To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
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Magical and reassuring
An astonishing Royal Shakespeare Company production of Miyazaki's classic animation reconnects WILL STONE with his inner child
( to R) Mei (Mei Mac), Satsuki (Ami Okumura Jones) and their father Tatsuo (Dai Tabuchi)
[Manuel Harlan]
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
My Neighbour Totoro
Barbican
ADAPTING everyone’s favourite Miyazaki film to stage is no mean feat. How on Earth does a production even begin to represent the giant cartoon hero, a sort of oversized rabbit, or the fantastical Catbus? Prepare to be amazed.
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has teamed up with composer Joe Hisaishi, who worked on the original soundtrack and scored many other films from the great Japanese animator and his Studio Ghibli, to create something as magical and unique in its own right.
Director Phelim McDermott, known for staging ambitious operas including Philip Glass’s Akhnaten and Satyagraha, and adaptor Tom Morton-Smith stay true to the whimsical imagination of the 1988 flick while giving it a whole new dimension for the stage.
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