EWAN CAMERON picks out two fascinating music shows, fusing the Korean, and the Celtic, with the modern
An exploration of migration conundrums
SIMON PARSONS recommends an award-winning production of rare simplicity, graceful beauty and profound significance about Sri Lankan immigrants to Australia
A journey of self-discovery and exploration of how national events shape individual lives
[Brett Boardman]
BENJAMIN POTHIER suggests that Palaeolithic cave paintings in Spain point to the ceremonial use of hallucinogenic flora
The bard confirms that the right has a humour bypass, and replays the English Revolution on period instruments
MARIA DUARTE and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Sunny Dancer, Tony, Songs of Forgotten Trees, and The End of Oak Street
JOHN GREEN relishes a powerful and moving drama that explores the lived realities of west London’s Punjabi community
MARTIN HALL welcomes a plea for greater compassion between believer and non-believer via the framework of philosophical enquiry
Counting and Cracking
Birmingham Rep
FRESH from the Edinburgh Festival and bearing plaudits and awards from its homeland, this multinational production from Australia is a tale of reconnecting with one’s roots however painful and traumatic they may be.
Focusing largely but not exclusively on Sri Lankan immigrants to Australia, this sweeping epic spans three generations from 1956 post-colonial Ceylon and the rise to dominance of the Sinhalese community through the 1970s Tamil Tigers’ insurgence and the wave of suffering and forced migration that ensued up to 2004 and a first-generation Australian youngster alienated from his family’s history, language and culture.
Similar stories
Family issues and dragon-fuelled history amount to a vacuous spectacle that ill-fits the theatre, muses SIMON PARSONS
SIMON PARSONS applauds the timely revival of a play about solidarity and betrayal within Britain’s Pakistani community
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective