MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
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Searching for your inner Arthur Miller
MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to playwright David Edgar about the political analysis that underlies his two new plays
(L) Shaun Evans as Kazan and Michael Aloni as Miller In David Edgar’s Here In America; (R) David Edgar in rehearsal at the RSC
[Manuel Harlan / Richard Lakos © RSC]
MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant
PETER MASON is exhilarated by an exciting, well-considered and historically minded tribute to the great Trinidadian instrument
Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
CHRIS SEARLE relishes the genius of pianist Alexander Hawkins, his many ensembles, and his new album
THE five years since I last spoke to the prolific playwright David Edgar have been a wild ride crammed with war, rising right-wing populism and a global pandemic.
As I sit down to talk to him about two new plays that he currently has in performance, The New Real at the RSC and Here in America at the Orange Tree, there is much to discuss and, as he admits, “it’s difficult to be optimistic.”
The RSC’s production, his tenth at the theatre over almost 50 years, centres on US political consultants “spreading their dark arts across the planet” — something Edgar is very keen to highlight. So much so that he has also co-authored a book on the subject with Jon Bloomfield titled The Little Black Book of the Populist Right.
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