Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
Laughing at, not with, the working class
LYNNE WALSH is left uneasy at the audience response to Rita, Sue and Bob Too
Rita, Sue and Bob Too,
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
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
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
Rita, Sue and Bob Too
Royal Court, London/Touring
CO-PRODUCED by Out of Joint, Bolton Octagon and the Royal Court, this production, controversially cancelled and then reinstated by the London theatre, is an insubstantial version of Rita, Sue and Bob Too.
It’s tough to say that, especially given the acclaim which greeted the teenage Andrea Dunbar’s work. First performed in 1982 and made into a successful film soon afterwards, the play is semi-autobiographical. Dunbar’s life was bleak and she was dead at 29 after time in a women’s refuge and escalating problems with alcohol.
Her depiction of 15-year-old friends and their fling with a morosely married man won plaudits and the media loved Dunbar for a while.
More from this author
With most of recorded history dominated by the voices of men, LYNNE WALSH encourages sisters to read the memoirs of women – and to write their own too
LYNNE WALSH attempts to unravel the latest advice from local authorities on tackling violence against women and girls
Anti-fascists from around the world will soon be travelling to Spain to commemorate the International Brigades and walk in the footsteps of the bravest of their generation, writes LYNNE WALSH
From prostitution to surrogacy, access to women’s bodies can be bought for a fee. LYNNE WALSH reports from a conference exploring the mounting crisis in which women are increasingly seen as products to be consumed
