They may be smaller and quieter than they once were, but Scotland’s capital has its summer arts events, and even some visitors, backThe Edinburgh festivals are back – but not as we know them. Last year was the first time since their founding in 1947 th…
Russell Tovey: ‘Queer people in my generation have section 28 in our blood’
As he hits the stage in Constellations, Tovey talks babies, what he’d say to the culture secretary and why he finally understands The History BoysRussell Tovey is trying to lick his elbow. It’s a ritual every performer has to go through in the opening …
Lamda boss to leave job amid ‘conduct and management style’ complaints
Sarah Frankcom to depart as director of UK’s leading drama school after less than two years in the roleThe head of one of the UK’s leading drama schools is leaving her job at the same time as an investigation into complaints about aspects of her “condu…
Phil Wang review – standup’s Netflix special skewers PC panic, Covid racism and himself
NetflixWang studs his special with memorable one-liners that dissect his feminist pretensions, the fear of ageing and UK perceptions of east AsiaFrom the other side of a global pandemic, here comes Phil Wang’s maiden Netflix special. Due for a spring 2…
Sex Education Xplorers (SEX) review – a biology lesson for the 21st century
Summerhall, EdinburghMamoru Iriguchi and Afton Moran raid their dressing-up box to give us a cheery guide to the evolutionary history of reproduction, and what it says about gender fluidity in humansI imagine the curriculum has changed since my day but…
Park Bench review – innovative show starts online and ends on stage
Park theatre, LondonTori-Allen Martin’s two-hander opens with the audience watching at home – then the second half is performed in personThe concept is the strongest part of Tori Allen-Martin’s two-act play, the first half of which we watch prerecorded…
Medicine review – Domhnall Gleeson despairs in absurdist institutional limbo
Traverse theatre, EdinburghThe Edinburgh festival’s theatre programme begins with Enda Walsh’s flamboyant and funny new play about a man receiving an inappropriate form of drama therapy in a psychiatric hospitalEver since One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nes…
Peter Kay gets standing ovation on return to stage at charity gig
Comedian tells live Q&A in Manchester that comeback is ‘like getting in a hot bath’ Returning to the stage is like “getting in a hot bath”, Peter Kay said at a special charity gig.The Bolton-born comic received a standing ovation as he appeared on…
‘Bloody difficult women’: Brexit play hits the London stage
Theresa May and pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller are key characters in a new drama about Britain’s battle over EuropeThey were both called “bloody difficult women”. Yet a play opening in London in the new year will portray Theresa May and the anti-Brexit …
Edinburgh Fringe returns with mix of in-person and online shows
Festival is part of world’s largest annual arts season which has been forced to curtail events due to CovidThe Edinburgh festival Fringe returns this weekend with a hybrid programme of nearly 800 in-person and online shows after its cancellation last y…