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An avalanche of empathy
MARY CONWAY sees a riveting performance from Maxine Peake inhabiting the experience of a woman undergoing fertility treatment
On a journey: Maxine Peake in Avalanche
[The Other Richard]
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely history of the Anti Imperialist league of America, and the role that culture played in their politics
STEVE ANDREW appreciates a passionate account of the Scottish Club during the ‘lost decade’
By telling the story of a lawless frontier town from the point of view of the Lakota, Chinese labourers, prostitutes and displaced prospectors, makes for a potted history of capital, suggests ALEX HALL
TONY BURKE speaks to Gambian kora player SUNTOU SUSSO
MARIA DUARTE recommends a British boxing biopic about the stormy relationship between Nazeem Hamed and his trainer Brendan Ingle
Avalanche: A Love Story
The Barbican, London
AVALANCHE is one woman’s story of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and it is, by its very nature, a gruelling experience.
The centrepiece of the Barbican’s first international Fertility Fest, designed to raise awareness of fertility and infertility issues globally, it’s based on Julia Leigh’s very personal account of her own IVF treatment and is performed as a monologue by Maxine Peake.
IVF is no picnic and, for those who have no experience of it, Leigh’s piece is an eye-opener. The magic and mystery of conception are reduced to detailed analyses of hormone injections, fresh and frozen human eggs, sperm counts and “viable blastocysts.”
Similar stories
MARY CONWAY revels in the Irish American language and dense melancholy of O’Neill’s last and little-known play
WILL STONE applauds a fine production that endures because its ever-relevant portrait of persecution
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
MATTHEW HAWKINS pays tribute to the performance artist and costumier, Leigh Bowery