Shakespeare
A rollicking, great Kiss Me Kate
Musical and artistic brio can transcend the “problematic”
Sein oder Nichtsein
What a pairing Hüller and Fiennes would make
Chapter and verse on the unknowable Bard
The striking thing about Sir Stanley’s Shakespeare is how unsexy he is
The music of the Bard
A great tradition of Shakespearean songs have been all but forgotten
Twin totems of Teutonic angst
The German obsession with Goethe’s Faust and Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Counterfeit Cleese
Coates on Cleese, Collins and Cole
Instruments of shock and awe
Jean Sibelius/Arne Nordheim; The Tempest (Naxos/LAWO)
Who should run the RSC next?
Someone has to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Joie de vivre
Has the National Theatre brought back fun?
I’ll meet you at the cemetery gates
A new production of Hamlet takes one too many leaves out of Morrissey’s playbook
The slow death of public spaces
Pointless regulations are sucking joy from British life
At least somebody’s having fun
Ed Davey grows more cheerful the sadder Rishi Sunak gets
Do the arts need policy?
Decoupling creativity from policy might give art ambition again
The BBC can be a drag
The priorities of its reporting, especially on gender issues, can be absurd
Europe invaded
We must heed the warnings from Hungary and Poland about migration
Rishi Sunak losing will be a blessed relief
The Conservatives should be put out of their misery
Twilight of the gods
The eclipse of the gilded 1980s generation can be seen as a welcome changing of the guard
Trouble in Toryland
The Conservative Party is in deep trouble, and headed towards a probable post-defeat leadership battle
A labour of love
We are all historians of our own here and now
When the Left thought free trade meant peace
Socialists, communists and liberals were united by a conviction that free trade could, and would, promote democracy and justice
Will the next prime minister stand up for women’s rights?
Rhetorical progress has been made on gender issues — but will it affect policy?
