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!
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Theatre: Candid home truths
Gordon Parsons is convinced by an updating of Voltaire’s classic
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
Full of mysterious religious references and radical sound design, the Scottish duo’s new offering is candidate for album of the year, suggests SIMON DUFF
MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection
PAUL DONOVAN recommends the fine performances in this account of the pre-war meeting between the US president and the British king
TECLYN AROD relishes an intimate celebration of jazz improvisation that mixes local and national musicians
Candide
The Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon
“Shit happens. We get over it.”
This modern gloss of “the Candide principle” that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds may not ring with the same satiric force of Voltaire’s original statement. But Mark Ravenhill’s adaptation of his 1759 parable, taking its hero through all manner of personal and public catastrophes while still clinging to his mentor Pangloss’s philosophy of absolute optimism, brings the message up to date with a vengeance.
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GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship
DAVID NICHOLSON recommends a dazzling production of Bernstein’s opera set in a world where chaos and violence are greeted by equanimity
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today