Blu-ray: The Small Back Room

★★★★ BLU-RAY: THE SMALL BACK ROOM Powell and Pressburger’s Blitz noir

An alcoholic Englishman as unexploded bomb, in Powell and Pressburger’s Blitz noir

Powell and Pressburger’s least remembered Forties film is shrouded in Blitz darkness, deepening in the warped flat where alcoholic weapons expert Sammy (David Farrar) stares at a whisky bottle as if it’s a bomb. Following the vivid English fantasias of A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948), The Small Back Room turned to haunted psychological and social realism, veined with tension, humour and bleak beauty.

Miss Julie, Park Theatre review - Strindberg's kitchen drama still packs a punch

 MISS JULIE, PARK THEATRE A traditional staging fuelled by electric leads

Much adapted play gets a traditional staging fuelled by electric leads

You have to tiptoe around the edge of the set just to take your seat in the Park’s studio space for Lidless Theatre’s Miss Julie. There’s a plain wooden table, a few utensils on it, wooden chairs and a small cabinet – not much, but, we’re smack inside this 19th century country house kitchen, uncomfortably close to discomfiting passions. It may be the longest day outside, but we're in a dark, claustrophobic space in more senses than one.

St Martin's Voices, Earis, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - music from the beginning

★★★★ ST MARTIN'S VOICES, EARIS, ST MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS Music from the beginning

Young singers explore traditional and more unusual settings of biblical creation narratives

The concert offering at St-Martin-in-the-Fields has transformed in recent years, under Director of Music Andrew Earis. There is still a decent amount of “Four Season by Candlelight” but this tourist-bait now sits alongside some brilliant programming featuring choirs like Tenebrae, Ex Cathedra and the Monteverdi Choir.

The Harmony Test, Hampstead Theatre review - pregnancy and parenthood

★★★ THE HARMONY TEST, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE Pregnancy and parenthood

Taboo-tickling comedy about both conceiving a baby and life as empty nesters

“Welcome to motherhood, bitch!” By the time a character delivers this reality check, there have been plenty of laughs, and some much more awkward moments, in Richard Molloy’s The Harmony Test, which premieres in the Hampstead Theatre’s Downstairs studio space.

Bluets, Royal Court review - more grey than ultramarine

★★ BLUETS, ROYAL COURT Katie Mitchell’s staging is neither original nor beautiful

Katie Mitchell’s staging of Maggie Nelson’s bestseller is neither original nor beautiful

When does creativity become mannered? When it’s based on repetition, and repetition without development. About halfway through star director Katie Mitchell’s staging of Margaret Perry’s adaptation of Maggie Nelson’s Bluets – despite the casting of the always watchable Ben Whishaw – I had the horrible feeling that this 80-minute show was on repeat. Moody words, repeat, moody visuals, repeat, moody mood, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920, Tate Britain review - a triumph

★★★★ NOW YOU SEE US: WOMEN ARTISTS IN BRITAIN 1520-1920, TATE BRITAIN 100 women artists prove just how good they can be 

Rescued from obscurity, 100 women artists prove just how good they can be

Tate Britain’s Now You See Us could be the most important exhibition you’ll ever see. Spanning 400 hundred years, this overview of women artists in Britain destroys the myth that female talent is an exotic anomaly.

Sphinx Organization, Wigmore Hall review - black performers and composers take centre stage

★★★★ SPHINX ORGANIZATION, WIGMORE HALL Black performers, composers centre stage

A welcome spotlight on diversified repertoire, played with sincerity and humour

Kudos to the Wigmore Hall for continuing to make efforts to diversify its roster of performers and repertoire. Last year I reviewed the Kaleidoscope Collective, and noted how the different profile of their players attracted a younger and less universally white audience to the hall, and the same happened again last night when the American Sphinx Organization were given the stage.

Kolesnikov, Wigmore Hall review - celestial navigation through a cabinet of wonders

★★★★★ PAVEL KOLESNIKOV, WIGMORE HALL Quirky but brilliant programme finds connections

Quirky but brilliant programme finds connections between unlikely bedfellows

Like his baggy white suit, pitched somewhere between Liberace and Colonel Sanders, Pavel Kolesnikov’s playing was spotless at the Wigmore Hall last night. It comprised two very different halves, the first a miscellany of apparently unrelated pieces, the second devoted to a single set of pieces by a single composer. Both parts worked wonderfully, and made a very satisfying whole, the overlong Philip Glass encore the only misjudgement of the evening.

Bermondsey Tales: Fall of the Roman Empire review - dirty deeds done dirt cheap

★★★ BERMONDSEY TALES: FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE Dirty deeds done dirt cheap

Michael Head's gangland drama is a bit of a dog's breakfast

What with the likes of Sexy Beast, Layer Cake, The Hatton Garden Job and the oeuvre of Guy Ritchie, the British gangster movie has become its own quaint little genre, a bit like an offshoot of the Ealing comedy with added thuggery, swearing and arcane London patois.

Dunedin Consort, Mulroy, Wigmore Hall review - songs of love old and new

★★★★ DUNEDIN CONSORT, MULROY, WIGMORE HALL Songs of love old and new

First-rate chamber choir explore contemporary and Renaissance approaches to amour

The sixteen voices of the Dunedin Consort raided the large store of music inspired by the Song of Songs and the sonnets of Petrarch in a sensual programme at the Wigmore Hall last night. Combining the very old and the very new it offered a range of perspectives on texts that have attracted composers over centuries, and showed off the ensemble as one of the best in the business.