MARIA DUARTE, LEO BOIX and ANGUS REID review Brides, Dead of Winter, A Night Like This, and The Librarians
Latest editorial
A night not to be forgotten in a hurry
MICHAL BONCZA reviews Cairokee gig at the London Barbican
Cairokee play Telk Qadeya (That is a Cause)
[M Boncza] ![REBELS: Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar in Nadia Fall’s powerful debut feature Brides [Pic: IMDb]](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2025-09/round%20up%20web_0.jpg.webp?itok=41xI6jhN)
MARY CONWAY recommends an early Shakespearean tragedy that feels so contemporary that it mirrors our daily news
A ghost story by Mexican Ave Barrera, a Surrealist poetry collection by Peruvian Cesar Moro, and a manifesto-poem on women’s labour and capitalist havoc by Peruvian Valeria Roman Marroquin
DAVID NICHOLSON recommends a dazzling production of Bernstein’s opera set in a world where chaos and violence are greeted by equanimity
MARY CONWAY is frustrated by a new play that loses its drama amid the moral dilemma of re-settling children in the aftermath of WWII
Acclaimed as a masterpiece when it premiered, this study of story-telling in an Irish pub more than lives up to expectations, says MARY CONWAY
SYLVIA HIKINS relishes a comedy that dives deep into Liverpool’s divided loyalties
Cairokee
Barbican, London
IN the darkened hall the logo of Cairokee, a rotating head of a lion, appears on the screen accompanied by a roar of sound. Could it be Maahes the ancient Egyptian lion-headed god of war and son of the creator god Ptah? Significantly it means “he who is true beside her,” because that is exactly what Cairokee do in the Arab world and its worldwide diaspora. They are a beacon, a lighthouse in stormy seas.
Within seconds of reaching for their instruments, the audience is all standing and cheering in a roar at the top of their voices. Cairokee blast the hall and all in it with a sound that overtly is pure rock. But listen carefully and the idiom is intricately embroidered with Levantine patterns permeating the melodies, the singing and the rhythm. In one instance a keyboard-generated accordion echoes chanson.
The vocal harmonies between Amir Eid, Tamer Hashem and Sherif Mostafa transmit the songs directly to the audience’s souls.
More from this author
MICHAL BONCZA highly recommends a revelatory exhibition of work by the doyen of indigenous Australians’ art, Emily Kam Kngwarray
Despite an over-sentimental narrative, MICHAL BONCZA applauds an ambitious drama about the Chinese rescue of British POWs in WWII
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
New releases from Hannah Rose Platt, Kemp Harris, and Spear Of Destiny
