Natascha McElhone: 'Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival was intoxicating'

The actress gives her top cultural picks

Actress Natascha McElhone (Press handout)

Dance

I went to the Flamenco Festival London at Sadler’s Wells. Aside from the thrill of the dance – an impossible juxtaposition of sharp militaristic feet and sensual swirling hips – it was actually the lighting that blew me away, silhouetting all the dancers, amplifying their moves but shrouding them in a kind of mystery... ahhhh and the guitars, it was all so intoxicating.

Books

I'm currently reading Sadie Jones' Fallout, it’s even better than The Outcast. I have also just finished some short stories by Stefan Zweig one of which “Letter From an Unknown Woman” is a chilling valedictory letter from a woman, who is about to end her life, to the person she has been in love with her whole life (unbeknownst to him).

Visual Arts

I like Melita Denaro at London’s John Martin Gallery – she is poetry in paint. I also took my boys to Martin Creed’s balloon room at Hayward Gallery a few weeks ago. There was the piece of Blu-tack stuck on the wall outside with a worthy description underneath. My five-year-old told onlookers: “I can do that everywhere you don’t need come to a ‘exblabition’ just come to see my house...”

Music

Agnes Obel – mellifluous voice, beautiful lyrics and soulful piano. My friend Nitin Sawhney – also a wonderful musician – introduced me to her music.

Natascha McElhone stars in ‘Fatal Attraction’, Theatre Royal Haymarket, London SW1 (www.trh.co.uk) until 21 June