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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
Reinvigorated Tartuffe is a hit
JOHN GREEN enjoys an adaptation that is fresh and entertaining
Re-releases of the classics Gypsy Rhumba and Buena Vista Social Club, and a stunning album by Palestinian artist Faris Ishaq
Nothing, says ANDY HEDGECOCK, can rescue this undistinguished amalgam of ponderous melodrama and shallow philosophical speculation
JAMIE BRITTON invites readers to visit 3,500 locals as part of a marathon artistic pub crawl
JOHN GREEN welcomes a valuable and incisive analysis of a world become hyperpolitical but without the mass movement institutions to represent it
A Wolf In Snakeskin Shoes
Tricycle Theatre
London NW6
4/5
This world premiere of award-winning Californian playwright Marcus Gardley’s new play is a fitting return for him to the Tricycle. This fresh take on Moliere’s Tartuffe, set in the US deep south, in a world where fast-food tycoons flourish alongside mega-churches and charismatic preachers gives the Moliere play a new lease of life.
The original was a daring satire on religious hypocrisy and the gullibility of the petit-bourgeoisie in 17th-century France. It is a play that would hardly work in a largely secular Britain today, but set in the US it is very apposite. The country’s culture of evangelistic charlatans, fundamentalist Christianity and an atavistic belief in God and redemption is an ideal setting.
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Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY
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