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
Latest editorial
Sleeping Beauty, Lawrence Batley Theatre Huddersfield
Pleasurable panto with a traditional touch
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
SLEEPING Beauty reunites the creative partnership of writer Andrew Pollard and producer Joyce Branagh for the fourth consecutive year in Huddersfield, with their experience and enthusiasm shining strongly in a pantomime packed with regional gags, double entendres and audience interaction.
The cast of familiar faces from previous productions underpins the exuberance, with the easy rapport between performers a joy to watch. It's particularly evident when Robin Simpson as Nanny Fanny and Nicola Jayne Ingram as Hester the Jester humorously ad lib to cover audience interventions and fluffed lines.
Such moments are key drivers in a production that, on paper at least, has questionable pacing and a plot that only broadly stays true to the original fairy story.
Similar stories
HENRY BELL follows the lineage of revolutions, from the English to the Chinese, and asks where revolutionary politics exists today
DAVID NICHOLSON recommends the staging of this Wagnerian classic minus one or two insignificant quibbles
GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a biography of the Marxist intellectual and author, made from the point of view of his son
WILL STONE relishes the chance to hear the Isle of Wight indie sensation in an intimate setting