MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Digging out the truth
LAWRENCE REVISITED: (L toR) Thomas Edward Lawrence in 1919 and Peter O'Toole as Lawrence in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia
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
I’VE been preparing this play now for the last nine years. Started on an archaeological dig in Jordan in 2013, where I was writer in residence with GARP (Great Arab Revolt Project) co-directed by Neil Faulkner, the play speaks to our time.
Archaeology has its genres too, and this dig, Modern Conflict Archaeology, examined the united tribal Bedouin revolt against the Turks, allied with Germany in WWI, through the complex character of TE Lawrence, mythologised as Lawrence of Arabia.
I had a teenage fascination with Lawrence after seeing the David Lean movie in the 1960s, and Peter O’Toole’s lovely blue eyes soon gave way to reading the real Lawrence and realising what an astounding writer he was.
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