Culture

  • At the beginning of a big job

    City of Darkness, City of LightBy Marge PiercyMichael Joseph, 1997. 479 pp., $29.95 (hb) Review by Phil Shannon When a brilliant novelist meets a great revolution, the result is a magnificent novel by Marge Piercy that brings alive the colour,

  • Suburban nig.htmare

    The Season at SarsaparillaBy Patrick WhiteDirected by Mary-Anne GiffordNew Theatre, Sydney Review by Brendan Doyle A few days in the life of Sarsaparilla, a fictional suburb of Sydney, in the summer of 1961. Three decidedly Anglo families, the

  • Unwinding blues

    Unwinding blues Music Makin' MamaAnn RabsonAlligator Records through Festival Review by Melanie Sjoberg I had reached the end of a particularly difficult week at work and a night of serious Green Left Weekly selling. I then wallowed in the

  • Getting to the root of the problem

    Global Warning - Socialism and the EnvironmentBy Martin Cock and Bill HopwoodLondon: Militant Publications, 1996. £6.95 Review by Shane Bentley A welcome exception to the dearth of environmental analysis from the European left is Global

  • Flirting with the atomic bomb

    Atomic Australia: 1944-1990By Alice CawteNew South Wales University Press, 1992. 170 pp., $29.95 Australia's Uranium Opportunities: How Her Scientists and Engineers Tried to Bring Her into the Nuclear Age but were Stymied by PoliticsBy Keith

  • The revolution that won't surrender

    Cuba at the crossroadsBy Fidel CastroOcean Press, 1996. 179 pp., $21.95 Review by Roberto Jorquera Cuba at the crossroads is a collection of speeches by Fidel Castro between November 1994 and April 1996. They open up the entire history of the

  • Just the trick for tired businessmen

    The Washington ClubByPeter CorrisSydney: Bantam, 1997. 254 pp., $12.95 (pb)The Fourth EstateBy Jeffrey Archer London: Harper Collins, 1996. 551 pp., $14.95 (pb) Review by Tony Smith Supposedly, power causes conflict, and conflict produces the

  • Making it on Broadway

    Act OneAdapted by Don Mackay from Moss Hart's autobiographyDirected by Chris CanuteUntil August 2Ensemble Theatre, SydneyBookings 9929 0644 Review by Mark Stoyich I've never read the autobiography of Broadway playwright Moss Hart, but

  • Politics and Papalote

    Recently Green Left Weekly's SANDRA WALLACE caught up with JUSTO DIAZ of Papalote, one of Sydneys best known and most diverse Latin American bands. Question: When and how did the band start? The band began in 1979, but was known as Papalote

  • French plays close to the bone

    Chamber Theatre, in two parts: Dissident, Goes Without Saying and With Nina It's DifferentBy Michel VinaverPublic Works Theatre CompanyThe Lookout Theatre, SydneyBookings 9331 6351 Review by Brendan Doyle This double bill by contemporary French

  • Reforming bad ideology from within

    The Unconscious CivilisationABC Massey LecturesBy John Ralston SaulPenguin, 1995. 208 pp.A Truly Civil SocietyBoyer LecturesBy Eva CoxABC in booklet form or from the ABC web site. Review by Gerry Harant Since their broadcast on the ABC, a book

  • Poem: Chain Gang

    Poem: Chain Gang Chain Gang Work for the dolewell "Bless my sole"what an interesting idea.You would have thoughtthat someone oughtto have thoughtof thatbefore this year. Didn't they try to do it in 1929?Wasn't it then the susso