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
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A brilliant con-trick
GORDON PARSONS recommends an outstanding production of The Alchemist by the RSC
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
The Alchemist
The Swan Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon
4/5
RECENT RSC productions of Shakespeare and his contemporaries have gone overboard to draw parallels with our own time but director Polly Findlay doesn’t have to strain with Ben Jonson’s attack on the gullibility of humanity at the mercy of society’s ever-present con artists.
Daily, the media easily appears to confirm Jonson’s view that mankind consists of fools and knaves where greed rules and, indeed, he seems to take pleasure in his own analysis.
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