stage
-
Max and Ivan review – rambunctious comic duo are a dorky delightScout leaders haunt the woods with crossbows and there are groansome puns aplenty in this deliciously silly coming-of-age show
-
Othello review – thriller focuses on anti-Muslim prejudice and 'alternative facts'Director Richard Twyman’s riveting production excels at depicting the racial and religious tensions underlying Othello and Desdemona’s peril -
So you want to be an artist? Then let the pros show you how it's doneDBC Pierre wrote in a fever, Frank Turner dabbled in thrash and Nikki Amuka-Bird jumped off a cliff. Artists reveal how they got to the top – and how you can too -
Why fringe theatre isn't playing the victimTheatre-makers are creating personal work that might be hard to deal with but that shouldn’t make it out of bounds for artists, critics or audiences
-
Plan your week’s theatreDolphins are taught to speak in a clever satire, Theatre 503 presents works by prisoners and Madame Bovary is relocated to a plumbing company – in a play with no actors
-
The Girls review – Gary Barlow gives Calendar Girls a classy musical makeoverThe Take That star and Tim Firth have collaborated seamlessly on a show that is far superior to its predecessors on stage and screen
talking points
-
Our feminist quest to smash the patriarchyTheatre duo RashDash want to talk about masculinity but words keep failing them so they’re doing it with the help of a sequinned rock goddess
-
The shocking life of theatre's greatest skullIt’s been licked, kissed and caressed. It’s been played by a beige sweater and the real remains of a Hamlet-loving horse thief. As Andrew Scott gets ready to be or not to be, we look at the history of Yorick’s cranium
-
-
Dance studios tap into the La La Land phenomenonRyan Gosling and Emma Stone’s multi-awardwinning film has got people queuing up to tap dance their way to happiness
-
How Bridget Christie found the funny side of BrexitAfter the EU referendum result, Bridget Christie ripped up her Edinburgh show and created a new one in just a few weeks. This is an anatomy of a standup set that has changed with the headlines
-
Sue Perkins Live: Spectacles – comic comfort food from a good eggThe ex-Bake Off presenter’s show is a droll self-portrait full of nostalgia and juicy tidbits about Paul and Mary. But it’s less standup than love-in with fans
-
Often people just Asian assume Asian that Asian everything you Asian talk about Asian is just the Asian fact that you’re AsianAll standups have angles. But my jokes about being Asian just seem to upset @BritFIrstPete7
-
Whoopi Goldberg review – standup or glorified chat show?London Palladium, London
US comic’s first UK standup show got personal with segments about ageing and resenting her child-friendly reputation
-
Brexit is too big for the stageAs Rosencrantz and Guildenstern returns, Tom Stoppard remembers the dandy who wrote it 50 years ago, picks his favourite play – and says he wants to make audiences cry
-
45 Bristolians stage a silent act of resistanceCult US theatre group 600 Highwaymen are putting on their first UK show with a gang of strangers who have rehearsed individually and never met each other
-
How I turned a playground into a musicalJunk playgrounds had sheer drops, death-defying rope swings and were always being set on fire. The playwright explains why he has written a show about these chaotic spaces and the kids who built them
-
Alec McCowen obituaryActor who played the sleuth in the Hitchcock film Frenzy and took his one-man performance of St Mark’s Gospel to the West End and Broadway
from the archive
-
Shakespeare's characters fight it out in our interactive gameCould Richard III handle Hamlet in a punch-up? Is Falstaff craftier than Cleopatra? Celebrate Shakespeare’s 450th birthday by pitting his characters against each other
series
-
The funniest thingThe funniest thingJon Richardson: ‘The first series of The League Of Gentlemen blew my mind’The standup and 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown team captain on what makes him laugh the most
-
Dancers' diariesDancers' diariesFlamenco superstar Sara Baras: 'If you don’t feel it, you can’t do it'In the last of our dancers’ diaries, the flamenco legend says the genre is not about technique but emotion – above all, it must come from the heart
-
Play timePlay timeThe Iron Man review – Ted Hughes classic clangs on to stageA talented team throw everything from shadow puppetry to live fire at the well-loved tale, but it’s hard to make out the story
-
Shakespeare's plays – as you like themShakespeare's plays – as you like themBest Shakespeare productions: what's your favourite Henry VIII?The play that burned down the Globe theatre in 1613, after a stage cannon ignited the thatch, is a potent farewell to this series, writes Michael Billington
pictures & video
-
Les Enfants Terribles by the Royal BalletThe Barbican in London is staging a new production of Philip Glass’s dance-opera based on Jean Cocteau’s sensational novel Les Enfants Terribles. Step inside the surreal world of two siblings’ deadly games
-
Macbeth retold by schoolchildren from around the worldThe witches are Colombian, Banquo’s Ghost appears in Mexico and Macbeth’s castle is Croatian in this crowd-sourced version of Shakespeare’s tragedy, performed by schoolchildren from around the world
-
A career on stageVanessa Redgrave has captivated audiences since her early days at the RSC. She has starred alongside her father, siblings and children, enthralled Broadway and is still commanding the stage today
-
Inside Kenya's slum ballet schoolThe Kibera ballet school is part of Anno’s Africa project, working in slum areas in Kenya. Weekly ballet classes are held in the Spurgeons academy school, with teacher and former dancer Mike Wamaya
-
Isy Suttie's six tips for meeting The Actual OneHow should you act when you come face-to-face with a potential partner? Make sure you’re brutally honest. Isy Suttie and Stephen Wight demonstrate six ways to check your compatibility
-
Andrew Scott's stage performancesAs he begins rehearsals for Hamlet at the Almeida, take a look at the theatrical career of Andrew Scott
you may have missed
-
Breakout star Tamara Lawrance on exploding ShakespeareBarely out of Rada, Tamara Lawrance cruised into TV and stage roles. Now she’s taking on Twelfth Night at the National. Can it beat her weird student version?
-
The National's new season is a staggering dereliction of dutyThe NT usually manages a balance between revivals and new work. Now, classic plays are disappearing from its stages – and from regional reps too
-
Arinzé Kene on tackling the UK riotsHe’s played Sam Cooke, an EastEnders bad boy and a closeted footballer in The Pass. Now, Arinzé Kene has returned to writing plays – and to the violent summer of 2011 – with a searing account of escalating tension in London
-
'If you're not obsessed, you'll never survive'Don’t expect to be in control, never stop looking for the next role: Siân Phillips, Timothy West and Janet Henfrey on how they turned acting into a life’s work
-
'The whole of democracy looks fragile and farcical'How do you top a hit play about global politics? By tackling the end of the world – from nuclear meltdown to Brexit and Trump. The writer talks eavesdropping and honesty
-
First cast members revealed for West End productionInitial names announced ahead of London opening of the record-breaking Broadway musical – but no word on the lead role
-
Joanna Vanderham as Juliet: ‘The mask of night is on my face’Joanna Vanderham performs Juliet’s speech from the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet
-
David Morrissey as Richard III: ‘Now is the winter of our discontent’David Morrissey speaks the opening lines from Richard III in which the scheming Richard lays out his plan to turn his brothers, Clarence and the newly enthroned King Edward IV, against each other
-
Riz Ahmed as Edmund: 'Now, gods, stand up for bastards'Riz Ahmed speaks Edmund’s soliloquy from King Lear, in which Edmund reflects upon being an illegitimate son and plots against his half-brother, Edgar
-
Ayesha Dharker as Titania: ‘The forgeries of jealousy’Ayesha Dharker plays Titania, the queen of the fairies, in a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
-
Sacha Dhawan as Parolles: 'Are you meditating on virginity?'In a speech taken from the first scene of All’s Well That Ends Well, Sacha Dhawan’s Parolles stresses the importance of losing one’s virginity
-
Zawe Ashton as Jaques in As You Like It: ‘All the world’s a stage’ – videoJaques’s speech about the seven ages of man from As You Like It is performed by Zawe Ashton
Pointe break Ballet's destructive power laid bare in Polunin film