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
No real catharsis offered
This production’s bland ‘let’s not offend anybody’ approach could not be less appropriate in a work with such piercing and targeted acumen, writes MARY CONWAY
cru
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
The Crucible
National Theatre
PLAYWRIGHT Arthur Miller is a towering figure of the 20th century. The Crucible is one reason why.
Written in 1953, the play transports us to late 17th-century Massachusetts and the infamous Salem witch trials. It’s a magnificent tale, rooted in those early years of the American dream when the quest for religious tolerance and individual freedom clashed with the tyranny of the big idea and the spawning of new authority figures. The quintessential struggle between those who would impose order and obedience and those who instinctively fragment it is the source of all frenzy here.
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