MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long

Living Newspaper: Edition 3
Royal Court Theatre, London
THE ROYAL COURT’S innovatory revival of the Living Newspaper tradition, established in the US years of the Great Depression, is now settled into an assured format, with an ensemble cast of 15 presenting a kaleidoscope of sketches written by 14 writers.
They take online audiences on a daily satirical journey which explores the approaching world of “getting back to normal.”
Following the format of the popular press, the content includes a catchy musical extravaganza Front Page with a laboured Borisian headline metaphor “The Crocus of Hope is Poking Through,” underpinned by a threatening chorus of “Fuck the machine, Catastrophe reigns!”

GORDON PARSONS is riveted by a translation of Shakespeare’s tragedy into joyous comedy set in a southern black homestead

GORDON PARSONS is enthralled by an erudite and entertaining account of where the language we speak came from

GORDON PARSONS endures heavy rock punctuated by Shakespeare, and a delighted audience

GORDON PARSONS advises you to get up to speed on obscure ancient ceremonies to grasp this interpretation of a late Shakespearean tragi-comedy