The Biopic: Story of the Facts
Think of any remotely iconic individual of the last 200 years, and if their life hasn’t yet been dramatised for a major film, you can bet it’s on course to. […]
Anselm Kiefer’s Art of Destruction
On the 8th March 1945, the Black Forest town of Donaueschingen witnessed two events. The first, Anselm Kiefer was born; the second, his neighbour’s house was targeted by allied bombers, […]
Senses Ablaze in Marrakech
Appropriately known as the Red City, Marrakech burns with a contagious spirit. On open squares and down narrow alleys, each of the senses is excited by its energies. Incense whirls […]
The Gender-Plays of Theatre
At first, it almost sounds like a pantomime: the tyrannical rule of Julius Caesar embodied by a sadistic Frances Barber; the regal authority of Henry IV assumed by a masculine […]
Dara, National Theatre, 2015
There is no doubting that the tale behind Dara is an powerful one. In 17th century India, the sons of Shah Jahan, the man who built the Taj Mahal to […]
Great Britain, Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2014
Opening just days after Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson were tried in connection with phone-hacking at News International, Richard Bean’s Great Britain turns this deep-seated scandal into a darkly satirical […]
The Cherry Orchard, Young Vic, 2014
Following on from the soaring, sell-out productions of A View from the Bridge and A Streetcar Named Desire, expectations on the Young Vic’s production of The Cherry Orchard were inevitably high. It’s widely […]
Wildefire, Hampstead Theatre, 2014
The first of a season at Hampstead Theatre shining a spotlight onto Britain’s public services, Wildefire takes on the world of modern policing. The play casts an honest glance at […]
On Stage, On Screen
First photography, then books – and now not even theatre can resist the influence of the digital age. When National Theatre Live broadcast its first performance of Phèdre in 2009, […]
Behind the Pseudonym
That J. K. Rowling would embark on the next phase of her writing career under a pseudonym was almost a foregone conclusion. In July last year, the best-selling living novelist […]
The Culturist 