It is still a shock to discover the history lesson that Daniel York Loh has in store for us in Forgotten 遗忘 at the Arcola Theatre.
‘Variety & bite & human failings’: THE SHADOW FACTORY – Southampton ★★★★
Howard Brenton, a clear eye and eloquent historical storyteller, has immersed himself in the facts about the story of the Spitfires in The Shadow Factory and found an imaginative intuition.
SNOW IN MIDSUMMER – Stratford
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s Snow in Midsummer is an adaptation of Yuan dynasty drama The Injustice Done to Dou E by Guan Hanqing, marking a key milestone in the venerable institution’s avowed change of policy after the The Orphan of Zhao debacle in 2012.
Catastrophic casting: Scenes from a Yellowface Execution
It’s doubly ironic that in post-referendum, post-truth Brexit Britain, we’ve spent the last few months being told that you simply cannot call people stupid or racist. We don’t actually have to be stupid to do stupid things and we’re all perfectly capable of perpetuating systemic racism without actually being consciously racist.
Catastrophic casting: Scenes from a Yellowface Execution
It’s doubly ironic that in post-referendum, post-truth Brexit Britain, we’ve spent the last few months being told that you simply cannot call people stupid or racist. We don’t actually have to be stupid to do stupid things and we’re all perfectly capable of perpetuating systemic racism without actually being consciously racist.
P’YONGYANG – Finborough Theatre
Does Neil McPherson, artistic director of this fringe venue, have a direct line to the North Korean capital? In an uncanny coincidence he is opening In-Sook Chappell’s new play about everyday life in the Big Brother state in the same week as North Korea has announced that it has tested a hydrogen bomb. Similarly coincidental is the fact that Mia Chung’s You for Me for You, another play on a very similar subject, is still running at the Royal Court. Both of these studio plays paint a very similar picture of the deprivations visited on ordinary citizens.