PAUL DONOVAN is chilled by the contemporary resonance of Harper Lee’s coming of age tale amidst racism and white supremacy in this excellent production
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Resisting the temptation of silence
21st century poetry with Andy Croft
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends the unashamedly light-hearted escapism on offer in this stage version of the 1963 film
Full of mysterious religious references and radical sound design, the Scottish duo’s new offering is candidate for album of the year, suggests SIMON DUFF
MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection
PAUL DONOVAN recommends the fine performances in this account of the pre-war meeting between the US president and the British king
TECLYN AROD relishes an intimate celebration of jazz improvisation that mixes local and national musicians
THERE is an early poem in Hans Magnus Enzensberger: New Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, £15) in which he explains why poets “do not tell the truth”:
“Because the thirsty man/does not give mouth to his thirst./Because proletariat is a word/which will not pass the lips of the proletariat... Because it is someone else,/always someone else,/who does the talking,/and because he/who is being talked about,/keeps his silence.”
It’s an issue to which Enzensberger has repeatedly returned — how do you use language to talk about things? How do you use words to tell the truth about language? How, in a noisy world, do you resist the temptations of silence?
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