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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Bruising consequences of the blitz
SIMON PARSONS recommends a new play on the stand-off in Southampton between locals and government during WWII
Lady Cooper Anita Dobson and Hilton MCRae
[Manuel Harlan]
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
The Shadow Factory
NST City
Southampton
IT WOULD be difficult to conceive of a more resonant production to open Southampton’s new 450-seat theatre than The Shadow Factory.
The Battle of Britain may be the context for this premiere of Howard Brenton’s play but the subject matter is the battle between locals in the city and the wartime government’s authoritarian approach to its people and their property.
After the 1940 bombing of the nearby Spitfire factory, homes and businesses were requisitioned under the Emergency Powers Act, to enable production to continue in a “shadow factory.”
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SIMON PARSONS is beguiled by a dream-like exploration of the memories of a childhood in Hong Kong
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
While politicians condemned fascist bombing of Spanish civilians in 1937, they ignored identical RAF tactics across the colonies. Today’s aerial warfare continues this pattern of applying different moral standards based on geography and race, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT