Arts
Nothing can save Rosebush Pruning
Rosebush Pruning is one of those films where you’ll say to yourself at the end: what the hell have I…
The slipperiness of Harry Styles
For the first time at a gig, I spent much of Harry Styles’s show thinking about the maths. He’s cunningly…
Lartigue’s photos are made for the Insta generation
Will photography as an art form survive the age of Instagram? Now that we think we are all photographers, and…
Artists vs the Odyssey
It’s a noble story of one man struggling against monstrous odds, valiantly captaining his crew while trying to avoid being…
Tip-Toeing in Manchester
The world knows that Andy Burnham, the ‘King from the North’, was a very successful mayor of Manchester. There have…
The World Cup is evil
I tried to think, Pointless-style, of two of the countries least likely to be participating in the world kicky-ball nonsense.…
If you’re 12, you’ll love this game
Grade: B+ Why do elephants paint their balls red? So they can hide in cherry trees, of course. The principle…
A Sinatra musical for hardcore fans
Sinatra: The Musical dramatises the star’s career during a minor wobble in the early 1950s. After falling from grace, Sinatra…
It’s impossible not to be impressed by Metallica
The intensely ritualised choreography of the standard summer stadium show has one inbuilt structural issue, which is especially obvious when…
Funny, savvy, starry: The Invite reviewed
The Invite is a dramedy from the dinner-party-gone-awry genre about a marriage and whether a sex party might save it…
A spectacular new staging of L’Orfeo
Say what you like about Monteverdi, but he knew how to get his audience on side. ‘I greet you, heroes,…
The cult of Kahlo
A Max Beerbohm cartoon famously reduced Arthur Wing Pinero (author of that interesting play, The Second Mrs Tanqueray) to a…
Meet the last original punk still playing punk
It’s 50 years since an assortment of scruffy youths from the leafy suburb of Bromley, the grimy streets of Finsbury…
Beauty, blarney and banshees
It’s a bit odd in its way that a fair fraction of the more or less British theatre we watch…
An enjoyably honest portrait of Rik Mayall
If you’ve tended to think Rik Mayall was both very funny and quite annoying, it turns out you’re not alone…
The power of Glengarry Glen Ross
The Old Vic presents an eccentric new version of David Mamet’s ultra-masculine play, Glengarry Glen Ross. Director Patrick Marber populates…
Choral church music must be heard within the liturgy
Choral church music is at its most effective when it’s embedded in the liturgy as it was designed to be,…
Anish Kapoor – spectacular, pompous and vulgar
I miss the New Labour years, when the government gushed money at cultural initiatives and Britain, previously a backwater in…
The joy of willow-pattern ceramics
My granny used Spode willow-pattern crockery for everyday use. There was another grander service for Sunday lunch, also blue-and-white chinoiserie:…
The uprising against ugly cities
Arriving in Oslo, the Barcode District is unavoidable. It is so named because its blocks are laid out like dominos…
An entertaining Rheingold from Grange Park Opera
Grange Park Opera has acquired a new chandelier for its theatre at West Horsley; a jumble of foliage and fairy…
Striped caps and striking shoes
June 11 saw the death of the Yorkshire-born English painter David Hockney who was arguably the most celebrated painter of…
A ballet masterpiece revived – but where’s the pony?
The choreographic partnership of Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot has long been celebrated in mainland Europe: a new double bill…
Is there anything sadder than a Scots Gaelic lament?
Sad songs hit harder, I find, when their meaning hangs just out of reach. Aside perhaps from the exquisite ache…
