IAN SINCLAIR reviews new releases from The Beaches, CMAT and Katheleen Edwards
Latest editorial
Plotless musical flops
PETER MASON points out that it takes more than a string of poppy power ballads to make a satisfactory drama
CAUGHT IN THE CLUTCHES: John Robyns and Cayleigh Capaldi in Figaro
[Fahad Alinizi] 
RICHARD MURGATROYD is intrigued by a study that asks why the ability to diagnose outstrips the ability to cure
SYLVIA HIKINS recommends a sweeping survey of the world's biggest desert and the people who live there
MICHAL BONCZA highly recommends a revelatory exhibition of work by the doyen of indigenous Australians’ art, Emily Kam Kngwarray
The Bard commutes to work for the first time in 45 years
DAVID RENTON is puzzled by an ambitious attempt to look back on world culture from the future without engaging with or understanding it
Figaro: An Original Musical
London Palladium
NOTHING to do with The Marriage of Figaro, this new musical tells the story of an impressionable young female singer, Sienna, who is literally and figuratively hypnotised by a controlling, philandering impresario who wants to feature her as the prize act in his travelling show.
It turns out that Figaro – for it is he – has done this kind of thing before. When Sienna eventually twigs that he’s not really in love with her, she tries to release herself from his clutches.
Though a new storyline, it’s a rather confusing one, especially at the end, where we’re not quite sure which bits of it have been real or imagined.
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