MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Roy Harper, Leeds Town Hall
Half a century on, the folk-rock veteran still knows how to connect with an audience
Voice of experience: Roy Harper
[Man Alive!/Creative Commons]
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
THIS may be being promoted as Roy Harper’s farewell tour but it seems he’s already having second thoughts.
As the applause dies down at the end of the folk-rock musician’s set, he muses that he might continue playing live for as long as he can skip.
The Mancunian then gambols right off stage, his six-piece band looking expectantly at the wings for him to reappear. When they realise he's not coming back, they awkwardly shuffle after him.
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