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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An avalanche of empathy
MARY CONWAY sees a riveting performance from Maxine Peake inhabiting the experience of a woman undergoing fertility treatment
On a journey: Maxine Peake in Avalanche
[The Other Richard]
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
Avalanche: A Love Story
The Barbican, London
AVALANCHE is one woman’s story of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and it is, by its very nature, a gruelling experience.
The centrepiece of the Barbican’s first international Fertility Fest, designed to raise awareness of fertility and infertility issues globally, it’s based on Julia Leigh’s very personal account of her own IVF treatment and is performed as a monologue by Maxine Peake.
IVF is no picnic and, for those who have no experience of it, Leigh’s piece is an eye-opener. The magic and mystery of conception are reduced to detailed analyses of hormone injections, fresh and frozen human eggs, sperm counts and “viable blastocysts.”
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