STEVE JOHNSON recommends a protest album with a harder edge than many in the genre
Nothing lost in Translations
LYNNE WALSH sees a production of Brian Friel's great play on the fraught relationship between the English and the Irish which is telling in every detail
Translations
[Catherine Ashmore] 
DENNIS BROE finds much to praise in the new South African Netflix series, but wonders why it feels forced to sell out its heroine
CARL DEATH introduces a new book which explores how African science fiction is addressing climate change
In his second round-up, EWAN CAMERON picks excellent solo shows that deal with Scottishness, Englishness and race as highlights
Fiery words from the Bard in Blackpool and Edinburgh, and Evidence Based Punk Rock from The Protest Family
MATTHEW HAWKINS is mesmerised by a performance that dissolves the line between audience and performer
MATTHEW SHARPE recommends the essays of a Renaissance politician that instruct and unnerve after 400 years
Translations
National Theatre, London
BRIAN FRIEL’S modern classic Translations is replete with allusions — to the liminal times and places of 1930s Ireland, to cultural oppression and revival, to imperialism and resistance. Set in rural Donegal, it charts the British army's intent to map an area and replace the Gaelic names with English.
So far, so prosaic, but Translations is also a paean to storytelling. There is folklore, be it Greek, Roman or Irish. And there are contemporary stories of a potato blight coming, of emigration, of the grim struggles of women with families of 10 or more, where a baby’s wake may follow soon in the footsteps of its christening.
Language is, of course, the beating heart of this piece. It can be flamboyant, on the lips of schoolmaster Hugh (the colossus that is Ciaran Hinds), with his delight in Latinate precision. Yet the translations offered by returning prodigal son Owen, straining to be a buffer between English officers and Irish villagers, reveal his own growing fear that his smart new paymasters might have malevolent intent. His interpretations are not an interface but those of denial and desperation.
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This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH
LYNNE WALSH previews the Bristol Radical History Conference this weekend
