MARIA DUARTE, LEO BOIX and ANGUS REID review Brides, Dead of Winter, A Night Like This, and The Librarians
Latest editorial
Outstanding Palestinian theatre
SYLVIA HIKINS recommends a wordless production that conveys deeply moving images of occupation and settlement in Palestine
Iman Aoun and Edward Muallem in Oranges and Stones
[Courtesy of Ashtar theatre] ![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
Oranges & Stones
Unity Theatre, Liverpool
AS part of the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, Tamasha and Shubbak presented to a full house the bold and visionary Palestinian Ashtar Theatre’s production of Oranges & Stones, a play without words, told solely through physical action and original music.
On the stage floor, created from alternating oranges and stones, a large circle represents the abode where a Palestinian woman lives plus the produce from her land. She lives alone and appears happy.
Then, without warning, an older man emerges from the dark backdrop carrying a huge, almost empty suitcase, steps into her area of the circle. She is surprised, unsure. Seeing a jug of water, the man wants some. She obliges. He gulps it down, asks for more, continues guzzling her precious commodity, and tries to wrestle the jug from her.
Similar stories
JAN WOOLF doubts that soft-core musical is the best way to transmit an important story of heroism and resistance
MARY CONWAY applauds a brilliant theatrical adaptation of Sam Selvon’s classic 1950s novel of oppression, betrayal and resilience
A manifesto for change, feminism in the digital age and a wordless play by Palestinians
PAUL DONOVAN applauds the dogged determination of the Old Vic to stage Dickens’s classic Christmas moral tale in support of Waterloo food bank