Are we too reverent with William Shakespeare? – books podcast
On this week’s show, which falls on what may – or may not – have been William Shakespeare’s birthday, Oxford professor Emma Smith comes in to the studio to talk about her new book on his plays, This Is...
View ArticleBoris Johnson's much-delayed Shakespeare book now set for 2020
Publisher confirms Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius will come out four years later than scheduled – and that it is still not finishedAfter indefinitely delaying his book on the riddle of...
View ArticleThe Heavens by Sandra Newman review – brilliant time-travel fantasy
This electrifying novel of love, creativity and madness moves between Elizabethan England and 21st-century New York There are some writers whose prose is nothing short of electrifying: it pings and...
View ArticleWhat Blest Genius? by Andrew McConnell Stott and This Is Shakespeare by Emma...
Different Shakespeares down the ages ... which version of the national playwright does our era prefer, romantic wordsmith or streetwise experimenter?When did Shakespeare become Shakespeare, the bard of...
View ArticleTastes of Honey by Selina Todd review – illuminating life of Shelagh Delaney
Historian Selina Todd makes an unassailable case for the Salford writer’s place in British theatre historyShelagh Delaney was 19 when she sent A Taste of Honey to that powerhouse of the stage, theatre...
View ArticleThe Observer guide to the best autumn culture
Long-awaited albums, audacious political theatre and TV fit to follow Game of Thrones, plus film, dance, classical and more… our critics preview the new seasonYou know Oscar season is approaching when...
View ArticleStars in the wings: theatre's massive debt to am-dram
Box-office fortunes have been built on lampooning amateur dramatics’ cliche and incompetence, yet these theatres have had the last laughA popular idea of am-dram is that the play goes wrong. We love...
View ArticleAs If by Chance by David Lan review – a glowing memoir
From guerrilla warfare in Zimbabwe to drama at the Young Vic, the playwright and stage director captures a varied life well livedAlways, on entering the endlessly reconfigured auditoria of the Young...
View ArticleFor ever and a day: why we turn to Shakespeare at times of crisis
Four hundred years after his death, the dramatist remains a uniquely powerful touchstone. In this extract from his new book, Robert McCrum considers his evergreen appealIn May 2020, Robert De Niro, in...
View ArticleEric Bentley obituary
Writer on drama and champion of Brecht who shared Shaw’s view that theatre should add to people’s livesThe first half of the life of Eric Bentley, who has died aged 103, constituted a classic success...
View ArticleTrader Faulkner obituary
Versatile actor, flamenco dancer and biographer of his friend and fellow Australian Peter FinchWhen he first came to London in 1950, the Australian actor Trader Faulkner, who has died aged 93, was...
View ArticleTop 10 books about ballet | Erin Kelly
From Noel Streatfeild to David Hallberg, this is a literature of passion and madness, ambition and addictionTwo things that make us human are art and sport, and ballet is where those two things...
View ArticleThe room where it happened: Giles Terera’s backstage Hamilton diary
Terera kept a rehearsal diary while learning the part of Aaron Burr for the London launch of Hamilton in 2017. These extracts reveal the thoughts racing through his mind as he rose to the challengeThis...
View ArticleTop 10 books about theatre | Michael Billington
From Anne Enright’s novel about an actor’s daughter to the diaries of former National Theatre director Peter Hall, the theatre critic chooses his favourite titles about the stageTheatre is the most...
View ArticleIn brief: The Last Emperor of Mexico; Iron Curtain; Questors, Jesters and...
A gripping Habsburg history by Edward Shawcross, a witty Soviet romance from Vesna Goldsworth and an affectionate account of amateur dramatics by Michael CoveneyEdward ShawcrossFaber, £20, pp324To...
View ArticleRare original copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio sells for £2m
400-year-old edition of playwright’s first collected book of plays including Macbeth and Twelfth Night auctioned at Sotheby’sAn original copy of William Shakespeare’s first collected book of plays has...
View ArticleDavid Hare: ‘There is an awful lot of pious theatre at the moment’
The playwright on branching out into poetry, contemporaries he admires and his need to challenge audiences’ beliefsDavid Hare, 75, is the author of more than 30 stage plays, many of them dealing with...
View ArticleDon’t Think, Dear by Alice Robb review – the beauty and cruelty of ballet
A former student at the School of American Ballet dissects an art form that too often plays host to obsession and bullyingWhen Alice Robb was little, she wanted more than anything to be a ballet...
View ArticleIn brief: The English Actor; Cursed Bread; The Restless Republic – reviews
A woolly history of stage acting; a sensuous tale of deadly obsession in a French town; and a seminal exploration of Oliver Cromwell’s ProtectoratePeter AckroydReaktion, £20, pp416Continue reading...
View ArticleKeith Johnstone obituary
Pioneer of stage improvisation who freed drama from scripts in London and built on this approach in CanadaIn 1967 Keith Johnstone, who has died aged 90, formed an improvisation troupe, Theatre Machine,...
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