To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
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Ferocious pillowtalk
MARY CONWAY is astonished that the dark experience of child abuse can be dramatised with humour and theatrical panache
WORTHY OF PINTER: Paul Kaye (Ariel), Steve Pemberton (Tupolski) and Lily Allen (Katurian) in The Pillowman
[Johan Persson]
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
The Pillowman,
Duke of York’s Theatre, London
MARTIN McDONAGH stands out from other playwrights like a beacon. Original and fearless, and with an honesty so brutal it feels like an assault on polite society, he brings us first-rate excoriating theatre that travels with ease where angels fear to tread.
The Pillowman, which premiered 20 years ago, is particularly dark, facing head-on the horror of child abuse, murder and torture.
While not normally a fun theme in anyone’s book, in McDonagh’s hands it’s a good night out, with humour and theatrical complexity taking us to places we’ve never been before.
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