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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Infinite variety embellishes spellbinding Cleopatra from Sophie Okonedo
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
Antony and Cleopatra
National Theatre, London
ANY assessment of this absorbing production must begin and end with the breathtaking performance of Sophie Okonedo as Cleopatra.
Capricious, self-obsessed and ever so slightly unhinged, Okonedo’s leading lady is the raging epicentre of the play, forcing others to respond to her earth-shaking movements as she unsettles their equilibrium and undermines the foundations of their best-laid plans.
It’s an emotionally wrought interpretation that reaches a high peak of intensity in the tear-stained, melodramatic final scene, but it’s also punctuated by inspired moments of levity and humour as Okonedo, bringing to life the manipulative fancies that pervade Cleopatra’s character, convincingly switches moods in the blink of an eye.
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MAYER WAKEFIELD is gripped by a production dives rapidly from champagne-quaffing slick to fraying motormouth
DAVID NICHOLSON is thrilled – and shocked – by an opera that seethes and sizzles with passion and the depraved use of power
GORDON PARSONS is disappointed by an unsubtle production of this comedy of upper middle class infidelity