Category: Analysis

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Aimee Grant, Associate Professor in Public Health and Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow, Swansea University

The term “neurodiversity” is still relatively new. Even now, there’s no firm agreement among experts about what it should include. Does it refer only to neurodevelopmental differences such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia? Or should it stretch further, to include mental health conditions too?

Until recently, no one had asked neurodivergent people themselves what they thought about the language used to describe them. So, we decided to do just that. Our new research found a mixture of positive and negative views about words like “neurodiversity” and “neurodivergent”.

Neurodiversity refers to the different ways in which people think and behave. Just as everyone has an ethnicity, everyone has a neurotype. Around 15% of people are thought to be neurodivergent, meaning their brains function differently from what society considers “typical”. The remaining 85% are neurotypical.

In our survey of more than 900 neurodivergent adults across the UK, almost everyone had heard of the word “neurodiversity”. Also, 74% said they used related language, such as “neurodivergent”, to describe themselves.

One finding stood out in particular: how often the language of neurodiversity is used incorrectly. The word “neurodiverse” refers to a group that includes both neurotypical and neurodivergent people. In other words, it’s a mix of different brain types. But it’s often used to describe individuals or groups of neurodivergent people, when the correct term would be “neurodivergent”.

For many participants, this mistake was more than a harmless slip of the tongue. Some described it as deeply irritating, while others saw it as a warning sign. When an expert or organisation got it wrong, especially one claiming to be inclusive, it could be seen as a “red flag”. Some participants thought this was a sign that they used fashionable inclusive language while failing to change exclusionary practices.

Participants also felt differently about how useful the term “neurodivergent” actually is. Some described it as a “safe umbrella” – a simple, inclusive way to talk about their identity without listing multiple diagnoses. One person explained that it saved them from reeling off a “laundry list” of conditions.

Others said it felt safer than naming specific conditions such as autism or ADHD, which can still carry stigma. Saying “I’m neurodivergent” offered a way to share something about themselves while reducing the risk of a negative reaction. It also helped people who were waiting for a diagnosis or who self-identified as neurodivergent but didn’t yet have formal recognition.

Read more:
Why it’s time to rethink the notion of an autism ‘spectrum’

But not everyone found the word helpful. Some said it was too broad to mean anything and didn’t communicate their day-to-day challenges or support needs. Others pointed out that many people still don’t understand what “neurodivergent” means, making it ineffective as a way to explain who they are.

There were also concerns that broadening the language could unintentionally increase stigma towards specific conditions, such as ADHD, by lumping everyone together under one label.

Language shapes how we see the world but also how the world sees us. Our research shows that while umbrella terms like neurodivergent can create community and belonging, they shouldn’t replace more specific identities such as autism or ADHD. Both have an important place.

Instead of replacing those words, we should focus on reducing prejudice and discrimination against neurodivergent people, and also on using language that reflects respect and understanding.

Getting it right

As language choices are deeply personal, when you are talking to a neurodivergent person, it may be appropriate to mirror their language choice.

That said, a general rule is if you’re going to use language around neurodiversity, it’s important to use it correctly. Many neurodivergent people find misuse frustrating, especially when it comes from people or organisations who claim to champion inclusion. To keep it simple:

“Neurodiverse” describes groups that include both neurodivergent and neurotypical people – you may find it helpful to think that “neurodiverse” includes everybody in the universe. “Neurodivergent” refers to individuals or groups of people whose brains work differently, for example, autistic people or those with ADHD or dyslexia.

As one participant put it, getting it wrong might just make a neurodivergent person want to hit you with a dictionary.

Aimee Grant receives funding from The Wellcome Trust and UKRI.

Jennifer Leigh is a co-director of LLB Inclusive Employment Ltd. She has received funding from UKRI and The Royal Society of Chemistry Diversity & Inclusion Fund.

Amy Pearson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. What autistic people – and those with ADHD and dyslexia – really think about the word ‘neurodiversity’ – https://theconversation.com/what-autistic-people-and-those-with-adhd-and-dyslexia-really-think-about-the-word-neurodiversity-264920

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Merav Amir, Reader of Human Geography, Queen’s University Belfast

Israel’s top military prosecutor, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, was arrested recently in a case which further reveals the extent of mistreatment of Palestinian detainees and the impunity enjoyed by Israeli security forces. The arrest of Tomer-Yerushalmi, who was, until her resignation last week, Israel’s military advocate general, is the latest development in a dramatic scandal that has been unfolding since February 2024.

It started with a complaint filed by a doctor who had served in the medical facility next to the Sde Teiman detention camp in the Negev desert in southern Israel. Professor Yoel Donchin reported that a detainee appeared to have been an victim of a severe assault. The detainee arrived at the hospital showing signs of beating and possible brutal sexual assault.

Following Donchin’s report and a subsequent investigation, a group of reservists from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were arrested on suspicion of abusing the Palestinian. When Israeli military police arrived at Sde Teiman to detain the soldiers, protesters forced entry into the Sde Teiman camp in an attempt to stop the arrest. When that failed, rioters – including armed soldiers on active duty – attempted to break into the military police headquarters and free the arrested soldiers.

This drew attention to the fact that allegations of torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners and detainees have become common in Israeli incarceration facilities since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 2023. Yet, despite ample evidence against Israeli soldiers, prison warders and interrogators from Israel’s security services (Shabak), there have been few attempts to hold anyone accountable.

In some respects, this lack of accountability is consistent with what has long been Israel’s approach regarding violence towards Palestinians. Despite being a country apparently bound by the rule of law, cases in which Palestinians have been mistreated, abused, tortured and killed have rarely been addressed by the Israeli legal authorities. Soldiers and Shabak interrogators enjoy a de-facto impunity for committing crimes against Palestinians, including torture.

This effective impunity exists despite Israel having robust systems to ensure prosecutions. For example, the Ministry of Justice has a dedicated unit to address complaints against Shabak interrogators pertaining to allegations of torture. Yet, out of more than 1,450 complaints filed against Shabak interrogators between 1992 and early 2023, criminal investigations have been opened in just three cases. None have led to indictments.

We argue that these mechanisms of accountability were never primarily motivated by concerns with the rule of law. Nor were they about holding members of Israel’s security forces accountable for crimes committed against Palestinians. They were always mainly a facade, motivated, to a great extent, by an attempt to protect Israel and its security personnel from prosecutions in international courts.

The jurisdiction of international courts is limited by the principle of complementarity. This means that the International Criminal Court (ICC) can only intervene when complainants cannot get justice in domestic courts. By showing that it has an independent legal system to which Palestinians can turn, and which can potentially hold perpetrators accountable, Israel can protect its security personnel from charges by the ICC.

Nevertheless, our research into the use of torture by Israel has found evidence to suggest that this system – weak as it was in terms of accountability – actually did restrain Israeli interrogators.

The restraining effects of these accountability mechanisms became even clearer when they all but ceased to function after October 7 2023. For example, a study published in September, which examined complaints lodged by Palestinians with Israeli non-governmental organisations, found “diverse forms of reported violence that could potentially constitute torture”. Ample testimonies suggest what Israeli human rights group B’Tselem called a “rushed transformation of more than a dozen Israeli prison facilities, military and civilian, into a network of camps dedicated to the abuse of inmates as a matter of policy”.

The loosening of the reins since October 2023 can be explained, to a large extent, by the Hamas attack itself. The viciousness of the attack was perceived by many in Israel as changing the rules. In the eyes of many Israelis, it legitimised a response which is unconstrained by domestic or international law.

But this process began prior to Hamas’ attack. Israel’s legal mechanisms of accountability had already been weakened on the eve of October of 2023. This is due, in large part, to the judicial overhaul which was launched by the current Israeli government in January of that year.

From the moment the Netanyahu government assumed power at the end of 2022, it has done all it could to dismantle the independence of the Israeli judicial system. Its targeting of the judiciary was driven, in no small part, by the wish to remove anything that could stand in the way of expanding settlements, exercising harsher violence against Palestinians and, ultimately, annexing the West Bank.

The targeting of this system has eroded its ability to withstand pressures. It has effectively left it unable to investigate war crimes and press charges against security personnel. The demise of this system played a central part in unleashing the unprecedented levels of Israeli violence against Palestinians witnessed over the past two years.

Finding a scapegoat

It’s against this backdrop that the resignation and arrest of Tomer-Yerushalmi can be understood as part of the bigger story of the seminal change in Israel’s approach towards accountability.

When word got out in July of last year that she was planning to press charges against those responsible for the assault on the detainee in Sde Teiman, the military lawyer was attacked by the government and its supporters. She was painted as a traitor by ministers and in the right-wing media. Regular demonstrations were held outside her home and, worse, she was assaulted by proponents of the accused soldiers on the streets. Security around her had to be tightened after she started receiving death threats.

Trying to protect herself and her team from these attacks, Tomer-Yerushalmi leaked CCTV footage of the assault in Sde Teiman to the press. In her resignation letter, she wrote that she authorised the leak in an attempt to counter the false propaganda directed against the military law enforcement authorities.

She told a meeting of the Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee that investigating allegations of abuse of this nature was a show of strength rather than of weakness. The independence of the military justice system was, she said, “essential to the state’s arguments in international tribunals”. She added: “There are countries for which the question of whether they sell and supply us with munitions is [determined by] whether we investigate when we receive a complaint.”

She seems to believe that Israel’s legal system must be seen to act when it encounters cases as severe as this. But in Israel after October 7 this appears no longer to be the case. As the response by Netanyahu and other ministers suggest, Israel is no longer interested in maintaining even this facade of accountability.

The leaked video prompted public outrage. But the government has managed to shift the focus away from the alleged atrocities the soldiers committed and onto the leaking of the footage. Netanyahu called this “perhaps the most severe propaganda attack against the State of Israel” in its history”.

Read more:
Israeli doctors reveal their conflicted stories of treating Palestinian prisoners held in notorious ‘black site’ Sde Teiman

The official allegations against Tomer-Yerushalmi include tempering with the committee set to investigate the link, and providing a false statement to Israel’s High Court of Justice concerning the affair. But even before the video was leaked – and well before Tomer-Yerushalmi was revealed as the leaker – Netanyahu’s far-right government colleagues were attacking the investigation itself.

Minister of national security Itamar Ben Gvir called it “shameful” and demanded “a full backing for our hero soldiers”. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called the abuse allegations “blood libels against the State of Israel” – a reference to antisemitic lies told about Jewish practices in medieval Europe.

It seems, then, that Tomer-Yerushalmi is being targeted not for the offences she is now investigated for. She is rather attacked for one of the very few cases in which she decided to act in accordance with her role.

The tribulations of the first woman to ever serve as the military’s most senior lawyer must therefore be understood as part of a broader story. This is about the Netanyahu goverment’s efforts to rid Israel of its mechanisms of accountability while also bringing the judiciary under executive control.

In the meantime, the victim of this gruesome assault is still suffering from its aftermath. His injuries have left him with several medical complications and permanently disabled. He was released back to Gaza in the last hostage deal. He was not asked to provide his testimony prior to his release.

Merav Amir receives funding from the ESRC.

Hagar Kotef receives funding from the ESRC.

– ref. Arrest of top whistleblower shows extent of Israeli impunity over torture of Palestinian detainees – https://theconversation.com/arrest-of-top-whistleblower-shows-extent-of-israeli-impunity-over-torture-of-palestinian-detainees-266489

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Susannah Fisher, Principal Research Fellow, Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, UCL

Countries around the world are facing worsening heatwaves, hurricanes, droughts and floods. If current trends continue, governments need to prepare for a much hotter world with a predicted increase in global temperatures of at least 2°C, possibly up to 3°C.

Yet most adaptation action does not go far enough to manage these effects of climate change.

I am a researcher working on tracking progress on adaptation and author of Sink or Swim, a new book that explores the hard choices ahead to adapt to climate change. Adaptation measures aim to reduce the risks from climate change by, for example, building defences to protect from flooding or upgrading road surfaces to manage higher temperatures. These measures differ around the world.

Bangladesh: building early warning systems

With its low-lying coastal land, Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. It is also a global leader in adaptation. For example, the government set up early warning systems that help it spot cyclones much earlier and communicate this information to local groups.

This has dramatically reduced deaths. However, as the effects of climate change escalate, current approaches to adaptation will probably not be enough, with Bangladesh facing large-scale displacement due to sea-level rise, river flooding and extreme heat.

Tuvalu: reclaiming land and opportunities

Tuvalu, an island nation in the Pacific, faces sea-level rise, increased flooding and the salination of water supplies. The government is investing in land reclamation to keep some of the low-lying land above the water.

They have also signed a migration agreement with neighbouring Australia, although the Tuvaluan government has recently repeated that they do not plan to leave the island. But the slow progress on emission reductions puts them at risk of severe flooding making life increasingly difficult.

UK: independent monitoring but slow progress

The UK has an independent body (the Climate Change Committee) that reports to the government on progress. Its latest report found that implementation of adaptation was inadequate.

One area where this is significant is food security: over half of the UK’s best agricultural land is at risk of flooding and this will increase by 2050. The UK is also vulnerable to climate-related supply chain disruptions on food imports. Although the UK has the institutions in place, the action on adaptation is still far less than is needed.

Kenya: putting people at the centre

Some countries, such as Kenya, have developed channels to devolve decisions to local committees that can allocate money to adaptation projects that meet their priorities. Allowing local people to prioritise what is most important to them is hard to do, but is a key way of making adaptation relevant to people’s lives.

But not all impacts of climate change can be managed through local action alone. To manage impacts past 2 degrees people may need support with new approaches. For example, shifting to new crop varieties or transitioning away from agriculture.

Australia: high costs and military support

Australia is at risk from flooding, extreme heat and bushfires. The Climate Council estimate that one in every 25 properties will be at high risk of disasters and uninsurable by 2030, most of these for flooding of rivers.

As well as the high costs of disasters, Australia has also deployed its defence force to respond. Some argue this spreads them too thin, meaning they can’t focus on their core job of defence. Australia just released a national adaptation plan and this makes clear that the future might involve climate-related relocation and agricultural producers needing to move.

Sink or swim?

Countries are making important progress on adaptation by installing early warning systems and setting up the institutions needed to channel money to local people and to monitor national progress. Bangladesh, Tuvalu and Kenya are leading the way. But even in these places, most adaptation action does not go far enough to manage the escalating impacts coming our way.

The world needs to stop burning fossil fuels. This is the only way to stop further damage and make it possible to adapt. While we are doing what we can to limit any further warming, nations also need to plan for the future we are currently heading towards.

Countries need a new approach to adaptation that goes beyond tweaking current institutions and practices to one that helps people imagine and create new futures where they can thrive, even in 2-3°C warming. This will mean big shifts in how people earn a living, the role of the military, where people live, and where and how we grow food. It is only by facing up to this new reality, that we will find a way to “swim” in the climate-changed world.

This article features a reference to a book that has been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on the link and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

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Susannah Fisher currently receives funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). She has received grant funding from DFID/FCDO, GIZ and the Mary Robinson Foundation. She has undertaken short-term consultancy for IIED, GGGI, QCF, CIFF, FILE, the Adaptation Fund, the World Bank, the OECD and the CIF Transformative Change Learning Partnership . She is on the Advisory Group of the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance.

– ref. How five countries are adapting to the climate crisis – https://theconversation.com/how-five-countries-are-adapting-to-the-climate-crisis-266707

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rachel Woods, Senior Lecturer in Physiology, University of Lincoln

Colostrum is often called “liquid gold” by lactation specialists, midwives and infant-health researchers. It’s the early milk produced in the first days after childbirth: thick, yellow and rich in antibodies, proteins and nutrients.

Newborn babies benefit greatly from it because their immune systems are not yet fully developed and their stomachs can only hold very small amounts. For babies, there’s no debate: colostrum is incredibly beneficial.

But some wellness brands are marketing colostrum to adults. Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s Lemme range sells it as sweet gummies and as a sugar-free liquid supplement and creamer.

The appeal is easy to understand. Colostrum has a powerful reputation in infant health. If it protects newborns, many assume it must offer something extraordinary for adults too – but does it?

Babies and adults have very different nutritional needs. A newborn’s stomach holds only a few millilitres, and their immune system is immature. Colostrum provides highly concentrated immune and nutritional factors that the baby needs in its first days of life.

Adults, by contrast, have fully developed digestive and immune systems and can obtain nutrients from a varied diet. An adult stomach holds around one to one-and-a-half litres and expands further after eating. What is essential for a baby is not automatically useful or necessary for an adult body.

While colostrum has undeniable benefits in early life, the versions sold to adults are processed, flavoured and taken in much smaller amounts. That’s why it’s important to look closely at what these products contain and what their marketing suggests they can do.

Colostrum-based supplements are often promoted using persuasive wellness language and health-related suggestions, but scientific evidence for their effectiveness in adults remains limited, early and often based on small studies involving specific groups rather than healthy people. Here’s a closer look at the ideas behind some of these marketing messages and what research actually tells us.

Gut health, digestion and reduced bloating

Some small studies suggest that bovine colostrum might reduce temporary increases in intestinal permeability, sometimes called “leaky gut”, where the lining of the intestine becomes less effective at keeping out bacteria and toxins. These changes can occur after intense exercise or when taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, drugs that can irritate the stomach and gut lining.

However, these studies involved only a small number of participants in specific contexts, not healthy adults in everyday life. The findings are considered preliminary and would require larger, well-designed clinical trials before any conclusions could be drawn about general digestive benefits.

The prebiotic fibres inulin and xylooligosaccharides, sometimes added to supplements, are much better studied. Inulin has been shown to increase levels of beneficial gut bacteria such as bifidobacteria, while xylooligosaccharides have been linked to greater bacterial diversity and small improvements in markers related to bowel health, obesity and type 2 diabetes in early research.

But these fibres are not unique to colostrum-based products. They also occur naturally in foods such as onions, garlic, leeks, bananas and chicory root and are widely available as standalone fibre supplements.

Immune system support

Colostrum helps newborns develop immunity by providing antibodies at a time when their immune systems are still forming. This does not mean that taking colostrum will strengthen a healthy adult’s immune system.

The idea of “boosting” immunity – a phrase used in promotional material for Kardashian Barker’s Lemme colostrum supplements – is common in wellness marketing, but it can be misleading. A healthy immune system doesn’t usually need boosting, and an overactive one can cause harm by attacking the body’s own tissues, as happens in autoimmune conditions such as type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis.

Some research has explored the potential of bovine colostrum in specific conditions, such as ulcerative colitis and travellers’ diarrhoea. But these studies are small, focus on people who are already unwell and cannot be generalised to the wider population. Anyone with health concerns should seek medical advice before taking any supplement.

In Lemme’s products, references to immune support appear to rely primarily on vitamin D. Vitamin D does help regulate the immune system and supports bone health, and low levels are common in winter or in people with limited sunlight exposure. However, vitamin D is inexpensive and widely available as a standalone supplement.

Read more:
Vitamin D deficiency is widespread – but overusing supplements can also be dangerous

“Full body wellness”

This is a broad phrase without a specific scientific definition. On the Lemme website, the company states that vitamin D supports healthy bones and teeth, which is accurate, but that benefit is not unique to its colostrum products.

“Glowing skin”

This phrase has appeared in some advertising coverage but not on the official product page. “Glowing skin” has no clinical definition and no standard method of measurement. There’s currently no evidence that colostrum, or any of the ingredients in these supplements, produces this effect.

How language influences trust

Lemme’s website includes the standard disclaimer found on most dietary supplements, stating that the products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.

The brand also describes its ingredients as “clinically studied.” This is not the same as “clinically proven.” The phrase typically means that an ingredient has been tested in some form of study, but it does not indicate whether the results were positive, significant or relevant to human health.

Research shows that consumers often confuse these terms. It sounds scientific but does not demonstrate proven efficacy.

Colostrum is extraordinary for newborns. Nature designed it to protect babies during their most vulnerable days. For adults, however, there is no strong evidence from large, well-designed trials that colostrum supplements improve skin, digestion or immunity in healthy individuals. Some ingredients in these products may show potential in specific medical conditions, but that is not the same as demonstrating general wellness effects.

Colostrum supplements primarily market the idea of something pure, powerful and natural. At present, the science does not fully support these suggestions.

Rachel Woods does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Can colostrum supplements improve your skin, gut and immune system? A nutritionist explains – https://theconversation.com/can-colostrum-supplements-improve-your-skin-gut-and-immune-system-a-nutritionist-explains-269256

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michael Collins, Reader in American Studies and Chair of The British Association for American Studies, King’s College London

For legal reasons, David Adjmi and Will Butler’s play is absolutely not about the recording of Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumours. But like that famous album, it is a dizzying amalgamation of influences, mercurial talents and creativity that sits among the defining achievements of its generation. And like Fleetwood Mac, too, it is hard to pinpoint precisely what witchy alchemy makes Stereophonic work so well.

Suffice it to say that it does. The play is a masterpiece. A must-see by all accounts. The legendary 13 Tony Award nominations and smash-hit period on Broadway, followed by doubly-extended runs in London’s West End (where I saw it) are fully deserved.

The play follows a group of musicians in their recording studio in late-1970s California putting together an album that, once again, is expressly not Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. For a play that is about a band on the verge of titanic artistic, critical and popular success, the principal theme of the work is failure. Or rather, how to learn and grow from it: how to cut a great track; when to cut and run from a toxic relationship; what to keep or cut from our chequered lives so that we can carry on living.

Some of their rock-star lives seem like a lot of fun, but this really is play about work. The work of music and the work of life itself. Sure, the office might not be cubicles and water coolers. It is more like chez longues and gigantic communal bags of the cocaine (probably the hardest working prop currently on the London stage). Yet this is office politics all the same.

Writer Adjmi’s brilliance is that, for all their rockstar antics, the band in Stereophonic are genuinely labouring for the execution of their vision. At the expense of the health and wellbeing. The beleaguered recording engineer, Grover (Eli Gelb), is in almost every scene working tirelessly at the recording desk. He is the Sisyphus of the soundcheck.

The physical mass of the recording desk placed centre stage takes up much of the space typically reserved for the cast. They teeter tipsily around it. It recalls the omnipresence of the tape recorder driving Samuel Beckett’s play Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), a work with which Stereophonic has a surprising amount in common. Like Beckett, Adjmi is using recording technology to ruminate on the problem of time, which is where the play transcends its immediate setting and becomes most salient and meaningful.

The stage is split in half with upstage placed behind a glass screen. We can sometimes hear behind it and sometimes cannot. It is a wall. But it is also a stage of its own on which the characters perform. As a metaphor, the staging stands for how in their relentless rock theatricality the characters can’t always communicate. It asks, when does image or spectacle overtake the truth art seeks to reveal to the world?

All this (70s rock bands, heaps of cocaine, beige upholstery, unimpeded sexual license) could be put down to our cultural moment’s obsession with nostalgia – a sign of our being stuck politically and socially. But that would be to miss the point of Stereophonic wholly.

The London theatre scene is awash with jukebox musicals with ropey plots built around forcing famous songs into some weak narrative. These are mostly not musicals so much as tribute acts forced to do skits. Stereophonic channels the nostalgia in a different direction. The songs are not actual Fleetwood Mac songs – but so good is Will Butler’s (of Arcade Fire) score that they could be.

Some of the performances (really performed live by the actors) just soar. This is a nostalgia that does not dwell in the past alone but is pointing forward. It is more like what the late, great critical theorist (following Jacques Derrida) Mark Fisher called “hauntology”.

As the characters disappear from downstage to appear behind the glass wall of the recording booth, this ghostliness is referenced directly. The recording booth makes the actors unreachable. But so does fame and the process of becoming legend. When one of them speaks into the mic it is like someone communicating through the void from the other side.

What makes classic rock so appealing, and such a great subject for a play, is partly the bildungsroman (fiction focused on the growth and development of young people) and crisis central to its story. It’s almost religious. There was no autotuning available to them. There’s no possibility of endlessly recording and recording over. They try to do this, but there are material limits to their endeavours. They have to get it right.

Adjmi’s script suggests that magnetic tape and goodwill can, like a record label’s patience, like our youth itself, run out suddenly and painfully. One day all this hedonism and earthly pleasure will end for them. As it will for us all.

When the label gives the band more time half way through, it is like they have been granted immortality or a stay of execution. Adjmi manages to make the whole enterprise feel as high stakes as a family tragedy.

Indeed, family (found or otherwise) looms large in the minds of the musicians. Singer Holly and bassist Reg’s marriage is breaking down, drummer Simon misses the kids he has neglected for a year recording and boozing in Los Angeles, singer and guitarist Peter reveals the origin of his perfectionism in a conflict with his Olympic-swimmer brother.

The script works by transforming the musicians’ meaningless, very stoned, profusions of words into moments of sudden beauty and clarity. Their druggy murmurings come suddenly to resemble a stunning lyrical murmuration of form and idea.

This technique replays in microcosm the play’s engagement with the surprising human process of discovery and, let’s call it, genius, that happens within the fold of limited mortal time. This is not just a play about rock. It is so much more.

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Michael Collins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Stereophonic: this play about an ailing rock band is a must-see masterpiece – https://theconversation.com/stereophonic-this-play-about-an-ailing-rock-band-is-a-must-see-masterpiece-269227