Theatre
Soho moonwalk
Back to the West End at last. After a four- month lay-off, I grabbed the first available chance to catch…
The death of theatre
Auditoriums can now reopen — but they will resemble prison camps, says Lloyd Evans
Orbs and triangles
The BBC announces Merchant of Venice as if it were a Hollywood blockbuster. ‘In the melting pot of Venice, trade…
Net effect
Let’s face it. Theatre via the internet is barely theatre. It takes a huge amount of creativity and inventiveness to…
No laughing matter
The RSC’s 2014 version of Much Ado is breathtaking to look at. Sets, lighting and costumes are exquisitely done, even…
A bailout for the arts is good but reopening would have been better
The government’s £1.57 billion lifeline for the cultural sector was bigger than most practitioners were expecting — and drew a…
Barometer
Price of protest Greenpeace was fined £80,000 for defying a court order and occupying an oil rig in the North…
Going underground
Leaf Arbuthnot and Igor Toronyi-Lalic on the new cultural rebels
The Bard in the bedroom
Nicholas Hytner’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream opens in a world of puritanical austerity. The cast wear sombre black costumes and…
Audio onanism
In Beeb-dominated Britain, the commercial triumph of podcasting — epitomised by Spotify’s recent £100 million deals with Joe Rogan and…
Mad for it
The longest interval in theatre history continues. Last week the National Theatre livestreamed a 2018 version of The Madness of…
Walnut whips and Stafford Cripps
The National Theatre’s programme of livestreamed shows continues with the Donmar’s 2014 production of Coriolanus starring Tom Hiddleston. The play…
Life after death
The coronavirus crisis offers theatre a golden opportunity to break free of the structures that have held it back for years, says William Cook
South Bank Centre
I must have written about this subject 100 times in 30 years and I’m still having to restate the bloody…
Good grief
Sea Wall, by Simon Stephens, is a half-hour monologue about grief performed by Andrew Scott. The YouTube clip has been…
Car factories revive but theatres remain dark and in danger
Car showrooms are open again: some dealerships, with a hint of forgivable hyperbole, report a surge of pent-up demand. And…
Cobweb-thin
Hats off to the Lawrence Batley Theatre for producing a brand-new full-length show on-line. Stephen Fry, with avuncular fruitiness, narrates…
Macbeth at the movies
The world’s greatest playwright ought to be dynamite at the movies. But it’s notoriously hard to turn a profit from…
Swanky, stale and sullen
The summer music festival has had its day, says Norman Lebrecht
Pinch and a punch
The National’s bizarre livestreaming service continues. On 7 May, for one week only, it released a modern-dress version of Antony…
Withdrawal symptoms
A TV play by Tom Stoppard, A Separate Peace, was broadcast live on Zoom last Saturday. I watched as my…
No q for the toilet
‘Enjoy world-class theatre online for free,’ announces the National Theatre. Every Thursday at 7 p.m. a play from the archive…
Turns of the century
Not looking great, is it? Until we all get jabbed, theatres may have to stay closed. And even the optimists…
On the contrary
The Spectator arts and books pages have spent 10,000 issues identifying the dominant cultural phenomena of the day and being difficult about them, says Richard Bratby
Within these walls
High Tide got there first. The East Anglian theatre company has produced a series of lockdown mini-dramas, Love in the…
