race issues
Orpheus Descending, Menier Chocolate Factory review - Tennessee Williams scorcher needs more firepowerThursday, 16 May 2019
Where would Tennessee Williams's onetime flop be without the British theatre to rehabilitate it on an ongoing basis? Arriving at the Menier Chocolate Factory in a co-production with Theatre Clwyd, where Tamara Harvey's production has already been... Read more... |
The Specials, Margate Winter Gardens review - ska legends passionate and on-pointWednesday, 15 May 2019
Here they come again – the band most adept at capturing the mood of an era in catchy, critical three-minute songs. Just at the very point we need them most, the original ska-punk popsters surface and their message is as deeply relevant as it was... Read more... |
Ain't Misbehavin', Southwark Playhouse review - a jazz-hot musical revueThursday, 25 April 2019
The joint is jumpin’ at Southwark Playhouse, now hosting an irresistible Fats Waller-inspired, Manhattan-set musical revue (a co-production with Colchester’s Mercury Theatre, where it opened last month). Though originating in the Seventies,... Read more... |
Mo Amer and Guz Khan, Leicester Square Theatre review - racism examined from both sides of the AtlanticMonday, 01 April 2019
Well this is a nice change from the standard stand-up fare. Not many comics have a DJ introduce them with a cracking set of his own, and even fewer tour as part of a double bill with material that moves seamlessly from one set to the other as they... Read more... |
Blood Knot, Orange Tree Theatre review - defining apartheid-era drama delivers afreshSaturday, 23 March 2019
London's impromptu mini-season devoted to the work of Athol Fugard picks up real steam with Blood Knot, Matthew Xia's transfixing take on one of the benchmark titles of the apartheid era and beyond. I first encountered this play during its Tony-... Read more... |
Minding the Gap review – profound musings on lifeFriday, 22 March 2019
Where would you go for a devastating study on the human condition? The home movies of teenage skaters would be very low down on that list. But most of those movies aren’t filmed, compiled and analysed by Bing Liu, the director of Minding the Gap.... Read more... |
If Beale Street Could Talk review - love defies racism in James Baldwin adaptationSunday, 10 February 2019
Films that show a young couple’s love deepening are rare because without personal conflict there’s no narrative progression. They're especially rare in the current mainstream American cinema since romantic dramas are commercially risky, though LGBTQ... Read more... |
Green Book review - is this Oscar hopeful too good to be true?Friday, 01 February 2019
With five nominations, Green Book is cruising optimistically towards Oscar night, but it’s not all plain sailing for director Peter Farrelly’s mixed-race fairy tale about a posh black musician and his thuggish Italian minder. The film is being... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2018: Janelle Monáe - Dirty ComputerMonday, 31 December 2018
Janelle Monáe had already established herself as pop’s next great innovator with The ArchAndroid and Electric Ladyland, two albums full of earworms, high production and retro-futuristic lyrics. This all-too-brief musical career seemed in jeopardy... Read more... |
The Long Song, BBC One, series finale review - a stirring adaptationFriday, 21 December 2018
There was a ruthless logic to the scheduling of The Long Song (BBC One). Broadcast over three consecutive nights, this fleet-footed adaptation of Andrea Levy’s novel set during the era of abolition in 19th-century Jamaica swiftly gathered momentum... Read more... |
Caroline, or Change, Playhouse Theatre review - Sharon D Clarke is superlativeWednesday, 19 December 2018
With the politics of hate alive and well both sides of the Atlantic, this seems a good time to revive Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's 2003 musical, which is set in Civil Rights-era Louisiana. This production was first seen at Chichester Minerva... Read more... |
Nine Night, Trafalgar Studios review - hilarity and heartbreakFriday, 07 December 2018
This is Natasha Gordon’s first play, and in it she has created an entire world. A world of grief and laughter, conflict and closeness. A world that is very specifically located within Britain's Jamaican community, yet one whose themes of loss and... Read more... |
