In a capitalist society, we’re nearly all hired hands, but the extent of the exploitation is more or less pernicious. Melvyn Bragg’s gritty, Northern, sweeping tale ultimately finds the best option for the ordinary man is to accept a pittance to work above ground rather than to toil in a futile World War I trench or in a narrow coal seam beneath the sea.
theatre
Mithkal Alzghair’s 55 minute performance, Displacement, is both a simple and highly complex dance work. Alzghair is a Syrian artist who has studied in Damascus and in Montpellier and the work reflects traditional Arab and modern European cultural influences.
Alain Platel’s Nicht Schlafen is a major work that maddens some and delights many. I found it to be exciting and packed with stimulating aesthetic, intellectual and artistic choices.
Art is at its most powerfully dramatic when it gives voice to the oppressed. By using the device of a play within a play to utmost effect, The Island communicates the oppression of a recent generation by drawing on tragic defiance from classical times.
Richard III manages to be at once resounding royal propaganda and an unsettling reminder of the fragility of the status quo given Elizabeth I’s lack of an heir: the Tudors had rescued the kingdom from the murderous House of York, but they hadn’t secured the future for long.
This was the UK premiere for the Compagnie Marie Chouinard from Quebec. She started with Soft virtuosity, still humid, on the edge – a title that means nothing in English but perhaps has more resonance in French. Happily the work was far more exciting than the title.
A new stage show by poet Martin Figura turns out to be both entertaining and thought-provoking
Northern Ireland’s permanent representation in Brussels periodically brings to the capital of Europe a sample of Northern Irish culture in a spirit of cross-cultural exchange that risks being disrupted in the event of a Brexit.
This is a wickedly funny satire on ‘race’ and religion which appears to deliver stereotypes but, at it core, has a deeper interrogation of British society.
Ibsen’s original text, which he never imagined being staged, is a wild poetic fantasy far removed from his naturalistic works. Irina Brook’s version is inspired by her days in New York during the 1980s when she was in love with the rock scene and Iggy Pop. It is a brave production which tries to take this impossible text on a new journey.
This is and is not Ibsen’s text. The huge moral concerns of Ibsen’s 1882 original drama, where Dr Stockmann reveals that the new city baths are poisoned and threaten the whole of his society, are still the core of the plot.
After studying literature and painting, Robert B. Sherman, the elder half of one of the world’s most prolific song-writing duos, set about writing the great American novel, while his younger brother Richard, who had studied music, was working on the great American symphony.
By Barbara Lewis • music, theatre, year 2017 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, music, musicals, theatre