Savoy theatre, LondonNirvana and Foo Fighters man’s memoir inspires a sparkling monologue on success, suicide and scrambled-egg sarniesSpringsteen on Broadway aside, few musicians would step away from the cocoon of their band to deliver an exhaustive, …
Squid Game: the hellish horrorshow taking the whole world by storm
In the gory thriller that has swiftly become a smash hit on Netflix, competitors play children’s games for huge cash prizes … and if they lose, they die. Can you stomach it?What if winning playground games could make you rich? That’s the basis of Squi…
Flamenco chime: Spanish town’s clock rings out star’s song
Algeciras honours Paco de Lucía by using music from Entre dos aguas to mark the hour twice a daySeven years after his sudden death, the birthplace of the pioneering flamenco guitarist and songwriter Paco de Lucía is honouring one of its most famous and…
Hokusai: The Great Picture Book of Everything review – wonders beyond The Great Wave
British Museum, LondonRare black and white sketches by the Japanese genius are magnificent explorations of the human condition Like me, you may think of the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, whose long and brilliantly productive life ended in 1849, a…
Vic Reeves reveals inoperable tumour has left him deaf in one ear
Comic says doctors are monitoring his vestibular schwannoma, a non-cancerous brain tumourThe comedian Vic Reeves has spoken for the first time about being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour that has left him deaf in one ear.The 62-year-old, best…
‘Racism is rampant’: Alien Weaponry, the metal band standing up for Māori culture
The New Zealand trio have gone global thanks to their forthright Māori-language songs, which confront colonial history and ongoing inequalityNew Zealand was a war zone in the mid-1800s. On one side were the British and the colonial government, craving …
‘You’re in a new world’: refugee actors share their journey on stage
A new play touring England uses beds to reflect on experiences of former unaccompanied minorsFor most people, bed is a place of comfort, somewhere to recline and switch off. For others, it is a scene of displacement, a symbol of the precariousness of l…
Five of the best podcasts: laugh-out-loud fictional comedies
From the world’s rudest agony aunts to pirate radio DJs and mock-celeb chat, if it’s comedy you’re after, there’s a podcast for thatJulia Davis has spent the past 15 years cementing her position as the doyenne of dark British comedy, and Dear Joan and …
Surreal scenes and broken dreams: 2021’s best street photography – in pictures
From a giant eyeball on the subway to a winged dog at a wedding, here’s the year’s best photography at street level Continue reading…
We argue over statues, yet history shows they’re really all about power | Mary Beard
Today it’s ‘culture wars’ – but from Caesar to Colston, public art has long been reviled and reinterpretedMary Beard is a professor of classics at Cambridge UniversityTwo thousand years ago the ancient Romans had some imaginative solutions to the probl…