CHRIS SEARLE welcomes a startling vision of contemporary Newport from a veteran photographer of the British working class
Latest editorial
Timely satire on lessons unlearned from ‘war to end all wars’
Impish: Martyn Jacques
ANGUS REID recommends a very unusual documentary: a love story between two disillusioned journalists
In verse and polemic, the bard points out that he is a poet and musician, not a political party
MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Invite, My Father’s Island, Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie, and Oh My Goodness!
PAUL DONOVAN is chilled by the contemporary resonance of Harper Lee’s coming of age tale amidst racism and white supremacy in this excellent production
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends the unashamedly light-hearted escapism on offer in this stage version of the 1963 film
The Last Days of Mankind
Leith Theatre, Edinburgh
CONCEIVED for a theatre on Mars, a full performance of The Last Days of Mankind would stretch over 10 days measured in earthly time. Audiences could not bear it, said Karl Kraus of his searing jeremiad inveighing against the madness and futility of war, written in the immediate aftermath of WWI.
Fronted by the Tiger Lillies, whose trademark cadaverous make-up is a perfect fit, an ensemble cast from across Europe plays out the tragedy as macabre vaudeville in the salubrious environs of a bourgeois Viennese cafe.
Between the pitch-perfect songs inciting the audience throughout to die, starve and slave for their country, performed with delicious impishness by Martyn Jacques, the cast effortlessly conjure the jingoistic fervour escalating from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
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PETER MASON thrills to the sound of south London-born Yussef Dayes, and the galaxy of musicians drawn into his orbit
Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY
MATTHEW HAWKINS recommends three memorable performances from Scottish dance artists Barrowland Ballet, In the Fields Project, and Wendy Houston
![DEFIANT: Dan Daw and Christopher Owen in The Dan Daw Show [Pic: Jess Shurte]](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2025-08/crip%20joy%20web%281%29.jpg.webp?itok=OcQcfsb0)
Given the tawdry push and pull around disability benefits, MATTHEW HAWKINS relishes Dan Daw’s defiant celebration of body and sexuality