Reviews of Habibi Funk 031, Kayatibu, and The Good Ones
Latest editorial
A charming take on Blytonesque bubble
SIMON DUFF relishes the cross contamination of Damien Hirst’s greatest hits by street artists from France and the US
In view of the grooming gangs inquiry, SIMON PARSONS feels the relevance of this powerful examination of trauma suffered at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre
JOHN GREEN doubts the motivations of a US war photographer who never questions why, or for whom, she is producing images of imperialist conflict
MARIA DUARTE reviews Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Hedda, The Mastermind, and Regretting You
TONY CONWAY welcomes a thrilling and concise history of Hope not Hate, that is also a manual full of tactical advice
PAUL DONOVAN welcomes an inspiring account of living with deafness that has important lessons for the treatment of deaf people in today’s UK
Malory Towers
The Passenger Shed
★★★★
EMMA RICE’S second production with her company, Wise Children, is an engaging retelling of Enid Blyton’s post-war, boarding school stories framed by scenes from a contemporary school.
The students are more ethnically, physically and sexually diverse, but not too such an extent that seriously challenges Blyton’s insular world inhabited by a narrow range of representative characters.
Rice set out to present a “happy Lord of the Flies” that not only harks back to the positive social values and changes introduced by Attlee’s post-war Labour government, but creates a world where girls can develop without the pressures of our modern age, based on their own decidedly upbeat moral compass.
Similar stories
SIMON PARSONS is taken by a thought provoking and intelligent play performed with great sensitivity
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
SIMON PARSONS applauds a moving version of Ishiguro’s vision of a world in which science and ethics have diverged