MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
Coming apart at the seams
MAYER WAKEFIELD wonders why this 1978 drama merits a revival despite demonstrating that the underlying theme of racism in the UK remains relevant
alterations
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
Alterations
National Theatre, London
WHEN a rarely revived play from yesteryear is brought back to life it always begs the question — why now? In the case of Michael Abbensetts’ 1978 work Alterations the answer is clearly “legacy,” but is that enough to warrant such a revival?
Walker Holt (Arinzé Kene) is a man on a mission and it is all hands to the seams in his “not exactly Yves Sant Laurent” Carnaby Street garment modification shop. Mr Nat (Colin Mace), a Jewish forefather of the profession, has called on him to alter hundreds of pairs of trousers within 24 hours, and with a desire to be “the king of the garment jungle,” Kene’s Walker sets about it with frantic fervour.
Caught in the cross-stitch of his aspirations are “wife, just” Darlene (Cherrelle Skeete), subsidiary business partner Buster (Gershwyn Eustace Jnr), the flamboyant and charming Horace (Karl Collins) and sharp upstart Courtney (Raphel Famotibe).
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