To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
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Oddipus
WILL STONE is intrigued, and a little baffled by a strangely unique telling of the classic Sophocles play
FORMIDABLE: Cecilia Noble as the seer Tiresias in Oedipus
[Manuel Harlan]
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
Oedipus
The Old Vic, London
STAR-STUDDED Oedipus productions appear to be very much in vogue in the West End. No sooner has Robert Icke’s production, starring Mark Strong and Lesley Manville at the Wyndham Theatre, finished than this Ella Hickson adaptation with Hollywood A-lister Rami Malek, of Bohemian Rhapsody fame, and Game of Thrones star Indira Varma, begins.
Malek is about as oddball an Oedipus as they come. His diminutive, imp-like presence and distinctive US drawl is not quite what you expect from the tragic Greek hero. Yet these eccentricities make him all the more captivating to watch, in what proves to be a strangely unique telling of the classic Sophocles play.
For starters, the Matthew Warchus production teams up with contemporary dance group, the Hofesh Shechter Company, whose 10 dancers become the chorus. Their show-stopping physical feats see their bodies twist and contort with abandon, like tripped-out clubbers at a techno rave, serving as exhilarating chapter-breaks as the drama unravels.
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