Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
Dragged into the limelight
MARY CONWAY contemplates a landmark show that raises questions of identity, not class
rehearsal
PAUL FOLEY is disappointed by a production that encourages the audience to laugh at rather than with the characters
Odysseus’s homecoming myth is treated as a factual story, with strong resonances for our contemporary world. This is an implicit anti-war film that has an urgent relevance, writes JOHN GREEN
The Star's critics ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARTIN HALL, MICHAL BONCZA, ANGUS REID reviews Holy Cow, One to One: John and Yoko, King of Kings, Panda Bear in Africa
PATRICK JONES recommends a vital anthology from Afghan and Iranian poets where the political and personal fuse into witness-bearing and manifesto-making
WILL STONE is impressed by Hania Rani who is already making a name for herself in the male-dominated world of modern classical music
MIK SABIERS enjoys the theatrical feminist six piece who have a lot of fun that the audience feeds off as the set rolls on
Sound of the Underground
Royal Court Theatre, London
THE Royal Court still maintains its special, innovative role in the theatre world, though its best new voices now find inspiration from questions of identity, not class.
Sound of the Underground, written by Travis Alabanza, is a theatrical extravaganza fit to blast you into space. Alabanza, who themself identifies as black, transfeminine and gender non-conforming, wrenches this performance art from its more habitual environment of queer clubs, gay bars and lowlife cabaret and parades it with consummate daring on the main stage of the Royal Court. And what an epiphany it is.
At first impression, the audience seem planted, so ready are they to cheer, pantomime-style, at the cast, laugh at the jokes and generally whoop and heckle. Only when the cast thread through the audience with QR cards, and people jump out of their seats with phones to bestow a gratuity, do we see that the auditorium is awash with genuine drag aficionados who’ve come to see their heroes.
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