RITA DI SANTO draws attention to a new film that features Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn, and their personal experience of media misrepresentation
Latest editorial
Nightmare in the sun
MAYER WAKEFIELD finds himself caught in the crossfire during a riveting piece of activist theatre
IS THERE AN IMPERIALIST IN THE ROOM? Davinia Hamilton in Blanket Ban
[Ali Wright]
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson
KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in a hugely enjoyable but deadly serious examination of the 1930s, that is an indictment of our own era
The bard distills our hellish times into fiery words
Blanket Ban
Southwark Playhouse
BLANKET BAN is as much activism as it is theatre.
Marta Vella and Davinia Hamilton, two Maltese Londoners, have created a startling call to action for abortion rights which is funny, illuminating, a little uneven and at points devastating.
With some of the most liberal social laws in Europe, 300 days of sunshine and a “party all the time” attitude to life, the Mediterranean island of Malta is initially painted as a paradise. That illusion is quickly shattered for one member of the audience in particular — this sheepish reviewer himself — who is jokingly chastised for Britain’s 150-year colonial rule.
Similar stories
MAYER WAKEFIELD is gripped by a production dives rapidly from champagne-quaffing slick to fraying motormouth
MAYER WAKEFIELD laments the lack of audience interaction and social diversity in a musical drama set on London’s Underground
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
MARY CONWAY recommends a beautifully judged performance that shines a light on the experience of all female war babies and boomers