Arts writer
Get your culture fix this weekend at Cinema Nouveau at the V&A Waterfront and Cavendish as they screen The Last of the Hausmanns from today and L’Elisir D’Amore from tomorrow.
Julie Walters plays Judy Haussman, with Rory Kinnear and Helen McCrory as her children, in the National Theatre’s staging of The Last of the Hausmanns. The play, directed by Howard Davies, is a touching, sometimes savage portrait of a family that’s losing its grip.
Anarchic, feisty but growing old, high society dropout Judy keeps up the spirit with the ashrams of the 1960s while holding court in her dilapidated art deco house on the Devon coast. After an operation she’s joined by wayward offspring Nick and Libby, sharp-eyed granddaughter Summer, local doctor Peter and Daniel, a troubled teenager who makes use of the family’s crumbling swimming pool. Together they share a few sweltering months in this chaotic world of all-day drinking, infatuations, long-held resentments, free love and failure.
Versatile British actor Walters has won Bafta, Golden Globe and Olivier awards for her work. Her screen credits range from Educating Rita and Mamma Mia! to Harry Potter. Kinnear recently won the Evening Standard award for best actor for his performance as Hamlet at the National Theatre. McCrory’s acclaimed work includes the films The Queen and Hugo.
Bartlett Sher’s new production of Donizetti’s opera L’Elisir D’Amore features Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani as the fickle Adina and her besotted Nemorino. Mariusz Kwiecien is the blustery sergeant Belcore and Ambrogio Maestri is Dulcamara, the loveable quack and dispenser of the elixir. Maurizio Benini conducts.
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