GORDON PARSONS is bowled over by a skilfully stripped down and powerfully relevant production of Hamlet
Album reviews with MICHAL BONCZA: April 5, 2024
New releases by Ma Polaine’s Great Decline, Phoebe Rees and Lucien Johnson
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
Ma Polaine’s Great Decline
Molecules
(OMH Records)
★★★★★
THE good news is that, contrary their name, there is no discernible “decline,” great or otherwise, in Ma Polaine’s wondrous musical visions or indeed the virtuosity in their delivery.
More from this author
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
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