WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
An avalanche of empathy
MARY CONWAY sees a riveting performance from Maxine Peake inhabiting the experience of a woman undergoing fertility treatment
On a journey: Maxine Peake in Avalanche
[The Other Richard] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
Avalanche: A Love Story
The Barbican, London
AVALANCHE is one woman’s story of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and it is, by its very nature, a gruelling experience.
The centrepiece of the Barbican’s first international Fertility Fest, designed to raise awareness of fertility and infertility issues globally, it’s based on Julia Leigh’s very personal account of her own IVF treatment and is performed as a monologue by Maxine Peake.
IVF is no picnic and, for those who have no experience of it, Leigh’s piece is an eye-opener. The magic and mystery of conception are reduced to detailed analyses of hormone injections, fresh and frozen human eggs, sperm counts and “viable blastocysts.”
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MARY CONWAY recommends a play that some will find more discursive than eventful but one in which the characters glow
