Arts
My Night With Reg at the Apollo Theatre reviewed: a great play that will go under without an interval
Gay plays crowd the theatrical canon. There are the necessary enigmas of Noël Coward, like The Vortex or Design For…
London International Mime Festival review: on juggling, dance and Wayne Rooney's hair transplant
January is something of a palate-cleanser for the year, as the London International Mime Festival flies in plane-loads of companies…
Trash, review: trash by name, trash by nature
Trash is the sort of film one desperately wishes to be kind about — heart supremely, if not burstingly, in…
An artistic crime is committed at the Royal Festival Hall
In one of the more peculiar concerts that I have been to at the Royal Festival Hall, Vladimir Jurowski conducted…
The man who discovered Ebola
By some quirk of fate, just as news reached the papers that the Scottish nurse who had contracted Ebola while…
Could it be that Wolf Hall is actually the teeniest bit dull?
In January 1958, the British government began working on the significantly titled Operation Hope Not: its plans for what to…
Culture buff
Possibly in the most beautiful setting of any theatre in the world, Sydney’s Wharf Theatre saw its first performances 30…
Jugglers v. dancers
January is something of a palate-cleanser for the year, as the London International Mime Festival flies in plane-loads of companies…
Saved by Spotify
We have all read about the current woeful state of the CD industry — how it is 28 per cent…
Saved by Spotify
We have all read about the current woeful state of the CD industry — how it is 28 per cent…
How will the British public take to Rubens’s fatties?
Are Rubens’s figures too fat for the British to appreciate them? Martin Gayford investigates
Mohammed — in pictures
Two months ago I was sitting beside the tomb of a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, telling a story about…
Andrea Chénier, Royal Opera House, review: like a Carry On - but without the jokes
Who on earth could have predicted that a hoary old operatic melodrama set in revolutionary France would find resonance in…
Confessions of an illegal downloader
I’ve never been into shoplifting, though I once had a friend who was. And, no, before you ask, I’m not…
Young Vic’s Bull, review: a new Mike Bartlett play to bore you into catalepsy
A knockout show at the Young Vic. Literally. The stage has been reconfigured as a boxing ring to make Mike…
A Most Violent Year, review: mesmerising performances - and coats
A Most Violent Year is a riveting drama even though I can’t tell you what it’s about, or even what…
Broadchurch, review: ‘unwatchable’
Probably the two greatest advances in western culture in my lifetime have been the Sopranos-style epic serial drama and the…
Radio 4’s War and Peace: almost as good as the book
To have listened to Radio 4’s marathon ten-hour adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace as it was being broadcast on…
Culture buff
This is a great time of the year to make progress with that stack of unread books. One of my…
Stolen pleasures
I’ve never been into shoplifting, though I once had a friend who was. And, no, before you ask, I’m not…
Stolen pleasures
I’ve never been into shoplifting, though I once had a friend who was. And, no, before you ask, I’m not…
Shirley Williams: Saving my mother from the scriptwriters
Jasper Rees talks to Shirley Williams about the forthcoming screen portrayal of her mother
ENB’s Swan Lake: the rights and wrongs of ballet thighs
There’s been heated disagreement over the past week about what’s right and wrong. Is the rocket-propelled ex-Bolshoi enfant terrible Ivan…
Geometry in the 20th and 21st centuries was adventurous - and apocalyptic
Almost a decade ago, David Cameron informed Tony Blair, unkindly but accurately, ‘You were the future once.’ A visitor to…
Royal Opera’s Orfeo, Roundhouse: shouts its agenda so loudly the music struggles to be heard
What a week to stage an opera about art’s power to challenge institutional authority, oppression — even death itself. Orfeo’s…
