The panel discussed:
Master And Commander
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... there was
not an awful lot of substance.
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Russell Crowe teams up with a star Australian director Peter Weir, who made The Truman Show and Picnic at Hanging Rock, in the naval adventure Master and Commander based on the naval novels of Patrick O'Brian.
Crowe is Captain Jack Aubrey commanding an English war-ship during the Napoleonic wars on a revenge mission against a French ship, the Acheron, which has damaged them in a surprise attack.
Master And Commander opened around the UK 28 November.
Mourning Becomes Electra
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I felt amazingly lucky, only the National Theatre is going to put this on.
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American culture has always had a basic interest in Greek tragedy. But the themes of the plays staged in Greece 2500 years ago were explored at a rather deeper level in one of the greatest American plays of the 20th century: Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra in which the tragedy of the House of Atreus is moved to Connecticut during the American Civil War.
The first major London production for 35 years opened this week at the National Theatre starring Helen Mirren and Tim Pigott-Smith.
The family's story - of murder, jealousy, incest and madness - remains familiar. But - where the Greek dramatists showed the gods controlling events - O'Neill - an Irish-American who came from a family afflicted with alcoholism and insanity - offers a more modern version of the idea of being cursed: through genetic inheritance and the guilt handed down through generations.
Mourning Becomes Electra continues at the National Theatre.
After Miss Julie
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We got a very fun 90 minutes in the theatre, but we didn't get Miss Julie.
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Miss Julie was Strindberg's classic of sex and class in 19th century Sweden.
After Miss Julie is written by Patrick Marber - author of the award-winning Closer and Dealer's Choice - and stars Helen Baxendale from Cold Feet and Richard Coyle from Coupling.
Strindberg's original was banned in Scandinavia in 1889 because its depiction of working-class resentment and female sexuality was thought too explosive for the bourgeoisie. Those themes don't shock now but the events of one night in a kitchen - as the lady of the house comes below to flirt with the chauffeur - still retain an erotic claustrophobia and danger.
After Miss Julie continues at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London.
Martin Johnson
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This is cliché upon banality.
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The publication - only six days after England won the Rugby World Cup - of the memoirs of team captain Martin Johnson raises interesting questions about fast-speed publishing and whether sporting excitement and brilliance can be captured in words.
And - as the International Rugby authorities are charging £6,500 per minute for footage of England¹s victory - this book may be most people's best chance of reliving the victory.
Martin Johnson the autobiography was published 28 November.
On the panel were:
Newsnight Review, BBC Two's weekly cultural round-up, follows Newsnight on Friday evenings at 2300 GMT.
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