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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Theatre as art and artifice
A kaleidoscope of human emotions offered by Andrew Scott’s virtuoso performance as multiple characters gets the thumbs up from MARY CONWAY
AN ASTONISHING FEAT: Andrew Scott
[Marc Brenner]
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
Vanya
Duke of York’s Theatre
IT SOUNDS preposterous: the great Chekhov masterpiece Uncle Vanya reduced to a one-man show. But yes, this is the latest sensation to hit the West End in a version co-created by adaptor Simon Stephens, director Sam Yates and actor and erstwhile “hot priest” from Fleabag Andrew Scott.
As if not daring enough that Scott plays all the parts, this highly potent version also abandons its Russian setting, renames its characters and tentatively modernises, turning the demon professor into a self-regarding film-maker and the samovar into a teapot.
Irish accents proliferate and the vast distances of Russia are minimalised to fit the British Isles by suggesting that those made potentially homeless in the play decamp to the Isle of Man.
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GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship
MARY CONWAY is blown away by a flawless production of Lynn Nottage’s exquisite tragedy