STEVE JOHNSON recommends a protest album with a harder edge than many in the genre
Crunch time
LYNNE WALSH sees the working class fight back in a spot-on production from Flesh and Bone
DENNIS BROE finds much to praise in the new South African Netflix series, but wonders why it feels forced to sell out its heroine
CARL DEATH introduces a new book which explores how African science fiction is addressing climate change
In his second round-up, EWAN CAMERON picks excellent solo shows that deal with Scottishness, Englishness and race as highlights
Fiery words from the Bard in Blackpool and Edinburgh, and Evidence Based Punk Rock from The Protest Family
MATTHEW HAWKINS is mesmerised by a performance that dissolves the line between audience and performer
MATTHEW SHARPE recommends the essays of a Renaissance politician that instruct and unnerve after 400 years
Flesh and Bone
Soho Theatre, London
IF THE current predominance of public school-educated actors grates and you fret that working-class voices are being lost, and if that deters you from going to the theatre, Flesh and Bone is for you.
Set on an East End council estate, there’s a whiff of Shameless about it but as if directed by Steven Berkoff. Here, it’s actors Elliot Warren and Olivia Brady who direct, with Warren also writing the piece. The language is certainly Shakespearean — or at least Shakespeare-ish — yet just as the torrent of words starts to swirl into purple prose, it takes a dodgy swerve into in-yer-face Cockerney.
At the outset the five characters may seem stereotypical, with geezer Terrence (Warren) constantly up for a fight — he must have strutted from his mother’s womb. Girlfriend Kelly (Brady), a doe-eyed hard case, is a survivor who yearns for the high life, or at least a meal at Prezzo once in a blue moon.
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This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH
LYNNE WALSH previews the Bristol Radical History Conference this weekend
