Reviews of Habibi Funk 031, Kayatibu, and The Good Ones
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Rutherford and Son, National Theatre London
Contemporary parallels abound in a late Edwardian drama of an industrial oligarch on the rocks
Ruthless: Roger Allam as John Rutherford
[Johan Persson]
SIMON DUFF relishes the cross contamination of Damien Hirst’s greatest hits by street artists from France and the US
In view of the grooming gangs inquiry, SIMON PARSONS feels the relevance of this powerful examination of trauma suffered at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre
JOHN GREEN doubts the motivations of a US war photographer who never questions why, or for whom, she is producing images of imperialist conflict
MARIA DUARTE reviews Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Hedda, The Mastermind, and Regretting You
TONY CONWAY welcomes a thrilling and concise history of Hope not Hate, that is also a manual full of tactical advice
PAUL DONOVAN welcomes an inspiring account of living with deafness that has important lessons for the treatment of deaf people in today’s UK
IN THE same week that British Steel was sabotaged by ruthless greed, this revival of Githa Sowerby’s 1912 play Rutherford and Son couldn’t be more timely.
Unlike the shady vultures behind that recent wrecking, here we get a personal portrait of the cold-hearted tyranny of John Rutherford (Roger Allam), whose third-generation Tyneside glassmaking business is beginning to crumble at the same time as his familial relations.
His three long-suffering children — Janet (Justine Mitchell), John Jnr (Sam Troughton) and Richard (Harry Hepple) — have spent their lives tiptoeing around “the Guv’nor” in a house with “not a scrape of love” in it. Janet cowers into a corner as he dresses down John Jnr, while the other women — his sister Ann (Barbara Marten) and daughter-in-law Mary (Anjana Vasan) — remain totally mute in his presence.
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