Clocked on: Taheen Modak
[Manuel Harlan]
HENRY BELL is fascinated by the underlying curiosities and contradictions of one of the great poets of the Mediterranean
DAVID RENTON recommends a books that explores the ways in which disabled people are made to feel both of and not part of this world
JONATHAN TAYLOR is fascinated by the philosophical problems that permeate the art of life-writing
GORDON PARSONS steps warily in between the lines of Britain’s most famous diarist
SIMON DUFF recommends a recording of Arvo Part that takes the listener on a pilgrimage through seemingly distant times and events of the Bible
The American Clock
Old Vic, London
VAUDEVILLE, Arthur Miller’s subtitle for this play gives the clue to his dramatic intention.
Following the fortunes of the Baum family during the eventful decade following the Great Crash in the US, its episodic non-linear progression, shot through with live period music, is accentuated by Rachel Chavkin’s direction that turns the central family trio into an ensemble of three ethnic backgrounds — white Jewish, African-American and South Asian.
Their individual scenes are punctuated by symbolic group dance, as the stage rotates and this sense of a circular merry-go-round progression captures the timelessness of Miller’s play, which highlights the engrained fallacy of blindly relying on never-ending growth to fuel capitalism and the human cost of the bust that follows in the wake of any rampant boom.
SIMON PARSONS is beguiled by a dream-like exploration of the memories of a childhood in Hong Kong
GORDON PARSONS is disappointed by an unsubtle production of this comedy of upper middle class infidelity
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
