KATAYOUN SHAHANDEH surveys Iran’s cultural heritage and explains what has been damaged and what could be lost
Cold War
Almeida Theatre, London
CONOR MACPHERSON’s Cold War, based on Pawel Pawlikowski’s film, the winner of a best director prize at Cannes, is a musical adaptation of this bittersweet on-off love story which showcases Polish folk music and several new Elvis Costello songs.
Pawlikowski partly based it on the experiences of his parents.
Luke Thallon plays Wiktor, a musical director and struggling composer who is scouring Stalinist Poland for folk songs. He meets the passionate and talented singer Zula (Anya Chalotra) and sparks fly. He is smitten and they both fall deliriously in love.
STEVE JOHNSON relishes a celebration of the commonality of folk music and its links with the struggles of working people the world over
JAN WOOLF finds out where she came from and where she’s going amid Pete Townshend’s tribute to 1970s youth culture
MARY CONWAY revels in the Irish American language and dense melancholy of O’Neill’s last and little-known play



