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GORDON PARSONS recommends an entertaining account of the years between Germany’s defeat in WWI and Hitler’s seizure of power
Grieving in Gaza: Theatre Review
A new play by Palestinian writer Dalia Taha paints a compelling picture of what happens when Israel wages war on a defenceless people, says JOE GILL
MIGUEL YOSHIDA explains the evolution and influence of the Cuban Casa De Las Americas in joining culture to the revolutionary struggle
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
ALEX HALL treads warily through a messy, dialectical struggle fought in the mundane machinery of driving licences, criminal law, and birth registries
MICHAL BONCZA, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Atlas of Disappearance, Love Me Tender, Bouchra, and This Tempting Madness
Flitting between myth and the modern world, Medusa is determined to steer clear of human affairs. When her resolve crumbles, the result is petrifying in every sense
“I’M NOT going to let you get shot and see him before me,” says grieving Palestinian mother Nahla in Dalia Taha’s moving and beautifully observed new play Fireworks. “No-one in this family gets to die before me.”
The “him” is her dead son Ali, killed by a rocket in occupied Gaza. It’s one of the most arresting lines in a play full of sharp, powerful writing that speaks to the grief and suffering behind the headlines from Gaza.
Nahla hangs Ali’s martyr poster and photograph on the wall of their drab apartment. The frame has been smashed by sister Lubna, played by Shakira Riddell-Morales in a performance that tugs at the heart strings. Later, she confesses that she did it because she thinks her mother doesn’t love her as much as her dead brother.
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ALAN MORRISON explores, and recommends, a remarkable collection of poems that explore war photography with the moral responsibility of a documentary film-maker
MPs and others called for the urgent release of tortured Palestinian doctor, Hussam Abu Safiya, held hostage by Israel and reportedly near death, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
MARIA DUARTE recommends that this dramatic reconstruction of one instance of the Israeli killings in Gaza be seen as widely as possible
ANN CZERNIK looks back over the last two years of carnage that began with the unprecedented October 7 operation and considers the rhetoric from both sides in light of the massacre carried out by Israel that has united the world in horror