Ron's rages are sincere and — according to his wife — healthily cathartic. But can these splenetic outbursts loosen the grip of capitalism at its most monstrous?
Jubilee
Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
THE RELEASE of Derek Jarman’s chaotic, anarchic punk film Jubilee in 1978 was sandwiched between the current monarch’s silver jubilee and Thatcher taking power.
British society was broken. Mass unemployment, soaring inflation, increasing industrial strife and young people becoming alienated from a ruling elite who showed no interest in them or their future was very much the reality of the time.
PAUL FOLEY revels in the coolest, most joyful piece of theatre you’ll get this summer
BEN COWLES samples the many sonic and social therapies of Manchester Punk Festival 2026, and is ready again to smash capitalism
PETER MASON is entertained by the autobiography of Charlie Harper, one of punk’s most enduring figures
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America


