MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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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
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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
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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