stage
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Behind the scenes with the stars – in picturesThe photographer David Levene went backstage at the Olivier awards in London, amid the likes of Mark Rylance, Billie Piper and John Boyega
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A Number – dizzying double-take on the question of cloningA crisp combination of stillness and urgency powers Caryl Churchill’s teasing speculations on identity -
Tim Pigott-Smith obituaryStage and screen actor best known for his role in the TV series The Jewel in the Crown -
The Winter's Tale – male jealousy casts a toxic shadow in canny revivalDeclan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod bring imagination and striking visuals to a modern-day retelling that is easier to admire than to love
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I Capture the Castle – musical labour of love oozes romanceEveryone is in love with this wrong person in this affectionate adaptation of Dodie Smith’s novel about a bohemian family living in a crumbling castle
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Faster review – risky ballet moves punctuate an energetic triple billJoan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
The Australian Ballet’s first offering of 2017, including a new commission from Tim Harbour, is a lively if disjointed foray into contemporary choreography
talking points
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How the Town Hall row still ragesThe Wooster Group’s new show explores the notorious 1971 debate between feminists and the American novelist. Almost 50 years on, the arguments they had still define our discourse
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Top 10 ecstatic musical showstoppersFrom West Side Story to Sweeney Todd, here are nine of my favourite musical moments. There’s one space left – for a classic selected by you
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Busby Berkeley's dance fantasiesIn hit movies like 42nd Street, Berkeley liberated dance from the stage and placed it in a purely cinematic dimension with dizzyingly inventive routines
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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
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Ricky Gervais's transgender jokes show we're all in a kind of transitionThe comic has been accused of transphobia after riffing about Caitlyn Jenner in his standup show. So does giving him a favourable review endorse those gags?
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Fawlty, Feydeau and how to write the perfect farceFrom the runaway rat in Fawlty Towers to Monty Python’s cheese shop, John Cleese has clocked up 50 years of sublime silliness. As his new comedy Bang Bang hits the stage, he talks about fear, Feydeau and his love of farce
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Crude, cartoonish, straight-up standupThe comic who presented a TV series on the rise of the far right is back with a show that combines goofballery with cultural commentary
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Rock'n'roll circus where everything's possibleThe French circus collective Compagnie XY face down the apocalypse in their new show, where the brawls and somersaults reflect their own relationships
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'Beyond the realms of my imagination'No one thought his metaphysical thriller could work as a play. But technology has made it possible. We meet Paul Auster as he takes a VR trip inside his own head
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How An American in Paris became a stage sensationVincente Minnelli’s daring MGM musical starred the 17-year-old Leslie Caron, had a staggeringly ambitious ballet sequence and became a surprise Oscar winner. Now it’s become a Tony-winning smash in London
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David Storey obituaryAuthor of This Sporting Life whose raw, realistic plays and novels reflected on family, atonement and the north-south divide
from the archive
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Glenda Jackson on playing poet Stevie Smith17 March 1977: Jackson spoke to the Guardian ahead of the opening of Hugh Whitemore’s play about the late-blossoming poet from Palmers Green
series
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Play timePlay timeTo Dream Again review – can Shakespeare's midsummer magic save a marriage?It may take more than a sprinkle of fairy dust to repair the relationship in Toby Hulse’s new play, which is inspired by the enchanted comedy
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The funniest thingThe funniest thingRich Hall: ‘Albert Brooks is one of the funniest comedians ever’From squid pelts to Boston standup Kevin Meaney, the misanthropic US comic and musician reveals the things that make him laugh the most
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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
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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
pictures & video
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From smirking schoolboy to deadly drifterOver a quarter of a century, Jude Law has blazed through a succession of challenging and controversial theatre productions on the way to his latest role as a lover with murder on his mind in Obsession at the Barbican, London
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Help! We're trapped in an American sitcomIn Flatshare, created by the comedy sketch trio Massive Dad for Comic Relief, two mates walk into the world of a US sitcom, complete with canned laughter
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Political cartoons inspired by ShakespeareThe RSC’s exhibition Draw New Mischief shows how, for 250 years, political cartoonists have taken inspiration from Shakespeare’s plays
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How a German prison is using theatre to de-radicalise young Isis volunteersA pilot project by the German government seeks to reintegrate young Islamist fighters through the study of the Qur’an and through theatre
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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
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Andrew Scott as Hamlet at the AlmeidaScott, best known as Sherlock’s Moriarty, is playing the highest-profile Hamlet since Benedict Cumberbatch took on the role in 2015. Here is a first look at the production
you may have missed
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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
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‘I wrote a play called Cruel and Tender – I hope to be both’Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley have starred in his bleakly funny, sometimes dowright horrible plays. As The Treatment is revived at the Almeida, Martin Crimp talks about how his work can scandalise and surprise
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'I was sure it would sink without trace'In 1977, over an epic Chinese meal, Mike Leigh was slowly persuaded to return to theatre. It was supposed to be a quick, forgettable job but became the hottest ticket in town
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How Grounded shook the worldGeorge Brant’s electric monologue Grounded was one of the first plays to explore a new form of war. The playwright, actor Lucy Ellinson and director Christopher Haydon recall creating a fringe smash that channelled Top Gun
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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?
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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
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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
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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
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Samuel West as Henry V: 'Upon the king'Samuel West speaks Henry V’s soliloquy on the night before battle, in which he reflects upon the public’s expectations of the king
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Eileen Atkins as Emilia: ‘If wives do fall’Eileen Atkins speaks Emilia’s lines from Othello, act IV scene 3. Emilia, Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s maid, counsels Desdemona on marital fidelity
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Roger Allam as King Lear: ‘Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks’Roger Allam performs a speech from the tragedy in which the ageing king curses the weather and his daughters
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Camille O'Sullivan as Constance: 'Thou art not holy'Camille O’Sullivan plays Constance in King John, who laments the loss of her son, Arthur, but disputes the suggestion that she has gone mad
Review Out of Blixen – patchwork portrait with stilts, knives and bloody gloves