(images shot at The Barbican Theatre by Malcolm Crowthers)

If you think you know your Shakespeare, then Forests by award winning Catalan director Calixto Bieito is your ultimate brainteaser, for it is made entirely from bits of Shakespeare that will keep you busy play-and-sonnet-spotting to the end while delighting, shocking, and moving you along the way, as does all great theatre. It was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and BIT for the World Shakespeare Festival, and produced by the RSC for London 2012 Festival. It is brilliantly directed, designed and rivetingly acted with superb performances by the international cast, led by famous Catalan Shakespearean actors Josep Maria Pou and Roser Cami. Let there be no bones about it, this is Great Theatre, compelling and challenging, full of invention and surprises, with all the sexual passion, cross dressing, betrayal, murder and death you could wish for in the forest where behaviour has its brakes off. It is a homage from one dramatic master to another, with Shakespeare in his heart. It is modern in style and imagery, a play on playing and players played on a stark white set of the last bare burnt tree on earth in an icy waste by designer Rebecca Ringst. It's logic is musical, not narrative, its mood swings vividly underpinned with live music by composer-performer Maika Makovski who sings her own tear-jerking Shakespeare songs to guitar and does not deserve to get murdered, too strong a moment for one lady who walked out! But all make-believe, with many unforgettable stage images, none more memorable than the extraordinary moment Katey Stephens turns into a man for her lover Christopher Simpson who turns into a woman with legs to die for, stepping forward as a fleeting vision both of the beautiful young actor Shakespeare loved, the Mr. W.H. of the Sonnets, and the Dark Lady who came between them. Spoken half in deliciously growly cello Catalan, you can follow the entire text in English on surtitles throughout. Don't miss it or you'll have to catch it in Barcelona in January.

(5 images above)
We believe in the kind of architecture that communicates feelings, triggers memories and provokes emotions. We are always inspired by people and the different types of love relationships they experience: be it parental, romantic or compassion. People are usually at the heart of our design. When we look at our society and see how far we have advanced with technology and then see how we treat each other it causes us to stop and think. This project was born out of one such moment. Time moves so quickly and we were aware that the survivors of The Holocaust will not be with us forever and we were moved by this thought to create something that will remain and help us to remember. This is a speculative design of a memorial for people touched by The Holocaust. While we do not wish to dictate how the audience should interpret it, each person will see two high walls rising in the middle of a platform facing a sea, the walls are converging on plan, pointing towards the East. Three million names of the victims are engraved upon one of the walls, while the other one is left totally blank, deliberately done to remember the names never recorded. The sea is also a metaphor, in some ways it is a consoling friend absorbing all the inexplicable pain of this collective tragedy. The rest of the images we leave to the individual to interpret, in particular the massive mural "tattooed" on the floor, depicting a young lady and two children with their elongated bodies, standing in the middle of a graveyard. In our research, we hoped to understand the nature of man and the link to suffering. While all our questions are yet to be answered, we have gleaned that a lot of this can stem from a sense of insecurity, which can fuel envy and hatred. Equally disastrous is the apathetic and callous nature we sometimes display, in which self-interest manifests. Through all of this we also saw a people of resilience and strength. www.spheronarchitects.co.uk

filmed by JEJ for FACADES

The first of the pieces could have summed up the collection: bifurcated, washed-out and muted.  The jumpsuits were the clear standouts, especially the few that were in full length.  The palette in old rose, mocha, grey and yellow were lovely to behold.  The frocks paled in comparison to the graceful long dresses and the undulating pants and graceful jumpsuits.  I would have preferred a clearer statement.

filmed by JEJ for FACADES

The Vauxhall Fashion Scout Shows at the revered Free Masons' Hall were where we sprinted from the Somerset House to catch the collections of London's most promising.  The venue boasted the brave, new world of London talent.  This collection was certainly new but far from brave.  If this is the worst of what it offered, we certainly look forward to what it has in store for the future.  Watch and see for yourself.