Arts
Farrago of jabber
The Doctor is an acclaimed drama from the pen of writer-director Robert Icke. We’re in a hospital run by a…
End of play
Zoe Strimpel on how identity politics is killing theatre
A sapphic rom-com not to be missed
What a relief it is that Virginia Gay’s adaptation of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac should finally have opened in Sarah…
Paxman on Parkinson’s
On first impression, you might have thought that Unbreakablewas just a fairly desperate reality show cobbled together from I’m a…
A world apart
William Kentridge’s work has a way of sticking in the mind. I can remember all my brief encounters with it,…
Spark of genius
Lindsey Buckingham, at 72, still has cheekbones that cast shadows. He has the upright shock of hair, too, though now…
A line in the sand
Sam Kriss on Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion eco-city
Vital statistics
In a week of slim audio pickings, I spent time reacquainting myself with some of the BBC classics and can…
Bones of contention
The Lost King is a comedy-drama based on the 2012 discovery of the remains of King Richard III beneath a…
After the fall
Clunk, clunk, clunk. John Gabriel Borkman opens with the obsessive footfalls of a disgraced banker as he prowls the attic…
Fifty shades of grey
Grey. More grey. So very, very grey. That’s the main visual impression left by Robert Carsen’s new production of Verdi’s…
Footy versus ballet?
All the different aspects of a culture collide and interconnect. Melbourne is the undisputed capital of Australian rules football (which…
French fancies
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris is a comedy-drama based on the 1958 novel by Paul Gallico about a cheerful, kind-hearted…
A feast for the eyes
Jonathan Meades on the art of menus
Elvis on the Eurostar
It would be easy to be a little dismissive of George Ezra. A wholesome late twentysomething hailing from the rock…
Why I love a cliché
You’d have to pay me an awful lot more than I get for this column to review Monster: The Jeffrey…
Losing the plot
Leos Janacek disliked long operas, and the first act of The Makropulos Affair is a masterclass in how to set…
Do the Right thing
Subversive is a podcast that documents the world of the ‘New Right’, a strange development in conservatism. Host Alex Kaschuta,…
Palpable and palpatable
Art is a fundamentally childish activity: painters dream up images and sculptors play with stuff. It was while playing with…
Worthy of Wilde
Eureka Day is a topical satire set in a woke school in America. An outbreak of mumps has led to…
Eye of a genius
In a week dominated by the death of the Queen it’s a strange thing that Jean-Luc Godard, the man who…
National disasters
It is high time the Arts Council put ENO and ENB out of their misery, says Rupert Christiansen
More depravity, please
The first night of the new season at Covent Garden was cancelled when the solemn news came through. The second…
Make mine a triple
Good, better, best was the satisfying trajectory of Northern Ballet’s terrific programme of three original short works, which moves south…
A frantic collector of views
‘It seems to me that I have to choose between 2 extremes of affection for nature… English, or Southern… The…
