Folk
Rachel Halliburton
There has been a trend in productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in recent years to portray Athens as a sexually repressive regime in which Queen Hippolyta is resentfully shackled to Theseus after he has conquered her in battle. The Bridge Theatre’s – ultimately gloriously escapist – Dream, portrayed Theseus as a tyrant from The Handmaid’s Tale. Meanwhile, the beautifully austere Dream which played at The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse last Christmas, showed him as a psychotic misogynist.This is a completely valid reading of the text – I personally have never recovered from the Read more ...
Tim Cumming
Mark Rothko’s colour field paintings invite contemplation, reflection, quietude, association, and in British, Irish and Scottish folk this year, that feeling of an open field, a depth of focus and an appetite to enter arrestingly abstract areas marks out a disparate range of albums of the year.It’s part of the magic and ambience of fiddle-guitar duo Spafford Campbell’s compelling second set, Tomorrow Held. They explore the quiet end of the open field, the title track a haunting 14-minute centrepiece, expanding that sense of space in their music to cosmic dimensions. On opening track “ Read more ...