MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
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Winning X-factors
A new sci-fi drama has all the ingredients for a challenging and innovative night in the theatre, says KATHERINE M GRAHAM
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
X
Royal Court Theatre, London SW1
4/5
ALISTAIR McDowall’s X sees a rag-tag group of British astronauts stuck on Pluto. With no radio responses from Earth — where, apocalyptically, no trees remain — and the failure of the scheduled pick-up to arrive, things start to disintegrate.
The clock begins to malfunction, meaning that the stranded group have no idea how long they’ve been there, plus there might be a little girl outside on the surface...
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MARY CONWAY applauds the timely revival of Miller’s study of people fatally deformed by the economics of survival
CARL DEATH introduces a new book which explores how African science fiction is addressing climate change