Love, Sex & Other Foreign Policy Goals, the debut novel by The Thick of It and Peep Show writer Jesse Armstrong, is about a idealistic theatre troupe that travels to ...
Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail relies on Turkish stereotypes, presenting problems for modern audiences. How do the innovative touring company Pop-Up Opera approach this?
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A pop-up version of Sweeney Todd, at Harrington’s Pie an Mash Shop, is completely unsettling and completely brilliant. But should we be starting to worry about the trend for experiential ...
Robert Holman’s new play has, at its core, five disparate but simple images. In a climate where theatre so often aspires to the cinematic, this is truly refreshing, writes Xenobe ...
Pirandello’s daring play prompted walk-outs when it premiered in 1921. Almost a hundred years later, as Paris’s Théâtre de la Ville brings their production to the Barbican, this is equally ...
In the popular mind, the creation of the Taj Mahal is equated with a single act of love. Dara, Tanya Ronder’s impressive adaptation of a Shahid Nadeem play, restores the ...
In November, the oldest known collection of Arabic short stories, Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange, was finally released in English translation. Xenobe Purvis sees Robert Irwin, ...
At the time that Behind The Beautiful Forevers – about the slum-dwellers of Mumbai – opened at the National Theatre, Band Aid faced criticism for their ultra-emotive portrayal of poverty. ...
Director Jeff James has a unique take on Sophocles’ tragedy Philoctetes: he stages it entirely in a pool of treacle.
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Saturday was the last day of the Frieze Art Fair. Xenobe Purvis reflects on the wonder of the event.
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Today, Xenobe Purvis wanders off-site to Frieze Masters – a relatively recent addition to the sprawling Frieze complex.
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An eccentric self-interview, soup from Fukushima, everlasting pauses… Xenobe Purvis observes day two of the Frieze Art Fair.
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Since 2003, the Frieze Art Fair in Regent’s Park has been at the forefront of contemporary art. Xenobe Purvis is there to survey the proceedings – and here is her ...
Xenobe Purvis reviews Swings and Roundabouts, a new take on Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde. It’s perfectly pleasant but, she asks, where’s the original shock factor?
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Silent Opera have been hailed for their innovative approach to the operatic form. Xenobe Purvis witnesses their busy, idiosyncratic soundscape…
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As Shakespeare in Love opens at the Noel Coward Theatre, Xenobe Purvis looks at how generations have shaped the Bard in their image.
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In 2006, Kurt Vonnegut told a class of schoolchildren how art could benefit their souls. Now, at the Arcola Theatre, fifty East London teens show that they have heeded his ...
