CHRIS SEARLE welcomes a startling vision of contemporary Newport from a veteran photographer of the British working class
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At my command by Janet Harper
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
If I were Prospero, I’d find a boat,
rotten with ragged sails and creaking mast.
I’d fill it with presidents & their cutthroats,
men, whose crimes for profit are unsurpassed.
I’d put them out to sea and make a storm,
let them roll around on deck and puke.
In cold and dark they’d see their world transform,
their fate at last to face violent rebuke.
They’d land on shores all slick with dirty oil,
stumble into forest fires, repent and cry
for all that they have witnessed and destroyed.
My power would be to open up their eyes
to green seas and azure vaulted skies.
Janet Harper is a teacher. She is currently Poet in Residence with Pear Necessities, an organic orchard in Kent.
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