quarter’s fortnightly food market in the covered atrium of 55 Baker Street gathers together a small but diverse range of independent street-food stalls, offering a mouthwatering alternative to the usual workday lunch.

MUSIC

10 MARCH, 7.30pm APARTMENT HOUSE

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

British contemporary music ensemble Apartment House presents a programme including two UK premières: The Boy With A Wolf Eye Is Melting And There Is Nothing I Can Do, by Russian composer Darya Zvezdina, and Helmut Oehring’s Fourth String Quartet.

Every Monday, the magnificent Regent Street Cinema presents a programme of classic films from all eras of filmmaking for guests over 55 to enjoy. The screenings, for which tickets are subsidised at £4, have developed a real community feel.

Coming up:

21 February: An Officer and a Gentleman

28 February: Ninotchka

7 March: The Talented Mr Ripley

14 March: On the Town

EVERY MONDAY, 1pm

REGENCY SENIORS

Regent Street Cinema

307 Regent Street, W1B 2HW regentstreetcinema.com/regency-seniors

Theatre

9 – 19 MARCH

THE TEMPEST

The Cockpit Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.co.uk

The Bridge Theatre Training Company’s time-shifting production of The Tempest reimagines Shakespeare’s desert island as a 1950s painter’s studio where, betrayed by family and peers, and Prospero races against time to complete his masterpiece.

EXHIBITION 2 – 19 MARCH

BRITA GRANSTRÖM: “INSCAPES”

Thompson’s Gallery

3 Seymour Place, W1H 5AZ thompsonsgallery.co.uk

Stylistic renderings of woodlands, domestic scenes, and still lifes by Swedish artist Brita Granström, who has lived in the UK since 1993 and draws inspiration from both countries. She is, she says, drawn to “environments that are always changing, never still”.

Q&A: LAURIE BOLGER

The London-based poet on working, writing and running workshops for the Baker Street Quarter

How did you come to be a poet?

I didn’t really have a great time at school, but I did have an amazing English teacher. He made the GCSE poetry anthology so accessible and he also encouraged us to find our own voices. He was great. I was the only person in my family to go, apart from my auntie, the arty one, who was a bit of a role model for me. When I was at university, there was an open mic night as part of a Poems in Pubs event. I got up and I did this poem. It was absolute filth. I obviously thought I had to be really rude to make an impact, which is not at all right, but I managed to get booked off the back of that and it started rolling from there. I ended up getting shortlisted for Young Poet Laureate for London in 2014, then started working around London as a poet.

How hard is it to build a career in poetry?

I think you’ve got to be really resilient and take what you can at the beginning, but then know your worth a bit, because people seem to think that you just sit in your flat with a quill and write into the night for fun. Some people don’t even think it’s a job. I can’t do online dating because I literally hate it. I’ll be like, “I’m a poet.” And they’re like, “Ooh.

Is that a real job?” Yes it is! It’s a really hard job. The sad thing is that it’s a really inaccessible industry for a lot of working-class people still, because you need money to buy books, to go and do gigs, to build a following. I think that’s a shame, because those working-class poets have some of the best stories to tell.

Your online creative writing workshops, like those you run for the Baker Street Quarter, seem to be a thriving part of your work. The workshops are the best. I love them. I really like working with people who maybe don’t consider themselves writers, because I love seeing the surprise on their faces after I’ve given them a few prompts and it all starts to come together. I started the Creative Writing Breakfast Club during lockdown, and people have stayed loyal to it and come back every week. Often, I’ve no idea where they’ve even come from, but they turn up every Sunday. They clearly find it therapeutic. I’ve started doing a supper club too, where I send a recipe and we all eat together as part of the workshop. For the Baker Street Quarter, I collaborate with my sister a lot – she’s a yoga instructor. We do workshops where people are put into various restorative yoga poses. As they’re lying there, I might read a poem, and it’s just about letting those words enter your body and seeing how they make you feel. Then we do exercises where they write. I just think it’s a lovely, mindful thing to do. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad session.

What do you want people to get out of your workshops?

Just to clear their heads really and connect with themselves creatively. Just write for the sake of writing –and draw as well, just make marks on a page and enjoy doing that. I do run some workshops in person, and there’s a lot to be said for that, but actually Zoom’s great too, because people can really chill out in their

MUSIC

20 MARCH, 7.30pm

JESS GILLAM & MANCHESTER CAMERATA

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Works by Shostakovich and Glazunov, together with a new piece by the 35-year-old British composer Daniel Kidane, are performed by the Manchester Camerata ensemble – on its Wigmore Hall debut – and the brilliant Cumbrian saxophonist Jess Gillam.

MUSIC

20 MARCH, 12pm

BACH IN LEIPZIG

Royal Academy of Music

Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk own space – sitting at home with no shoes on – and that helps clear some of their inhibitions. It’s such an amazing thing to do for yourself. Tapping into some part of your life that you probably wouldn’t otherwise think about is amazing. I think it teaches you a lot about other people and I think it teaches you a lot about yourself – that’s why I love poetry.

The Academy’s third Bach in Leipzig concert of 2022, directed by Eamonn Dougan, features an opulent cantata written for Epiphany – Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen – bookended by two intense, questioning works: Ich glaube, lieber Herr, and Herze schwimmt im Blut.

Tell us about Call Me Lady, the new collection you’ve been writing. It’s a celebration of the working-class immigrant women in my family, who moved here from Ireland, grew up in the Avenues of West London and worked their socks off to make a life. They taught me a lot about being a woman. Some of that comes with a bit of an edge – these women had to be really hardcore to get by – but there’s a lot of love in there too.

CREATIVE WRITING AND MINDFULNESS

21 MARCH, 6pm

Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk

MUSIC

21 MARCH, 7.30pm

CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE & INSIDE STRAIGHT

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

THEATRE

25 MARCH, 4pm & 7.30pm

LIKE A BUTTERFLY

The Cockpit Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.co.uk

West End choreographer

Ryan Lee Seager transforms

John McHugh’s original script and score into a vibrant mix of boxing, dance and theatre, exploring the extraordinary life, in and out of the ring, of the man they called “the greatest”: heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali.

POP-UP

Consigned Sealed Delivered (CSD) – which begins with the belief that fast fashion is an environmental disaster and luxury fashion is too beautiful to go unused – sources and sells exceptional used designer clothes, bags and accessories, but applies the same standards of presentation and service you’d expect if they were new. The brand’s commitment to sustainability informs every aspect of its work, including carbon neutral shipping, non-toxic dry cleaning, and support for One Tree Planted’s tree planting mission. The Marylebone Lane pop-up is CSD’s first physical store.

CONSIGNED SEALED DELIVERED (CSD)

70-72 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2PQ csd.shop

MUSIC

28 MARCH, 7.30pm

ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC BAROQUE SOLOISTS: BACH AND THE GREENER GRASS

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Esteemed director and violinist Rachel Podger joins artists from the nearby conservatoire for an all-Bach programme, including works written exactly 100 years before the founding of the Academy in 1822.

EXHIBITION

UNTIL 30 MARCH

1821 VISIONS OF FREEDOM

The Hellenic Centre

16-18 Paddington Street, W1U 5AS helleniccenre.org

To mark the bicentenary of the start of the War of Independence, The Hellenic Centre presents 12 iconic lithographs of scenes from the conflict, which were commissioned and vividly captioned by one of its heroes, General Yannis Makriyannis.

EXHIBITION

9 MARCH – 8 APRIL

TEA STORIES jaggedart

28A Devonshire Street, W1G 6PS jaggedart.com

For this group exhibition themed around the soothing and very British topic of tea, jaggedart brings together a selection of photography by Peter Abrahams, works in ceramic and paper by Charlotte Hodes, ceramics and photography by Livia Marin, and ceramics by Paul Scott.

EXHIBITION

Japanese installation artist and sculptor

Tatsuo Miyajima, whose profoundly spiritual art explores Buddhist philosophy through technological installations, unveils three new bodies of work –Keep Changing (Mondrian), Painting of Change and Unstable Time – all of which use digits, in the form of LED lights, oils or gold leaf, to explore ideas of life, reincarnation, chance and flux.

UNTIL 9 APRIL

TATSUO MIYAJIMA: ART IN YOU Lisson Gallery

67 Lisson Street, NW1 5DA lissongallery.com

Food

The Marylebone Food Festival marks its highly welcome return after an enforced two-year hiatus. Visit the website for updates on dozens of culinary events taking place across the neighbourhood throughout the festival, which is organised and funded by The Howard de Walden Estate and The Portman Estate. Highlights include a gala dinner hosted by Jay Rayner, with each course cooked by a different chef from the area’s best restaurants.

26 APRIL – 1 MAY

MARYLEBONE FOOD FESTIVAL marylebonefoodfestival.com

EXHIBITION

UNTIL 9 APRIL PORTALS

Lisson Gallery

27 Bell Street, NW1 5BY lissongallery.com

The tie that binds the artists in this richly varied group exhibition is their use of the gallery space to open up an array of physical, meta-physical and metaphorical portals, offering passage to entirely speculative or abstract realities, new spatial possibilities and even paths through time.

EXHIBITION

6 APRIL – 16 OCTOBER

INSPIRING WALT DISNEY: THE ANIMATION OF FRENCH DECORATIVE ARTS

The Wallace Collection

Manchester Square, W1U 3BN wallacecollection.org

The Wallace’s latest blockbuster explores Walt Disney’s personal fascination with France, and how his studio’s illustrators have continued to look to 18thcentury French artworks for their source material. See feature, p12.

Nestled in the heart of the capital in Marylebone, our practice has been providing a wide range of specialist dental treatments and services for over 20 years. Over this time, we have developed and now we have every area of dentistry covered.

Thayer Street Dental Centre is the hub for highly talented and skilled dental specialists from across the UK. Whatever your dental needs, we’ve got you covered. We provide a range of services from routine check-ups and hygiene appointments to more complex treatments such as root canals, periodontal treatments, gum graft, oral surgery and dental implants. We also provide teeth straightening solutions such as Invisalign and cosmetic treatments like bonding, porcelain veneers and teeth whitening.

Here at Thayer Street, we pride ourselves on our exceptional and bespoke care. It’s our mission to ensure you feel relaxed, informed and in control throughout your patient journey. Our highly skilled team are dedicated towards helping you achieve a healthier, happier smile. We look forward to welcoming you to our practice.