Album: LOUISAHHH - The Practice of Freedom (HE.SHE.THEY.)

★★★ LOUISAHHH - THE PRACTICE OF FREEDOM (HE.SHE.THEY.) Industrial dance pounding of various flavours from New Yorker via Paris

Industrial dance pounding of various flavours from New Yorker via Paris

Somewhere in dance culture or other, the Eighties revival has now been going on more than twice as long as the actual Eighties did. Starting around 1998, it reached an initial peak in the early 2000s as the dayglo-fashion led electroclash, but though the eye of the press moved away, it never really died away.

The Capote Tapes review - lush portrait of the louche writer

★★★ THE CAPOTE TAPES Lush portrait of the 'fairy Huck Finn'

Entertaining documentary portraying a figure once described as the 'fairy Huck Finn'

"A candied tarantula" is one of the many great descriptions of Truman Capote that light up this conventionally made but enjoyable profile of the American author most famous for Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood.

Overflow, Bush Theatre review – fear, fury and fun

★★★★ OVERFLOW, BUSH THEATRE Travis Alabanza's new monologue is a shout out for trans and non-gender-conforming rights

New monologue is a shout out for trans and non-gender-conforming rights

Travis Alabanza is black, trans, queer and proud. And they’ve got a lot to be proud about. In 2016, they were the youngest recipient of the artist in residence post on the Tate workshop programme, and two years later starred in Chris Goode’s wildly overblown adaptation of Derek Jarman’s Jubilee.

Album: Dolly Parton - A Dolly Holly Christmas

★★★★ DOLLY PARTON - A DOLLY HOLLY CHRISTMAS How much kitsch can you handle?

Seriously, how much kitsch can you handle?

Think hard. How much schmaltz do you think there is in this album? OK, double that. Now double it again. Nope, you’re still nowhere close. This is the world schmaltz lake with the entire EU cheese mountain forming an island in the middle, all decorated with a Willy Wonka factory worth of sugar candy and more camp than the Boy Scouts Of America. It’s like an entire planet done up like that weirdo down your street who lights up their entire house and garden for the whole of December every year. It’s ridiculous.

Zaina Arafat: You Exist Too Much review - second-generation love addiction

★★★ ZAINA ARAFAT: YOU EXIST TOO MUCH Second-generation love addiction

Self-conscious therapeutic development cannot help but recall the past

Zaina Arafat’s debut details the trials and tribulations of its first generation American-Palestinian narrator, desperately seeking love, but unable to stand its stifling reciprocation. Her struggles are all tied up with her inability to admit her bisexuality to her mother, and their complicated relationship.