Arts
We get the picture
Philip Guston is hard to dislike. The most damning critique levied against the canonical mid-century American painter is that he…
Finger-wagging and flawed
‘Diversity is woven into the very soul of the story.’ If those words of praise from a rave review in…
Doctor doctor
In a new hour-long monologue, Burn, Alan Cumming examines the life and work of Robert Burns. The biographical material is…
Curiouser and curiouser
My Old School is a documentary exploring a true story that would have to be true as it’s too preposterous…
Joyous freefall
The first part of the adventure was getting there. Out of the subway, past the tower blocks and under the…
A legend comes to town
‘Human beings are in trouble these days,’ says Herbie Hancock, chatting to us between songs. ‘And do you know who…
Trash and treasure
It’s cheering to see that the new head of Melbourne’s Arts Centre is Karen Quinlan. For years now, she has…
Trock and awe
Louise Levene on the male ballet troupe that realised the ballerinas have all the best lines
High and dry
Eiffel is a romantic drama purporting to show how a passionate but forbidden love inspired Gustave Eiffel to design and…
Space oddities
‘These artists are offering other ways of seeing,’ says Ekow Eshun, curator of In the Black Fantastic, and from the…
What a way to go
The greatest pleasure of writing about pop music – even more than the free tickets and records, nice as they…
Porn and pyjamas
It was recently reported that almost 8 per cent of global internet traffic is to pornographic websites. The rise of…
Howard’s way
About ten minutes in to Thirteen Lives, Boy came in and asked me whether it was any good. I said:…
Sex-change soufflé
One morning in the 20th century, Thérèse wakes up next to her husband and announces that she’s a feminist. Hubby,…
Send in the clowns
Ian McKellen’s Hamlet is the highlight of Edinburgh’s opening week. In this experimental ballet, Sir Ian speaks roughly 5 per…
Primeval Voice
So, Archie Roach is dead at 66. It’s hard to read of the artistic triumphs and the personal catastrophes without…
All the world’s a stage
A neglected little town in Merseyside is the natural home for Shakespeare North, says Robert Gore-Langton
Mob mentality
It’s hard to imagine in the wake of GoodFellas, The Sopranos and Gomorrah but there was a time, not so…
A backward step
Sick though one may be of the way that the poison dart of ‘woke’ is lazily flung at what is…
Striking a false note
The blurb accompanying the Radio 3 series World of Classical, inviting us to ‘join the dots between classical music traditions…
Queen B
You feel a little sorry for Renaissance, the first solo album by Beyoncé in more than six years. It just…
Hitting the high seas
The Barbican’s big summer show is billed on the website as ‘the sold-out musical sensation, Anything Goes’. The term ‘sold-out’…
Neighbours no more
It’s cheering to hear such good reports of the performance of Mahler’s second symphony by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under…
All that jazz
Simon Godwin’s Much Ado About Nothing is set in a steamy Italian holiday resort, the Hotel Messina, in the 1920s.…
Keep on truckin’
Sam Kriss on why country-pop is the most modern music there is
