Plastic Bag Awards 2021

2021 has been an odd year, yet again, and continues to be so. Between official lockdowns and self-imposed lockdowns when the government wasn't doing its prime objective of protecting its citizens, I managed to get out and see and do some things over the year. The categories are, again, abbreviated to make sure there are enough contenders to make it worthwhile convening the judging panel, but here they are, the Baggies of 2021! 

Best Theatre (Drama and Dance)

I only saw one drama this year but several dance productions. The nominees are:

'The Normal Heart' @ The National Theatre
'Romeo & Juliet' @ The Royal Opera House
'The Midnight Bell' @ Sadler's Wells
'L'Heure Exquise' @ The Linbury at the Royal Opera House
'Curated by Carlos' @ Sadler's Wells

'The Normal Heart' was the only play I saw this year and, while it's an important work, it's not a great drama. It was wonderful to see Alessandra Ferri dance twice over the autumn, especially dance with Carlos Acosta, I also saw the ballet that made me fall in love with the art form with my original Romeo, Steven McRae on his return to the stage after his injury. But the dance work that made me sit up and pay attention was the new work from Matthew Bourne, 'The Midnight Bell', telling stories of the seedy side of Soho between the wars. I'm looking forward to seeing it again one day.

The winner is 'The Midnight Bell' by Matthew Bourne at Sadler's Wells.

Best Exhibition

I managed to see a few good exhibitions over the summer and autumn, with all major galleries open and the Courtauld finally re-opened after a three-year restoration project in November (and it's looking good). The nominees are:

'The Making of Rodin' @ Tate Modern
'Sensing the Unseen' @ The National Gallery
'Sophie Taeuber-Arp' @ Tate Modern
'Poussin and the Dance' @ The National Gallery
'Durer's Journeys' @ The National Gallery

There have been some great exhibitions this year that gallery curators will have been working on for several years but fewer people than expected will have seen them due to the plague. That's unfortunate but those of us lucky enough to see them are very grateful.

Who knew that Rodin made naked models of his works to get the musculature and stance right before adding clothes? Who guessed that Durer made sketches from his travels around Europe to incorporate into his paintings? There's a lot to learn from exhibitions. I didn't expect to like the Poussin exhibition but I did, seeing his graceful paintings of dancers and it was a joy to discover Sophie Taeuber-Arp, a colour master I'd never heard of. 

But the Baggie goes to 'Sensing the Unseen' at the National Gallery, a digital and interactive exploration of Jan Gossaert's 'Adoration of the Kings'. Not only was this a great painting to explore but it was perfect for this experimental exhibition of different ways of looking at it, one of my favourite paintings in the collection.

Best Installation

This year I've split off installations from exhibitions since they are, essentially, different things, different ways of experiencing art. The nominees are:

'Rupture No 1: blowtorching the bitten peach' by Heather Phillipson @ Tate Britain
'Infinity Mirror Rooms' by Yayoi Kusama @ Tate Modern
'Forest for Change' @ Somerset House
'In Love With The World' by Anicka Yi @ Tate Modern

This has been a fine year for installations in London and I admit to wanting a holiday cottage in Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms. I loved the 'Forest' in the stone courtyard of Somerset House and I want to adopt one of the alien creatures floating round the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, but the winner is Heather Phillipson at Tate Britain.

This is a fabulous installation that should be called 'The Great All-Seeing God of a Thousand Eyes' and I can't help but gawp at it as I walk through and experience it. It's a sound and vision experience and occupies the central galleries of the Tate. It's fabulous.

Best Face Mask

The pandemic went on from 2020 into 2021 and more places started selling masks since the need continued. Cressida Bell produced a 'Fireworks' mask and the V&A Museum produced different William Morris designed masks (I bought a green one), but the award goes to the Tate that produced a fabulous mask based on the 'Punjabi Rockers' work by Chila Kumari Singh Burman. I bought two.  

And that's it, the reduced Plastic Bag Awards for 2021. Here's hoping we can get closer to normal next year. 

Matthew Bourne's 'The Midnight Bell' at Sadler's Wells

After over a year and a half I ventured back to a theatre to see Matthew Bourne's new dance work, 'The Midnight Bell' at Sadler's Wells. I've not read any of the Patrick Hamilton books this work is based around so I had no idea what to expect but a New Adventures production is always worth a look.

It's a glimpse into the lives of some of the denizens of Soho who frequent the pub, The Midnight Bell. The barmaid loves the barman but he's in love with the local prostitute, their regulars include the spinster and the gigolo, the rich bitch who plays with the madman but isn't really interested in him at all and then we have the gay lovers who happen upon one another in the pub one night. They dance their stories, tales of romance and sex, their hopes and dreams, of cheap hotels and sex in the park, all set in the years between the wars when the world was different but also the same. One of the gay lovers turns out to be a policeman but is this entrapment or something more? You'll have to see it to find the answer to that one.

The characters all seem to have sad little lives, slowly drinking their lives away while their passions boil under the surface but one character does seem to have a happier life. He is the sailor barman who opens the show singing (miming to an old song) of love and we follow his story along with the others and, in the end, he moves on, heading back to sea and more adventures. The rest are still there, drinking in the pub while he escapes. A brief moment of hope amid the smoke-clogged and beer-fumed atmosphere of the pub. 

I think that's what I really liked about this production, all the stories going on at the same time, sometimes literally at the same time in different parts of the stage. Life is a bit grim and dreary in the gloom of a London night with odd street signs providing the light and, of course, we know they've been through one war and are about to head into another one, all a bit sleazy and down at heel but there are moments of hope. Like when the spinster strips the gigolo to his underwear, ties him up and leaves him in the cheap hotel room - she's seen him for what he is at last. And when the sailor heads back to sea with a smile on his face, looking forward to new adventures.

I particularly enjoyed Michela Meazza dancing Miss Roach, the spinster, who I've seen before as the Queen in 'Swan Lake', and Netta Longdon as the rich bitch who ends up... or does she? George Harvey Bone was great as the madman and I really liked Liam Mower as the West End chorus boy. I also really liked Paris Fitzpatrick as the barman who bookends the show as he goes back to sea looking for hope and love. 

I'm very pleased that it was this production that got me back into a theatre after all this pandemic time and, for that, it'll have a special place in my theatrical memories. Thank you Sir Matthew!