A Place for We, Park Theatre review - perceptive, but rather flabby

★★★ A PLACE FOR WE, PARK THEATRE Perceptive, but rather flabby

New play about gentrification could be regenerated with a make-over

I’ve lived in Brixton, south London, for about 40 years now, so any play that looks at the gentrification of the area is, for me, definitely a must. Like many other places in the metropolis, the nature of the urban landscape has changed both due to gradual factors — such as migration — and spectacular events — like the Brixton riots of 1981 and 1985.

Blu-ray: Deep Cover

★★ DEEP COVER Early '90s American action movie takes on drug trade & police racism

Early '90s American action movie takes on the drug trade and racism within the police

Bill Duke’s 1992 thriller Deep Cover receives the Criterion restoration treatment, and certainly the neon noir lighting looks luscious and fresh. It’s a shame the screenplay, the directing, and most of the acting hasn’t stood the test of time. 

Candyman review - Nia DaCosta's clever sequel to the 1992 slasher movie

The horror of the art world: urban legends, racial politics and gentrification in Chicago

Anaphylactic shock, anyone? Candyman, both the 1992 original, directed by British director Bernard Rose and based on a story by Clive Barker, and its stylish, sharp sequel by Nia DaCosta, co-written and produced by Jordan Peele, features an awful lot of bees.

Baker, Chineke! Orchestra, Eddins, Edinburgh International Festival review - women's stories told by women

★★★★★ BAKER, CHINEKE! ORCHESTRA, EDDINS, EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL A powerful and poignant performance of an epic song-cycle by Judith Weir

A powerful and poignant performance of an epic song-cycle by Judith Weir

The Edinburgh International Festival has returned this year, with a programme of socially distanced events held almost completely outdoors.

Zola review - high-energy comic thriller tackles sex work

★★★★ ZOLA Is this the best road movie since Thelma and Louise?

Fasten your seat belt: is this the best road movie since Thelma and Louise?

It’s hard to imagine a movie more of its time than Zola, as it takes on sex, race, the glamorisation of porn and the allure of the ever-online world. For 90 minutes we are embedded in the lives of two young American sex workers and it’s a wild ride that leaves its audience breathless as they try to keep up with the hand-brake turns and sudden changes of pace and tone.

Lava, Bush Theatre review - poetic writing, mesmerically performed

★★★★ LAVA, BUSH THEATRE Poetic writing, mesmerically performed

Debut work from Benedict Lombe is a red-hot poem of protest

What’s in a name? In Benedict Lombe’s incendiary debut play at the Bush Theatre, the answer to this question encompasses a whole continent, an entire existential experience - the Black experience, to be exact - though not in the way that "roots" stories often proceed.

Album: Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow

★★★★★ EMMA-JEAN THACKRAY - YELLOW Leeds via London, audaciously cosmic jazz

Leeds via London jazz of the most audaciously cosmic kind

Emma-Jean Thackray is not lacking in audaciousness. This is, after all, a white woman from Leeds barely into her thirties, raised on bassline house and indie rock, making music whose most obvious comparisons are with some of the most revered (in the most literal sense) black musicians in modern history: Fela Kuti, Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, Stevie Wonder, J Dilla and more.

The Death of a Black Man, Hampstead Theatre review - blistering theatre with an unflinching vision

★★★★ THE DEATH OF A BLACK MAN, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE Blistering drama with an unflinching vision

Uncomfortable truths beneath the poisoned patter in revival of Alfred Fagon's 1975 play

This blistering, fearless play about an 18-year-old black entrepreneur on the King’s Road raises a myriad of uncomfortable questions that resonate profoundly with the Black Lives Matter debate.

Extract: Blackface by Ayanna Thompson

EXTRACT: 'BLACKFACE' BY AYANNA THOMPSON Examining the history and legacies of this racist performance mode 

Examining the history and legacies of this racist performance mode

Nearly a year has passed since George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police on 25 May. Nearly 200 have passed since the birth of “blackface minstrelsy” as a performance mode: white actors applying racial prosthetics to perform and make a mockery of black characters.