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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Searching for your inner Arthur Miller
MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to playwright David Edgar about the political analysis that underlies his two new plays
(L) Shaun Evans as Kazan and Michael Aloni as Miller In David Edgar’s Here In America; (R) David Edgar in rehearsal at the RSC
[Manuel Harlan / Richard Lakos © RSC]
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
THE five years since I last spoke to the prolific playwright David Edgar have been a wild ride crammed with war, rising right-wing populism and a global pandemic.
As I sit down to talk to him about two new plays that he currently has in performance, The New Real at the RSC and Here in America at the Orange Tree, there is much to discuss and, as he admits, “it’s difficult to be optimistic.”
The RSC’s production, his tenth at the theatre over almost 50 years, centres on US political consultants “spreading their dark arts across the planet” — something Edgar is very keen to highlight. So much so that he has also co-authored a book on the subject with Jon Bloomfield titled The Little Black Book of the Populist Right.
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