Arts
Penalty points
James Graham’s entertaining new play looks at the England manager’s job. Everyone knows that coaching the national side is just…
A seasonal folly
As I sat down at this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, I overheard a curious exchange. ‘You mustn’t create art within art,’…
Time to start popping the pills
No one does agonising quite like Mobeen Azhar. In several BBC documentaries now, he’s set his face to pensive, gone…
The playful portraitist
In front of the banner advertising the RA Summer Exhibition, the swagger statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92) by Alfred…
Mysterious ways
The Chester Mystery Plays date back to the 13th century – but are more popular now than ever, finds Richard Bratby
Captivating marvels
It’s fascinating to hear that one of the greater theatre directors we have produced, Neil Armfield, is directing Anthony LaPaglia…
Children of the revolution
The three Just Stop Oil protestors were sitting in the stalls, somewhere near the middle of the front row. Someone…
Breaking the rules
Rules in art exist to be broken but it takes chutzpah, which could explain why so many rule-breakers in modern…
Short of sparkle
Having been unexpectedly delighted by the Royal Ballet’s revival of Christopher Wheeldon’s Corybantic Games at Covent Garden last week, I…
Downhill fast
I’m ideologically opposed to bicycles for all the obvious reasons: they don’t have lovely big nostrils which you can blow…
A tale of two troubadours
There are artists you go to see expecting to be challenged, surprised, even let down. And there are artists you…
Going viral
It’s the whodunnit – or whatdunnit – that has kept scientists, politicians, journalists and armchair sleuths speculating ever since the…
Not tuned in
When Winston Went to War with the Wireless is the clumsy and misleading title of a new play about John…
Fighting talk
It isn’t easy selling out Wembley Stadium with its capacity of between 70,000 and 90,000 (depending on the exact arrangement).…
Innocent pertness
There are times when anyone might decide to throw in scanning the range of literature and art and music and…
Split decision
In the opening minutes of Best Interests (Monday and Tuesday), an estranged middle-aged couple made their separate ways to court,…
Lost in space
My witty friend whispered that Wayne McGregor’s new ballet Untitled, 2023 put her in mind of Google HQ – it’s…
Rocky peaks
One of the earliest jukebox musicals has returned to the West End. When the show opened in 2002 the author,…
To die for
There are a lot of corpses on stage at the end of Charles Edwards’s production of Tristan & Isolde for…
Amazing Grace
Some artists need flash bombs to make an impression on stage. Some need giant screens. Some need to run around…
Cutting edge
There’s a nice irony to the title Salon Paintings when the salon in question is a barbershop, an irony that…
‘Be original or die!’
Hermione Eyre on Yevonde, the pioneering 1930s photographer whose colour portraits evoke a vanishing world
