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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Narnia monotony
SUSAN DARLINGTON is unmoved by a production full of spectacular tableax but without emotional connection to the characters
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Leeds Playhouse
[Brinkhoff-Moegenburg]
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 Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe
Leeds Playhouse
FOR a novel that’s about good and evil, Michael Fentiman’s production of CS Lewis’s 1950 children’s classic is curiously monochromatic.
Casting the stage in long shadows makes sense during the opening scenes, when the four Pevensie children are being evacuated during WWII. Reflecting national fear and uncertainty, we see them boarding a miniature stream train that’s borne aloft by a chorus of hands, unsure if or when they’ll ever see their parents again.
The dark lighting makes less sense when the children arrive at a house in the country and are transported to Narnia through a wardrobe. The colour palette here makes the land feel anything but magical, despite the presence of talking animals and the state of perpetual winter.
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GEORGE FOGARTY is dazzled by a breathtakingly skillful puppet version of Shakespeare’s greatest love poem
JAN WOOLF invigilates images that meditate on Palestine, and the people who witness them
SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship