With thousands of AI‑written, edited or ‘polished’ books being sold, LAURA BEERS hears an eerie echo of Orwell’s ‘novel‑writing machines’
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Wonderland, Hampstead Theatre London
Powerful reminder of the war against the miners in 1984-85
ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart
Death comes for Liberals, entitled murder, Vatican hit squads, and fraternising with the Blitz killer
New releases from Public Image Ltd, William Basinski, and John Luther Adams
GABRIELE NEHER draws attention to an astoundingly skilled Flemish painter who defied the notion that women cannot paint like men
The Bard pays homage to Hull’s finest promoter and venue, and awards Douze Points to Laibach
BETH STEEL'S Wonderland, the second of Hampstead Theatre’s trio of free online productions, was originally performed in 2014.
Even then, its hard-hitting political message — presented through a mixture of song and documentary commentary — must have reminded those with long memories of John McGrath’s innovatory 7:84 touring company of the 1980s.
Dealing with Thatcher’s carefully pre-planned and ruthless 1984-85 war against the miners, Edward Hall’s production takes us down the pit, where we meet the Iron Lady’s “enemy within” — the men who worked in an environment and under conditions that for most people would be viewed as a daily hell.
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