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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A nightmare ‘sitcom’
ANGUS REID recommends a play that mesmerises with the brilliance of both the writing and the performances
OUTSTANDING: Maureen Beattie and Saskia Ashdown
[Tim Morozzo]
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
The Scent of Roses
Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh
IN EACH scene of Zinnie Harris’s new play The Scent of Roses, a pair of characters demand the chance to talk, then fail to talk, play power games, and never think of getting counselling or calling social work.
Nothing dramatic happens except to the scenery: Tom Piper’s design gives us a well-heeled flat in Edinburgh that slowly and surrealistically disintegrates.
Each relationship fails to connect and maroons itself in nihilistic despair: husband and wife; teenage rebel and teacher; alcoholic teacher and distant mother; lover and adulterous husband.
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GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship
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