MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Clever and respectful but missing the requisite dramatic excess
MARITAL CHAOS: Andrea Bræin as Maia Rubek and Hovig and James Browne as Ulfhejm
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
When We Dead Awaken
Coronet Theatre, London
IBSEN’S When We Dead Awaken is — as Michael Billington once quipped _ a portrait of the artist as an old man (apologies to James Joyce!)
In the play, successful sculptor Rubek returns to Norway with his young, dissatisfied wife, Maia, only to reconnect with the woman who was the life model for his most successful work and whom he immortalised, albeit in stone.
Through this muse and soul-accomplice Irena, we see how life with its vanities and aspirations, over time, disavows the heart and defeats all inner truths. Only with Irena can Rubek resurrect the soul that he has all but killed.
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