In his short film Shards, William Kentridge rummages through a haphazard stack of papers in the studio, clasping odd scraps to his ears and listening intently, for each of them plays a different tune. It’s an apt choice to feature on the playbill of Paper Music, a cine-concert by the South African artist and his longstanding collaborator, the composer Philip Miller, which is in London for one week only (until 14 October). In a throwback to the days of silent cinema, Kentridge’s animations are accompanied on stage by the pianist Vincenzo Pasquariello and virtuoso vocalists Ann Masina and Joanna Dudley, who imitate ticking metronomes and screeching house alarms to uncanny effect in paper skirts. The production—supported by Marian Goodman Gallery—has found a perfect foil in Notting Hill’s Print Room theatre, the old Coronet cinema, whose red and gilt hall weathered the transition to talkies back in the 30s.
