Arts
Confused and cumbersome
Anne-Louise Sarks’ production of that dazzling dramatic opera Carmen at Melbourne’s Regent was sometimes lit like a Christmas tree, sometimes…
An adorable Taiwanese debut: Left-Handed Girl reviewed
Left-Handed Girl is a Taiwanese drama about a single mother who moves back to Taipei with her two daughters to…
Gothic lives matter: BBC2’s Civilisations reviewed
Anybody growing weary of the debate surrounding the BBC’s unexamined assumptions and biases about modern politics might have expected to…
A sack of bilge: End, at the Dorfman Theatre, reviewed
End is the title chosen by David Eldridge for his new relationship drama. Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves star as…
Thom Yorke reminds me of David Brent: Radiohead reviewed
There were times watching Radiohead’s first UK show for seven years when Ricky Gervais came to mind. As Thom Yorke…
Why are today’s choreographers so musically illiterate?
Most choreographers today have lost interest in using music as anything more than a background wash of colour and mood.…
The genius of William Nicholson
Even if you think you don’t know William Nicholson, it’s a fair bet that you’ve come across his work. If…
Evgeny Kissin’s stand-in brings the house down
It was such an enticing programme, too. The Philharmonia had booked Evgeny Kissin, the last great piano prodigy of the…
Indian classical music’s rebellion against modernity
When Gurdain Ryatt, Ojas Adhiya, Milind Kulkarni and Murad Ali Khan take to the stage at Milton Court this Sunday…
Pit full of snakes
What a cheering thing it is that David Szalay has won the Booker Prize for Flesh which is a masterpiece…
The best thing Cathy Marston has ever done
The Royal Ballet has scheduled what – on paper at least – looks like one of the most dismally dull…
The babyishness of Hunger Games on Stage
The Hunger Games is based on a 2008 novel about a despotic regime where brainwashed citizens are entertained with televised…
The cult of Powell & Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m Going!
I know where I’m going. I’m on the sleeper train chugging out of Euston and heading to Fort William. A…
The tedium of softboi rap
A male British rapper who is unafraid to show tenderness and vulnerability is not a particularly new phenomenon: Dave, Stormzy,…
London’s stupidest gallery
Everyone loves a private view, and I am no exception. I don’t know how many hours I must have spent…
The orchestra that makes pros go weak at the knees
Stravinsky’s The Firebird begins in darkness, and it might be the softest, deepest darkness in all music. Basses and cellos…
Pluribus is a mess
Pluribus is another drama set in the dystopian future. But on this occasion the integrity of the entire human race…
Disastrous adaptation of a wonderful book
The Thing With Feathers is an adaptation of Max Porter’s acclaimed novella about a widower who is left to raise…
‘Ballet is antiquated, and it works’: Royal Ballet principal Matthew Ball interviewed
The history of the male ballet dancer is a chequered one. In the early 19th century, he was the star…
Equal to any quirk
Richo is dead. The supreme fixer of the Labor party is gone. That wise and moderate man Brian Johns who…
The rise of psychedelia
On YouTube – and I urge you to look it up – there is a magnificent piece of footage from…
This Othello is almost flawless
Othello directed by Tom Morris opens with a stately display of scarlet costumes and gilded doorways arranged against a backdrop…
Was Queen Victoria’s doctor the first psychoanalyst?
Queen Victoria began to experience dark visions after giving birth to her second child. Concerned that she might have inherited…
Mrs Göring is far too sympathetic: Nuremberg reviewed
Nuremberg is one of those films that falls short on everything it wants to be and everything it could be.…
In defence of Katie Mitchell
Janacek’s The Makropulos Case is a weird and very wonderful opera, but its basic plot isn’t hard to follow. Still,…
