WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Really choice
PAUL FOLEY sees an excellent new version of a classic Harold Brighouse comedy
Sympathetic curmudgeon Tony Jayawardena (right) as Hari Hobson
[Marc Brenner] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
Hobson’s Choice
Royal Exchange, Manchester
THIS production of Hobson’s Choice is like no other — and it’s an absolute cracker.
Much of this is down to Tanika Gupta’s clever, slick and very funny adaptation which sets the play in 1988 and relocates the action a couple of miles across the River Irwell to Manchester’s Northern Quarter.
In it, refugee from Idi Amin’s Uganda Hari Hobson has built up a successful tailoring business in Manchester. Despite his high standing in the city’s Asian community, the real brains behind the business is his daughter Durga.
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