ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
Magical powers
JONATHAN TAYLOR is entranced by a collection that touches themes of homelessness, loneliness and abuse with dream-like imagery
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
RITA DI SANTO applauds a touching and witty opener that touches a hot topic in Germany: the future of the immigrant population
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
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
He Used To Do Dangerous Things
Gaia Holmes, Comma Press, £10.99
ARGENTINIAN author Jorge Luis Borges once claimed that artistic creation was, for him, like surrendering to a “voluntary dream.” Though he was speaking of art in general, his words seem particularly applicable to his chosen form: the short story.
Of all literary forms, the short story seems closest to a voluntary dream, in terms of its narrative length, its disorientating propensity to start and end in the middle of things, and its frequent recourse to non-rationalist elements. The magical, the ghostly, the surreal often irrupt into short stories, even those which, at first glance, seem straightforwardly realist in tone and subject matter.
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FIONA O’CONNOR admires a collection that is a riposte to the armies of developers, estate agents, private capital speculators and their marketeers
Using magic realism to highlight the problems of migrants does not sit easily with the harsh reality, says SIMON PARSONS
PETER MASON is unimpressed by an unsubtle production that disregards its woodland setting
MARY CONWAY feels the timeliness of Dostoevky’s strange tale of a nihilist who corrupts an imaginary paradise