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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‘Throwing shade’ on Gandhi
MAYER WAKEFIELD recommends a play which asks who is allowed to be radical and what does radicalisation really mean in a world overflowing with injustice?
gandhi
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
Two Billion Beats
Orange Tree Theatre
WHEN the only two items in the programme are biographies of BR Ambedkar and Sylvia Pankhurst, you know you are in for a production packed with revolutionary fervour and Two Billion Beats delivers in compassionate, understated fashion.
Asha (Safiyya Ingar) and her younger sister, Bettina (Anoushka Chadha), are polar opposites. While the fiery sixth former Asha is fuelled by ideas and dreaming of studying at SOAS, her sibling is the embodiment of adolescent vulnerability and saving up her lunch money to buy a hamster.
They struggle to connect as the single-minded Asha would rather keep her nose tucked inside the works of Arundhati Roy than placate the needy overtures of her admiring little sister.
Writing her latest essay, Asha has immersed herself in the struggle for Indian liberation and the life of Ambedkar, including his many battles with Gandhi. Ingar brings their 1936 “boxing match” over the issue of caste to life, springing around the stage with jabs and uppercuts abounding.
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