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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Ubu! A Singalong Satire, Leeds Playhouse
Alfred Jazzy's anarchic satire gets an acute update
ABSURDIST ACTION: Ubu! A Singalong Satire
[Steve Tanner]
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
ALFRED JARRY'S Ubu Roi caused a riot in 1896 with its depiction of a tin-pot dictator's rise to power, and Kneehigh's semi-improvised update of the political satire is as riotously funny.
Co-directors Carl Grose and Mike Shepherd have left the play rough around the edges which, combined with a high level of audience interaction, creates a spirit of anarchy in a production that, in the spirit of Jarry, lacks any subtlety.
Characters are literally flushed down a giant toilet and the often puerile jokes and double entendres create a pantomime of delightful absurdity.
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