Theatre
Tawdry tales
The Tales of Hoffmann, Royal Opera House
Shades of Gray
Never underestimate the mysterious yet powerful Sue Gray
The Old Vic under siege
The King’s favourite Shakespearean need hardly trouble himself with such dreary details
On cockroaches and cancellation (w/ James Dreyfus)
How ideology is spoiling the arts
Tom Stoppard’s Hampstead drama
Best not try to memorise this deceptive Connect Four of relationships — just get into the flow
Butchering La bohème
Opera is “relatable” already
A rollicking, great Kiss Me Kate
Musical and artistic brio can transcend the “problematic”
The intimacy of thoughts
An excess of technology burdens a cerebral adaptation
Don’t judge a play by its label
The instinct towards appeasing “sensitivity” would stifle the creative impulse
Sein oder Nichtsein
What a pairing Hüller and Fiennes would make
Excluding Imran Khan is cowardly and wrong
Oxford University has made a serious mistake
Over the line
No one should discipline children for asking honest questions or telling the truth
Aggers declares — the end of an era
It has been an assured innings, and a long one
Twitter has always been toxic
Bluesky is a reminder of an earlier form of smug spitefulness
Donald Trump is a wake-up call for Europe
We cannot complacently depend on the US
Democracy is being undermined in Northern Ireland
Brussels and London are both being reckless about Stormont
When America ignored a slaughter
Whatever America’s flaws, its absence from the global stage leaves a space quickly filled by far more malevolent actors
Black holes and revelations
Keir Starmer has detected a previously unknown budgetary singularity from whose gravity no tax cuts can escape
Religion without mercy
Progressivism has all the zeal of Christianity, but none of its emphasis on forgiveness
Getting the creeps
How should we cope with the unsettling in everyday life?
The professional classes don’t understand manual work
They cannot understand distinctions between different kinds of labour
