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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Unhappy days
MARY CONWAY is stunned by a conversational comedy whose every platitude is a deliberate conduit to deeply human complexities beneath
THOLING IT: Christina Kirk (Sofi), Kristine Nielsen (Ginnie), Brenda Pressley (Elaine) and Mia Katigbak (Yvette) in Infinite Life
[Marc Brenner]
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
Infinite Life
National Theatre - Dorfman
PULITZER Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker is an original voice in American theatre. Unfettered by fashionable obsessions, her genius lies in new philosophical takes on simple stories of American life, and in the particular ear she has for meandering conversation that exemplifies the way people not only talk but think.
Infinite Life at the Dorfman surprises with every line, every platitude a deliberate conduit to deeply human complexities beneath. It’s a play where the drama takes place in the invisible world of human mentality, the outer physical expressions such as speech and movement signifying only the socialised — and therefore unremarkable — utterances of ordinary people. Behind the superficial and banal, the experience is intense and profound.
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