MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
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Poe classic lost in translation to the stage
PIC CAP: Irreverent: Olwen Davies and Ollie Smith Pic: Andrew Eaton
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
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production that panders – if inadvertently – to Western prejudice against China
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a history that excavates the enormous role played by agricultural workers in recent times
ALEX HALL recommends a book that places empirical evidence at the heart of understanding racism
The Black Cat
Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds/Touring
THE CONSIDERATIONS when adapting a classic book for the stage are much the same as those when covering a much-loved song. The performer can choose a traditional approach, as does Jeff Buckley with Hallelujah or take a more radical one, as in Nirvana's angsty version of The Man Who Sold The World.
Those parallels are repeatedly referenced in this retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat by LaPelles Factory, a two-hander from Olwen Davies and Ollie Smith, with the duo wrangling over how faithfully the macabre short story should be updated.
With irreverent insights into the process of staging and adaptation, the performers deliberately take opposing stances.
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