Anne McElvoy
Middle-Aged Magic Tricks
Harry Potter takes to the stage in an enjoyable romp with enough twists for both parents and children
Right Royal Charnel House
Serial killer, misanthrope, misogynist — Richard III gives Ralph Fiennes plenty to work with
Musicals Give Us The Big Picture
Sunset Boulevard was a splendid vehicle for a Hollywood star to bring a tearful audience to their feet
Chancers And Dancers
Britain changed hugely between The Caretaker and Billy Elliot but some themes seem oddly familiar
Where There’s A Will
Dominic Dromgoole bids farewell to a lively decade at the Globe with a relaxed and tricksy Tempest
Antisocial Climbers
Ralph Fiennes is ideal for Ibsen’s Solness while James Graham evokes the sad clown Screaming Lord Sutch
From Agitprop To Elegy
Despite its political pieties, Caryl Churchill’s Here We Go is a thoughtful look at life and death
An Edwardian Don Draper
Harley Granville Barker upset the censor with his study of a political idealist and bedroom bounder
More Crouch End Than Corinth
Rachel Cusk’s version of Euripides’s Medea boldly reworks the eternal theme of domestic disharmony
A Steppe In The Right Direction
Patrick Marber cuts Turgenev back to the essentials while Cumberbatch triumphs in a muddled Hamlet
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal