Theatre
Magical Mystery Tour de Force
A British production of a Japanese work, Shun-kin is a near-perfect triumph
Pinter’s Paradise
A memory of the time Harold Pinter claimed that “cricket was better than sex”
Nothing Left But the Credits
Philip French, who has died aged 82, was the doyen of British film criticism. In 2009, in the run-up to the Oscars, he discusses the demise of cinema as an art form with Standpoint‘s critic Peter Whittle and editor Daniel Johnson
To See or Not to See
Some plays just don’t stand the test of time: Twelfth Night at the Wyndham Theatre; Loot at the Tricycle Theatre
Bathetic Effort
David Hare’s new play has been mistaken for great political theatre
Surprise Conquest
Two superb productions, The Norman Conquests at the Old Vic and Oedipus at the NT, explore the ties that bind ancient and modern drama
Gray’s Elegy
Coda by Simon Gray
Right Welcome
A brave new play deals with freedom of speech in complex and interesting ways
Drama Behind the Scenes
A Strange Eventful History by Michael Holroyd
I Hate the West End
The decline of West End theatre is compounded by the rude treatment of the theatre-goers themselves
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