Reviews of Habibi Funk 031, Kayatibu, and The Good Ones
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Pitting the personal against the state
SIMON PARSONS reviews two plays in which the manipulation of facts for the sake of the drama produces uneven results
Sam Hoare, in Press, as a self-centred journalist with little or no moral compass
[Steve Gregson]
SIMON DUFF relishes the cross contamination of Damien Hirst’s greatest hits by street artists from France and the US
In view of the grooming gangs inquiry, SIMON PARSONS feels the relevance of this powerful examination of trauma suffered at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre
JOHN GREEN doubts the motivations of a US war photographer who never questions why, or for whom, she is producing images of imperialist conflict
MARIA DUARTE reviews Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Hedda, The Mastermind, and Regretting You
TONY CONWAY welcomes a thrilling and concise history of Hope not Hate, that is also a manual full of tactical advice
PAUL DONOVAN welcomes an inspiring account of living with deafness that has important lessons for the treatment of deaf people in today’s UK
Make Mine a Double
Park Theatre
PARK Theatre continues its exciting commitment to new writing with four new or nearly new hour-long shows. Tunnels and Press share an evening and at first glance seem to have little in common, the first about two men digging their way under the Berlin Wall and the latter, a tabloid hack forced to grow a conscience.
As the plays develop the similarities begin to emerge. Both are fictional accounts based in factual events. Both leave the central character isolated and grief-stricken at the choices they have made.
Tunnels is a claustrophobic drama written and performed by Oliver Yelp as easy-going Freddie while Lewis Bruniges plays his emotionally damaged cousin, Paul. They share hopes, memories and banter about life in East Germany as they work on their 200-metre escape tunnel, but over time the tunnel becomes a petri dish for their anxieties, nightmares and losses.
Similar stories
SIMON PARSONS is beguiled by a dream-like exploration of the memories of a childhood in Hong Kong
SIMON PARSONS applauds a tense and thoughtful production that regularly challenges our political engagement and prejudices
MAYER WAKEFIELD salutes a fresh angle on the conflicted soul that led the civil rights movement
SIMON PARSONS applauds the psychological study of prisoners dealing with a frighteningly oppressive world endured by far too many