Arts
Nuclear overreaction
When I was growing up in the 1970s, my three main fears were: being blown up by the IRA; being…
The Long view
On the green edge of Clifton Downs, high above the city, there is a sculpture that encapsulates the strange magic…
‘I’m about to lose a lot of money’: our theatre critic prepares for his Edinburgh Fringe debut
Our theatre critic, Lloyd Evans, makes his Edinburgh debut
Why are symphony orchestras expected to survive indefinitely?
Watching the Berlin Philharmonic going into conclave to choose a successor to Simon Rattle — after countless hours of secret…
Whole worlds are conjured up in a few strokes: Watercolour at the Fitzwilliam Museum reviewed
I learnt to splash about in watercolour at my grandmother’s knee. Or rather, sitting beside her crouched over a pad…
You can feel as if you’re in a colony of rabbits: Matthew Bourne’s Car Man reviewed
Hot, languorous, sizzling… I was thinking what an ideal show Matthew Bourne’s noir comedy is to watch on a summer’s…
Startling and sublime - even the candles got a round of applause: Glyndebourne’s Saul reviewed
Caius Gabriel Cibber’s statues of ‘Melancholy’ and ‘Raving Madness’, their eyes staring blindly into the void, petrified in torment, once…
Bohemian conformity can be just as suffocating as any other type: BBC1’s Life in Squares reviewed
On all those comic lists of the world’s shortest books (Great Italian War Heroes, My Hunt for the Real Killers,…
Turn this play into a film and it’ll win Oscars – Hollywood can’t resist a posh Brit battling disability
God, what a title. The Gathered Leaves. It sounds like a tremulous weepie about grief and endurance with a closing…
Fashion tips - and replacement hips - from a nonagenarian style icon: Iris reviewed
Iris is a documentary portrait of Iris Apfel, the nonagenarian New York fashion icon. Nope, me neither, but that’s irrelevant,…
If the government have their way, will Radio 4’s dramas be broken up by ads for dentures?
‘Bait by Cartier,’ she growls as her priceless diamond bracelet is strapped to a piece of rope and dropped overboard…
Culture buff
It is an out and out masterpiece so any new production of The Marriage of Figaro matters a great deal.…
Dedicated follower of fashion
Iris is a documentary portrait of Iris Apfel, the nonagenarian New York fashion icon. Nope, me neither, but that’s irrelevant,…
Look at my Fringe
Like everyone performing at the Edinburgh Fringe I’m about to make a lot of mistakes. I’m about to lose a…
Pulp fiction
Hot, languorous, sizzling… I was thinking what an ideal show Matthew Bourne’s noir comedy is to watch on a summer’s…
Orchestral infallibility
Watching the Berlin Philharmonic going into conclave to choose a successor to Simon Rattle — after countless hours of secret…
Orchestral infallibility
Watching the Berlin Philharmonic going into conclave to choose a successor to Simon Rattle — after countless hours of secret…
Affairs in squares
On all those comic lists of the world’s shortest books (Great Italian War Heroes, My Hunt for the Real Killers,…
The new adventures of the adventure playground
Are adventure playgrounds set to make a comeback, asks Maisie Rowe
Don’t listen to Amadeus - this Salieri opera is better than Mozart
Magical transformations are a commonplace of opera. We see our heroes turned into animals, trees, statues; witness wild beasts turned…
The artist who only turned into a major painter once he became a homicidal maniac
Charles Dickens’s description of Cobham Park, Kent, in The Pickwick Papers makes it seem a perfect English landscape. Among its…
BNP supporters will enjoy this new play from the Bush Theatre
Richard Bean, the country’s most bankable playwright, knocks out a new script every four months. Thanks to the success of…
The Legend of Barney Thomson reviewed: comedy is sought but, alas, never properly found
The Legend of Barney Thomson is the directorial debut of actor Robert Carlyle, and it’s one of those black comedies…
Why it would be absurd to sell off Radio 2 - even if it could do with a refresh
The idea that Radio 2 should be sold off by the BBC to a commercial rival is as nonsensical as…
Compiling my greatest hits (and my Twitter trolls')
Annie Nightingale 25 July 2015 9:00 am
Compilation schompilation. Having been in music for as long as I have you would think I had a good idea…