MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Shook, Southwark Playhouse London
Timely indictment of how young offenders are failed by prison system
‘Shit parenting’: Andrea Hall (Grace) with Ivan Oyik (Riyad)
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
THE PAPATANGO New Writing Prize never fails to deliver a stimulating work and this year’s winner is no exception.
Samuel Bailey’s timely debut play takes us behind the peeling walls of a young offender institute where three 16 to 17-year-olds — Cain (Josh Finan), Riyad (Ivan Oyik) and Jonjo (Josef Davies) — are taking “shit parenting classes” to escape the menacing monotony of prison life.
New prison instructor Grace (Andrea Hall) is tasked with trying to teach nappy changing and CPR, but keeping the boys’ focus proves to be her greatest challenge. All three are facing long sentences and although they have dreams of making lives for themselves outside, their hope is being drained by a system only concerned with short-term discipline rather than lasting reform.
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