MARY CONWAY applauds the revival of a tense, and extremely funny, study of men, money and playing cards
Best of 2024: Jan Woolf
The playwright and artist reflects on the ways in which reviewing can nourish the creative act
Frank Auerbach, Head of EOW, 1960; John Berger; Peter Kennard, Protest and Survive 1980
MEHDI ACHOUCHE explores the constant fascination of cinema with Marxist alienation from Fritz Lang and Chaplin to Bong Joon Ho
FIONA O’CONNOR steps warily through a novel that skewers many of the exposed flanks of the over-privileged
MARY CONWAY applauds the study of a dysfunctional family set in an Ireland that could be anywhere
MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
TED HUGHES said that deadlines were good for artists and journos as its imminent arrival provokes fear and therefore adrenalin — and we get on with it. And so, herewith my 12 deadlines for 2024.
The partridge in the pear tree, if you like, was The Flea at Hackney’s Yard Theatre, a vivid production about old hypocrisies. “The poor have got their channels in the bedrooms of the rich.” My pieces need a good haiku of a title and editorial provides them.
The delicious and deceptively mysterious painter “Here Comes the Sun King” on Ken Kiff’s Show, then Peter Kennard’s Archive of Dissent at the Whitechapel Gallery London (on till January 19) which made me hail him in print as the “artist of the human conscience.”
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While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
