ANGUS REID applauds the potential of an ambitious show about Gaza, and encourages it to keep its nerve

WILL STONE wallows in a triple helping of classic US protest music

This year’s Venice Biennale marks a major shift in European cultural politics suggests CLARE CAROLIN

MATTHEW HAWKINS considers the opening offering at the National Festival of Korean Dance

ANDY HEDGECOCK welcomes an effective and entertaining overview of those who see erroneous ideas as self-evident truths

KENNY MacASKILL welcomes that rare thing: a readable analysis and explanation of the capitalist economy

RON JACOBS welcomes a beginner’s manual in how to remove bigotry from our individual selves and society at large

The world of fake news, where people don’t believe what they are fed, will lead to a demand for authenticity, suggests PAUL DONOVAN

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Northern Soul: Still Burning, The Christophers, Orphan, and My Father’s Diaries

LEO BOIX recommends a film that portrays how fascism feeds on ignorance, machismo and myth in isolated communities abandoned by the state

Chris Searle speaks to Syrian/French flautist NAISSAM JALAL

by Harry Gallagher

With thousands of AI‑written, edited or ‘polished’ books being sold, LAURA BEERS hears an eerie echo of Orwell’s ‘novel‑writing machines’

PAUL DONOVAN is intrigued by this depiction of the compromised loyalties of women, under the shadow of Henry VIII’s murderous court

Death comes for Liberals, entitled murder, Vatican hit squads, and fraternising with the Blitz killer

ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart

STEVE JOHNSON relishes the inspirational nature of an event which combined great songs with historical narrative

New releases from Public Image Ltd, William Basinski, and John Luther Adams 

GABRIELE NEHER draws attention to an astoundingly skilled Flemish painter who defied the notion that women cannot paint like men

Michael Rosen is in his element with a new show for kids, suggests PAUL DONOVAN

KEVIN DONNELLY outlines how the bourgeois institutions inhibit our ability to to view art in revolutionary ways, and suggests some tactics to overturn it

The Bard pays homage to Hull’s finest promoter and venue, and awards Douze Points to Laibach

STEVE ANDREW welcomes an autobiographical account of activism by a US Marxist journalist that is an inspiring introduction to the struggles of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s

ANDY HEDGECOCK welcomes an accessible - and optimistic - take on our relationship to new technology

JOHN GREEN suggests that a new, biased, and highly readable re-hash of the story of the Cambridge Five be taken with a large pinch of salt

BRENT CUTLER welcomes a timely reminder of the long history of protests and the outdoor spaces in which they takes place

FIONA O’CONNOR and MARIA DUARTE review Romeria, Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, Remarkably Bright Creatures, and The Sheep Detectives

LEO BOIX recommends a ravishing, full-bodied drama about the intensely demanding and emotional art of Kabuki theatre

On the day of the election, MARTIN GOLLAN reflects on the perennial relationship between the far-right and the back-hander

by Mohammed Yasser Al-Batniji

RUTH AYLETT recommends that this mixture of memoir, diary and poetry by a young Gazan writer be read as widely as possible

MARY CONWAY is gripped by the powerful emotional journeys portrayed by the parents of the perpetrator and victims of a mass shooting

FIONA O’CONNOR welcomes the the return of the Barbellion prize for disabled writers

ROBIN STYLES welcomes a boundary pushing work of fiction exploring the life and ideas of the godmother of modernism

LEO BOIX reviews a novel where shadows deceive and mortality looms, and a poetry collection that refuses to dim

ANGUS REID recommends that you discover a uniquely intimate community venue in central Edinburgh for an evening of beer and ambitious jazz

Reviews of Charlotte Cornfield, Michael Weston King, and Gun Outfit

Read this book and be aware that this is our history, says RUTH AYLETT

ANGUS REID appreciates the political candour expressed in Bansky’s latest and brilliant work of public art

ED WAUGH introduces a special event to commemorate the centenary of the 1926 General Strike

IAN SINCLAIR draws our attention to a film, available for everyone to use, to stimulate community discussion and active engagement in the climate emergency

JAMES WALSH previews the smorgasbord of talent and hilarity on show at the Brighton Fringe

PAUL DONOVAN recommends an energetic adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel, that emphasises how psychiatry is a tool in the hands of a racist agenda

SIMON PARSONS recommends an outstanding revival of the musical based on Argentinian LGBT activist Manuel Puig’s groundbreaking novel

MATTHEW HAWKINS relishes the literary output of autistic writers, and recommends its insight to readers both including and beyond the community themselves

ALEX HALL is fascinated by a lucid and historically convincing account of how rent has dominated capitalist economies from feudalism to modernity

ELLIS RAE recommends a stunning history of the active role played by the British monarchy in establishing and profiting from slavery

GUILLERMO THOMAS is fascinated by a little known rebellion in the English colony of Granada, led by a mixed-race French officer and inspired by the French Revolution

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Wild Foxes, Hokum, I’ve Seen All I Need to See, and Ada: My Mother the Architect

JOHN GREEN is riveted by the rare example of a disillusioned spymaster taking a swing at his paymasters and their folly

GORDON PARSONS is disappointed by the outdated form of a play set in Trinidad, whose subject is the switch from British to US imperial control

by Omar Sabbagh

by Omar Sabbagh

MARY CONWAY applauds the timely revival of Miller’s study of people fatally deformed by the economics of survival

JAMES WALSH revels in a miscellany of beautifully observed characters, ranging from the parodic to the frankly batshit

MALC McGOOKIN appreciates a graphic novel that records the history of the legendary peace camp and surveys the state of the right to protest in contemporary Britain

Although this account of the Beatles’ manager is exquisitely drawn, MARY CONWAY wishes it embraced the bigger picture of the band’s explosive impact

New releases from Otherlands Trio, Isabelle Bodenseh, Kris Davis and the Lutoslawski Quartet

SYLVIA HIKINS recommends a fascinating, revealing, superbly acted evening of theatre

STEVEN ANDREW praises a beautifully written and enjoyable read

ROGER McKENZIE suggest this book is used as a resource to help spark resistance to the rise of nuclear power

The allies of the US, like our own country, end up dominated and cowed, concludes ALEX HALL

LYNDA GRAHAM looks at how successive government allowed the water companies take us all for a ride

DAVID NICHOLSON relies on 10-year-old SKYLAR and nine-year-old BEHATI’s insights when recommending this pirate cum sea monsters romp

Read my lips: Tai Haf Heb Drigolyn (Uninhabited Summer Houses), Rethink Everything

In the interventionist spirit of of Atelier Populaire Mazen Kerbaj Gaza in My Phone ‘notebook’ deeply touches JAMIE BRITTON

SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys an imaginative revival of the dance classic

GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring

MARIA DUARTE and JOHN GREEN review Michael, The North, Exit 8, Rose of Nevada

ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends a gripping and touching drama, based on a true story, about a Serbian refugee rebuilding his life in Bristol

New releases from Public Image Ltd, William Basinski, John Luther Adams

By Sally Spiers

CHRIS SEARLE talks to the celebrated saxophonist COURTNEY PINE

DAVID YEARSLEY has fun recalling George Harrison’s mischievous Taxman, which was released 60 years ago

Banksy’s identity may have been published – but was the investigation in the public interest, asks PETER BENGTSEN

IAN SINCLAIR recommends a documentary that highlights the multifarious benefits of legalising access to land throughout England

New releases from Kneecap, Sam Blasucci, and Juni Habel

DAVID NICHOLSON recommends the staging of this Wagnerian classic minus one or two insignificant quibbles

CHRIS MOSS joins the hunt in Argentina for the works of Poland’s most enigmatic exile

SYLVIA HIKINS welcomes a survey of successful contemporary worker co-operatives and economy-based co-operative systems

RON JACOBS recommends a book that charts the disparate circumstances that defined the lives of two prominent black Afro-Americans — one a communist, the other an anti-communist

JOHN GREEN relishes the record of a life well lived in the service of the fight for justice and socialism

EWAN KOTZ got to the Jacaranda Baltic in Liverpool only to be taken by strong songwriting of the emerging all-women Lime Garden

TONY BURKE talks to Garth Cartwright author of Princes Amongst Men — Journeys With Romani Gypsy Musicians

The Star's critics ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review The Blue Trail, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Colours of Time, Glenrothan

JOHN GREEN has reservations about a film that tries hard to rise above the cliches but in the end fails to do so

Reviews of a compelling account of a tragedy that shook Chile in 2005, a poetry collection about home and belonging, and a bilingual poetry collection on migration, fire, and art, drawing on the work of Hieronymus Bosch

SETH SANDRONSKY recommends a production that looks back at the political Tinseltown in the mid-1970s when US cinema ‘didn’t pander to trends’

CHRIS SEARLE on Mike Westbrook who died aged 90

FINOLA SCOTT relishes a collection of verse in Scots that, among other things, meditates on the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu

STEVE JOHNSON speaks to JIM MORAY about an album that marks 25 years since his first

by Chalice Am Bergris

SAHAR MARANLOU explores a novella, newly translated and republished in English that tells the history of Iran through women’s bodies

DENNIS BROE observes how cutbacks, mergers and AI create content detached from both reality and history itself

CHRISTOPHE DOMEC relishes a dizzyingly precise fiction that relays the problem of reporting the truth

New releases from Claire Vine, Amy Leach and Alasdair Paul, Brooks Williams and Aaron Catlow

JENNY FARRELL recommends an earthy production, driven by two magnificent performances

MARY DAVIS welcomes a remarkable documentary about the general strike — politically spot on, and featuring accounts from the strikers themselves — that is available for screenings

New releases from Peruvian Ranil y Su Conjunto Tropical, Leve Leve: Sao Tome & Principe, and South African BCUC

SCOTT ALSWORTH revels in the political subtext and exquisite visuals of Cuba’s first-ever videogame

DAVID NICHOLSON applauds the revival of a joyous production that deals with choirs, competitions and communism

PETER MASON welcomes collected writings from Britain’s first black female publisher that focus on the place of black writers in literature

RICHARD SHILLCOCK examines an enjoyable, but philosophically conventional book, and urges Marxists to employ their capacity to embrace the totality in any explanation

BRENT CUTLER welcomes a book stands as a testimony to those who fought against the evil institution of slavery

MARTIN GRAHAM welcomes, with reservations, a scholarly addition to the unfinished business of understanding how capital works on a world scale

The bard tours Finland and tampers with the cuisine

MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review The Stranger, Undertone, and Outcome

MARIA DUARTE relishes the outrageous true story of two working-class lads from Dundee who conned the music industry

WILL STONE applauds the anniversary tour of Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches by Madchester icons, Shaun and Bez

by Reshma Ruia

JORDAN PHIZACKLEA-CULLEN reminds us of a sometimes overlooked political singer-songwriter, on the 50th anniversary of his untimely death

MARY CONWAY is compelled by the production but repelled by the sleaze in a revival of Christopher Hampton’s play

JAN WOOLF invigilates images that meditate on Palestine, and the people who witness them

A murderous convention of crime writers, a hymn to nursing, a monster hunt, and robber baron capitalism

BEN COWLES samples the many sonic and social therapies of Manchester Punk Festival 2026, and is ready again to smash capitalism

New releases from Brown Horse, Johnny Blue Skies & The Dark Clouds, and The Sophs

MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a three-hander that broaches big themes, but doesn’t transcend dry academia 

DAN GLAZEBROOK eavesdrops on the bourgeois intelligentsia and the stories it tells itself at this moment of crisis

DENNIS BROE relishes the working class characters of the BBC’s Can You Keep A Secret, and Hulu’s Sunny Nights

JAN WOOLF is bowled over by a major retrospective for the YBA artist

LEO BOIX, ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review Night Stage, Two Women, Kim Novak’s Vertigo, and Fuze

MARIA DUARTE refuses to disclose the twist by which a conventional rom-com is undone by a universal US malaise

by Kevin Scheepers

CHRIS SEARLE relishes the relevance and sheer poetic dexterity of an excellent imagining of the divided destiny of the Levellers

KATHRYN JOHNSON recommends the work of Norman Kaplan that was a tool in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa

GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes a bold feminist subversion of classic folktales that are ubiquitous in the Irish imagination

A novel by Mexican Juan Pablo Villalobos, poetry by Mexican Ingrid Bringas, and a biography by Argentinian Mercedes Halfon

STEVE JOHNSON recommends an exceptional album that explores the narrative folk tradition often with a strong political message

ELLIS RAE is disappointed by the revival of a nihilistic play that fails to offer alternatives for social change

PAUL DONOVAN applauds an entertaining dramatisation of the famous dispute that gives insight into the struggle, and Murdoch’s unscrupulous mendacity

ALISON BAKER casts an appreciative eye over Dennis the Menace at 75

Reviews of Test Dept, Madli Marje Gildemann, and Heinz Holliger and Marie-Lise Schupbach

ROGER McKENZIE grooves to the message that jazz supports, expresses and sparks fresh political movements and ideas

JOHN GREEN appreciates an informative and readable account of the nation state and its current dilemmas, but doubts the solutions this author has to offer

MARTIN GRAHAM recommends a comprehensive demolition of the case for nuclear power

JOHN MCINALLY recommends that this rational, reasonable and devastating case against the End Of Life Bill be read by every serious socialist activist

CHRIS SEARLE urges you not to miss Mark Sanders’ three night residency at Cafe Oto, Dalston, London

JENNY MITCHELL surveys the work of Hurvin Anderson, now a centrepiece of Britain’s white-dominated art establishment, and explores some of the complexities it opens up about British Caribbean identity

Join Attila at the Together Against The Far Right march in London today

ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review DJ Ahmet, Redoubt, They Will Kill You, and The Magic Faraway Tree

ANDY HEDGECOCK is disappointed by a survey of George Orwell’s life and literary obsessions that is mesmerised by its own baroque technique

In this gung-ho moment, GORDON PARSONS has doubts about the ambiguity of a patchy production of Shakespeare’s paean to warfare

SOPHIE STOLL wallows in a fine live recording of old blues-infused folk songs immersed in American blue-collar culture

by Olaore Durodola-Oloto

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Nepali jazz drummer ANMOL MOHARA about tradition, culture, identity, migration and belonging

KEVIN DONNELLY asks HOLLY GRAHAM how she, as an artist, can confront an institution over its own association with the slave trade

SYLVIA HIKINS twists and shouts, and recommends an outstanding homage to Lennon and McCartney

MARY CONWAY is moved by a play of depth and originality that brings true insight into Van Gogh’s journey

New releases from Joe Pernice, Arlo Parks, and Marilyn Crispell & Anders Jormin

PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.

RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger

ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs

PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis

GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield

PAUL FOLEY speaks to Mark Calvert, director of I, Daniel Blake before a new tour

MICHAL BONCZA introduces a sculpture that celebrates the end of Franco’s fascist rule while commemorating some of the last victims of its proclivity for mass murder

JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey

ANDY HEDGECOCK peers into the US psyche to find deluded ambition, toxic aggression and an obsession with fame

by Khayelihle Benghu

ALAN MORRISON recommends a consummate, heart-warming collection about a working-class upbringing in the industrial north-east

MIK SABIERS is enveloped by the enchanting bass and vocals of Beth Rettig in a small but historic venue

Taxi Driver at 50: Martin Scorsese’s film remains a troubling reflection of our times, writes ALEXANDER HOWARD

A dazzling novel, and autobiographical fiction, by Mexicans Brenda Navarro and Cristina Rivera Garza, and poetry by Brazilian Ricardo Domeneck

JONATHAN TAYLOR ponders the difference between autobiography and memoir - between life and story - in Margaret Atwood’s account of herself

DENNIS BROE examines two new horror films — Send Help and Scream 7 — for the way they demonstrate how capital routinely desensitises the consumer

Rereleases from Andrew Gold; John McFee, Stu Cook, Keith Knudsen; and The Outer Limits

KATAYOUN SHAHANDEH surveys Iran’s cultural heritage and explains what has been damaged and what could be lost

The Bard finds Bard Company, and rallies us all to the anti-fascist cause

JOHN GREEN is intrigued by an explanation of irrational behaviour from the point of view of brain science

SYLVIA HIKINS celebrates the chance that a new memoir offers to explore Frieda Brewster’s remarkable life story

MARIA DUARTE and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Tasters, A Pale View of Hills, How To Make a Killing, and Reminders of Him

Five years ago a flash crowd of Glaswegian activists defeated the Home Office and the police; MATT KERR urges you to savour that day in a cinema

PAUL DONOVAN enjoys a somewhat rose-tinted survey of Brown’s achievements and legacy, as well as his moments of political cowardice

BRENT CUTLER admires the plotting but takes issue with the politics of a new Scottish crime thriller

SUSAN DARLINGTON applauds the sensuality and strong characterisation of an unconventional ballet about an unconventional woman

JOHN GREEN is disappointed by a history of the British working class that retreads familiar paths and offers no new insights

GUILLERMO THOMAS recommends an important, if dispiriting book about the neo-colonial culture of Uganda under Yoweri Museveni

by Patrick Cotter

KEN COCKBURN is intrigued by the publication of the Marxist theorist’s reminiscence of a bourgeois childhood

PAUL FOLEY steps gingerly through an exhibition that purports to show east and south-east Asian culture, and questions its intentions

Tyrannosaurs in Thailand, colonialism as videogame, and a feminist gem from 1936

DENNIS BROE surveys the bias of the US news networks, and recommends alternatives

New releases from Alex Wilson and Omar Rios Melendez, Hello Cosmos, and Harry Christelis

New releases from Shabaka, Squeeze, and Roswell Road

JOHN GREEN welcomes a vital contribution to the debates around genetic manipulation

GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a biography of the Marxist intellectual and author, made from the point of view of his son

SYLVIA HIKINS is compelled by a travel writer’s personal exploration of his native Lancashire, by the Morning Star’s own Chris Moss

MARJ MAYO recommends a lyrical and disturbing account of the tragic suicide in Venice of Pateh Sabally, a refugee from the Gambia

In the face of Trump’s brutal aggression, DODIE WEPPLER and TRISH MEEHAN invite you to share some of the masterpieces of Cuban cinema

GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends an inspiring, political and bittersweet account of the munitions factory workers who are the fore-runners of the modern women’s game

MARY CONWAY is spellbound by superb performances in Arthur Miller’s study of the social and personal stress brought about by Nazi Germany’s Kristallnacht

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review The Bride!, The King’s Warden, Sound of Falling, and Mother’s Pride

ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends an unflinching analysis of the billionaire class that celebrates collective resistance to it

RON JACOBS recommends an outstanding family memoir of life in Gaza

SIMON PARSONS applauds an outstanding one woman show that weaves real poems and narratives into the story of one girl’s flight

MARY CONWAY applauds an exploration, through five short plays, that demonstrates the vital role of drama in furthering collective understanding

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Nicaraguan guitarist OMAR RIOS MELENDEZ

by Gabriel Gbadamosi

SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective

Good Cop vs Bad Fascist fantasy, a guilty witness, Scottish witchcraft, and Camino de Santiago shocker

FIONA O’CONNOR relishes a cinematic exploration of the writing, and the historical context of Thomas Mann’s WWI masterpiece, The Magic Mountain

SHELLEY GALPIN points out that Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure criticised university elitism, and still rings true today

Releases from Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Maggie Nicols/Robert Mitchell/Alya Al Sultani, and Gordon Beck Trio and Quintet

LEO BOIX reviews a dazzling art exhibition by one of Latin America’s most important and rebellious artists, whose art exposes the way state violence operates not only through physical force, but through culture

The Bard stands with the Reformers of Peterloo, and their shared genius in teaching history with music and song

MARJORIE MAYO is disappointed by the lack of class analysis in an all-too-plausible account of progressive causes

IAN SINCLAIR welcomes a mainstream scholar to the ranks of left-wing critique of US foreign policy

PETER MASON is disappointed that the eponymous Count fails to put in an appearance

STEVE ANDREW recommends a Marxist analysis of the long chains of production that global corporations exploit

SUE TURNER is fascinated by a book that researches who the largely immigrant workforce were that built the Empire State

MARIA DUARTE and MALC McGOOKIN review Sirat, The Testament of Ann Lee, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and All You Need Is Kill

SCOTT ALSWORTH recommends a film that is as informative as it is rage inducing

MARY CONWAY relishes the period detail but misses the drama in this unsatisfactory dramatisation of the subjugated life of George Eliot

DENNIS BROE points out that two popular TV series promote police violence and disguise it as ‘fun’

by Nuala Watt

GORDON PARSONS applauds a marvellous story of human ingenuity and youthful determination, well served by a large and talented company

PETER MASON relishes a quirky and highly entertaining take on Shakespeare’s tragicomedy

RITA DI SANTO points out that political films at Cannes, and overtly pro-Palestinian statements by film-makers, contradict the apolitical stance of the jury

SUSAN DARLINGTON applauds bold choices that force the audience to re-examine a familiar comedy

SUSAN DARLINGTON is moved by fleeting glimpses into the lives of people living on a single road in a nameless Lancashire town

New releases from Bill Callahan, The Delines, and Beck

JONATHAN TAYLOR is intrigued how good storytelling can make a hobby as obsessional as metal detecting seem fascinating

RON JACOBS sees similarities between the personality of the the Spanish Dictator Francisco Franco, and Donald Trump

RUTH AYLETT recommends this book if you want to learn how AI’s large language models work

ROB HARGREAVES is moved by the way that memories of the Spanish civil war still stir our passions

MIK SABIERS is transported by space rock groove

TONY BURKE speaks to producer and broadcaster LUCY DURAN about her new project — Guitari Baro

STEPHANIE DENNISON and ALFREDO LUIZ DE OLIVEIRA SUPPIA explain the political context of The Secret Agent, a gripping thriller that reminds us why academic freedom needs protecting

STEVE JOHNSON speaks to ANGUS REID about his new film — free to watch for Morning Star readers — that documents Cuba’s revolutionary new family code

JOHN GREEN, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare, Man on the Run, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and Cold Storage

MICHAL BONCZA is engrossed by a complex and terrifying, yet respectfully intelligent political thriller set in 1970s Brazil

by Nada Shawa

TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU explores a tender and urgent new film about the South African novelist Lauretta Ngcobo

MIK SABIERS raises a glass of Lambrini to commentary, diatribes, punk rock riffs, some pontification and a whole lot of fun

DENNIS BROE searches the literary canon to explore why a duplicitous, lying, cheating, conning US businessman is accepted as Scammer-in-Chief

BRENT CUTLER unpicks the complex social relations imagined in a novel about the builders of Stonehenge

SUSAN DARLINGTON laments a version of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes that is unable to solve its own problems

MARY CONWAY welcomes a warm, if microscopic study of an Indian and a Pakistani, both culturally adrift in Britain

New releases from The Thumping Tommys, Dan O’Farrell and The Difference Engine, and Sean Taylor

SYLVIA HIKINS relishes Jeanette Winterson’s brilliant hijack of 1001 Nights to push aside the boundaries set by others

KENNY MacASKILL welcomes a meticulous account of the corruption of the vast US Department of Justice under Trump’s first and second terms

For his study of anti-Muslim Muzaffarnagar Riot, HENRY BELL applauds Joe Sacco for a devastatingly effective combination of graphic novel and investigative journalism

Given the epidemic of corruption in post colonial states, ALEX HALL is disappointed by a failure to analyse the economic architecture that makes it so lucrative

PAUL DONOVAN applauds a new play that revisits in old age the well-known characters of Margaret Thatcher’s favourite TV series

Poetic license in hand, the Bard does love on Valentine’s Day

SUSAN DARLINGTON swoons in the presence of a magnetic frontman

The economy collapses and London is abandoned by the wealthy. Determined to survive, a working-class woman struggles with scarcity and dejection 

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review "Wuthering Heights", Little Amelie or the Character of Rain, Crime 101, and Stitch Head

ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends an unflinching examination of the chaos and suffering wrought by US foreign policy, told through the story of a child’s simple quest

MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class

ALISTAIR FINDLAY recommends the simple cadence, common prose, free verse, and descriptive power of a new collection by Julie McNeill

by Julie McNeill

FRANK McCAULEY gets Laid

MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about a two-handed theatrical homage to jazz’s most mercurial musician

SCOTT ALSWORTH suggests that video games have a lot to learn the rich tradition of Marxist theatre

ANDY HEDGECOCK is enthralled by a collection of South Korean ghost stories where human behaviour is as chilling as any spectral activity

MARY CONWAY revels in the macabre waiting game of Strindberg’s forensic dissection of a loveless ruling-class marriage

DAVID YEARSLEY examines the soundtrack and filmic predecessors of the execrable Melania

SIMON PARSONS is charmed by a hilarious tender show that will open the eyes to the delights and possibilities of puppetry

New releases from Pat Metheny, Greazy Alice, and Momoko Gill

ALEX HALL appreciates the history of a famous shoot-out that is sourced from diaries, letters, and newspapers of the time

GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes an eloquent and monumental history of the many different groups that have opposed imperialism with tactical violence

HELEN MERCER recommends a timely history of the Civil Service worker organisation that proposes a principled and strategic approach for the future

ALAN McGUIRE welcomes the complete poems of Seamus Heaney for the unmistakeable memory of colonialism that they carry

MATTHEW HAWKINS enjoys the work of reading the essays of a rigorous and leading London/Caribbean cultural participant

GORDON PARSONS is fascinated by a musical — and questioning — survey of Shakespeare’s attitude to women

JOHN GREEN explores the controversial and popular images of the late Martin Parr, made in the heyday of Thatcherism

BILLY BRAGG on the role that music can play in resistance to state-sponsored violence

JOHN GREEN, MARIA DUARTE and LEO BOIX review The Shepherd and the Bear, Hamlet, Twinless, and 100 Nights of Hero

MARIA DUARTE recommends an extraordinary film that explores an absent father’s attempt to make up to his sons

GEOFF BOTTOMS applauds a version set amid the violent conflicts of the 19th century west African Oyo empire before the intervention of British colonialism

Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist LARRY STABBINS

by Allan Gaw

SEAMUS HIGGINS introduces some basic facts about the role of sugar in driving a worldwide crisis of diet-related diseases

MICHAL BONCZA welcomes a new version of a classic of British working class literature that should be placed on every school English syllabus

Japanese innovation, Costa Rican skullduggery, Glasgow Central suicide, and good deeds punished in London

GILL PARSONS introduces the remarkable process by which her childhood experience of a convalescent home has become a new drama

GEOFF BOTTOMS applauds a timely and necessary play that explores the experience of neurodiverse twins

New releases from The Orb, Meredith Monk, and Marconi Union

The bard distills our hellish times into fiery words

CONRAD LANDIN picks his highlights from Celtic Connections, and makes his recommendations for the last weekend

ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in a hugely enjoyable but deadly serious examination of the 1930s, that is an indictment of our own era

MARK TURNER applauds Michael Sheen’s determination to revive a Welsh National Theatre with Thornton Wilder’s study of love, loss and community

RITA DI SANTO draws attention to a new film that features Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn, and their personal experience of media misrepresentation

JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime

MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson

KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Is This Thing On?, Nouvelle Vague, Kangaroo, Shelter, and Melania

JOHN GREEN savours an elegy to black farmers in the deep south of the US: a vanishing way of life redolent with poetic and political meaning

Climate activist and writer JANE ROGERS introduces her new collection, Fire-ready, and examines the connection between life and fiction

by Victor Osemeka

WANJA KIMANI explores the many bonds of community experience expressed in in the bold and colourful imagery of a new mural

RUTH AYLETT appreciates the rich blend of poetry and music that accompanied the launch of the Morning Star’s anthology of poetry, Who We Are

ELEANOR DOBSON reflects on a stark visual record of the violent desecration of Tutankhamun’s mummified remains

New releases from Keeley, Lucinda Williams and Ye Vagabonds

MARY CONWAY applauds a brilliant two-hander that blows the lid off the abortion debate and rips your heart to shreds

RON JACOBS welcomes a timely biography of a contemporary of Marx and Engels who advocated revolutionary socialism

RICHARD CLARKE welcomes a study that extends an understanding of Marxism beyond human society to encompass the whole of nature

Despite an underwhelming finale, FIONA O CONNOR relishes a vivid exploration of the Cinecitta of Pasolini and Fellini at their height

PAUL DONOVAN enjoys a brutally honest rags to riches memoir of the actor’s life, even if it clearly lacks any political insight

With satirical portraits of leftist rebels in two acclaimed films today, GREGORY FRAME traces the roots of Hollywood’s relationship to civil protest

JAN WOOLF ponders the works and contested reputation of the West German sculptor and provocateur, who believed that everybody is potentially an artist

MARIA DUARTE and MICHAL BONCZA review The History of Sound, H Is For Hawk, Saipan, and Mercy

MARIA DUARTE recommends a surreal and brilliant take on corporate lay-offs and their consequences

by Jamie Lynch

DENNIS BROE unpicks the subterfuge by which the BBC claims to represent working-class prison life in a new series

JULIA THOMAS unpicks the mental processes that explain why book-to-film adaptations so often disappoint

CONRAD LANDIN thrills to the voice of 79-year-old Emmylou Harris, that is enriched rather than compromised by the gravel of experience

RICHARD MURGATROYD appreciates a study that urges us to think about water differently, as a living entity with its own logic and intelligence

The debut novel by Uruguayan Eugenia Ladra, and poetry by Gerardo Diego

New releases from Zulu Guitar Blues, Fela Kuti, and Amadou & Mariam

CHRIS SEARLE urges you not to miss two powerful performers playing three nights that will celebrate the great pianist/composer Thelonious Monk

IAN SINCLAIR revels in the reissue of great recordings by one of the most recognisable and radical voices in British music

BRENT CUTLER welcomes a valuable contribution to discussions around the need to de-carbonise energy production

STEVE ANDREW is intrigued by a timely and well-researched book that demonstrates the conflicted history of the central Asian country

JOHN GREEN’s palate is tickled by useful information leavened by amusing and unusual anecdotes, incidental gossip and scare stories

GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes a book that sets the assassination of Brian Thomson in the context of radical individualism — lost in a vast pick-and-mix of ideologies

SIMON PARSONS applauds an original, visual and movement-based take on the birth and death of a relationship

The bard contemplates X — anti-human vomit soup with dog shit croutons — and the Tory recycling bin that is Reform

ALAN MORRISON recommends an outstanding and timely anthology of poems that reflect the experience and consequences of African migration

BINOY KAMPMARK examines the food racket as evidenced by the recent promotion of Italian cuisine to the status of ‘intangible national heritage’

FIONA O’CONNOR and MARIA DUARTE review State of Statelessness, Rental Family, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and The Rip

MARIA DUARTE recommends that this dramatic reconstruction of one instance of the Israeli killings in Gaza be seen as widely as possible

WILL SCHULER praises a stripped-back ‘anti-naturalist’ production of Arthur Miller’s drama about a corrupted family business

by Matt Gilbert

MATTHEW HAWKINS contrasts the sinister enchantments of an AI infused interactive exhibition with the intimacies disclosed by two real artists

DENNIS BROE surveys the new wild west: a technology that aims to “innovate” so fast that no government regulation or union negotiation can keep up

ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes a graphic portrayal of the corrosive impact of commodification, but can’t sympathise with the characters

ABIGAIL HARRISON MOORE welcomes a BBC prison drama that shows the importance of the classroom as a space to influence personal and social change

New releases from Van Morrison, Tyler Ballgame, and Dry Cleaning

JOHN WIGHT celebrates a new account of the life of the great British boxer and communist Len Johnson

STEVE ANDREW appreciates a passionate account of the Scottish Club during the ‘lost decade’

By telling the story of a lawless frontier town from the point of view of the Lakota, Chinese labourers, prostitutes and displaced prospectors, makes for a potted history of capital, suggests ALEX HALL

RON JACOBS welcomes a timely history of the Anti Imperialist league of America, and the role that culture played in their politics

JAN WOOLF surveys a national hoard of silver and gold

TONY BURKE speaks to Gambian kora player SUNTOU SUSSO

ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review Good Night, and Good Luck: Live from Broadway, Becoming Victoria Wood, Hamnet, and Song Sung Blue

MARIA DUARTE recommends a British boxing biopic about the stormy relationship between Nazeem Hamed and his trainer Brendan Ingle

PETER MASON applauds a stage version of Le Carre’s novel that questions what ordinary people have to gain from high-level governmental spying

By Hamish Wilson

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Filipino-US saxophonist JON IRABAGON about the threat of AI in the time of Musk and Trump, and how an artist can respond

BETH DRISCOLL points out the value of print books in community culture and the barbarism of destroying libraries in Bosnia, Ukraine and Gaza

PETE HIRST introduces a theatre company from Wakefield dedicated to the propagation of socialist perspectives on present British political realities

JENNY FARRELL reminds us that the US novelist, famed for pulp fiction and nature stories, was, by virtue of life experience, a committed revolutionary socialist

BRENT CUTLER recommends a sober examination of the real risks and true merits of nuclear energy, and an exposure of the capitalist system as an obstacle to human betterment

MARY CONWAY recommends a spot of exquisitely staged, if socially unchallenging, escapism written 250 years ago

A deeply pleasing festive crime wave

Looking for moral co-ordinates after a tough year for rational political thinking and shared human morality

If true, the photo’s history is a damning indictment of the systematic exploitation of non-Western journalists by Western media organisations – a pattern that persists today, posit KATE CANTRELL and ALISON BEDFORD

Two inspring books — that’s your New Year’s musing from me on January 2 2026

JAN WOLF enjoys a British revival of the 1972 come of age farce/panto Pippin

A year of rich offerings that would have pricked any and all ears

By Rebecca Lowe

New releases by Porridge Radio, The Cribs, and Bjorn Meyer

Looking for moral co-ordinates after a tough year for rational political thinking and shared human morality

Although sitting was tight, DAVID NICHOLSON has had a whale of a time especially when joining in the sing along finale

BEN CHACKO salutes the Morning Star cartoonists

LUCY BURKE recommends a brilliantly compelling piece of ‘theatre verite’

JOSEPHINE BARBARO welcomes a diverse anthology of experiences by autistic women that amounts to a resounding chorus, demanding to be heard

PAUL BUHLE recommends an eminently useful book that examines the political opportunities for popular anti-fascist intervention

PETER MASON is entertained by the autobiography of Charlie Harper, one of punk’s most enduring figures

JAMIE BRITTON reaches for the sick bucket as he is forced to engorge detail after detail of the Royal Family’s wealth

by Jonathan Andersen

PAUL DONOVAN relishes the candour of a historian who refuses to whitewash the crimes of British imperial history

MARIA DUARTE picks the best and worst of a crowded year of films

STEVE JOHNSON picks his favourites from the many memorable albums of the year, and one stunning new festival

SIMON DUFF picks his favourites, from radical African-inspired electronic rhythms to improvisations on the organ

MARY CONWAY takes pride in the sheer variety of theatre, from updated revivals to new plays, on offer in London

From feminist manifestos to exiled lovers to mythic islands, LEO BOIX selects the best fiction, poetry and non-fiction

For GORDON PARSONS, a dramatic exploration of the abuse of young men at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre trumps Beckett, a couple of Hamlets and a bracing Candide

FIONA O’CONNOR picks books and films that show defiance in the face of violence and injustice

From pop anthems that take on patriarchy to masterful Gaza-themed Oud-playing, IAN SINCLAIR picks his best albums of the year

JEAN ROBERTS appreciates the way traditional panto can be remodelled into critique of the academy schools system

MARY CONWAY delights in a rarely performed comedy that recalls a Britain we remember in our bones

JOE GILL speaks to the Palestinian students in Gaza whose testimony is collected in a remarkable anthology

MARY CONWAY is riveted by a superbly crafted glimpse into the soul of a cast-off US star

SCOTT ALSWORTH searches for something – anything – worth recommending from the year’s releases

Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY

IAN SINCLAIR recommends an important and timely book for climate politics right now and in the future

ROGER McKENZIE recommends a landmark study of black journalism in Britain that is a wake-up call to prioritise working-class struggles, where black people are recognised as an important part of the class

STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away

ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review The Six Billion Dollar Man, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Goodbye June, and Super Elfkins