CHRIS SEARLE welcomes a startling vision of contemporary Newport from a veteran photographer of the British working class
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Mark Burnhope - Standing is the Apples to Sitting’s Oranges
Well Versed is edited by JODY PORTER
ANGUS REID recommends a very unusual documentary: a love story between two disillusioned journalists
In verse and polemic, the bard points out that he is a poet and musician, not a political party
MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Invite, My Father’s Island, Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie, and Oh My Goodness!
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
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends the unashamedly light-hearted escapism on offer in this stage version of the 1963 film
Standing is the Apples to Sitting’s Oranges
Mark Burnhope
On the Diamond Jubilee debacle
pink-suited Elton John sings:
I’m still standing but the thing is
he isn’t. Note: the stool buckling under
his gravitas. Every band member stands
but the drummer, or everything before
the jam – cool, measured – is butchered.
Standing is staring, greenly, at the fence
Elton croons subliminally, bids me to climb
higher towards the heights he frequents,
employ unprecedented levels of sleeping
muscle. I rise from the sofa, open
the curtain, jot down our encounter’s gist
as furiously, and frankly, as I can:
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In verse and polemic, the bard points out that he is a poet and musician, not a political party
SYLVIA HIKINS recommends a fascinating, revealing, superbly acted evening of theatre
RUTH AYLETT reviews two collections of outright political poetry
WILL STONE applauds a comprehensive survey of love in its many moods and musical forms