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
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ROUND-UP 2015
Star critics run through what’s impressed them this year
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
Theatre
MY LANDMARK productions for the year must start with Tom Morton Smith’s Oppenheimer, the tragedy of the scientific genius who as the “father of the atom bomb” realised that “now I am become death” and changed our world.
Angus Jackson’s innovative production in Stratford’s Swan Theatre had all the power of the RSC’s house dramatist’s great tragedies, with John Hefferman’s memorably tortured portrayal of a man, trapped in the cross-currents of history, who’s driven to create his own Frankenstein monster.
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GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
KEITH RICHMOND relishes a superbly conceived modern version of Aeschylus’ drama of murderous family succession
GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship