MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Heaven in a wildflower
ANGUS REID speaks to Angus Farquhar about the political roots of his work with communities from the 1980s to the present day, and why he is inviting everyone to plant seeds in Glasgow Necropolis
COMMUNITY ACTION: Volunteers begin work on The Memorial To The Unremembered in Glasgow Necropolis
[Alasdair Smith]
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
SINCE the early 1980s and Test Dept, Angus Farquhar’s work has been founded in collective action, and large-scale community projects. What is it that makes people act collectively?
“There has to be a good idea,” he replies. “It has to be something that sparks each person individually, so that they can give of themselves without losing part of themselves.”
The work started in protest against Thatcher. “But,” says Farquhar, “we were always on the losing side, in solidarity with the miners’ strike, the ambulance workers’ strike, the print workers’ strike. I was very involved with those at the time. It was very black and white.”
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