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The Guardian - Culture Edit Unfollow Manipulate festival review – a wealth of delights for the imagination by Mark Fisher Jan 31, 2022 Summerhall and the Studio, Festival theatre, Edinburgh Magical AR miniatures and a dream-like circus drama are among the impressive productions opening this celebration of visually led theatre No single word can encapsulate Manipulate. The festival’s mix of animation, physical theatre and puppetry defies easy categorisation. The organisation itself opts for “visually led work”. On the strength of this year’s opening weekend, you could also call it a celebration of making something out of nothing. No more so is this the case than in Acqua Alta by the French duo Adrien M & Claire B. Around a boardroom table, they have arranged a set of large books, opened to reveal pen-and-ink scribbles and simple pop-up structures. Ordinarily, you wouldn’t give them a second look. Manipulate festival is at Summerhall and the Studio, Festival theatre, Edinburgh, until 5 February. The Chosen Haram is at Jacksons Lane, London, 4-6 February. Continue reading... Continue Reading 'Brothers and sisters getting their groove on': Melvin Van Peebles' house-party musical by Chris Wiegand Jan 31, 2022 Known for his pioneering blaxploitation cinema, the late film director also created Don’t Play Us Cheap, a goofy but soul-stirring Broadway hit that should not be forgotten When Melvin Van Peebles died last autumn, he was rightly remembered as a firebrand film-maker and the godfather of blaxploitation and independent cinema. His stage career as a theatre director, playwright, composer and lyricist is less well documented – mind you, so are his other lives as a novelist, painter and Wall Street trader. In 1971, in the wake of his explosively successful low-budget film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, Van Peebles made his Broadway debut with a “ghetto-life” musical, Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death. He wrote its music, book and lyrics and the following year, ever the multi-hyphenate, he did the same for a second Broadway musical, Don’t Play Us Cheap. But this time he also produced and directed. The two shows ran concurrently in the summer of 1972, and that year he released a film version of Don’t Play Us Cheap starring the original Broadway cast. It’s now available in a Blu-ray Van Peebles box set from Criterion. Continue reading... Continue Reading

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