Albrecht Durer -drawings and prints at the courtauld

Albrecht Durer,familiar to us all in his key identifying self portrait of 1500, is presented in his "early years"in the new pocket sized exhibition at the Courtauld.  Specifically the pictures and prints are from the years between the end of his apprenticeship and    the year he settled back again in Nuremberg. They represent the years when he was a "journeyman" literally travelling around Germany and heading down towards Italy, effectively they are his "exploration years" not only geographically but also artistically as he worked out what kind of artist he would like to be and what themes he would explore again and again. 

Highlights of the exhibition include his line drawing of the wise Virgins, which can be compared to the series of wise and foolish virgins carried out by durer' sown master, and a couple of self portraits including one from his teenage years where he conveys not only his struggles with the technique of self portraiture but also highlights his melancholy nature. This should be compared to his melancholia I print which hangs nearby. My personal favourite though is his sketch of his wife Agnes which is simple quick and tender, not overly sentimentalised or idealised but nevertheless full of affection in its spare form. 

Once a catholic at the tricycle

Last night I continued my new found love affair with the tricycle theatre. Lucky lucky north Londoners to have such excellent quality on their doorsteps. 

So "once a catholic" when it first came out was seen as a shocking indictment of the Catholic Church particularly the unsympathetic and stereotyped treatment of catholic schoolgirls in schools run by narrow minded nuns. Of course since then the Catholic Church has been rocked by a series of scandals which aren't addressed here. Inevitably given its 1957 setting the play feels dated in the issues it is concerned with (the adolescent pre-full adulthood of the schoolgirls and their interactions with the nuns (struggling with a world of teddy boys and premarital sex). More than anything else it's a nostalgic piece addressing the issues of a generation gap. 

One of the big draws for this production is its director, Kathy Burke, and she doesn't disappoint. Although she herself doesn't appear, her choice of Molly Logan as Mary Moonie the innocent and put upon main protagonist echoes so many of Burke's own stage and screen creations that you can't help but assume that this character had special resonance for the director. 

All in all it's a strong cast with engaging performances teetering on the correct side of parody though I'd like to give special mention to  Cecilia Noble as Mother Peter and Calum callaghan's bemused teddy boy  Derek.