Her savage send-up of the London intelligentsia was a box-office disaster. But could Doctors of Philosophy now be about to hit its prime?On Tuesday 2 October 1962, a play by Muriel Spark was…
The cast and director of a new Donmar Warehouse show tell Charlotte Higgins what a thrilling and liberating experience it has been tackling one of Shakespeare's great worksOn a table in the …
Their Julius Caesar was met with applause " and derision. As Josie Rourke and Kate Pakenham prepare to leave the Donmar, they reflect on how they changed the theatre landscape"Quite a senior…
Bristol Old VicThe former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company brings a mastery of mood to the Russian classicTime is advancing pitilessly on Lyubov Andreyevna Ranyevskaya and …
Pafiliwn Bont, Pontrhydfendigaid, CeredigionNational Theatre Wales's multimedia adaptation turns Ovid's Metamorphoses into an environmental parable of cosmic scale and elemental powerThe aud…
This low-interest, no-risk reboot of Radio 4's long-running culture strand is yet another reminder of how terminally timid BBC TV always is with the artsFront Row, on Radio 4, is reliable, i…
Robert Icke's production of trilogy by Aeschylus is to open at Trafalgar Studios after causing a sensation with audiences who were gripped by its family dramaThe Oresteia " three hours and 4…
In his new book, Matthew Wright analyses the remaining evidence of hundreds of Athenian texts that, packed with sex, magic and happy endings, would give a radically different impression of t…
Men dressed as soldiers appear in cities, towns and villages in a poignant memorial to those killed in the first world war battle Waterloo station, London: 8am. "I'm here, under the big cloc…
In the years to come, artists and intellectuals will venture across the rift to interpret the two halves of our divided kingdom to one other"We had a headache," wrote Philip Pullman on Twitt…
Her champions regard Katie Mitchell as Britain's greatest living stage director " but her critics see a vandal smashing up the classics. After staging her most ambitious work in Europe, can …
Her champions regard Katie Mitchell as Britain's greatest living stage director " but her critics see a vandal smashing up the classics. After staging her most ambitious work in Europe, can …
She satirised the 60s alongside Peter Cook and appeared onscreen in classics from Alfie to Women in Love. Bron talks Corbyn, 'consorts', and what the Beatles taught her about fameEleanor Bro…
Socialist, royalist, show-off, shy ... in life and in his fiction, Alan Bennett is a bundle of contradictions. He talks about the 'totalitarian' Tories, why he doesn't go to the theatre, and…
Usually I'm glad if Shakespeare is hot news. But the mania over the shifting of the 'To be or not to be' speech is just depressingCumberfever has reached critical levels, as previews for tha…
Robert Icke's production of trilogy by Aeschylus is to open at Trafalgar Studios after causing a sensation with audiences who were gripped by its family dramaThe Oresteia " three hours and 4…
The Lindsay String Quartet leader introduced me to Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Shostakovich: precious indeed for a girl growing up in the PotteriesOn 29 May Peter Cropper died sud…
Watching Alessandra Ferri in Wayne McGregor's new Woolf Works was an out-of-joint experience " I didn't know whether to feel old or youngThis week I went to the Royal Opera House to see Ales…
The newly revamped Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon is full of surprises, not least a certain inviting chair that is roving around the theatre's public spaces. When I sat on …
I'm moving house - and staring my habit of amassing theatre, opera and concert programmes in the face
Cut some canny deals, fundraise like hell, share resources with others, and go for the bold, brave and new
Royal Shakespeare Theatre will open after three and a half years with major facelift, better seating and more ladies' loos
Artistic director Nicholas Hytner says only response to expected funding cuts is to be 'bullish in our programming'
This year, three theatres will rework Aeschylus's tragic trilogy about a family's gory reckoning and the difficult birth of democracy in ancient Greece. Charlotte Higgins wonders why it cont…
A thrilling heroine who's tough and a survivor. Sunset Song is should be embraced south of the border Continue reading...