CHRIS SEARLE welcomes a startling vision of contemporary Newport from a veteran photographer of the British working class
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Clever and respectful but missing the requisite dramatic excess
MARITAL CHAOS: Andrea Bræin as Maia Rubek and Hovig and James Browne as Ulfhejm
[Tristam Kenton]
ANGUS REID recommends a very unusual documentary: a love story between two disillusioned journalists
In verse and polemic, the bard points out that he is a poet and musician, not a political party
MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Invite, My Father’s Island, Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie, and Oh My Goodness!
PAUL DONOVAN is chilled by the contemporary resonance of Harper Lee’s coming of age tale amidst racism and white supremacy in this excellent production
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends the unashamedly light-hearted escapism on offer in this stage version of the 1963 film
When We Dead Awaken
Coronet Theatre, London
IBSEN’S When We Dead Awaken is — as Michael Billington once quipped _ a portrait of the artist as an old man (apologies to James Joyce!)
In the play, successful sculptor Rubek returns to Norway with his young, dissatisfied wife, Maia, only to reconnect with the woman who was the life model for his most successful work and whom he immortalised, albeit in stone.
Through this muse and soul-accomplice Irena, we see how life with its vanities and aspirations, over time, disavows the heart and defeats all inner truths. Only with Irena can Rubek resurrect the soul that he has all but killed.
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MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class
Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY