In March 2022, the largest theatre in Mariupol โ while in use as a bomb shelter for 1,000 people โ was hit by a Russian air strike. A re-enactment based on survivorsโ testimonies has been moving audiences to tearsThe play opens with the usual pre-show …
The trend is a decisive shift in the balance between two cities that have long vied to be the world capital of the stage
Warsaw-Budapest relations are in the deep freeze.
The Danish star of the BBCโs Dracula, Ruben รstlundโs The Square and the new historical action-adventure William Tell is here to answer your questionsClaes Bang (โClaesโ rhymes with โfaceโ, in case you were wondering) only became an actor by chance, af…
Cate Blanchett on the London stage, Sondheimโs swan song and a ballet of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots
Professor Steve Peers, Royal Holloway University of
London
Photo credit: Ggia,
via Wikimedia Commons
Introduction
Member Statesโ ministers (the EU
Council) are likely to agree a negotiating position this week on replacement of
existing EU law …
Not even Elton Johnโs songs can redeem this predictable show at Londonโs Dominion Theatre
A stylish love letter to the Ukrainian port charts its transformation from exotic mafia capital to beacon of freedom and, now, battered Russian targetIn 1994 the writer Julian Evans went on a 10-day cruise down the Dnipro River. Ukraine had won its ind…
Legal journalist Maximilian Steinbeisโs play A Citizen of the People shows how easy it could be for a party like AfD to upend the countryโs 75-year-old democracyA smile so sweet it will melt your heart, a handshake so earnest it will make you want to b…
Leading theatre figures warn โdrasticโ reduction in funding will cause bankruptcy and harm cityโs tourism appealPlans to slash Berlinโs culture budget by tens of millions of Euros have led to a huge backlash, with leading venues saying they have been f…
This farce about a gaffe-laden am-dram whodunnit was born above a pub. How did it become one of Britainโs greatest ever exports, the toast of more than 50 countries? Our writer travels to Europe to solve the mysteryA bunch of twerps are floundering in …
A chronicle of the largest criminal case in French history from a master of the genreIn the early evening of 12 November 2015, three cars left Charleroi in Belgium, arriving a few hours later at a rented house in the northern suburbs of Paris. The occu…
Donbas has become the war’s main theatre, where some of biggest battles in Europe for generations have taken place and where thousands of troops on each side have died.
Thousands lined streets of Irish capital waiting for falsely advertised Mรกcnas parade after websiteโs โhuman errorโA Pakistan-based company has issued an embarrassed apology to Dubliners after a โhuman errorโ on its events website led to thousands of p…
Journalist Oksana Grytsenkoโs play based on interviews with teenagers is imbued with the dark humour of a nation living with tragedyIn a small, underground theatre in central Kyiv, an audience is watching โ at times with perfectly still attention, at t…
From the chalet-style patient โcottagesโ to the walls designed for scribbling on, Herzog & de Meuronโs Kinderspital is a stylish, healing, child-friendly miracle โ and it cost less than UK equivalentsโHospitals are the ugliest places in the world,โ…
In Austria, the FPร would suffocate cultural diversity with illiberal values, brass bands and schlager music. But itโs not too late to resistHenry Kissinger is reputed to have asked Chinaโs prime minister Zhou Enlai whether the French Revolution had be…
Zelenskyy urges western backing akin to that for Israel after Kharkiv strike; Ukraineโs 72nd mechanised brigade leaves eastern town of Vuhledar after more than two years. What we know on day 953See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverageA Russian guided bo…
At the age of 97 and a half, Ruy de Carvalho has earned the status of the world’s oldest actor still working in theatre. With no plans to leave the stage, he received Euronews Culture during the production of Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap”.
A Frenchย environmental groupย has found artillery shells dating back to World War II in a lake in eastern France with water samples showing high levels of TNT explosive, as well as metals like iron, titanium and lead. A major theatre of conflicts over …
Thierry Breton is out of the way, ridding the European Commission chief of her fiercest internal critic.
Alisa Khazanova embodies women who have faced jail for speaking freely in an oppressive society
Based on a Jane Fallon novel and directed by Guy Unsworth, a new show is powered by the Swedish pop duoโs songs. Co-founder Per Gessle reflects on Roxetteโs arrival at the operaGreeting visitors in the foyer of Malmรถ Opera is a formidable bronze sculpt…
The former prime minister faces an up hill struggle to rehabilitate her battered reputation.
A new report about the global state of COPD offers insights from 30 national experts on how policy action can be implemented worldwide.
Pavel Durov’s arrest and indictment is likely the opening shot in what will be a prolonged legal and political struggle, the consequences of which will reshape the balance of power between states and individuals.
Chichester Festival Theatreโs production has an excellent lead in Rory Keenanโs disillusioned spy
The Italian director, whose film Together made a key contribution to the Free Cinema movement in the UK, died in 2020 but this interview is a fitting tributeLorenza Mazzetti was the Italian artist, writer and film-maker whose short film Together made a…
Meena Harris has leveraged her special bond with her aunt to create a sprawling personal brand from scratch.
Countryโs hard-right culture minister Martina ล imkoviฤovรก accused of โcomplete liesโ after removal of respected figuresWhen Slovakiaโs minister for culture fired the director of the countryโs oldest and most important theatre last Tuesday, the numerous…
Antje Kunst*
* Antje Kunst is an
international lawyer and barrister of a UK based Chambers, specialised in EU
and international public law, human rights and litigation. She is admitted to
the Bar of England and Wales, and th…
In a city belonging to two nations, I hoped for art that could heal suspicion and bridge political divides. Instead I found timidity Gareth Southgate had a โgenuine desire to unite people around a particular project rather than divide people and cause …
Ahead of Paris 2024, French theatreโs showman has been criticised for being both too highbrow and too lowbrow
Gen Sir Roly Walker says west faces โaxis of uncertaintyโ with increasing threats from Russia, China and IranBritain has to double the lethality of its army or be prepared to fight a war in three yearsโ time as separate threats from Russia, China and I…
Readers comment on Norwegian parenting and similar attitudes taken by parents elsewhere I enjoyed reading your story about parenting in Norway: (How to be a Norwegian parent: let your kids roam free, stay home alone, have fun โ and fail, 11 July). As p…
Assassination plots have been a part of American political life since the 19th century.
The prosecution of a director and a playwright has sent shockwaves through the artistic community.
The prosecution of a director and a playwright has sent shockwaves through the artistic community.
Yevgeniya Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychukโs charges were based on play about women marrying jihadists in SyriaA Russian military court has sentenced a playwright and a theatre director to six years in prison on charges of โjustifying terrorismโ in a …
Audiences step out of their comfort zone at this annual extravaganza in the historic old town of the Swiss city, where the shows are staged in eye-catching settingsLausanne has been the official Olympic capital for 30 years but for even longer this hil…
Angรฉlica Liddell, who describes herself as an โirresponsible artistโ, read out a bad review by Stรฉphane Capron and called him a โbastardโA Spanish theatre-maker is being sued for defamation by a French theatre critic after she read out one of his revie…
PM pays tribute to countryโs best-known novelist as coffin is covered in national flag and flowersThousands of Albanians have gathered in Tirana to pay tribute to their countryโs best-known novelist, Ismail Kadare, who died on Monday after a heart atta…
Ismail Kadare, the Albanian writer who explored Balkan history and culture in poetry and fiction, has died aged 88. Here are some of the most memorable quotes from interviews he gave throughout his lifeIsmail Kadare, giant of Albanian literature, dies …
Youth groups from Serbia and Kosovo who organise the Mirรซdita Dobar Dan cultural event accuse Serbiaโs interior ministry of failing to protect them from intimidationOrganisers of a festival designed to promote cultural exchange between Kosovo and Serbi…
Forget superclubs and foam parties, this summerโs buzz is around the reopening of the venerable Teatro Pereyra
With tickets doubling as public transport passes and recycled props, Hans Otto Theater is embracing a โฌ3m federal project to make culture climate neutralA handful of Spanish conquistadors fight through thick undergrowth to emerge in the ivy-clad ruins …
Company performing Shakespeare classic formed of 12 members who moved to small Uzhhorod town during warVyacheslav Yehorov was working at a film school creating art therapy for children when Russiaโs full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022…
Live tattooing, non-simulated sex, flesh hook body hoisting and an ejaculating helicopter โ these are commonplace in the astonishing shows of Europeโs hottest director. But is her latest just too shocking?Loud cries of extreme discomfort are echoing ar…
I think of the fear and empty fridges in Ceauseศcuโs Romania โ and Iโll be thinking of Ukraine and Georgia on 9 JuneItโs December 1989 and a young woman is sitting in a Bucharest theatre, watching a sold-out performance of Hamlet. The air is laden with…
Edouard Baer says he โdoes not recognise himselfโ in allegations of harassment and assault by six womenEdouard Baer, a French actor best known for playing Asterix on screen, has become the latest star to feel the impact of sexual assault allegations as…
James Grahamโs adaptation of Alan Bleasdaleโs TV series about unemployed people in Liverpool is punchy and humane
The Winterโs Tale is retold with a virtual reality plot set in Silicon Valley and hardly any lines from the original, staged at a bold Latvian theatre elevating English talentJohn Malkovich is directing Tom Stoppardโs Leopoldstadt, there are dramas by …
Aldeburgh Festival is staging the composerโs โCurlew Riverโ together with the Noh theatre play that inspired it in 1956
The actor and writer examines what drove his father to weave a false tale of an epic wartime journey from Poland to InvernessIt was some years after my dad died that I discovered he was a liar. I loved him enormously. But he was a liar. I grew up in In…
Exclusive: Audience had โvitriolic reactionโ to European tone of musical, forced to close earlyRufus Wainwright has defended his musical Opening Night, which was forced to close early after mixed reviews, saying West End audiences lack โcuriosityโ afte…
The Georgian governmentโs bid to pass Russia-style law has met spirited opposition, mostly from young people keen to lean towards EuropeThe finale of Beethovenโs โrevolutionaryโ fifth symphony was met with deafening applause at the National Opera and B…
Thirty years ago, Riverdanceโs groundbreaking Eurovision interval performance ignited a new generationโs devotion to Irish dancingEvery Irish dancer remembers the first time they watched Riverdance. For many, that bolt from the blue struck 30 years ago…
Oleksiy Radynski chronicles the visionary architect Florian Yurievโs drive to rescue Kyivโs Institute of Information from destruction after he was given weeks to live The extraordinary mind of Florian Yuriev, a visionary Ukrainian architect and artist,…
The Norwegian theatremaker talks about succeeding Ivo van Hove as artistic director of one of the influential Internationaal Theater Amsterdam and staging classic plays as rock concertsWhen Eline Arbo informed her mother at a young age that she wanted …
Kyiv officials say attack in Tatarstan was on a facility producing long-range dronesTwo weeks before the deadly terrorist attack at a Moscow theatre killed more than 130 people in March, the United States intelligence community notified its Russian cou…
Dupieuxโs melancholic comedy sees a disillusioned audience member pull a gun before demanding a word processor to write the actors a better playQuentin Dupieux is one of the vanishingly small number of film-makers on the non-Anglo-American distribution…
Most Germans insist their ancestors werenโt Nazis. Jonathan Glazerโs film pries away at the cracks in this narrativeThere is something unsettling about sitting in a German theatre laughing at Nazis. How unsettling depends on the type of humour that pro…
An attack by gunmen on a Moscow suburban concert hall Friday left at least 60 dead, 100 wounded and the theatre a blazing wreck, according to Russian authorities.
BBC Verify examines video taken by those caught up in the attack on the Crocus City Hall theatre outside Moscow.
As he stages Shakespeareโs bracing tragedy with a cast who share the main role, the choreographer and his companyโs managing director Iiris Autio discuss the upswing in Finnish danceIs this a dagger I see before me? Not at all. Macbeth is centre-stage …
Players who survived a Russian strike on a theatre where over 1,000 people sheltered are taking to the stage to tell their storiesWhen the bombs hit the Mariupol Drama theatre, Vira Lebedynska did not hear a boom or a blast. From the recording studio i…
The animals that inspired Rodin and fed the French resistance may soon be banished from Les Invalides โ but not if protesters have anything to do with itParis is the theatre of many battles, but none has been more burlesque than the fight to save or an…
Audiences are finding sharp resonance and emotional comfort in Patrik Laziฤโs moving and funny play Our Son, about topics still sensitive in the BalkansThe hurling of a salad bowl to the floor might not sound like the most dramatic of moments, but it s…
The pioneer of โdiscourse theatreโ and director of Berlinโs influential Volksbรผhne died on Monday morningRenรฉ Pollesch, maverick pioneer of โdiscourse theatreโ, blending pop with critical theory, and director of Berlinโs influential Volksbรผhne, has die…
Reading a poem about the war may seem less instructive than watching the news. I suspect the opposite is trueRussiaโs war against Ukraine has never been only about territory and artillery, about politicians and putative peace deals. Of course, that is …
Every concert now features an auction to support the army. Two years into the invasion, they have become ever more inventive, surreal โ and personalDay 636 of the full-scale invasion. Kyiv, the House of Cinema, the venue for many premieres of films tha…
A dozen playwrights and directors meet in Kyiv and find comedy can be an important part of their creative processIn a studio theatre tucked into a courtyard behind Kyivโs main Khreshchatyk Street, six playwrights and six directors were hammering out a …
Rimini Protokollโs new show is part of a series of performances inspired by James Joyceโs Ulysses and draws a connection between its Aeolus episode and hypercapitalismOn the eastern outskirts of Berlin, a big top has been erected by theatre company Rim…
Amid the theatre, designers also unveiled wearable clothes for โmodern lifeโ
He has staged Greeceโs Olympic opening ceremony and scenes evoking myths and old masters. Now, the unclassifiable choreographer is taking his cue from Ridley ScottIn the 1980s, Dimitris Papaioannou was showing his performances in a squat in Athens. By …
Revelations about far-right partyโs secret meeting rock the country and lead to widespread calls to ban controversial groupTheatrical performances donโt usually end with a packed auditorium chanting โEveryone, together, against fascismโ for 10 minutes …
Almost 500 Cuban health workers deployed across Calabria amid severe shortage of doctorsIn the operating theatre at a hospital in Calabria, Asbel Dรญaz Fonseca and his team are preparing to perform abdominal surgery on a man in his sixties. They deliber…
Isobel McArthurโs version of Thomas Heywoodโs original asks questions about sex, virtue and strangers
The music of the 1960s and โ70s accompanies this story of love and failing political ideologies
Festival a โflight from realityโ for expected 125,000 visitors to enjoy street theatre and Victorian treatsSoon after limited Sunday trading started in the Netherlands, an anglophile shopkeeper in the small city of Deventer decided it could all be a bi…
Qatar 365 looks back on some of the most iconic moments of 2023, from ancient traditions like pearl diving and Sadu weaving to diverse culture with Indonesian theatre and anime geek events, with some of the best food experiences to have in Doha.
Indhu Rubasingham will replace Britain’s National Theatre’s current artistic director Rufus Norris when he stands down in 2025.
Archaeologists unearth the remains of a roofed theatre, market and river port in central Italy.
Analysts believe better ties with Greece are key to repairing Turkeyโs strained relationship with EuropeTurkeyโs president, Recep Tayyip Erdoฤan, will be arriving in Athens on Thursday for the first time in six years, determined to move on with a โwin-…
The Flemish theatre run by Michael De Cock has its own โcity dramaturgโ, functions like a town square and stages shows that reflect a vibrant capital, says the dynamic artistic directorSafety precautions during its late-19th-century renovation gave Bru…
John Coldwell on his first ever walkout from a performance. Plus letters from Ian Garner, David Riley and Tim Edwards on leaving theatres at the interval or even earlierTwo days before reading Zing Tsjengโs article (What made me love theatre even more?…
Russia’s best-known conductor is appointed head of the Bolshoi as well as the Mariinsky Theatre.
Star conductor becomes latest Kremlin supporter to lead a major Russian cultural institutionRussia-Ukraine war โ latest news updatesValery Gergiev, the star Russian conductor and prominent supporter of Vladimir Putin, has been installed as general dire…
Brendan Behanโs play examines life behind bars and the prison of social stereotypes
Katie Mitchell has compared her experiences of hierarchies in British and German theatre. Our strength has always lain in honouring the textKatie Mitchell this week gave the annual lecture at the Goethe-Institut in London. Drawing on her experiences of…
Plus: festive romcom โTwo Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)โ and historical spectacle โThe Mongol Khanโ
The show must go on for the trio of hapless performers in Parolinโs new production Zonder, which finds the funny side in failureContemporary dance and comedy donโt exactly go hand in hand but Ayelen Parolin is a choreographer with funny bones. In her n…
Two actors are in a serious condition following the accident during Romeo and Juliet.
Line Renaud and Dany Boon give low-key, sincere performances as they reunite for an eventful cab ride through ParisA fourth collaboration between French funnyman Dany Boon and one-time music-hall sensation Line Renaud (who played his mother in 2008 Eur…
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Ukrainians on Sunday (12 November) to prepare for new waves of Russian attacks on infrastructure as winter approached and said troops were anticipating an onslaught in the eastern theatre of the war.
Medics work in makeshift conditions, even while targeted by Russian bombs, to stabilise patients before they can be taken to hospitalsIn a field hospital on the eastern front all was calm. And then, suddenly, it wasnโt. A casualty arrived. It was a bad…
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Ukrainians on Sunday to prepare for new waves of Russian attacks on infrastructure as winter approached and said troops were anticipating an onslaught in the eastern theatre of the war.
Pro-Ukraine fighters in Russia โkill colonel of security serviceโ; Russian forces try to regain territory around Bakhmut; temporary lull in Avdiivka battleSee all our Ukraine coverageReports said Russians fighting on the side of Ukraine killed a colone…
Troops anticipating onslaught in eastern theatre of war as winter approachesRussia-Ukraine war โ latest news updatesVolodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to prepare for new waves of Russian attacks on infrastructure as winter approaches, saying tha…
Laurent Nรจgreโs stagey film is also a free adaptation of Thomas Hรผrlimannโs play on the same subject, and may have worked better in the theatreSwitzerlandโs strange postwar burden of quasi-collaborator-guilt, with all its symptoms of evasion and denial…
