Arts

Trash, review: trash by name, trash by nature

31 January 2015 9:00 am

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

31 January 2015 9:00 am

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

31 January 2015 9:00 am

By some quirk of fate, just as news reached the papers that the Scottish nurse who had contracted Ebola while…

Dark thoughts: Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell

Could it be that Wolf Hall is actually the teeniest bit dull?

31 January 2015 9:00 am

In January 1958, the British government began working on the significantly titled Operation Hope Not: its plans for what to…

Culture buff

31 January 2015 9:00 am

Possibly in the most beautiful setting of any theatre in the world, Sydney’s Wharf Theatre saw its first performances 30…

Jugglers v. dancers

29 January 2015 3:00 pm

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

29 January 2015 3:00 pm

We have all read about the current woeful state of the CD industry — how it is 28 per cent…

Saved by Spotify

29 January 2015 3:00 pm

We have all read about the current woeful state of the CD industry — how it is 28 per cent…

‘Pan and Syrinx’, 1617, by Peter Paul Rubens

How will the British public take to Rubens’s fatties?

24 January 2015 9:00 am

Are Rubens’s figures too fat for the British to appreciate them? Martin Gayford investigates

Mohammed — in pictures

24 January 2015 9:00 am

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

24 January 2015 9:00 am

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

24 January 2015 9:00 am

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

24 January 2015 9:00 am

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

24 January 2015 9:00 am

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’

24 January 2015 9:00 am

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

24 January 2015 9:00 am

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

24 January 2015 9:00 am

This is a great time of the year to make progress with that stack of unread books. One of my…

Stolen pleasures

22 January 2015 3:00 pm

I’ve never been into shoplifting, though I once had a friend who was. And, no, before you ask, I’m not…

Stolen pleasures

22 January 2015 3:00 pm

I’ve never been into shoplifting, though I once had a friend who was. And, no, before you ask, I’m not…

‘Exceptionally good’: Alicia Vikander as Vera Brittain in ‘Testament of Youth’

Shirley Williams: Saving my mother from the scriptwriters

17 January 2015 9:00 am

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

17 January 2015 9:00 am

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

17 January 2015 9:00 am

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

17 January 2015 9:00 am

What a week to stage an opera about art’s power to challenge institutional authority, oppression — even death itself. Orfeo’s…

Old Vic’s Tree: Beckett plus Seinfeld - plus swearing

17 January 2015 9:00 am

‘Fucking hell. You twat. Fuck off. Fuck. Fuck.’ These dispiriting words are the opening line of Tree, a newish play…

Wild made me want to puke

17 January 2015 9:00 am

Wild is yet another film based on a true story, as currently seems to be in vogue for some reason.…