Arts
Skill of the characterisation
Yasmina Reza is one of the most dazzling playwrights alive because she creates sweepingly funny bits of theatre (masterfully translated…
What have they done to The Devil Wears Prada?
The Devil Wears Prada (2006) is one of those films which, if chanced upon when flicking television channels, I will…
In a fairer world, The Cage would receive a lot more attention than Half Man
Half Man, Richard Gadd’s follow-up to the all-conquering Baby Reindeer, began with approximately ten seconds of some people at a…
The magic ears of Hyperion
How do we evaluate Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series, which over a period of 35 years recorded more than 200…
Big Thief is this generation’s R.E.M.
By the time Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief was born in 1991, Kim Gordon had already released seven albums with…
Why actors love to play lunatics
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, adapted from Ken Kesey’s book by Dale Wasserman, is exactly like the movie but…
Is this the missing link between Bach and Haydn?
Grade: B ‘Is that Haydn or Mozart? One can’t always be sure,’ remarks Kenneth Clark in the 18th-century episode of…
The weakness of the V&A East Museum
I’d just emerged from Stratford station when I realised it had been almost a decade to the day since I’d…
How good is Wayne McGregor?
‘Professor Sir Wayne McGregor CBE’ runs the headline to a biographical essay in the programme for the Royal Ballet’s triple…
The dirty secrets of the Royal Festival Hall
The Festival of Britain – that much mythologised moment of national renewal – is wheeled out every time the country…
Scrupulous fidelity
Isn’t it fascinating how much we adapt works of literature? 150 years ago someone would have had a fair chance…
The genius of Zurbaran – and why he vanished
A pious Caravaggio JASPREET SINGH BOPARAI The Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbaran is sometimes thought of as a pious equivalent…
Almeida’s new Doll’s House is all wrong
A Doll’s House has been reconstructed at the Almeida with a new script by Anya Reiss. Torvald Helmer is an…
Brooklyn’s answer to Nathan Barley has struck gold
I was on the way to Cecily Brown’s exhibition at the Serpentine last week when I heard that Kensington Gardens…
How good are the Rolling Stones’ alter egos, the Cockroaches?
Would you pay a tenner on the door to see the Cockroaches, the Fireman, Patchwork, the Network and Bingo Hand…
Terrifically atmospheric: Rose of Nevada reviewed
Rose of Nevada is the third film in Mark Jenkin’s Cornish trilogy and if you have seen the first two…
The artistic collapse of Welsh National Opera
On the first night of Welsh National Opera’s new Flying Dutchman, the company’s co-directors walked on stage to salute their…
The perfect game for any thwarted sadist
Grade: B+ Some of us lost a lot of our early twenties to a god-game called Dungeon Keeper, in which…
AI could never replace me
There are two main schools of thought on AI in the Delingpole household. I, as the resident batshit-crazy reactionary tinfoil-hat…
Like him or loathe him
It’s cheering to hear very promising reports of Barrie Kosky’s production of Siegfried at Covent Garden suggesting that the Melbourne-born…
Excruciating tedium from Pina Bausch
You’re never too old to dance we are told nowadays. This encouraging injunction has been taken up by everyone from…
The first woman to climb Mt Blanc took 18 bottles of wine and 24 roast chickens
The dark side of the Moon, a broken loo and a floating jar of Nutella: such was Artemis II. When…
Big Mistakes is hysterical – but not in a good way
When following up a successful sitcom, should a writer head off into new territory or not? That was the question…
The joy of Belle and Sebastian
Do Belle and Sebastian have the most polite audience in pop? Normally when a pop singer leaves the stage to…
Glenrothan is painfully bad
Glenrothan is Brian Cox’s directorial debut and I wish there were a nicer way of putting it but, Brian: please,…
