Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

Spectator Play: The highs and the lows of what’s going on in arts this week | 14 June 2013

Sir Alfred Munnings lived his life in true bohemian style, ‘carousing with gypsies and horse-trainers, living rough and constantly on the road’. Summer in February is based on his early life living in Cornwall, with Munnings played by Dominic Cooper: ‘Irrepressible as an electric eel, and twice as dangerous’. But does the film live up to Munnings’ art – and, of course, to the hype? The problem with films about artists is, says Andrew Lambirth, the art. But Summer in February is ‘as vivid and visually complex as a Munnings masterpiece’ – in fact, almost as good as the book.

Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude, on at the Lyttleton, has been cut down from 5 to just 3 and a half hours – but even that seems a bit long for a play where not much happens for the first hour.

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