Arts
Brooding beauty
The prospect of a revival of Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote by the Australian Ballet in Melbourne is a reminder of…
Overseas aid
Is the World Service superfluous, or a vital adjunct of British diplomacy, wonders Oscar Edmondson
Art for art’s sake – and then some
It’s payback time: women, artists from ethnic minorities and non-western traditions are taking over the exhibition schedules. On the heels…
Side lines
Think of pop music as being like the parable of the sower. These days the seed falling on stony ground…
Domino effect
The Beasts is a rural psychological thriller from Spain that has won many awards across Europe and even though we…
On the sick list
Sunday-night dramas on the two main terrestrial channels definitely aren’t what they used to be. Not so long ago, you…
A pulse but no heart
The murderous odyssey of Bonnie and Clyde is a tricky subject for a musical because the characters are such loathsome…
Make mine a triple
It does no harm, once in a while, to assume that the creators of an opera actually know what they’re…
Cheap thrills
Robert Jackman on the rise of the modern British B-movie
Deathless dag
You need only pick up Tim Robertson’s Reliques/Pomes to know that you’re in the presence of a man with an…
Max factor
The German composer Max Reger, born 150 years ago next week, is mostly remembered today for countless elephantine fugues and…
Anything goes
Further than the Furthest Thing is an allegorical play set on a remote island populated by English-speakers from all over…
Feelgood fury
There are several reasons why Young Fathers currently feel like the most exciting live band in Britain, but for now…
Moomin minded
One of the lesser-known schools of modern philosophy is the Philosophy of Moomin. Like Cynicism or Epicureanism, it is difficult…
Turbo-charged Tiler
The death last week at the age of 83 of the sublime Lynn Seymour – muse to Ashton and MacMillan,…
Alan key
Allelujah, based on the stage play by Alan Bennett, is set in a geriatric ward in a Yorkshire hospital and…
A Rock and a hard place
Chris Rock was paid $20 million for his 70-minute Netflix special, so by my reckoning his riff on whether or…
The bowl and the bottle
Lucie Rie had no time for high-flown talk about the art of ceramics. ‘I like to make pots – but…
Morse mania
As the cult series draws to its conclusion, Tanya Gold travels to Morsefest in Oxford to meet the detective’s devoted followers
Shining in the mind
How many people have sat watching something stream (or whatever) on television and found themsleves incapable of turning it off…
Hot stuff
Hector Berlioz dismissed Handel as ‘that tub of pork and beer’ but it wasn’t always like that. Picture a younger,…
Same old story
Back in 1990, Grandpa from The Simpsons wrote a letter of protest to TV-makers. ‘I am disgusted with the way…
Sonic youth
Years ago, I asked Robert Plant what he felt about the world’s love of ‘Stairway to Heaven’. He said he…
Cumbersome muddle
Rupert Goold’s new show, Women, Beware the Devil, has great costumes, sumptuous sets and an intriguing chessboard stage like a…
I may destroy you
One day in October 1966 I came home from school and found a large man stripped to the waist, attacking…
