Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
The end of dialogue
SIMON PARSONS applauds an assured and enjoyable adaptation of Ali Smith’s meditative and pessimistic novel about Brexit Britain
autumn
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
Autumn
The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford
ALI SMITH’s 2017 Booker Prize short-listed novel was regarded as one of the first post-Brexit works dealing with the ramifications of the previous year’s European Union membership referendum.
Its depiction of an increasingly insular and fearful country, set on erecting fences while petty, pedantic officialdom flourishes has proved remarkably prescient.
Harry McDonald’s timely adaptation of the novel remains essentially true to Smith’s work revelling in the nature of words, but has even broader implications now with nationalistic European movements growing ever stronger and the re-election of Donald Trump, with his alarmingly hostile and isolationist agenda.
More from this author
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
