New releases from Laura Veirs, The Waterboys, and Yard Act
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.
PAUL FOLEY revels in the coolest, most joyful piece of theatre you’ll get this summer
RITA DI SANTO takes us through the prize winners, and takes the temperature of a festival that prioritised narratives of exile, state violence and class division
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends an inspiring, political and bittersweet account of the munitions factory workers who are the fore-runners of the modern women’s game
STEVE JOHNSON relishes a celebration of the commonality of folk music and its links with the struggles of working people the world over


