GORDON PARSONS is bowled over by a skilfully stripped down and powerfully relevant production of Hamlet
‘A hugely important play’
PAUL FOLEY highly recommends a play that movingly addresses the fallout from a major industrial employer shutting up shop
In which we accompany the Bard into Cymru to meet his musical accomplices, young and old
SUE TURNER is inspired by the example of a librarian’s struggle to confront the book-banning movement
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
RITA DI SANTO applauds a touching and witty opener that touches a hot topic in Germany: the future of the immigrant population
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
SWEAT
Royal Exchange Manchester
WHAT happens to a working-class community when the major industrial employer shuts up shop? The answer is a lot and it’s not good. Lives fall apart and once-solid friendships fray, scapegoats are sought.
All this is devastatingly explored by Lynn Nottage in her Pulitzer prize-winning play SWEAT. A working-class community built around the steelworks in Reading, Pennsylvania, is shattered as the cloud of poverty hangs over them following the outsourcing of their jobs.
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JAMES WALSH happily capitulates to a master of DIY depression and despair
PAUL FOLEY relishes a superb production that plays Wilde’s farce as a contemporary dissection of the rich and ridiculous ruling class
PAUL FOLEY speaks with JADE LEWIS, the director of SWEAT at Royal Exchange Manchester