Shakespeare

For France, the murder of John the Fearless was ‘a tragedy on an epic scale’

The drama of St Crispian’s Day: Shakespeare got it right

29 August 2015 9:00 am

Charles VI of France died on 21 October 1422. He had been intermittently mad for most of his long reign,…

Machado de Assis wasn’t the Dickens of Brazil— but he is one of the greats

15 August 2015 9:00 am

The surname is pronounced ‘M’shahdo j’Asseece’. There are also two Christian names — Joaquim Maria — which are usually dispensed…

Turn this play into a film and it’ll win Oscars – Hollywood can’t resist a posh Brit battling disability

1 August 2015 9:00 am

God, what a title. The Gathered Leaves. It sounds like a tremulous weepie about grief and endurance with a closing…

Christopher Turner as Artemidoro, the romantic lead transformed into a raving hippy in Trofonio’s ‘cave’

Don’t listen to Amadeus - this Salieri opera is better than Mozart

25 July 2015 9:00 am

Magical transformations are a commonplace of opera. We see our heroes turned into animals, trees, statues; witness wild beasts turned…

The Proms is taxpayers’ money well spent: it’s a national asset like fish and chips and the royal baby

18 July 2015 9:00 am

Make no mistake: the Proms, whose 2015 season was launched last night, would not, could not, exist without the BBC,…

When is a rape not a rape? Fiona Shaw's Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne reviewed

11 July 2015 9:00 am

When is a rape not a rape? It’s an unsettling question — far more so than anything offered up by…

Party pooper: Kurt Egyiawan as Angelo in ‘Measure for Measure’ at the Globe

A handy liberal guide on how to save mankind, courtesy of Soho Theatre

11 July 2015 9:00 am

Refugee crisis in the Mediterranean! Fear not. Anders Lustgarten and his trusty rescue ship are here to save mankind. Lampedusa…

‘The Duel after the Masquerade’ by Jean-Léon Gerome was exhibited to great acclaim in Paris in 1857, and a year later in London. The art historian Francis Haskell has suggested that the mysterious duelling figures from the commmedia dell’arte are characters in a story by Jules Champfleury

Crossed swords and pistols at dawn: the duel in literature

20 June 2015 9:00 am

Earlier this century I was a guest at a fine dinner, held in a citadel of aristocratic Catholicism, for youngish…

Quite the hankie-drencher: Tanya Moodie as Constance in ‘King John’

There's a reason why the past four centuries have ignored Shakespeare's King John

13 June 2015 9:00 am

King John arrives at the Globe bent double under the weight of garlands from the London critics. Their jaunt up…

Portrait of the week

23 May 2015 9:00 am

Home The annual rate of inflation turned negative in April, for the first time since 1960, with deflation of 0.1…

Merchant of Venice at the Globe reviewed: a tip-top production - and a high quality script too

16 May 2015 9:00 am

If Julian, Dick, George and Anne had become terrorists they’d have called themselves The Angry Brigade. It’s such a Wendy…

The Heckler: Shakespeare's duds should be struck from the canon

16 May 2015 9:00 am

I love Shakespeare. But when he pulls on his wellies and hikes into the forest I yearn for the exit.…

Self-portrait as Falstaff. Sher finds drawing a form of therapy and infinitely preferable to acting

Antony Sher: a surprisingly reluctant actor

2 May 2015 9:00 am

Understandably given its bulk, Antony Sher’s Falstaff in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s recent production of Shakespeare’s two Henry IV plays…

St George as depicted in The Golden Legend

St George: patron saint of England, patronised by all

25 April 2015 9:00 am

What did St George do? Killed a dragon, as everyone knows. And yet, as Samantha Riches points out, no mention…

Measure for Measure at the Barbican reviewed: a charity show for homesick non-doms

25 April 2015 9:00 am

The smash hit Matilda, based on a Roald Dahl story, has spawned a copycat effort, The Twits. Charm, sweetness and…

Our hero worship of Bach is to blame for rubbish like ‘Written By Mrs Bach’

4 April 2015 8:00 am

My impression that Bach has come to rival Shakespeare as a flawless reference point in the cultural life of the…

Existential threat: the birth of a cliché

24 January 2015 9:00 am

In the endless game of word association that governs vocabulary, the current favourite as a partner of existential is threat.…

Penelope Lively’s notebook: Coal holes and pub opera

13 December 2014 9:00 am

I have been having my vault done over. Not, as you might think, the family strong room, but the place…

All you’ll ever need to know about the history of England in one volume

13 December 2014 9:00 am

Here is a stupendous achievement: a narrative history of England which is both thorough and arresting. Very few writers could…

Harriet Walter as King Henry

Donmar’s Henry IV: Phyllida Lloyd has nothing but contempt for her audience

18 October 2014 9:00 am

The age of ‘ladies first’ is back. Phyllida Lloyd reserves all the roles for the weaker sex, as I imagine…

The fascinating history of dullness

11 October 2014 9:00 am

At least I’ve got my husband’s Christmas present sorted out: the Dull Men of Great Britain calendar. It is no…

Does a tart like Manon have a place in the Royal Ballet repertoire?

4 October 2014 9:00 am

What can the Royal Opera House be insinuating about its target audience? No sooner had Anna Nicole closed than Manon…

Why it's good to remember that Bach could be a tedious old windbag

7 June 2014 9:00 am

When I was first learning about classical music, 50 years ago, the scene was more streamlined than it is now.…

‘Basta’ must be the Queen’s English — a Queen used it

24 May 2014 9:00 am

My chickens do not usually come home to roost so rapidly. Only a fortnight ago I wrote that ‘some people use…

Paul Johnson’s diary: Boris would make a great PM – but he must strike now

10 May 2014 9:00 am

I feel an intense antipathy for Vladimir Putin. No one on the international scene has aroused in me such dislike…