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!
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Challenging views of oldest profession
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
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
Playing The Whore: The Work Of Sex Work
by Melissa Gira Grant
(Verso, £8.99)
WHEN you read or hear the word “prostitute,” what image flashes before you? A tearful victim of trafficking? A whey-faced drug addict? Or a well-heeled “escort” in designer make-up?
All these constructions of sex workers, along with endless fictional figures from plucky Nancy in Oliver Twist to the Whore of Babylon to Belle de Jour’s Severine, form a great melting pot that Melissa Gira Grant dubs “the prostitute imaginary,” a vast repository of stock images
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