ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
Album reviews with IAN SINCLAIR: March 11, 2024
Leftist broadsides, indie in-jokes and lo-fi immensity: reviews of Grace Petrie, The Rhythm Method and Grandaddy
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
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
Grace Petrie
Build Something Better
(The Robot Needs Home Collective)
★★★★
FOLLOWING 2021’s Connectivity, which dialled down the leftist broadsides to focus on matters of the heart, Build Something Better feels like a return to normal service for Grace Petrie.
Start Again is a classic call to arms from the Leicester-based folksinger. “I remember ’17, for a minute there we cracked the screen,” she recalls about Jeremy Corbyn’s astonishing election performance. There’s plenty of righteous passion: from The House Always Wins to Fixer Upper, with its references to 2016’s ”far-right fake news fucked up universe,” the climate crisis and The Mountain Goats. And there are some tender love songs too.
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