Shakespeare
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
All mouth, no trousers?
Kenneth Branagh does seem to like taking his clothes off
Double trouble in chaotic Comedy
Great times to be had in Canterbury despite occasionally clunky comedy and some scandalously overpriced wine
Jumbo soars in uneven Hamlet
Anne McElvoy gives kudos to Cush Jumbo, who has a star’s ability to rise above the inadequacies and shine bright
The roaring boy Macbeth
Why Peter O’Toole’s 1980 performance at the Old Vic is remembered for all the wrong reasons
A Midsummer Summer Night’s Meme
The customer is always right – especially in the realm of dreams
Most Read
The martyrdom of Young Bob
On ebbing power of the political influencer
Grooming gangs and the truth
We should not give ammunition to deniers of the grooming gangs scandal
Why has Keir Starmer been so unpopular?
He was the perfect embodiment of a failing system
Babies need women
Leaving children with only men who are not their parents is foolish and dangerous
Stop ignoring the Islamisation of our democracy
The British state is bending to Islamism, not attempting to defeat it
The RAM should face the music
Why the Royal Academy of Music shuts of pupils from private schools
The Symphony’s Indian summer
Imagine hearing a symphony for the first time
The rise and fall of Nicola Sturgeon
The former SNP leader squandered her talents in a classic tale of hubris
Labour’s battle of egos
There is little love left to lose between those plotting regicide in Downing Street
Escape to the country
Some tractor-acceptance meditation might help with moving day
Under the volcano
As Sicilians say, Mamma Etna gives more than she takes away
Keeping the faith
Brexit triumphalists can’t understand how other people living in the UK in 2026 do not share their enthusiasm
Britain lacks a party of the young
Britain’s alienated young are drifting leftwards because no serious movement on the right is speaking to their interests
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is a masterclass in self-defeat
Labour’s tobacco crackdown will fuel crime, hurt retailers, and push smokers towards worse habits
QAnon for centrist dads
Peter Chappell’s What If Reform Wins is less a political forecast than a Westminster panic attack in novel form
Papal pressures
The Pope was well-received in Spain, but political tensions have been mounting