MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
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Shoe Lady, Royal Court Theatre London
Compelling account of a woman on the verge of breakdown
EXTRAORDINARY: Katherine Parkinson (right)
[Manuel Harlan]
MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant
PETER MASON is exhilarated by an exciting, well-considered and historically minded tribute to the great Trinidadian instrument
Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
CHRIS SEARLE relishes the genius of pianist Alexander Hawkins, his many ensembles, and his new album
THERE’S something deeply frightening about the precarity at the heart of EV Crowe’s new play, an absurdist take on the life of estate agent and harassed working mother Viv.
“I get so scared of how close we live to not being able to live,” Viv tells us. Having lost a shoe from her only pair, she tries to get through her day wearing only one and, as her foot gets increasingly bloody and swollen, her ability to remain anchored falters. But her desire to somehow carry on remains.
The extraordinary Katherine Parkinson is Viv and the nuance of her tone in her moving depiction of Viv’s slow unravelling and her determination to continue, ever more absurd and bizarre, is
wonderful and her reactions to a talking curtain are a delight. They’re also unsettling.
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A six minute animation that conveys the horror of atomic war A Short Vision, made in 1956, is more effective than any drama, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective
MATTHEW HAWKINS recommends three memorable performances from Scottish dance artists Barrowland Ballet, In the Fields Project, and Wendy Houston