ANGUS REID urges us to understand the persecution of Jason Arday from a political and historical perspective, and to see the victim in human terms
When Oh What A Lovely War was premiered at the Theatre Royal in Stratford East in March 1963, it sent its audience wild with approbation.
But at the time many mainstream critics were less than enthusiastic about Joan Littlewood's musical satire on the first world war.
The Guardian noted that "it was as unfair as any powerful cartoon" and The Times wrote that it repeated "the familiar view of the war as a criminally wasteful adventure. A sitting target for anyone who wants to deliver a bludgeoning social criticism without giving offence."
Before Greek myths reached the multiplex, they were weapons of political satire. CALLUM SMITH explores the evidence
GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring
SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship



