Arts
Seasonal treats
There was a time when the term ‘world première’ was not as fashionable as it is these days. Great works…
Law in action
As a new production of Twelve Angry Men opens in the West End, Robert Gore-Langton names his favourite courtroom dramas
Third time lucky
When Keith Warner’s production of Berg’s Wozzeck was first produced at the Royal Opera, nine years ago, it made me…
Visions of the sublime
The V&A’s remarkable survey of Chinese painting begins quietly with a beautiful scroll depicting ‘Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk’,…
Smouldering addiction
My addiction to Chinese landscape painting began in 1965 at the V&A, in a travelling exhibition of the Crawford Collection…
Lost cause
Here’s a tip for play-goers. When the curtain goes up on a garden, prepare for some feeble plotting. The glory…
Money and movies
Seduced and Abandoned is both a satire on film-making and a love letter to film-making and a joy. A documentary…
Light and shade
Sun is one of those performances that confront reviewers with the eternal dilemma of whether or not it is appropriate…
It’s everywhere
They’re now televising proceedings from the Court of Appeal. Great. As if I didn’t have enough to do already, keeping…
Trivial moaning
There is much to be said for Schadenfreude. (If it was edible, it would be a meal in a very…
All is forgiven
It’s hard to stay cross with Radio 3 for long. Just when I thought the network had stretched my loyalty…
Double trouble
There’s courage, there’s fearlessness, and then there’s the sort of sublime audacity you need to do something like sidecar racing.…
Light and shade
Sun is one of those performances that confront reviewers with the eternal dilemma of whether or not it is appropriate…
Double trouble
There’s courage, there’s fearlessness, and then there’s the sort of sublime audacity you need to do something like sidecar racing.…
Double trouble
There’s courage, there’s fearlessness, and then there’s the sort of sublime audacity you need to do something like sidecar racing.…
Darkness visible
Peter Hoskin looks forward to being scared witless courtesy of the BFI’s feast of Gothic cinema
Conduct becoming
Michael Henderson talks to the youthful conductor Daniel Harding, who realises that the older he gets the more he has to learn
Singing under cardboard
To undertake a concert tour of New Zealand’s cathedrals at the moment is to be constantly reminded of the destructive…
Let’s hear it for the toffs
This is a strange one. Simon Paisley Day’s new play feels like a conventional comedy of manners. Three couples pitch…
Kissing away kingship
Gregory Doran, now in command at Stratford in succession to Sir Michael Boyd, launches his regime with Richard II, intending…
Feats of Klee
There is a school of thought that sees Paul Klee (1879–1940) as more of a Swiss watchmaker than an artist,…
Disturbed by Britten
This week chanced to give me a fascinating study in contrasts and comparisons: Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek at the Linbury Studio,…
Mother courage
Philomena is based on the true story of an Irish woman searching for the son stolen from her by the…
Machines and us
This year’s Free Thinking festival at the Sage in Gateshead has been asking the question, Who’s in Control?. Oddly, or…
Tales of the unexpected
‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,’ said John Lennon. Quite apposite from a man…
