Theatre
Is Angst Adolescent?
Simon McBurney and Complicité have created a memorable production of Beckett’s Endgame
Making Dramas Out of a Crisis
The sheer scale of the economic meltdown may be too complex to explain on stage — yet
Train Crash and Mother’s Ruin
Seventy years after the start of the Second World War, two pre-war plays still resonate
The Stuff of Dreams
Two contrasting productions of Shakespeare prove that the plays can still be made to work for us
The Character of Englishness
Dr Johnson, the greatest writer of critical prose in the English language, was able to impart to his readers both human nature in general, and the character of Englishness in particular
The Stars Come Out
The London stage is both winner and loser from super-celebrity casting
Fun in the Sun
‘Have you, like me, secretly felt in certain locales that you have been parachuted behind enemy lines?’
Facing the Music
Ronald Harwood’s plays tackle the thorny issue of great artists accused of collaborating with the Nazis
Out of Tune With the Crowd
Two musicals – Spring Awakening and A Little Night Music – have been rapturously received. Can so many be wrong?
In Rude Health
Political power and its abuses are the central concerns of three fine new productions: England People Very nice, Burnt by the Sun and King Lear
Tolerating the intolerant
“For those who thought that a global pandemic would sound the death knell for identity politics, think again”
How to prevent the next pandemic
‘I have been reporting as a science journalist for years that the world is at increasing risk of pandemics like this; that this was predicted; that we know what we need to do to prepare and we simply haven’t done it; and that more and worse pandemics are coming so we need to do that, now’
D’où parles-tu? The post-truth world
Power, illusion and the open society: how postmodernism undermines our foundational concepts