ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Eat the rich
GEORGE FOGARTY is sickened, amused and stirred to action by a unique community theatre show
Acting Lab: Perform
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
Made in Chekhov
Acting Lab: Perform
Tobacco Factory, Bristol
THE premise is certainly intriguing: a theatrical re-enactment of the entirety of Season 1 Episode 1 of Made in Chelsea. The question is: why?
In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, in which the working class is being extorted as never before — for rent, for energy dividends, and for wage cuts — it is certainly interesting to get a little window into the lifestyles being funded by the fruits of our enforced philanthropy.
When it first hit the small screen in 2011, Made in Chelsea marked a transitional moment in the developing genre of “Reality TV.” Shows like Big Brother had thrown together people from widely divergent backgrounds and then let the class and intergenerational dynamics unfold as they may. All that went out of the window with Made in Chelsea, which focused exclusively on the lives and longings of a small group of pampered uber-rich twentysomethings.
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