New releases from Public Image Ltd, William Basinski, and John Luther Adams
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Arts ahead: March 26
The Last Ship
GABRIELE NEHER draws attention to an astoundingly skilled Flemish painter who defied the notion that women cannot paint like men
The Bard pays homage to Hull’s finest promoter and venue, and awards Douze Points to Laibach
KEVIN DONNELLY outlines how the bourgeois institutions inhibit our ability to to view art in revolutionary ways, and suggests some tactics to overturn it
ANDY HEDGECOCK welcomes an accessible - and optimistic - take on our relationship to new technology
JOHN GREEN suggests that a new, biased, and highly readable re-hash of the story of the Cambridge Five be taken with a large pinch of salt
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a timely reminder of the long history of protests and the outdoor spaces in which they takes place
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE/TOURING
The Last Ship
Newcastle Playhouse
Barras Bridge
Until April 7
"It's a strange kind of beauty,/it's cold and austere,/And whatever it was that you've done to be here,/It's the sum of your hopes." Thus Sting, who wrote the music and lyrics for this Northern Stage "political and passionate musical" (book by John Logan and Brian Yorkey).
The Last Ship tells the story of a shipbuilding town and its people, in which a sailor comes back from sea to discover the shipbuilding life he left behind in chaos. The yard is closing and no-one knows what will come next.
With the engine fired and pistons in motion, picket lines are drawn as the community braces itself in the face the gathering storm. Should be well worth checking out, either in Newcastle or during the national tour which follows.
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