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
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Pitting the personal against the state
SIMON PARSONS reviews two plays in which the manipulation of facts for the sake of the drama produces uneven results
press
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
New releases from Ibex Band, Lucy Dacus, and Various Artists
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by characters so un-nuanced as to be unreal, a stereotypical plot and a conceptual vampire
WILL STONE appreciates an artist who can swerve from industrial noise to clubby trance pop without missing a step
Make Mine a Double
Park Theatre
PARK Theatre continues its exciting commitment to new writing with four new or nearly new hour-long shows. Tunnels and Press share an evening and at first glance seem to have little in common, the first about two men digging their way under the Berlin Wall and the latter, a tabloid hack forced to grow a conscience.
As the plays develop the similarities begin to emerge. Both are fictional accounts based in factual events. Both leave the central character isolated and grief-stricken at the choices they have made.
Tunnels is a claustrophobic drama written and performed by Oliver Yelp as easy-going Freddie while Lewis Bruniges plays his emotionally damaged cousin, Paul. They share hopes, memories and banter about life in East Germany as they work on their 200-metre escape tunnel, but over time the tunnel becomes a petri dish for their anxieties, nightmares and losses.
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