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Laura De Lisle
Thursday, 21 February 2019
Bodies is the latest in Two's Company's series of what they deem "forgotten masterworks", this one making a less-than-triumphant return to the London stage after almost 40 years...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
It was TV gold-dust. The original seven series of Only Fools and Horses were broadcast on BBC One from 1981-1991, and a string of Christmas specials kept the show running until...
Miranda Heggie
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
For its first ever performance in this country, the Symphony Orchestra of India - formed in only 2006 - kicked off its UK tour in spectacular style at Symphony Hall, Birmingham...
Saskia Baron
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Time once again to roll out that line about the road to hell being paved with good intentions. The creators of All in a Row, a new play at Southwark Playhouse about the last...
Owen Richards
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
A British boys boarding school in the 1980s. Not the most obvious setting for a romantic comedy, especially one based on the most famous romcom of all, Cyrano de Bergerac. But for...
Demetrios Matheou
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
When the world is as crazy as it is right now, its political life dominated by dolts and villains, it needs a new kind of hero. That’s why Americans are embracing an octogenarian...
Veronica Lee
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
David Ireland is a playwright who likes to jolt his audience and Cyprus Avenue, a dark absurdist comedy about an Ulster...
Bernard Hughes
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
The first visual impression of Monday’s Wigmore Hall song recital was of the marked height difference between Irish soprano...
Sebastian Scotney
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Joshua Redman's Still Dreaming Quartet is a project surrounded by an abundance of facts, context and backstories. Jazz folk...
Mark Kidel
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
John Mayall is not just the dean of British blues fans, but he has done as much for the genre as anyone else around, from...
David Nice
Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Ripeness is sometimes all. 80-year-old Martin Sherman's recent play, receiving its UK premiere at canny Park Theatre, says...
Boyd Tonkin
Tuesday, 19 February 2019
The arc of Daniil Trifonov’s reputation has soared and then, to some ears, stalled in a familiar modern way. Russian...
Matt Wolf
Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Against the grimmest of backdrops, generosity and even grace can be possible. That's the eternally uplifting message of Come...
Veronica Lee
Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Sheeps, the sketch comedy threesome, had never really gone away but when they performed Live and Loud Selfie Sex Harry...
Heather Neill
Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Remembering meeting Harley Granville Barker when casting him as Marchbanks in Candida, Shaw described the 23-year-old as, "...
Mark Kidel
Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Back in 2017, The Foo Fighters did a surprise pre-Glastonbury gig at Frome’s Cheese & Grain, a rather soulless shed near...
Joseph Walsh
Tuesday, 19 February 2019
As journalists and critics were enjoying the unseasonably balmy weather in Berlin at the 69th Film Festival, all were...
Kieron Tyler
Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Lyrics such as “are we hunting for life among misery, Satan have pity on my long distress” and “we’re on a ship of fools,...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 18 February 2019
It’s 1945 and World War Two is nearly over. Somewhere in England, Fiona Symonds (“Feef” to her friends) is training to be a...
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tv
Traitors, Channel 4 review - Cold War thriller fails to reach room temperature
Battling Stalin's secret infiltration of Whitehall
Baptiste, BBC One review - detective from The Missing gets his own hand-me-down show
Middle-aged policier drama gets off to a slow start
Catastrophe, Channel 4, series 4 finale review - sitcom saves the best till last
Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney go out on a grief-stricken, hope-filled cliffhanger
film
Director Toby Macdonald: 'Comedy is something people need at the moment'
Old Boys director talks about adapting Cyrano de Bergerac into a boarding school
On the Basis of Sex review – real-life legal drama
Felicity Jones is ground-breaking lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a feelgood with smarts
69th Berlin Film Festival round-up - what a banal Berlinale
Usually thoughtful festival has a distinctly off year with a programme of shoulder-shrugging cinema
new music
Joshua Redman Still Dreaming, Barbican review - world-class quartet
Spell-binding and joyous playing
Lau, Cheese & Grain, Frome review - the dangerous charm of electronica
Folk giants brought down by electronic monster
classical
Hussain, Symphony Orchestra of India, Dalal, Symphony Hall, Birmingham review - new sounds from a new band
Vigorous, fresh playing from India’s only professional symphony orchestra
Tynan, Appl, Burnside, Wigmore Hall review - the music of domesticity explored in song
Wide-ranging duet recital covers the joys and trials of home and family
Trifonov, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - Russian style with French chic (and cheek)
Piano prodigy meets his match in a blistering band
opera
The Rite of Spring/Gianni Schicchi, Opera North review - unlikely but musically satisfying pairing
Odd-couple double bill of Stravinsky and Puccini with plenty to delight ear and eye
The Magic Flute, Welsh National Opera review - charming to hear, charmless to look at
Mozart's pantomime about Nature and Reason stuck in a box
Brighton Festival 2019 launches with Guest Director Rokia Traoré
The south-coast's arts extravaganza reveals its 2019 line-up
theatre
Bodies, Southwark Playhouse review - shaky revival misses the mark
Last seen 40 years ago, James Saunders' four-hander never quite gets off the ground
Only Fools and Horses, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - rollicking remake of much-loved TV sitcom
Lovely jubbly! The Trotters return to Peckham
All in a Row, Southwark Playhouse, review - soapy and shrill pity party
Clumsy drama tries to raise sympathy for parents with a profoundly autistic child
dance
The Rite of Spring/Gianni Schicchi, Opera North review - unlikely but musically satisfying pairing
Odd-couple double bill of Stravinsky and Puccini with plenty to delight ear and eye
Brighton Festival 2019 launches with Guest Director Rokia Traoré
The south-coast's arts extravaganza reveals its 2019 line-up
Swan Lake, English National Ballet, London Coliseum review - a solid, go-to production
Traditional stagings don't come much more satisfying than Derek Deane's for ENB
comedy
Sheeps, Soho Theatre review - sketch comedy with a touch of the surreal
Friendship, fake gurus and fun
Brighton Festival 2019 launches with Guest Director Rokia Traoré
The south-coast's arts extravaganza reveals its 2019 line-up
Adam Riches Is The Guy Who..., Drink, Shop & Do review - super-suave Lothario on the prowl
Immersive show examines male-female engagement in the #MeToo era
gaming
Battlefield V review - WWII on an epic scale
The veteran series returns for another ambitious tour of duty
Fallout 76 review - how to wreck a perfectly good legacy with one messy game
When home runs go horribly wrong
Red Dead Redemption 2 review - the cowboy drama makes a triumphant return
An ambitious Wild West odyssey that matches epic scale with benchmark skill
visual arts
Don McCullin, Tate Britain review - beastliness made beautiful
The darkest, most compelling exhibition you are ever likely to see
Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory review, Tate Modern - plenty but empty
A major retrospective of the French post-impressionist is huge, but unilluminating
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, Victoria & Albert Museum - sumptuous
Daring, flair and elegance over 80 years
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