Category Archives: Art

The Last Days of Liz Truss at White Bear Theatre

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When we first saw the title of this new play at the White Bear Theatre, we thought it rather odd as the end of Liz Truss seemed to overlap with the beginning. Nevertheless, we just visited the Bear’s latest offering and we’re here to tell you all about it. If you’ve never been to the White Bear Theatre, it’s been a Greater Kennington staple since the 80’s and focuses on new and cutting edge writing. 

The Last Days of Liz Truss is an origin story told from her own perspective, and beings with a jaunty twirl around her childhood in Scotland and Leeds and her battle to be called ‘Elizabeth’ as opposed to her given name of Mary. A similarity to Thatcher is invoked/contrasted in this period and underlined when Liz/Mary breaks into song with 80’s tunes such as ‘Material Girl’. We then speed through her early parliamentary career as a junior minister as she builds alliances with the likes of Kwasi and Therese Coffey (‘TC’). 

In the second half we encounter the Truss who we all remember, trying to rationalise cutting taxes as the establishment deep state (cunningly deployed by remote voices) urge her against this. Then come the pesky little realities which work mendaciously to tear her apart. For example, the Queen dying and pension plans. It’s not exactly a spoiler alert to tell you what happens to Liz/Mary after just 49 days. However, Liz readily deploys the use of a lettuce held aloft to symbolise her own downfall, in a manner not unlike Hamlet’s skull. Overall it’s a captivating and very well acted monologue with defined moments of dark humour.  

The Last Days of Liz Truss is on now and runs until 14 December at the White Bear Theatre Pub and tickets can be grabbed here.  While the theatre is situated within the White Bear Pub, it is independently owned and not part of the Youngs mega chain.  But the Bear has some lovely Christmas lights.

Mimi’s, now Nosh at Marcellos

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Nosh is one of those wonderfully overstuffed deli/sandwich joints that you really only get in London and New York, with every corner rammed with delicious looking oils, pastas, wines, and cheeses. Located at the top of Brixton Road, Nosh used to be Mimi’s Deli, best remembered  for the giant murals depicting women eating pasta and balancing boiling cups of espresso on their heads. After a brief period of renewal it has now been reimagined as Nosh at Marcello’s. Fear not, dear reader, as Marcello is Mimi’s brother and he has the same enthusiastic fervour for his products as did his sister.

As an Italian deli Nosh sells the usual items of antipasti, meats, cheeses, pastas, wines and coffee. However, Bettina from IT and your scribe came for the sandwiches. It was Bettina’s wish to consume her sandwich at work, but as we’re already struggling to get dust, crumbs and wine stains out of our keyboards she settled for the small yet delightful seating area at the back of Nosh. She had the Italian sausage with roasted peppers, Napoletana sauce and mozzarella. She commented on the generous amount of filling saying it had the flavour profile of a sausage ragu in panini form. It was rich, filling and had a lovely sundried tomato tone to it. 

Your scribe had a tuna melt in panini form which was so well dressed with parmigiana that we thought it had been dropped by accident. It was lightly grilled and served with a salad with balsamic glaze and Italian tomatoes. A lighter but no less filling feed than Bettina’s. At around £8 to £10 we thought it was good value considering that we live/work in central London and it’s independently owned. The café is adorned with some pleasing objet d’arts and is a prime spot for just a coffee or a tempting cannoli that you can inhale with one hand whilst gliding through Kennington Park. 

Nosh also has a tempting array of dried pastas and sauces, oils, breads and panettone that would work well as Christmas gifts. They would also act as suitable pressies for Runoff staff. Just DM us. 

Gasworks Gallery. Or is it a Mirage?

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When we take a needed break from our subterranean office beneath Kennington Cross we like to inspect the offerings at the never boring Gasworks Gallery in Oval. Previous exhibits have seen the space transformed into a gay cruising area, and another featured a giant Styrofoam coffin. The current show is called ‘Mirage’ and was created by Indonesian artist and filmmaker Riar Rizaldi.

The exhibit is composed of two film reels, and the first is Mirage – Eigenstate. It weaves together analogous investigations into the nature of reality, positioning western science as just one of many worldviews. The film then explores different interpretations of reality, from Sufi mysticism through to theories of quantum mechanics. We frankly have no idea what any of this means but the film is certainly nice to look at, with lots of Arabic fonts and words spinning around. 

The second film is called Mirage – Metanoia which is set in a kind of 1970’s Hanna-Barbera retro cosmic animation, where astronauts survive rocket crashes and pixie/cricket creatures wax philosophical about the presence of god in atoms, as you do. Again the artist visits Sufi metaphysics by means of a lady crawling out of a crater. Both films are presented in an immersive setting which includes a lovely Persian tiled floor and a wall mural based on the teachings of a Persian mystic. 

If this sounds like your kind of thing, and we really have no reason why it wouldn’t,  Gasworks are putting on a symposium called ‘Strangelet’ over the weekend of 16 – 17 November and tickets are available on their website. The press release describes the symposium as ‘a weekend of presentations, talks, screenings and performances that are categorised as gharib which means ‘weird or strange’ in Sufism (no, we didn’t know that off the top of our heads).

They are also hosting a much less strange sounding breakfast exhibition tour on 27 November and tickets for that on are their website

Riar Rizaldi – Mirage is on now until 22 December and is totally free. And they have a lovely, popup giftshop as well. 

War and the Mind

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When you wake up on a lazy Saturday the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t ‘ooh I think I’ll pop out for a quick exhibit about psychological warfare’. So we might need to deploy a rather cunning sales job to convince you see the latest offering at the best museum we bet you’ve never been to, the Imperial War Museum.

We unfortunately live in a time of polarising political opinions where people constantly feel as if they have a moral high ground. Convincing a majority to engage in war therefore requires the use psychology in order to achieve a consensus. War and the Mind begins with what is referred to as ‘the fallacy of the righteous cause’ which can delude people into believing that war is something virtuous. This also works the other way, which brings to mind protests against the Iraq war in 2003. 

The exhibit gets more personal as it progresses and delves into how psychological warfare is used to frighten and therefore weaken a population. This can be achieved by drones (more on that later), propaganda, rumours, gassing people, spying and cutting of essential services. And not to forget the psychological warfare perpetrated against soldiers in the field to demoralise them in the midst of terrifying situations. 

On a lighter note, in a war zone danger and disorientation can confound the brain. So near the end of the exhibit theres a rather hilarious illustration of how mind altering drugs such as LSD are used as a means to determine how soldiers remain focused when they are, frankly, off their face. Don’t miss the film where soldiers are laughing so hard they can’t pick up their rifles. Now there’s a way to end armed conflict! 

While this exhibit might not possess the unbridled fun of as scarfing down a pizza by the seaside, War and the Mind is on now until 25 April and is totally free. And (nerd alert!) for those of you who can’t get enough of the topic, from 7 November IWM will have en exhibit about the psychology of drone warfare. 

Greater Kennington Over the Years in Music Videos

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Over the years our ever changing manor has been captured in many ways, and one of those is by music videos. The videos below depict our space over span of almost 40 years.

For those of a certain age the first video is of course ‘Come on Eileen’ by Dexy’s Midnight Runners. Circa 1982, after the first minute the video is shot at the corner of Brook Drive and Hayles Street near Elephant and Castle. Note the kids playing by the still existing bomb damage, later replaced by mid 80’s housing. The cornershop featured sadly didn’t survive the pandemic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BODDyZRF6

Our second video is ‘Marks to Prove It’ by the sadly defunct band Maccabees and depicts an Elephant and Castle in 2015 which was already in a confusing and quite bewildering stage of redevelopment. We must admit to a slight bias in this case as we’ve seen these boys at Glastonbury, but is very unlike us to brag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kt3aN6Ey8w

Our final video ‘Anakin’ from the grime artist Blanco and was shot in the Kennington Estate close to Oval in 2020. Note the shops in Kennington Park Road. The three videos are testament to our dynamic and ever changing environment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snLsL9nz1Dk

The Lambeth Fringe 2024

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Frequent readers are aware that we make recommendations to travel outside Greater Kennington very rarely and do so with a profound amount of caveats. However, we’ve recently stumbled upon something that is both entertaining, localish, and supports up and coming independent creative types. 

The Clapham Fringe has been running for eight years and, based on its success, earlier this year they made a decision to expand its borders and rebrand it as The Lambeth Fringe. The spiritual home of the Lambeth Fringe is the Bread and Roses Theatre pub in Clapham North. However, with the expansion to over 150 shows, the venues now include a church, a bookshop, and a film school, in addition to purpose built theatres in Waterloo, Clapham, Norwood, and other Lambeth areas. The one local venue is a series of shorts being shown at the best museum we bet you’ve never been to, the Cinema Museum.  

Some of the writing at the Fringe is new, some adapted from Edinburgh Fringe shows, and others making the tour of fringe festivals.   In the mix at Lambeth are traditional plays, standup, drag, storytelling and music. We challenge you to take a punt on a show or two and you might be pleasantly surprised. Of course you might walk out thinking ‘what the hell was THAT’, but that’s half the fun. Anyone care joining us for Guru Dave’s Cosmic Shamanic Tantric Ego Trip?

The Lambeth Fringe is on now until 20 October. Explore the programme, including Guru Dave,  here. And you better act quick, as those Runoff wannabies Time Out are on to it! 

The School of Historical Dress

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If you’ve never heard of the School of Historical Dress across from the Imperial War Museum then you’re in very good company. It’s very rarely open to the public but we were able to tour the building during London Open House weekend, and over the next few weeks they have a petite, pop up exhibit that will allow you to see a portion of it as well. 

The School is not for profit and operates as both a school and a resource for textile professionals to research how garments were made. They also publish books about the history, cut and construction of garments through the years and have a database of books (lots of them) and material/outfits accumulated over the years. We’ve also accumulated a huge amount of old outfits over the years, but this relates more to the fact that the management at the Runoff pay us in vapour and we can’t buy anything new. But we digress. 

Over the past few years the School has had small, one room exhibits dedicated to colour and until 13 October the exhibited colour is red. On display are vestments, undergarments, and small maquettes which at first we thought were dog outfits but are in fact studies for larger pieces. Included in this exhibit is Jude Law’s Henry VIII outfit which they created for the very current film Firebrand. If one of the volunteers is present they can detail how the fitting was undertaken and the research required to create the garment. 

The building that houses the School is as interesting as the edifice across the road from it. Built in 1841, it was originally the medical dispensary for the Royal Bethlem Psychiatric hospital (from where we get the name ‘Bedlam’), which is now the Imperial War Museum. Latterly it was utilised as a home for shell shocked men after WW1, a canteen for doctors, and until 2016 a residential facility for adolescents. Staff at the School are very proud of their digs, and on our tour proclaimed that the reason the building is a form of gray is that this is how all of the buildings of the time would have originally looked,  the ‘Dulux White’ colour of other homes in the terrace being a 20th century conceit. We have put this in the ‘who knew’ filing cabinet at Runoff towers.  

If you want to attend one of the periodic events held at the School, follow them on Instagram or join their mailing list at info@theschoolofhistoricaldress.org.uk. The little show is open Friday from 4pm to 8pm and Saturday/Sunday from 1pm to 5pm

Free Culture Week 3 – Open House London 2024

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It’s that time of year again and one of our favourite activities here at the Runoff…..sticking our noses where they don’t belong! From this weekend (14-15 September) to next weekend (21 and 22 September) is the Open House London Festival, celebrating London’s housing, architecture and neighbourhoods by flinging open doors and streets not usually open to the public. We have a few suggestion for you and they are all FREE, and we love free. 

Most Open House venues have friendly staff on hand to tell you more about what you’re seeing and there are often things to read. If you look on the website you’ll see some local bookable things, but we’re afraid you’ve missed the boat on those babies. The localish venues listed below are open to the public on specific dates, so look at opening times. However, if you possess the audacious gaul to travel out of Greater Kennington you might find there are hundreds more free things to stick your head into around the capital. But we couldn’t possibly encourage that kind of behaviour.

London Fire Brigade Memorial Hall Vauxhall (we’ve been, recommended)

St. Paul’s, Walworth Walworth (we’ve been, recommended, pic above)

Florence Nightingale Museum – Waterloo (usually not free but it is for Open House)

Anderson WW2 Bomb Shelter – Oval

The Beaufoy (Diamond Way Buddhist Centre) – Vauxhall (we’ve been, recommended, pic below)

St. Giles Parish Church – Camberwell

Southwark Heritage Centre and Library – Walworth (we’ve been, recommended)

Beaufoy Institute

Free Culture Week 1 – Covi-Mora and Greengrassi Galleries

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In the first instalment of our three part free culture crawl around Greater Kennington, we find ourselves in the highly acclaimed yet little known Covi-Mora and Greengrassi galleries,  located incongruously in a kind of alley behind the towers of the Hurley Estate. Commercial galleries can sometimes seems a daunting to normal folk such as us, but rest assured these galleries not only want you to visit but require it to stay afloat. And by looking at the many staff on hand scrolling through their DM’s, they welcome the diversion that your custom and mere presence offers. 

Covi-Mora is located on the second floor are currently showing work by American artist Myra Green.  The show is called A New Pattern, and she explores the way we perceive colour by the use of the ombre dye found in fabric. The results in these round works are captivating and create figures out of what look like random splashes.

Downstairs in Greengrassi we come across the work Irish born and London based artist Anne Ryan. On the right are ceramics which look at first like random pieces of discarded and painted pottery but on closer inspection morph into mass heaps of humanity. On the left are small canvases which look as if they were ripped out of larger, French genre paintings. Everything from a carriage and horses to strolling soldiers are depicted in her miniatures. 

The galleries also operate a pop up gallery called ‘NEITHER’ at 2 Wincott Parade in Kennington Road. It is currently showing works by artist Anika Roach. Access to this site is by arrangement but as it’s in a shop front you can just see the paintings on your way home from the pub. 

Covi-Mora and Greengassi galleries are located at at 1A Kempsford Road SE11 4NU. The entrance looks not unlike the doors to a prison or a sex dungeon (not that we’d know), but once buzzed through the staff are very merry and helpful folk. The three gallery spaces are showing the current exhibits until the first week of October. 

On the Trail of William Blake

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Some of us are lucky enough to spend at least a portion of our week working from home. If you’re anything like us (and you are, trust us) you might be a bit fed up with the same circuitous lunchtime walk around Greater Kennington. Well the other week we were able to squeeze a little time between sending endless faxes and stapling, and we discovered a little surprise that that could be a stimulating lunchtime destination for you. If hanging out under railway arches is your thing. 

William Blake was a true Renaissance man of late 18th century London, and spent his most creative and expressive years (1790 – 1800) living in Hercules Road in Lambeth North. A visionary poet, printmaker and painter, Blake was undoubtedly a genius and is now considered a titan of poetry. But in his day he was misunderstood, ridiculed, and criticized as a menace to society. So a bit like the staff here at the Runoff. 

Of his many great visual works produced in Greater Kennington, the best known is probably ‘Newton’ (below), depicting Issac Newton with an outstretched hand holding a compass. This work was a favourite of Eduardo Paolozzi who immortalised it in bronze, and now sits mightily in the forecourt of the British Library. Some of Blake’s best known illustrations have been recreated in mosaic tiles and now decorate a railway arch that leads off of Hercules Road. Together they create the sort of urban derelict atmosphere that Blake himself was drawn to, and are well worth a lunchtime wander. 

Some of Blake’s most vivid poems of this time celebrate the rural idyll of what is now Lambeth North.  In his words from ‘Jerusalem’ “We builded Jerusalem as a City & a Temple; from Lambeth We begin our Foundations: lovely Lambeth”. However, by the end of the 18th century times were a changin’ and factories began to occupy the green and pristine land around Hercules Road. Blake took his fertile brain and never returned.  The great man’s spirit lives on in the William Blake Estate and in this suitably eerie picture of his home, which was pulled down in 1917. More info on the route here.