MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Best of 2019: Art, music and theatre
OUTSTANDING: David Judge in Sparkplug
[Alex Mead/Decoy Media]
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
AWAY from my home city of Manchester, this year I greatly enjoyed the colour and form of the wonderful New Times, New Pleasures exhibition of Fernand Leger’s work at Tate Liverpool and the new insights provided by Van Gogh in Britain at Tate Britain earlier in the year.
There was a great musical treat in the capital from the superb The Gloaming at the Union Chapel, a showcase of Irish traditional music at its very best. The band create an unusual sound by the harmonising of fiddle, guitar and piano with an overlay from the haunting voice of the exceptional Iarla O Lionaird.
For sheer spectacle it was hard to beat the version of the opera Carmen I saw in the ancient Roman arena in Verona.
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