GORDON PARSONS is bowled over by a skilfully stripped down and powerfully relevant production of Hamlet
Outstanding political double act
HENRY BELL relishes an evening of radical politics, surreal comedy and expert musicianship
In which we accompany the Bard into Cymru to meet his musical accomplices, young and old
SUE TURNER is inspired by the example of a librarian’s struggle to confront the book-banning movement
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
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
The Happiness Index
Jonny & The Baptists
Chorley Theatre, Lancashire
SOCIALISM loves a double act. Fidel and Che, Lenin and Trotsky. The straight man and the renegade. Perhaps it furthers the dialectic.
Less common in socialist circles however is the comedy double act, and so Jonny Donahoe and Paddy Gervers — the Marx and Engels of musical comedy — plough a unique furrow with their mix of radical politics, surreal comedy and expert musicianship.
More from this author
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
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JAN WOOLF recommends an exhibition of Brecht’s collages whose message is driven home by actors recreating scenes from his unfinished plays
JAMES WALSH takes the temperature of a middle-aged comedy format