SIMON PARSONS applauds an original, visual and movement-based take on the birth and death of a relationship
Malign performances
GORDON PARSONS is beguiled by an analysis of performance operates in theatre and plays a vital role in political power-play
THE BIG SLEEP: Donald Trump at his trial at Manhattan criminal court last Thursday
[Mike Segar/Pool Photo via AP]
JOHN GREEN’s palate is tickled by useful information leavened by amusing and unusual anecdotes, incidental gossip and scare stories
The bard contemplates X — anti-human vomit soup with dog shit croutons — and the Tory recycling bin that is Reform
ALAN MORRISON recommends an outstanding and timely anthology of poems that reflect the experience and consequences of African migration
BINOY KAMPMARK examines the food racket as evidenced by the recent promotion of Italian cuisine to the status of ‘intangible national heritage’
FIONA O’CONNOR and MARIA DUARTE review State of Statelessness, Rental Family, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and The Rip
The Performer: Art, Life, Politics
Richard Sennet
Allen Lane, £25
“WHEN I started to write this essay on society and the performing arts, a cluster of demagogues had come to dominate the public realm. Donald Trump in America and Boris Johnson in Britain are skilled performers. Malign performances of this sort draw on the same materials of expression, though, as other kinds of expression.”
This is a promising start to leading US sociologist Richard Sennett’s entertaining and provocatively informative examination of the place and the nature of performance both on stage and in society at large.
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