MIK SABIERS savours the first headline solo show of the stalwart of Brighton’s indie-punk outfit Blood Red Shoes
The Suit and Ingoma, Royal Opera House London
Ballet Black's South African double-bill demonstrates why they're one of the most exciting dance companies around
Tragic outcome: The Suit
New releases reviewed by IAN SINCLAIR
STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
The bard mourns the loss of comrades and troubadours, and looks for consolation with Black Country Jess
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
DANCED with verve and passion, classical ballet’s emotive power is joined with the joyous vivacity of popular dance to convey the ambiance of South Africa’s township life in this marvellous double bill from Ballet Black.
It starts with The Suit, based on the famous story by Can Themba and set in Sophiatown, where Philemon (Jose Alves) takes cruel revenge on his seemingly loving and attentive wife Matilda (Sayaka Ichikawa) when he catches her in flagrante.
She must constantly treat her lover’s discarded suit as their honoured guest and, relentlessly humiliated by the suit’s presence in their domestic and social life and distraught by Philemon’s stubborn rebuttals of her entreaties for forgiveness, she hangs herself.
More from this author
CHRISTINE LINDEY welcomes a fascinating survey of the work of the communist and socialist artists who founded the AIA in the 1930s
CHRISTINE LINDEY guides us through the vivid expressionism of a significant but apolitical group of pre WWI artists in Germany
CHRISTINE LINDEY salutes an outstanding exhibition imbued with a sense of national guilt
CHRISTINE LINDEY surveys the cosmopolitan, enigmatic compositions of an idiosyncratic artist whose work speaks of mystery and exile
