TheatreObituaryTom Kempinski obituaryActor and playwright best known for his 1980 stage hit Duet for One, which was later turned into a filmIt is widely accepted that most writers, most playwrights, write about bits of themselves. But few go so far as Tom Kempinski. For some years, Kempinski, who has died aged 85, was a self-confessed overweight, depressed agoraphobic who adopted survival mode through writing about his condition.
In his best known play, Duet for One (1980), he disguised an argument with himself in the six fractious meetings between a renowned concert violinist, Stephanie Abrahams, suddenly struck down with multiple sclerosis, and a German Jewish psychiatrist, Dr Feldman, hoping to convince her that life is still worth living. Read More...
BooksReviewThomas E Ricks applies a new lens to a familiar story, showing how those who marched for change succeeded – and suffered
Thomas E Ricks has written a sweeping history of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, retelling many of its moments of triumph and tragedy, from the Montgomery bus boycott spawned by the courage of Rosa Parks in 1955 to the bodies bloodied and broken by Alabama troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge 10 years later. Read More...
The ObserverIsraelArab minority has been alienated by united opposition against judicial reforms by Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition
As the light faded and tens of thousands of protesters made their way back from the Knesset to Jerusalem’s train station last week, the mood was tired but determined. Israel’s newly re-elected prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is no stranger to demonstrations calling for him to resign. But the now two-month-old movement against his far-right coalition’s plans to overhaul the judicial system is not like those he has faced before – or like any in the country’s history. Read More...