Theatre
What is culture anyway?
Protecting and renewing culture demands a fuller understanding of its nature and its purposes
There is nothing wrong with rules
People can put down their phones for the duration of concert
“Trad” theatre can still feel fresh
West End strikes a balance between keeping their spine and nostalgic appeal, whilst avoiding creakiness
Snook dazzles as Dorian Gray
Wilde’s preoccupation with beauty and artifice brings a sassy Victorian immorality tale into our own times
J.K. Rowling and the very Freudian fandom
Many Harry Potter fans feel a strange compulsion to hate the thing they love
A night of spectacle and special effects
Stranger Things: The First Shadow designers aren’t afraid to raid the treasure trove
The music of the Bard
A great tradition of Shakespearean songs have been all but forgotten
First-night nerves
Books, beaches and a beloved bullet
Going viral
From tumbles off the stage to the anxieties of age
Back to Blackstuff
The Boys from the Blackstuff hit the stage in Liverpool
Most Read
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It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
On Britain as a capitalist command economy
It is neither neoliberal nor socialist but a secret third thing
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
The green myth
Tom, Chris and Graham explore our April edition
The fog of facts
As elections approach, voters are forced to navigate a swamp of spin, distortion, and inaccessible data.
Right-wingers must rediscover their principles
Internalising the logic of liberalism has made defeat inevitable
The Real shooting match
Cue the bogus platitudes that leaders make about sport’s ability to heal divisions
A magnificent navy on land
The state of the British Armed Forces triumphantly vindicates Parkinson’s Law
Dismantle the infrastructure of censoriousness
Digital technology and private intelligence are bolstering cultural censoriousness in universities
Hope and stories
Bicinia (Claves)
Reform should ignore bad faith criticism
The party is not perfect but that does not make all criticism valid
Exile and exaltation
Bohuslav Martinu: The Symphonies (Deutsche Grammophon)
Eroticism and intrigue
Out of Vienna (Alpha-Classics)
Thank God for Brexit
The EU is a bureaucratic monster and Britain is better off out