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HENRY BELL is fascinated by the underlying curiosities and contradictions of one of the great poets of the Mediterranean
DAVID RENTON recommends a books that explores the ways in which disabled people are made to feel both of and not part of this world
JONATHAN TAYLOR is fascinated by the philosophical problems that permeate the art of life-writing
GORDON PARSONS steps warily in between the lines of Britain’s most famous diarist
SIMON DUFF recommends a recording of Arvo Part that takes the listener on a pilgrimage through seemingly distant times and events of the Bible
COMPARISONS with the state of the world now and the 1930s are currently difficult to ignore and many are not without merit.
With Trump installed in the White House, the far right on the rise in Germany and overt state violence returning in Spain, it’s easy to see the similarities. And, as the rather transparent title of Craft Theatre’s latest production evidences, its aim is to make those comparisons explicit on stage.
Thus, when naive public relations student Clare (Louise Goodfield) stumbles across a copy of what was supposedly Hitler’s favourite play — Hanns Johst’s Schlagetter — she cannot help but see the parallels with today on every page. Anger begins to take over as she looks for solutions in all the wrong places and her life drifts into predictable ruin.
MAYER WAKEFIELD recommends a musical ‘love letter’ to black power activists of the 1970s
While Spode quit politics after inheriting an earldom, Farage combines MP duties with selling columns, gin, and even video messages — proving reality produces more shameless characters than PG Wodehouse imagined, writes STEPHEN ARNELL
MAYER WAKEFIELD laments the lack of audience interaction and social diversity in a musical drama set on London’s Underground
