ANDY HEDGECOCK picks out his cultural highlights of 2025
Latest editorial
The MP, the angry man and the panic button
MARY CONWAY is impressed by a deeply thought provoking and immensely topical new play
James Corden and Anna Maxwell Martin in The Constituent
[Manuel Harlan]
Star cartoonist MALC MCGOOKIN finds lessons for today in the punch, and the economy of line, of an extraordinary generation of illustrators
LEO BOIX, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review Dreamers, It Was Just An Accident, Folktales, and Eternity
JENNY MITCHELL, poetry co-editor for the Morning Star, introduces her priorities, and her first selection
HENRY BELL is sceptical of the notion that ‘progress’ is an ideology that the ruling class uses exclusively to camouflage appropriation
In search of political understanding, MATTHEW HAWKINS welcomes a critique of anti-semitism as codified by the Israeli state
BEN CHACKO welcomes a masterful analysis that puts class struggle back at the heart of our understanding of China’s revolution
The Constituent
The Old Vic, London
IT’S rare, in the current climate, to explore the intimate life of a good, well-meaning MP, but Joe Penhall’s The Constituent does just that.
Monica, played with earnest conviction by Anna Maxwell Martin, is an opposition backbencher, bravely fielding responsibility at every turn. Personally, she’s an overstretched wife, daughter and mum; professionally her time is filled — not so much with the glamour of Westminster but with a relentless stream of troubled constituents at her regular surgery.
Similar stories
MARY CONWAY applauds the study of a dysfunctional family set in an Ireland that could be anywhere
MARY CONWAY admires an accomplished drama that explores the consequences of a fatal punch on a desolate housing estate
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
WILL STONE is intrigued, and a little baffled by a strangely unique telling of the classic Sophocles play