MARIA DUARTE reviews Desperate Journey, Blue Moon, Pillion, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Latest editorial
Continued present importance
Oscar Wildes period piece transcends its Victorian setting and has an acute contemporary message on class and sex divides, says PETER MASON
WILL STONE enjoys a set by an artist too eclectic to be pigeonholed
RUTH AYLETT reviews two collections of outright political poetry
The book feels like a writer working within his limits and not breaking any new ground, believes KEN COCKBURN
PRAGYA AGARWAL recommends a collection of drawings that explore the relation of indigenous people to the land in south Asia, Africa and the Caribbean
CHRIS SEALE speaks to Palestinian sound artist BINT MBAREH
MARY CONWAY applauds a brave and timely two hander that explores the difference between intimacy and abuse
A Woman of No Importance
Vaudeville Theatre, London
THIS entertaining Oscar Wilde play has been performed only once on the London stage in the past 20 years. A shame, as it’s almost as relevant in these times of social division as it was when written in 1892.
With its consideration of the status of women and its coruscating condemnation of the class system, the play was radical for its era but, partly for fear of alienating Victorian audiences, the original was amended by Wilde to reduce the amount of social commentary it contained.
Similar stories
Pantos have the power to confirm people’s prejudices or sub-consciously challenge homophobic and transphobic attitudes, suggests GEOFF BOTTOMS
PAUL DONOVAN applauds a timely play that explores the resonances of McCarthyite nationalism in today’s US
MARY CONWAY applauds a study of comedians in whose cheap prejudice the tenets of the emerging political right are crystal clear
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes