Wednesday, July 3, 2024
From the Marx Brothers to Albert Camus and Claire Keegan, concise storytelling can get to the heart of the matter
What role do the arts have at a time of political change when little is cert…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AMSunday, June 23, 2024
Not every great work of art is an instant hit – just look at Stephen Sondheim’s Tony-winning Merrily We Roll Along
The triumph of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along in last weeke…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32PMThursday, June 6, 2024
The real culture war is the battle to fund it properly, in the face of politicians bemoaning a lack of money
As summer arrives, so too does big culture. The Hay festival has just wound up, w…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48PMSaturday, March 23, 2024
Featuring awe-inspiring aerial antics, Welsh National Opera’s Death In Venice shows how innovative the art form can still be
Conversation about opera has become an increasingly cronky mer…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:12PMMonday, March 4, 2024
The future will be bleak for drama if the young and the low-paid are excluded
When it comes to the cost of entertainment, there is a resigned acceptance that the only way is up. This reality…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:54AMFriday, February 23, 2024
As a decade of assaults on local democracy takes its toll, it is more important than ever to keep faith with the value of culture
How do you put a value on culture? In this age of austerity,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:32PMSaturday, January 20, 2024
Their status has fallen since the great days of Under Milk Wood or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but we still need audio dramas
On 25 January 1954, Dylan Thomas’s great radio pla…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:48AMSunday, May 28, 2023
It is refreshing to hear new ideas, but dividing culture into the best and the rest won’t do anyone any good
The arts have taken such a battering in the UK over the last decade that they s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:42PMMonday, April 10, 2023
Despite losses caused by funding cuts, a diverse range of vibrant work is pulling in new audiences
Hayao Miyazaki’s glorious animation My Neighbour Totoro reimagined for the stage; a Tenne…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:36AMFriday, March 10, 2023
By channelling money to Edinburgh performers, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is passing on some of her own good fortune
The Edinburgh fringe is a shaggy old beast with many ailments. It’s too big, t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:25PMFriday, February 3, 2023
By cancelling all its shows from March, the Oldham Coliseum has thrown down a challenge to both central and local government
Pity the poor Oldham Coliseum. This venerable regional theatre h…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:25PMFriday, January 20, 2023
Despite Nick Cave’s broadside against computer-generated lyrics, they’re here to stay. Artists need to be educated and protected
Faced with an attempt by a new chatbot to imitate his own…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:25PMSaturday, November 19, 2022
A bold attempt to reframe England’s cultural life might be laudable but it comes at a price
After a brief period of bafflement, accompanied by scrambled responses to the effect that “We …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:06PMTuesday, November 1, 2022
A delayed announcement about the next three years of support has left the arts world in limbo – but also with time to fight and rethink
In the turmoil of the new government’s stock-takin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:24AMFriday, August 26, 2022
Don’t assume that the arts are just about entertainment – they have a crucial part to play in the mental health of the nation
The playwright Alan Ayckbourn is a standout figure in Briti…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:12PMMonday, June 27, 2022
Changing Arts Council priorities are raising the stakes for a sector that deserves steady support
The reopening of London’s historic Africa Centre in new premises south of the Thames is ha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:54AMMonday, June 6, 2022
The latest city to win the cultural crown must now work to transform its citizens’ hopes and possibilities
Bradford is celebrating: it has won the competition to become UK city of culture …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:42PMWednesday, May 4, 2022
The closure of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella is a sign of the fragility of theatre in the wake of Covid-19
Cinderella will not, after all, be going to the ball. The big new Andrew Lloyd…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:37PMSaturday, December 25, 2021
A short-time work scheme would help freelancers when the going gets tough
It is not just the hospitality industry that is facing chaos in this moment of not-lockdown. The cultural sector, e…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24PMFriday, August 13, 2021
They may be smaller and quieter than they once were, but Scotland’s capital has its summer arts events, and even some visitors, back
The Edinburgh festivals are back – but not as we know…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:32AMMonday, November 9, 2020
Cultural venues in much of the UK are now closed to audiences, but one thing is clear: the shared experience of art should never be taken for granted
The late summer and early autumn saw a m…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:06AMSaturday, September 12, 2020
About £120m has been set aside for arts commissions. It may as well be used wisely
When, at the 2018 Tory party conference, Theresa May announced a “nationwide festival in celebration of …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:12PMMonday, July 6, 2020
Culture needed a lifeline, and has got one. Now the sector must avoid treading water
There are as many reasons to applaud the UK government’s decision to pump £1.57bn into the arts as the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:54PMMonday, June 1, 2020
The Southbank Centre in London is the latest institution to warn of disaster. It is time for decisive government action
A vocal minority in the UK say the arts are parasites on the state, le…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:54AMWednesday, May 20, 2020
The brilliant creativity of British theatre must be safeguarded – and not just the great national institutions
Theatre has brave new thinking in its bones. What is it, if not the imagining…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:54PMSaturday, December 7, 2019
Theatres across the UK are struggling to provide the opportunities that actors and audiences needFrom the Ffwrnes in Llanelli to Eden Court in Inverness, the UK’s approximately 1,200 theat…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48PMFriday, February 1, 2019
Corporate sponsorship needs to steer clear of impinging on artistic freedomsNews that investment managers the Man Group is withdrawing its sponsorship from the Booker prize after 18 years ha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48PMSunday, December 30, 2018
Instituting a UK ‘town of culture’ award alongside the existing ‘city of culture’ title might look like a desperate post-Brexit search for meaning. But the idea could bring real bene…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48PMSunday, November 18, 2018
The actor’s one-man shows, marking his 80th birthday, will take him back to old hauntsMany people seek unusual ways to celebrate a big birthday, but it’s unlikely that anyone has beaten …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42PMFriday, May 12, 2017
The BBC2 broadcast of Mike Bartlett’s play is a reminder that even for republicans, the Queen’s death will loom largeKing Charles III, Mike Bartlett’s play set in a future shortly afte…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:42PMSunday, October 30, 2016
Authentic productions of the playwright’s productions can be brilliant but Britain must not be bound by a hertiage-industry view of Mr Anne Hathaway’s workThe abrupt cessation this week …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:48PM 
