MARIA DUARTE, LEO BOIX and ANGUS REID review Brides, Dead of Winter, A Night Like This, and The Librarians
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Churchy vibe
WILL STONE is seduced by the chance encounter of a DJ and a Baroque composer in a brutalist entertainment zone
SIT-DOWN RAVE: Max Cooper gets up close and personal with the Baroque
[Michal Augustini ] ![REBELS: Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar in Nadia Fall’s powerful debut feature Brides [Pic: IMDb]](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2025-09/round%20up%20web_0.jpg.webp?itok=41xI6jhN)
MARY CONWAY recommends an early Shakespearean tragedy that feels so contemporary that it mirrors our daily news
A ghost story by Mexican Ave Barrera, a Surrealist poetry collection by Peruvian Cesar Moro, and a manifesto-poem on women’s labour and capitalist havoc by Peruvian Valeria Roman Marroquin
DAVID NICHOLSON recommends a dazzling production of Bernstein’s opera set in a world where chaos and violence are greeted by equanimity
MARY CONWAY is frustrated by a new play that loses its drama amid the moral dilemma of re-settling children in the aftermath of WWII
Acclaimed as a masterpiece when it premiered, this study of story-telling in an Irish pub more than lives up to expectations, says MARY CONWAY
SYLVIA HIKINS relishes a comedy that dives deep into Liverpool’s divided loyalties
Max Cooper presents Seme
Barbican
ACCLAIMED electronic artist Max Cooper, the nonpareil of audio-visual DJs, performs the UK premiere of new work Seme, his most classically influenced project yet.
Inspired by the rich tapestry of Italian culture, its art, architecture, music and religion, the show was considered highbrow enough to receive its world premiere at Austria’s prestigious Salzburg Easter Festival of opera and classical music. Cooper said ahead of the event: “I feel like a bedroom DJ has smuggled themselves into high classical culture.”
But Seme is no mere DJ set. Joined onstage by soprano Kim Sheehan, cellist Niels Orens and pianist Tom Hodge, a churchy vibe is evoked with the plaintive Palestrina Sicut and Gabriel; a harmonious marriage of electronica and traditional music inspired by the late Renaissance Italian composer.
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