GABRIELE NEHER draws attention to an astoundingly skilled Flemish painter who defied the notion that women cannot paint like men
Latest editorial
A comic-strip version of history
A production full of empty symbols and bereft of the 'epic' structure that might do it justice doesn't impress ANGUS REID
OFF THE MARK Laura Evelyn and Bettrys Jones (as Ellen Wilkinson)
[Pamela Raith]
The Bard pays homage to Hull’s finest promoter and venue, and awards Douze Points to Laibach
KEVIN DONNELLY outlines how the bourgeois institutions inhibit our ability to to view art in revolutionary ways, and suggests some tactics to overturn it
ANDY HEDGECOCK welcomes an accessible - and optimistic - take on our relationship to new technology
JOHN GREEN suggests that a new, biased, and highly readable re-hash of the story of the Cambridge Five be taken with a large pinch of salt
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a timely reminder of the long history of protests and the outdoor spaces in which they takes place
Red Ellen
Royal Lyceum Theatre
Edinburgh
YOU can only be grateful to learn about Ellen Wilkinson, the pioneering socialist MP who lead the Jarrow March in 1936 and, as minister of education under Attlee, introduced many school reforms in a short period, such as free milk and lunches, and raising the leaving age from 14 to 15.
But when you weigh her political life against the character on show in this Edinburgh/Nottingham/Northern Stage co-production, you are left pondering the choices made by writer Caroline Bird, and director Wils Wilson.
That Wilkinson was in fact a founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1921, and a successful novelist with two works of fiction on the shelf alongside her seven works of political history and theory, and a long-standing suffragist, feminist and organiser comes as a surprise.
Similar stories
ANGUS REID squirms at the spectacle of a bitter millennial on work experience in a gay sauna
NICK MATTHEWS previews a landmark book launch taking place in Leicester next weekend
ANGUS REID calls for artists and curators to play their part with political and historical responsibility
In this production of David Mamet’s play, MARY CONWAY misses the essence of cruelty that is at the heart of the American deal