GORDON PARSONS recommends an entertaining account of the years between Germany’s defeat in WWI and Hitler’s seizure of power
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Wiggle room
MATTHEW HAWKINS appreciates an interpretation in dance of James Baldwin’s landmark novel of doomed homosexual desire
SENSUAL ENLIGHTENMENT: Teige Bisnought and Dylan Springer in Inside Giovanni's Room.
[Drew Forsyth]
MIGUEL YOSHIDA explains the evolution and influence of the Cuban Casa De Las Americas in joining culture to the revolutionary struggle
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
ALEX HALL treads warily through a messy, dialectical struggle fought in the mundane machinery of driving licences, criminal law, and birth registries
MICHAL BONCZA, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Atlas of Disappearance, Love Me Tender, Bouchra, and This Tempting Madness
Flitting between myth and the modern world, Medusa is determined to steer clear of human affairs. When her resolve crumbles, the result is petrifying in every sense
Inside Giovanni’s Room
Phoenix Dance Company, Dundee Rep
GIOVANNI’S ROOM is a James Baldwin novel wherein an attractive American in Paris experiences a loving liberation that is only viable within specific hospitality. He is already set to marry. Convention rears its head when his intended turns up. She is anticipating their untrammelled union. In her absence, there’s been physical compulsion: the breaching of societal chasms, in quest of same-sex spasms.
Back in the 1950s many Americans, including writers like James Baldwin, found Paris less repressive than their homelands. The city would form an arena for sensual enlightenment and self-definition. Compromise and casualties could ensue on homecoming.
Inside Giovanni’s Room is now an intrepid full-evening work presented by Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre.
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