Arts
Cheap and cheerful
Fulfilling its sacred duty to serve regions that higher culture tends to avoid, Birmingham Royal Ballet made a midweek visit…
‘Painting was always waiting for me’
Claudia Massie talks to the botanical painter Emma Tennant about grief, finding success later in life, and her love of twigs
Primer time
The Motive and the Cue breaches the inviolable sanctity of the rehearsal room. The play, set in New York in…
A feast for the ears
Sir Hubert Parry was upgraded from knight bachelor to baronet by King Edward VII in 1902, and my goodness he…
The end is in sight
Plan 75 is a dystopian Japanese drama about a government-sponsored euthanasia programme introduced to address Japan’s ageing society. Aged 75…
Early birds
As the owner of a radio alarm clock, I could theoretically start listening to the Today programme before I’m even…
Sad-face emoji
Whether by accident or design, the mathematical theme of Ed Sheeran’s previous album titles (+, ×, ÷ and = respectively)…
No laughing matter
As stage directions go, the The Magic Flute opens with a zinger. ‘Tamino enters from the right wearing a splendid…
A saint for all seasons
Laura Gascoigne on the pulling power of St Francis of Assisi
Dragons, broomsticks and whatnot
It was saddening to hear of the death of the poet John Tranter the other week. For those of us…
Rabbit redux
With the current taste for remakes of erotic-thriller movies of the 1980s and ’90s, these are certainly good times for…
Don’t believe the naysayers
A user’s guide to how pop music works in the 21st century. Step one: you see a great new band.…
‘I have uncancelled myself’
David Starkey’s commentary on the Queen’s funeral on GB News was generally agreed to be the best of all the…
Imperial march
If being asked to write music for the coronation of a king is an honour, then doing it for an…
Hook up
Peter Pan & Wendy is Disney’s latest live-action remake (the animated version was in 1953) and it’s quite the sombre…
Upstart Crow without the jokes
The Swan Theatre has reopened after an overhaul and praise god: they’ve replaced the seats. The Swan is a likeable…
Sins of the father
Dixon and Daughters is a family drama that opens on a note of sour mistrust. We’re in a working-class home…
Crowning glory
Dan Hitchens on the art that has shaped our image of the coronation
The preternatural nature of his genius
Is it being a dominion country, a well-heeled colony, that makes this country good at comedy? The death of Barry…
Nuttier and nastier
I was making my way slowly through one of my dismally prosaic little to-do lists – ‘pay the water bill’…
Vaudeville villainy
Tetris is a righteously entertaining movie about the stampede to secure the rights from within the Soviet Union to what…
Americana Coldplay
Once upon a time, rock bands wished for nothing more than to look as though they posed a clear and…
The yin and yang of abstraction
In July 1928, an unknown Swedish woman artist mounted a solo show of her revolutionary abstract paintings at the World…
Deadbeats, halfwits and losers
Snowflakes, an excellent title, rehashes The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter. A guest in a hotel room is visited by…
