#magical-realism

#magical-realism

The Royal Ballet opened its 2025/26 season with the first revival of Christopher Wheeldon's 2022 Like Water for Chocolate; and as season openers go, I can't think of many ballets that would offer an audience more bang for their buck. Bob Crowley's stunning, atmospheric designs, Joby Talbot's sweeping, narrative musical score, magical cookery recipes, rampaging revolutionaries, a vengeful ghost, and an extraordinary coup de theatre finale, all framing a life-long forbidden love affair, plunge the audience into a colourful, exotic, sunlit universe

Ursula K Le Guin had her Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction; I have my comfy cardigan theory. What Le Guin proposed is that human culture, novels included, didn't begin with technologies of harm, such as flints and spears, but with items of collection and care, such as the wicker basket or, nowadays, the carrier bag. And so, if we make them that way, novels can be gatherings rather than battles.

Kinga, the protagonist in "A New New Me," is a forty-year-old corporate employee who struggles with the grind of everyday life, facing exhaustion and self-optimizing pressures.

"South of Midnight is visually stunning and boasts a captivating soundtrack, but its gameplay ultimately feels lacking, resembling a beautifully presented dish that disappoints in flavor."

Roberts' painting, titled Metropolis, takes inspiration from Dix's triptych, yet approaches socio-political critiques with a lighter touch, focusing on human interaction.