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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To be Irish or not to be Irish
SIMON PARSONS recommends an engrossing, Belfast-based, inter-generational two-hander
BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED: Stephen Kennedy as Ray and Matthew Blaney as Matthew
[Lidia Crisafulli]
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
Not Now
Finborough Theatre
FROM the outset, where a young man finishes breakfast with an erratic, overdramatic soliloquy from Richard III, you know you are in for something special.
David Ireland’s small gem of a play is set in Belfast and deals with 50 minutes in the lives of Matthew, fresh from his father’s funeral and about to fly to London for an audition at RADA and his painter-decorator uncle, Ray.
The beautifully crafted relationship with Ray offering half remembered, cliched and unwanted advice to his nephew on how to act, culled from gossip, films and DVD box covers is typical, amusing Irish banter yet develops to explore far more profound truths when the conversation on performance slides into identity.
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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
MARIA DUARTE cherishes the flashes of absurd humour and theme of community healing in a documentary set in a Soviet-era Black Sea sanatorium
SIMON PARSONS is beguiled by a dream-like exploration of the memories of a childhood in Hong Kong
MARY CONWAY applauds the success of Beth Steel’s bitter-sweet state-of-the-nation play