Arts
Exhilarating: English National Ballet triple bill, at Sadler’s Wells, reviewed
Headed for San Francisco, Tamara Rojo bows out of her directorship of English National Ballet with an exhilarating triple bill…
What’s the point of these soul covers? Bruce Springsteen’s Only the Strong Survive reviewed
Grade: B What’s the worst-ever cover version (after Madonna’s hilarious stab at ‘American Pie’)? I reckon Creedence Clearwater Revival’s interminable…
Ralph Fiennes at his most terrifying: The Menu reviewed
The Menu is a comedy-horror-thriller set in an exclusive restaurant on a private island and it gives the rich a…
The bleak brilliance of Peanuts
Mathew Lyons on the life lessons of Peanuts
A lustre that is blinding
Does Milly Alcock find her characters inside herself or does she sketch them from outside? ‘It’s both,’ she says. ‘You…
The joy of B-sides
Paul Weller releasing a collection of solo B-sides is cause for mild celebration. After all, the Jam were one of…
The extraordinary case of Malcolm MacArthur
Non-fiction tells you what happened, fiction affirms the kinds of things that happen. According to Aristotle, anyway. So while journalism…
Astonishing cinema: No Bears reviewed
Jafar Panahi’s No Bears is, first and foremost, a wonderful film. More than this, you don’t need to know but…
The careers of artists like Carolee Schneemann and Stephen Cripps are unthinkable today
During the 1964 debut of Carolee Schneemann’s ‘Meat Joy’ in Paris, a man in the audience tried to throttle the…
Riveting: Netflix’s The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself reviewed
Gratingly edgy soundtrack, stomach-churning gore, torture, witchcraft, sadism and an indigestible title. The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself sounds…
A towering achievement: ENO’s The Yeomen of the Guard reviewed
The screw may twist and the rack may turn: the Tower of London, in Jo Davies’s new production of The…
King Charles III’s love of classical music
Damian Thompson on King Charles III’s love of classical music
The UK Drill Project, at The Pit, reviewed
The UK Drill Project is a cabaret show that celebrates greed, criminality and drug-taking among black males in London. It…
Theatre of the soul
Whatever you think of the question of the Voice it was fascinating to hear Noel Pearson, that most formidable and…
Heartbreakingly tender: Living reviewed
Living is a remake of one of the great existential masterpieces of the 20th century, Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952), which didn’t…
Kazuo Ishiguro: My love affair with film
Tanjil Rashid talks to Kazuo Ishiguro about his long and underexplored love affair with film
Thrilling: Hieroglyphs – unlocking ancient Egypt, at the British Museum, reviewed
‘Poor old Mornington Crescent, I feel sorry for it with this highly made-up neighbour blocking the view it had enjoyed,’…
Manet’s Mona Lisa: Radio 4’s Moving Pictures reviewed
Elizabeth the First is a ten-part American podcast series that isn’t about Elizabeth I at all. The assumption of its…
The dialogue ripples with energy: King Hamlin, at the Park Theatre, reviewed
King Hamlin is a shock-horror drama about gang crime in London. Hamlin, aged 17, has left school without learning any…
Refreshingly macho: BBC1’s SAS Rogue Heroes reviewed
Sunday’s SAS Rogue Heroes – about the founding of perhaps Britain’s most famous regiment – began with a revealing variation…
A total (and often gripping) theatrical experience: Scottish Opera’s Ainadamar reviewed
Do you remember Osvaldo Golijov? Two decades ago he was classical music’s Next Big Thing: a credible postmodernist with a…
A generational pop talent: Rina Sawayama, at the O2 Academy Brixton, reviewed
The first time I saw Franz Ferdinand was at the sadly lost Astoria, just after the release of their first…
Grace and lucidity
The news of Carmen Callil’s death last week shocked the literary world even though it was expected. She made an…
Bold, self-assured reimagining of Monteverdi: Opera North's Orpheus reviewed
You wouldn’t like Tamerlano when he’s angry. ‘My heart seethes with rage,’ he sings, in Act III of Handel’s opera…
