WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Black Waters, Leeds Playhouse/Touring
Impressionistic approach to colonial crimes muddies waters
CONFUSING HISTORY LESSON: Black Waters
[Zoe Martin] 
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
BLACK Waters, Phoenix Dance Theatre’s homage to unexplored cultural histories, focuses on two episodes from Britain’s colonial past – the 1781 Zong ship massacre, during which 130 African slaves were thrown overboard for insurance purposes and the torture of Indian freedom fighters at the Kala Pani island prison between 1858 and 1938.
Rather than present a straight narrative of the events, co-creators Sharon Watson – Phoenix's artistic director – and Shambik Ghose and Mitul Sengupta, from Kolkata-based Rhythmosaic, have chose to explore them through themes of “place, worth and belonging.”
But the impressionistic choreography means that without programme notes it’s virtually impossible to relate movement to subject matter.
More from this author
SUSAN DARLINGTON highly recommends a novel setting for a play that is a rip-roaring yarn about kindness and helping people to belong
SUSAN DARLINGTON is charmed by an arena show that crosses Great Gatsby glamour with Jane Eyre madness
SUSAN DARLINGTON is bowled over by an outstanding play about the past, present and future of race and identity in the US
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys, with minor reservations, the Northern Ballet’s revival of its 1992 classic
