Sir David Hare’s adaptations of three early Chekhov plays have been the high point of my theatre-going this year, and I went to see his new play at the National Theatre, The Red Barn, anticipating that it would give me much pleasure. It didn’t – and I think I know why. Based on La Main, a novel by Georges Simenon that he calls one of his romans durs (as opposed to the … [Read more...]

  Picasso was, of course, a great and natural draughtsman. Even as a child he had a fluent and steady line, and was capable of capturing a likeness with ease. The ability to do this doesn’t seem too important to the practice of art today, and isn’t, apparently, a skill much valued or taught at art schools.  This undermines, of course, the very reason for existence of The National Portrait … [Read more...]

        Clive Bayley and Christopher Purves photograph by Robert Workman Richard Jones is a director whose work I admire. I think I was one of the few critics who appreciated his Ring cycle – images from which continue to haunt me whenever I hear certain passages, such as the shamed Brünnhilde being taken back as Gunther’s bride to the Gibichung Hall, her … [Read more...]

        This is the Tate website glossary’s definition: “Abstract expressionism is the term applied to new forms of abstract art developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and 1950s, often characterized by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity.” Wikipedia helpfully … [Read more...]

  Paul Manes, Departure, 2013, oil on canvas, 264.1 x 396.2 cm Brussels—It’s being billed as a “manifesto exhibition,” and the curator, my friend, the art historian and filmmaker Barbara Rose, is happy to say “This is a polemical show.” Indeed, the first line of her catalogue essay reads:   This exhibition intends to prove that painting as an autonomous discipline can still … [Read more...]

  If you’ve ever doubted that Harold Pinter deserved his 2005 Nobel Prize, take yourself to see Sean Mathias’ production of No Man’s Land with the duo of theatrical knights, Sir Ian McKellen (as Spooner) and Sir Patrick Stewart (as Hirst) at Wyndham’s Theatre. Forty-one years ago, at the same venue, another pair of knights, Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, starred in Peter Hall’s … [Read more...]

  The Good Food Guide is a peculiarly British phenomenon, founded in 1951 by one Christian socialist classical scholar, Raymond Postgate (1896-1971), and edited for many years by another, Christopher Driver (1932-1997).  More accurately, Postgate (who was also a crime writer) and Driver (a journalist and CND supporter) compiled the GFG, as it was, a bit like Zagat guides, put together … [Read more...]

Cecilia Bartoli as Norma (Photo Credit: Hans-Jörg Michel) Last year’s was the first Edinburgh Festival I’ve missed for twenty-something years, and I was very pleased to return this year, if only briefly, to attend half a dozen performances at the International Festival. Next year will be the 70th anniversary of the great post-War European cultural gathering initiated by the late Sir Rudolf … [Read more...]