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JAMES WALSH is moved by a provocative and original take on the relationship between ecology and architecture, and a plea to work with, not against, the materials and minerals of our world
Theatre: BE place to be for stagecraft
An immersive, participatory display by a queer Australian Aboriginal performer, and a rebellious unravelling of traditional Scottish dance
EWAN CAMERON witnesses a political farce that lacks a clear message
EWAN CAMERON picks out two fascinating music shows, fusing the Korean, and the Celtic, with the modern
BENJAMIN POTHIER suggests that Palaeolithic cave paintings in Spain point to the ceremonial use of hallucinogenic flora
The bard confirms that the right has a humour bypass, and replays the English Revolution on period instruments
Best of BE Festival
Barbican, London EC2
5/5
THE BE (Birmingham Europe) is the city’s only annual festival dedicated to European performing arts and every year it offers three pearls of carefully selected stagecraft at the Barbican’s Pit for a short season.
Opening the showcase, Spaniard Carlota Gavina is a highly strung Juliet, with the audience as the Montagues and a piercing alarm sounding and red lights flashing as soon as she gets anywhere near it.
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Family issues and dragon-fuelled history amount to a vacuous spectacle that ill-fits the theatre, muses SIMON PARSONS
At the Edinburgh Fringe, MATTHEW HAWKINS reviews eight shows in a single day in one venue, all of which reward the spectator
GEORGE FOGARTY is dazzled by a breathtakingly skillful puppet version of Shakespeare’s greatest love poem
PETER MASON applauds a stage version of Le Carre’s novel that questions what ordinary people have to gain from high-level governmental spying