Given the power of the live experience, MIK SABIERS recommends Jon Spencer’s new album
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Brilliant exposure of Tory entitlement
PAUL FOLEY relishes a superb production that plays Wilde’s farce as a contemporary dissection of the rich and ridiculous ruling class
RULING CLASS WARRIOR: Abigail Cruttenden as Lady Bracknell and Phoebe Pryce as Gwendolen
[Johan Persson]
Reviews of T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, Tamikrest, and Dub Colossus
The bard celebrates two other fine practitioners of the art, and laments a lost brewer
This right-wing conspiracy theory is used to justify the coercive measures against gender, race and labour rights that best serve capitalism, attests GAVIN O’TOOLE
KENNY MONROSE recommends a new exhibition that highlights the significance of Black British music
ANGUS REID is bowled over by an exuberant film about the making of Keith Jarrett’s legendary concert
The Importance of Being Earnest
Royal Exchange Manchester
OSCAR WILDE’s perennial classic, The Importance of Being Earnest is as popular with audiences today as it was back in 1895 (apart from the odd homophobic lord, of course).
Despite Wilde’s wonderful manipulation of language, a wit that cuts to the bone and throwing a satirical punch at the ruling class, does it hold up in today’s fast-moving world? I had my doubts. Surely the absurdities of the ruling class which Wilde so enjoyed poking fun at no longer exist?
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MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson
Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY
PAUL FOLEY welcomes a dramatic account of the men and women involved in the pivotal moment of the 5th Pan African Congress