MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Pitting the personal against the state
SIMON PARSONS reviews two plays in which the manipulation of facts for the sake of the drama produces uneven results
Sam Hoare, in Press, as a self-centred journalist with little or no moral compass
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
Make Mine a Double
Park Theatre
PARK Theatre continues its exciting commitment to new writing with four new or nearly new hour-long shows. Tunnels and Press share an evening and at first glance seem to have little in common, the first about two men digging their way under the Berlin Wall and the latter, a tabloid hack forced to grow a conscience.
As the plays develop the similarities begin to emerge. Both are fictional accounts based in factual events. Both leave the central character isolated and grief-stricken at the choices they have made.
Tunnels is a claustrophobic drama written and performed by Oliver Yelp as easy-going Freddie while Lewis Bruniges plays his emotionally damaged cousin, Paul. They share hopes, memories and banter about life in East Germany as they work on their 200-metre escape tunnel, but over time the tunnel becomes a petri dish for their anxieties, nightmares and losses.
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SIMON PARSONS applauds a tense and thoughtful production that regularly challenges our political engagement and prejudices
