MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long

We Started to Sing
Arcola Theatre
DALSTON’S Arcola is one of London’s last fringe theatres to reopen its indoor space after two dark years.
They welcome back writer, and in this case also director, Barney Norris to his theatrical home, having had his debut Visitors and its follow-up Eventide staged in the old paint factory in the mid-2010s.
His latest work is perhaps the most evidently personal play I’ve ever seen. In it, he reimagines interactions between his parents and grandparents — “a study of the people whose lives led to mine,” as he writes in his intro.

MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to Urielle Klein-Mekongo about activism, musical inspiration and the black British experience

MAYER WAKEFIELD is swept up by the tale of the south London venue where music forged alliances across race, class and identity

MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds Rosamund Pike’s punchy and tragic portrayal of a multi-tasking mother and high court judge
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MAYER WAKEFIELD relishes a witty and uplifting rallying cry for unity, which highlights the erasure of queer women