CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
Latest editorial
Bell tolls for Hemingway as a dramatist
TONY BURKE speaks to JOEL McIVER, co-author of the biography of bluesman John Mayall
A misfit couple unhappily ever after, a dead man walking, dodgy journos, and trench art trucking
New releases from Javon Jackson, IZE Trio, and Mal Waldron Trio
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an intriguing multi-layered depiction, dominated by a stunning impersonation of Marilyn herself
EWAN CAMERON marvels at the impossible ambition, realised with dreamlike finesse of translating Italo Calvino to the stage
The Fifth Column
Southwark Playhouse, London SE1
3/5
ERNEST Hemingway came clean about his expectations of the critical reception for the Fifth Column when he wrote: “The Hotel Florida, where we lived and worked, was struck by more than 30 high-explosive shells.
“So if it is not a good play perhaps that is what is the matter with it.” He was right — his only full-length drama is not good. But director Tricia Thorns and the actors make full use of a claustrophobic set to create a sense of the siege conditions under which it was written at the height of the Spanish civil war in 1937.
Similar stories
North East Volunteers for Liberty plan to mark a double anniversary in October for local heroes who stood firm against tyranny, writes TONY FOX
CJ ATKINS commemorates one of the most dramatic moments in working-class history
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about a two-handed theatrical homage to jazz’s most mercurial musician
TONY FOX invites readers to come and hear the story of the remarkable Liverpudlian International Brigader Alexander Foote