SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
Cracking Scouse class comedy
SYLVIA HIKINS appreciates the story of a working-class lottery win that had her laughing from start to finish
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
MATTHEW HAWKINS pays tribute to the performance artist and costumier, Leigh Bowery
SIMON DUFF reviews a new composition by German composer and pianist Florian Weber that blurs the line between where improvisation ends and composition begins
New releases from The Jim Mullen Quartet, Caroline Kraabel/John Edwards, and Matthew Muneses/Riza Printup
The Netherley Hillbillies
Liverpool Royal Court Theatre
“COME listen to a story ‘bout a man named Jed/ Found it really hard to keep a roof over his head/ Then one day he escaped from being poor/ When the lottery machine spat out six of his balls.”
Our first view of Jed and his family is in their loaded up van, time: 2am, driving off from working-class Netherley, where they have lived, to their new house in Formby bought from the proceeds of a massive lottery win. They all sing “live without a care, be a millionaire.”
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The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
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