MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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King queen
GORDON PARSONS admires a version of Marlowe’s grim tragedy that strips it down to its gay essentials
PIETA: Evan Milton (as Lancaster) with Daniel Evans (as Edward) in Edward II
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
Edward II
The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE’S grim tragedy is, understandably perhaps, the least often featured of his plays on the modern stage. With our contemporary fixation with LBGT+ concerns, it is not surprising that the RSCS artistic directors should have decided that the time is ripe for an airing.
Daniel Evans, one of those directors, stars in Daniel Raggett’s new pared-down production.
It can be no spoiler for most people who will see this play to recognise that its focal point is necessarily the final horrific rape and murder of a weak and ineffectual king whose obsession with sexual “frolicking with his minion” at the expense of his country’s good brings about his downfall.
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