MARIA DUARTE reviews Desperate Journey, Blue Moon, Pillion, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
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Magical and reassuring
An astonishing Royal Shakespeare Company production of Miyazaki's classic animation reconnects WILL STONE with his inner child
( to R) Mei (Mei Mac), Satsuki (Ami Okumura Jones) and their father Tatsuo (Dai Tabuchi)
[Manuel Harlan]
WILL STONE enjoys a set by an artist too eclectic to be pigeonholed
RUTH AYLETT reviews two collections of outright political poetry
The book feels like a writer working within his limits and not breaking any new ground, believes KEN COCKBURN
PRAGYA AGARWAL recommends a collection of drawings that explore the relation of indigenous people to the land in south Asia, Africa and the Caribbean
CHRIS SEALE speaks to Palestinian sound artist BINT MBAREH
MARY CONWAY applauds a brave and timely two hander that explores the difference between intimacy and abuse
My Neighbour Totoro
Barbican
ADAPTING everyone’s favourite Miyazaki film to stage is no mean feat. How on Earth does a production even begin to represent the giant cartoon hero, a sort of oversized rabbit, or the fantastical Catbus? Prepare to be amazed.
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has teamed up with composer Joe Hisaishi, who worked on the original soundtrack and scored many other films from the great Japanese animator and his Studio Ghibli, to create something as magical and unique in its own right.
Director Phelim McDermott, known for staging ambitious operas including Philip Glass’s Akhnaten and Satyagraha, and adaptor Tom Morton-Smith stay true to the whimsical imagination of the 1988 flick while giving it a whole new dimension for the stage.
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WILL STONE foresees the refashioning of Beckett’s study of bitter nostalgia given the plethora of self-recording we make in the digital age
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an adaptation that draws out the contemporary relevance of George Orwell’s satire
SIMON PARSONS applauds a tense and thoughtful production that regularly challenges our political engagement and prejudices
‘There's outrage aplenty in this production but we never quite get to the dark night of the soul,’ writes WILL STONE