Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
Instructive lessons in Class
SIMON PARSONS recommends an evocative snapshot of an education system struggling to cope with deprivation
PIC CAP Excellent: Stephen Jones, Sarah Morris and Will O’Connell Pic: Helen Murray
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
Class
Bush Theatre, London
EXPLORING the interchanging relationships between two estranged working-class parents and their son’s well-intentioned teacher in a run-down Irish primary school, this carefully constructed three-hander — first seen at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre — is notable for some outstanding performances.
Stephen Jones masterfully portrays weekend dad Brian, dealing with a well of pent-up anger at his life. Forced back into the school to face the truth about his son’s educational problems, childhood resentment of authority soon resurfaces, while Sarah Morris gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as as his poorly educated wife Donna.
Reverting to childhood subservience on returning to the school she used to attend, and in the face of her outspoken husband, she gradually comes into her own when forced to make a stand.
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