imposs1904
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Just added a Theatre Review page on the blog.
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/p/theatre-reviews.html
Following on from adding a Socialist Standard Film Review page on the blog last year, I’ve decided to now add a Socialist Standard Theatre Review page.
At the time of writing, the page is a chronological list of all the theatre reviews that have appeared in the Socialist Standard down the years that have been posted on the blog. The page will obviously be updated if and when new theatre reviews are added on the blog.
People will notice that some decades are more represented than others. The three most prolific theatre reviewers in the Socialist Standard were Ian Jones in the 1950s, Michael Gill in the 1990s and 2000s, and Steve Clayton in the 2010s.
I was expecting more George Bernard Shaw plays to be reviewed in the Standard, if only because Shaw was regularly at the receiving end of political barbs from SPGBers down the years but it turns out that Ibsen, Brecht and Stephen Poliakoff are the most reviewed playwrights in the Standard.
As with the case of the film reviews (and music reviews) in the Standard, it’s a shame that there are a paucity of reviews in the Standard in the early decades of its history. Especially when you consider that there were many fine Socialist Standard writers who could have quite easily turned their pens to such subjects. I guess the Party’s been a weird at times at addressing ‘culture’ in its official publications. Scared that a review of an Irvine Welsh novel might split the Party.
Just added a Film Review page on the blog.
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/p/film-reviews.html
At the time of writing all the Socialist Standard film reviews that are currently on the blog on one handy page. I’ve broken them up into decades for easy navigation. Sad to see that some decades are sorely under-represented. I wonder if it was because it was just the case that Socialist Standard writers weren’t reviewing movies, or if it was a conscious decision on the part of the Socialist Standard Editorial Committee not to solicit film reviews for the Standard.
The two most prolific film reviewers in the pages of the Socialist Standard down the years were Janie Percy-Smith in the 1980s and Steve Clayton in the 2010s.
From the archives.
An article by Harry Young from 1976:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/08/why-i-joined-spgb.html
The United National Antiwar Coalition is affiliated to – maybe even a front for – the Workers World Party. Not saying he’s a member or a fellow-traveller of the WWP. He might just be a useful idiot for them.
Though the WWP has it historic roots in the American Socialist Workers Party, they’re best described as tankies at this point.
Not a fan.
A genuine question: why do you think it’s painful to read the website version?
PS – There is a PDF of this month’s Socialist Standard. Someone sent me a copy.
Surely an album review deserved its own separate page?
If only to mark the fact that it’s only the fifth album review in 1415 issues of the Socialist Standard.
The only reason Mr Blobby would have got more votes is because he once appeared on the front cover of the Socialist Standard.
That aside, DJP makes a fair point which I happen to agree with.
