STEVE JOHNSON recommends a beautiful album of songs that celebrate summer, from May Day onwards
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Sidney and the Old Girl, Park Theatre London
Litany of unremitting hatred between mother and son is a real theatrical downer
In oppositional orbit: Nell (Miriam Margolyes) and Sidney (Mark Hadfield)
[Pete le May]
New releases from Joe Wilkes, Honey and the Bear, and Hannah James and Toby Kuhn
Given the power of the live experience, MIK SABIERS recommends Jon Spencer’s new album
Reviews of T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, Tamikrest, and Dub Colossus
The bard celebrates two other fine practitioners of the art, and laments a lost brewer
This right-wing conspiracy theory is used to justify the coercive measures against gender, race and labour rights that best serve capitalism, attests GAVIN O’TOOLE
EUGENE O’HARE’S play, which gets its world premiere at the Park Theatre, has possibly two of the most unsympathetic characters ever presented in contemporary theatre.
It’s a tour de force but only as an example of how to make an audience feel uncomfortable and unsettled. Presumably, this is the artistic intention of the playwright.
Set in present-day east London, it centres on the relationship between Nell Stock (Miriam Margolyes) and her son Sidney (Mark Hadfield). Confined to a wheelchair, she’s dependent on Sidney who, in turn, is reliant on his mother for somewhere to live.
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