ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart
Latest editorial
Flaws undermine case for the defence
MAYER WAKEFIELD witnesses a powerful Isis courtroom drama marred by stereotyped characterisations
[Pete le May]
Death comes for Liberals, entitled murder, Vatican hit squads, and fraternising with the Blitz killer
New releases from Public Image Ltd, William Basinski, and John Luther Adams
GABRIELE NEHER draws attention to an astoundingly skilled Flemish painter who defied the notion that women cannot paint like men
The Bard pays homage to Hull’s finest promoter and venue, and awards Douze Points to Laibach
KEVIN DONNELLY outlines how the bourgeois institutions inhibit our ability to to view art in revolutionary ways, and suggests some tactics to overturn it
Faceless
Park Theatre, London
“AMERICA wants blood,” proclaims Federal Prosecutor Scott Bader in Faceless. The blood it's after is that of the supposedly studious Susie Glenn who's been seduced into travelling to Syria to join Isis by her virtual boyfriend.
“How 2015,” I hear you say, and it's true that it seems a long time ago that Isis teenage recruits were dominating the headlines. Luckily, Selina Fillinger's debut play has enough depth to keep it on track in 2018, but it’s not without some major flaws.
Largely a courtroom drama, the five-hander is undoubtedly at its best when it's on legal terrain. The relationship between the slippery misogynist Bader (Matt Mella) and his chosen “face of the prosecution” Claire Fathi (Paige Round, pictured) entices. Harvard-educated, hijab-wearing and of French-Iranian heritage, Fathi is razor-sharp and easily the most well-rounded character in the show.
Similar stories
A ghost story by Mexican Ave Barrera, a Surrealist poetry collection by Peruvian Cesar Moro, and a manifesto-poem on women’s labour and capitalist havoc by Peruvian Valeria Roman Marroquin
DENNIS BROE enjoys the political edge of a series that unmasks British imperialism, resonates with the present and has been buried by Disney
MARIA DUARTE is in two minds about a peculiar latest offering from Wes Anderson
In this production of David Mamet’s play, MARY CONWAY misses the essence of cruelty that is at the heart of the American deal