stage
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Comedians on how to banish festive fearFrom faking illness to binning Brexit chat, standups share advice on taking the hassle out of the holidays
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Sugarplum sensationsMatthew Bourne brings back his Blitz-set Cinderella and there are Nutcrackers aplenty -
Snow White and Rose Red review – sisters doing it for themselvesFeminist theatre company RashDash rework the Brothers Grimm fairytale for a family audience, with colourful heroines in control of their own destinies -
How Hamilton mashed up musical theatre and hiphopIt could have been excruciating: a historical epic told through rap and show tunes. But Lin-Manuel Miranda’s show became a sensation and its million-selling cast album is a triumph in its own right
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'I want to take theatre off its pedestal'As she announces her first season, including a My Left Foot musical, the new head of National Theatre of Scotland says she wants to demystify the artistic process
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A Christmas Carol review – a love song to ChristmasRhys Ifans stars in a joyous, psychoanalytical reading of Dickens that celebrates the redeeming power of theatre
brexit shorts
talking points
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The seven rages of David Mamet: genius or symbol of toxic masculinity?With his weaponised dialogue and hypnotic macho characters, no writer has so relentlessly confronted the explosive issues of our times. But theatre and Hollywood are changing. As he hits 70, we ask: is David Mamet losing his magic?
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Soldier, financial guru, hip-hop legendLin-Manuel Miranda’s musical about the founding father is set to storm London. Often mistaken for a president, its hero engineered America and Britain’s special relationship, was rocked by a harassment scandal and got his face on the $10 bill
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Is sexual violence being trivialised in ballet?Controversy over the portrayal of rape in two recent productions highlights the art form’s historical tendency to reinforce the sexist tropes of victimhood
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Top comedians salute 'the Beatles of comedy'Eddie Izzard was inspired by his incontinence knickers. Armando Iannucci had to listen to his albums in secret. And he made Susan Calman hurt with laughter
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Taking slapstick and standup into new territoryThe residents were expecting bingo. Instead they got lessons in strawberry spitting, a Railway Children spoof – and a stuntman stripping to his underpants
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Ellie Taylor: 'Poking my finger in my husband’s mouth mid-yawn is the funniest thing'The standup, actor and ‘Steve Tyler lookalike’ on the things that make her laugh the most
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Shazia Mirza: ‘My local rabbi is funnier than most standups’The Brummie standup and writer on the things that make her laugh the most, from Woody Allen to Curb Your Enthusiasm
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Oh yes I did! How I survived my buttock-clenching panto cameoWhen our writer asked Hackney Empire’s Ugly Sisters for a humiliating, innuendo-laden experience, they said they’d give him one. Here’s what happened next
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The best theatre shows this Christmas – from panto to Pinocchio and NarniaRomance and adventure abound as Rhys Ifans plays Scrooge, Guys and Dolls hits Harlem and Sherlock returns
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The surreal cost of Syria's civil warThere are villages where the families of dead soldiers are given a goat as compensation. This struck Liwaa Yazji as the perfect starting point for a play – with live animals – about the horrors and compromises of life under war
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Anne Washburn on watching 156 Twilight Zone episodes for her freaky remakeShe has turned The Simpsons into a post-apocalyptic opera, invented her own language and put on a communist Dracula pageant. Now, the US playwright is staging the creepy, late-night TV classic that scarred her as a child
from the archive
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An interview with Glenda Jackson – archive, 196928 November 1969 While starring as Gudrun in Ken Russell’s Women in Love should have made here instantly recognisable, Jackson maintains her anonymity is safe
pictures & video
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Addiction v art: the radical theatre in the heart of Crackland
As police yesterday yet again applied brute force to the residents of São Paulo's 1,000-strong encampment of addicts, a group of artists is trying something wildly different
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The poster art of the National TheatreAfter 54 years of enticing audiences into the stalls, the National Theatre’s posters are getting their own moment in the spotlight with an exhibition
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National Youth Dance Company performs in Hull
Forty of the UK's top young dancers take sequences from their latest Sadler's Wells production to various locations around Hull, this year's UK city of culture
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Will Young and Louise Redknapp in CabaretIn Rufus Norris’s revival of Kander and Ebb’s classic musical, Will Young reprises his role as the Emcee and Louise Redknapp stars as Sally Bowles
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The world of Bunny ChristieFrom mapping the journey of The Curious Incident’s teen hero to putting Shakespeare in prison and erecting a towering newsroom for Ink, Bunny Christie talks through five of her creations
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Making Wonderland: the Australian Ballet's biggest showChristopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland involves puppetry, optical illusions, major setpieces and immersive projections, as well as costumes that some dancers have to actually climb into
you may have missed
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US president nukes the worldAntonia Fraser, the playwright’s wife, is always being asked what he would have made of Trump. Now we know – thanks to her discovery of a sketch about a gung-ho ‘Pres’ unleashing a nuclear attack
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How actors use perfumes to get into characterPlaying Thatcher? Dab on Bluebell. Got a part in Hairspray? Reach for the Madame Rochas. We lift the lid on how actors use smells to nail a role
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On fighting with Kenneth Williams and bouncing back after bankruptcyShe survived a violent upbringing to become the 60s’ favourite comedy vamp. As she turns 90, the star remembers fending off Norman Wisdom, attempting suicide – and having two lovers for 20 years
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'Dancers didn’t speak to Merce Cunningham like this!': Ben Duke's backstage Rambert diaryHe has 22 dancers, five musicians and six weeks to create a work that answers Nina Simone’s call for artists to reflect the times. Choreographer Ben Duke on the battles and breakthroughs of his new show, Goat
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Elinor Cook on sexism in British theatreHer sharp and funny plays have feted female friendship. As Elinor Cook takes Ibsen to the Caribbean with her version of The Lady from the Sea, she talks about fighting against the industry’s inequality
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Standups on Weinstein, taboos – and the gags they regretIs it ever OK for comedians to joke about sexual assault? Is there such a thing as ‘too soon’? Margaret Cho, Doug Stanhope, David Cross and other fearless comics on the fine line between funny and offensive
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Paterson Joseph as Shylock: 'You call me misbeliever'Paterson Joseph speaks Shylock’s lines from The Merchant of Venice, in which the moneylender reminds Antonio of the times he has insulted him
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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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Damian Lewis as Antony: 'Friends, Romans, countrymen'Damian Lewis performs Antony’s funeral oration for Julius Caesar from act III, scene 2 of Shakespeare’s tragedy
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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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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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Adrian Lester as Hamlet: ‘To be or not to be’Adrian Lester performs Hamlet’s soliloquy in which the prince considers taking his own life
The Arabian Nights review – Fake news? Scheherazade unleashes genies