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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There’ll always be an England
MIKE QUILLE relishes political theatre at its most entertaining, engaging and effective
POLITICAL: Mark Thomas in England and Son
[Alex 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
England and Son,
Summerhall, Edinburgh
He’s done it again!
A few years ago, Ed Edwards exploded into Edinburgh with A Political History of Smack and Crack, performed at the Fringe Festival. It was a brilliant piece of political theatre, setting personal stories of drug addiction in ’80s Britain against the background of brutal Tory policies of deindustrialisation and the historical encouragement of the international drugs trade by the US, Britain and France in the course of their imperialist adventures.
Now he’s back in Edinburgh, together with Mark Thomas, the actor, comedian and political activist, with the equally explosive England and Son, which could well have been called “The Political History of Toxic Masculinity.”
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KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces
GEORGE FOGARTY is captivated by a brilliant one-man show depicting life in HMP Strangeways
ANGUS REID squirms at the spectacle of a bitter millennial on work experience in a gay sauna
MIKE QUILLE applauds an excellent example of cultural democracy: making artworks which are a relevant, integral part of working-class lives