MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Odious comparison between now and the fascist '30s
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
COMPARISONS with the state of the world now and the 1930s are currently difficult to ignore and many are not without merit.
With Trump installed in the White House, the far right on the rise in Germany and overt state violence returning in Spain, it’s easy to see the similarities. And, as the rather transparent title of Craft Theatre’s latest production evidences, its aim is to make those comparisons explicit on stage.
Thus, when naive public relations student Clare (Louise Goodfield) stumbles across a copy of what was supposedly Hitler’s favourite play — Hanns Johst’s Schlagetter — she cannot help but see the parallels with today on every page. Anger begins to take over as she looks for solutions in all the wrong places and her life drifts into predictable ruin.
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