Sophocles

Homeric levels of misery: Paradise, at the Olivier Theatre, reviewed

21 August 2021 9:00 am

The National Theatre has given Sophocles’s Philoctetes a makeover and a new title, Paradise. This must be ironic because the…

Is it time to cancel Sophocles?

27 February 2021 9:00 am

Gstaad The sun has returned, the snow is so-so, and exercise has replaced everything, including romance. What a way to…

Ancient and modern: Antigone and algorithms

1 September 2018 9:00 am

Hardly a day goes by without someone making excitable predictions about human progress and how, thanks to AI, we are…

Not a repertory piece but in its dignity it earns respect: Royal Opera’s Oedipe reviewed

28 May 2016 9:00 am

For years I have been telling people that they should listen to, in the absence of staged performances, Enescu’s opera…

Why isn’t it creepy when women phwoar at Poldark?

3 October 2015 9:00 am

When women lust after blokes on telly it’s funny, not seedy

Those ancient Greeks were bores — but things are looking up

31 January 2015 9:00 am

Thick snow is falling hard and heavy, muffling sounds and turning the picturesque village postcard beautiful. I am lying in…

Maggie Smith as Jocasta in Jean Cocteau’s ‘The Infernal Machine’, Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 1986

Brian Aldiss unpicks the Jocasta complex

24 January 2015 9:00 am

What if the gods of Greek myth had parallels with Freud’s notion of the unconscious? This is just one idea…

Stage rage: Kristin Scott Thomas as Electra

Were the cast of the Old Vic’s Electra clothed by Oxfam?

11 October 2014 9:00 am

First, a bit of background. Conquering Agamemnon slew his daughter, Iphigenia, in return for a fair wind to Troy. This…

More woe for Oedipus

10 May 2014 9:00 am

I had high hopes for Julian Anderson’s first opera, Thebans. Premièred at the Coliseum last Saturday, it promised to mark…

Highly alluring: Gemma Chan as Athena in ‘Our Ajax’

'Keeler' is not just about Tory bigwigs chasing nymphettes around the pool

16 November 2013 9:00 am

It’s an unlovely venue, for sure. Charing Cross Theatre, underneath the arches, likes to welcome vagrant plays that can’t find…