MIK SABIERS savours the first headline solo show of the stalwart of Brighton’s indie-punk outfit Blood Red Shoes
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2021 Round-up with Gordon Parsons
On stage the intriguing Splinter of Ice, eccentricity of Wuthering Heights and a revival of the Living Newspaper tradition absorbed just as much as the graphic novel The Dancing Plague, Ariel Dorfman’s The Compensation Bureau or Mario Vargas Llosa’s Harsh Times
UTTERLY ABSORBING: Oliver Ford Davies (Graham Greene, left) and Stephen Boxer (Kim Philby) in Splinter of Ice
New releases reviewed by IAN SINCLAIR
STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
The bard mourns the loss of comrades and troubadours, and looks for consolation with Black Country Jess
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
THIS year we all needed cheering up on the theatre front and two shows hit the mark. In their new Avon-side, Stratford, mobile theatre, the RSC’s Comedy of Errors (now a perfect London Christmas treat) was a splendid choice for the company to re-emerge onto a live stage.
Shakespeare’s most chaotically joyous farce, centred on a kaleidoscopic tangle of mistaken identities, was a fine two-fingered gesture to the misery we had all suffered during the past 18 months.
Less likely, perhaps, to lighten spirits, was Wuthering Heights at Bristol Old Vic and bound for The National Theatre. However, this was a production from Emma Rice’s Wise Children Company, successor to the wonderful Kneehigh Theatre.
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