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Image courtesy of British Library Images Swayed by the motion of the Circle Line, I grip the overhead rail with one hand, an Oxford Classics paperback in the other. The modernist fragmentations of Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf become increasingly oblique as I read (without a hint of performativity), making me wish I had a hand free to scratch my head. My attention starts to wane. Opposite, a fellow commuter smiles warmly into a screen. A message from someone close, perhaps;

Nostalgia is not cultural comfort, but cultural cowardice. It’s a way for people to simulate connectivity whilst ignoring the collective responsibility we have to create our own future. With the rise of nostalgia, our culture more broadly is at a crossroads, edging towards implosion and the end of the present. 

Review of 'I'm Still Here', winner of Best International Feature at the 97th Academy Awards

The cast must be applauded for breathing life into the best elements of this play.