Arts
Juicy solution to the Purcell problem: Opera North’s Masque of Might reviewed
Another week, another attempt to solve the Purcell problem. There’s a problem? Well, yes, if you consider that a composer…
Scherzinger is superb but why’s the set so dark and ugly? Sunset Boulevard, at the Savoy Theatre, reviewed
Sunset Boulevard is a re-telling of the Oedipus story set in the cut-throat world of Hollywood. Pick a side in…
Epic, immersive and tiresomely long: Killers of the Flower Moon reviewed
Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is a Western crime drama that runs to three-and-a-half hours. (Sit on that,…
How the Georgians invented nightlife
Dan Hitchens on the Georgian obsession with lavish light shows and nocturnal adventures
This earth-shattering work
What a strange thing popular culture is. Back in the 1970s a lot of people might have affected to despise…
As gripping as an Agatha Christie thriller: Shooting Hedda Gabler, at the Rose Theatre, reviewed
The unlovely Rose Theatre in Kingston is a modest three-storey eyesore. The concrete foyer looks like an exercise area on…
What happened to the supermodels of the 1990s?
‘What advice would you give to your younger self?’ has become a popular question in interviews in recent years. It’s…
New Order’s oldies still sound like the future
The intimate acoustic show can denote many things for an established artist. One is that, in the infamous euphemism coined…
The miracle of The Miracle Club is that it does, I promise, end
The Miracle Club, which is about a group of Irish women who travel to Lourdes, has a magnificent cast –…
I watched it so that you didn’t have to: ITV2’s Big Brother reviewed
Big Brother is Nineteen Eighty-Four rewritten by Aldous Huxley. The detail that George Orwell got wrong is that far from…
Proof that Rubens really was a champion of the female sex: Rubens & Women, at the Dulwich Picture Gallery reviewed
‘She is a princess endowed with all the virtues of sex; long experience has taught her how to govern these…
Has VR finally come of age?
VR ‘immersion’ is everywhere in London this autumn, but is it of any value? Stuart Jeffries takes the plunge
That extraordinary mutant masterpiece
It’s been a long time coming, Patricia Cornelius’ My Sister Jill but she’s a playwright whose work demands to be…
A great subject squandered: Golda reviewed
Born in Tsarist Kyiv in 1898, Golda Meir grew up with what she called a ‘pogrom complex’. That perhaps explained…
Shocking: Channel 4’s Partygate reviewed
If there were special awards for Most Subtlety in a Television Drama, Tuesday’s Partygate would be unlikely to win one.…
Godot with gags: It’s Headed Straight Towards Us, at Park200, reviewed
It sounds like a barking-mad student sketch but the final product is marinated in wisdom and maturity. It’s Headed Straight…
An awfully long night for a band without any bangers: The National, at Alexandra Palace, reviewed
Over the past few years, the National have become the most important band in modern rock music. The strange thing…
Why everyone should go to life-drawing classes: Claudette Johnson interviewed
While looking at Claudette Johnson’s splendid exhibition Presence at the Courtauld Gallery, I kept trying to pin down an elusive…
Ebullience and majesty: Opera North’s Falstaff reviewed
Opera North has launched a ‘Green Season’, which means (among other things) that the sets and costumes for its new…
Marina Abramovic’s show is only of interest to diehard fans
‘Do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum?’ More than 30 years after the Guerrilla Girls…
Stone is the solution to many of our architectural problems
Calvin Po on the revival of building in the solid, sustainable, dependable material that lies readily beneath our feet
His brilliant boggling career
It’s interesting to see that Mel Gibson, no less, is in the blood and violence TV streamer The Continental which…
Striking but not altogether successful: ENB’s Our Voices reviewed
Aaron S. Watkin, an affable bearded Canadian, is the new artistic director of English National Ballet. He arrives from Dresden,…
Arresting visual spectacle and superb fight scenes: Netflix’s One Piece reviewed
What would you say is the most successful comic-book series in history? If you’re thinking Tintin you’re not even close.…
