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
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The Fifth Column
Southwark Playhouse, London SE1
3/5
ERNEST Hemingway came clean about his expectations of the critical reception for the Fifth Column when he wrote: “The Hotel Florida, where we lived and worked, was struck by more than 30 high-explosive shells.
“So if it is not a good play perhaps that is what is the matter with it.” He was right — his only full-length drama is not good. But director Tricia Thorns and the actors make full use of a claustrophobic set to create a sense of the siege conditions under which it was written at the height of the Spanish civil war in 1937.
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