A California union’s decision to host a meeting about US policy towards Cuba has prompted a congressional probe and renewed attacks on international solidarity, writes CAMERON HARRISON
Joan Littlewood, who was born 100 years ago this weekend, changed the face of British theatre forever.
Her great loves — agitprop, political and community theatre, speaking out in working-class language — have passed into mainstream culture both on stage and screen.
Littlewood, who died in 2002 aged 87, devoted her whole life to community theatre.
PAUL FOLEY revels in the coolest, most joyful piece of theatre you’ll get this summer
For generations black women have shaped Britain’s activism, arts and public life despite exclusion and discrimination. ZITA HOLBOURNE pays tribute to these political trailblazers and cultural icons, whose courage continues to inspire
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship
DAVID NICHOLSON is thrilled – and shocked – by an opera that seethes and sizzles with passion and the depraved use of power



