Arts

Stephen Tiller, the director of charity Kent Opera’s latest production, explains why Pretty Woman got everything wrong about opera, except the fact it is so good it might just make you want to pee your pants, (metaphorically speaking). For many people, trips to the cinema and even the theatre are part of their life. Cost may not mean they are a weekly or even monthly treat but they are enjoyed on a regular basis and they are very much on...

It's tempting to write something completely unrelated for the next 500 words. Just not talk about the play at all. Maybe chat about the weather! Or Article 50! Because Custody is so good, I don't want to spoil it for you. I don't want to hype it up, or give away all the good bits. So please, do me a favour: go and see the play, then let's reconvene when you've seen it. ***** Welcome back! Did you enjoy it?...

If you are a wobbly great BBC nerd and have an unfortunate proclivity for being star struck, the press night for a play written by a 27-year Have I Got News For You veteran is both a bounteous gift and a terrible curse. Because I am British and middle class, I wouldn’t dream of actually going up to and talking to famous people like they are normal humans, so instead I dither and sweat and panic eat whatever is in...

Oh man, I'm getting old. I used to be young and cool! I promise! I used to go to drama school and make art house movies that even I didn't actually understand! I used to go to bars in abandoned sheds and talk about incomprehensible theatre with my ironically mustachioed friends! I'd scream "obviously it's a metaphor for…" over the loud, ear bleedingly bad music so many times I'd be speaking like Clint Eastwood for a week. That was then....

Today, the world’s first clean air gallery, featuring art made from air pollution, launched in Brixton - an area that surpassed its annual air pollution limit 5 days into 2017. The gallery features work by artists from five of the most polluted cities in the UK - London, Glasgow, Leeds, Southampton and Nottingham – and will be open to the public from 27th - 29th March. Tiger Beer is bringing Anirudh Sharma, co-founder of Graviky Labs and his Air-Ink™ technology...

If you go to the Horror section of your local bookstore today, you won’t find books by Stephen King, Mary Shelley or HP Lovecraft; instead, you’ll find a stack of newspapers from the past couple of years. Okay, that’s not quite true—let’s just call it an alternative fact—but it may as well be. Because with Trump, Brexit, the refugee crisis, and the rising tides of rightwing populism, nationalism, racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia, the real world has become so nightmarish...

Continuing on as normal yesterday felt bizarre. I was at work near St Paul's when one of my colleagues first floated that some alleged…something, some horrible thing, might be happening outside the Houses of Parliament. It was 2:50pm. We spent the rest of the day in a contemplative blur; heads down, keeping up with the news, quietly sharing new information as the afternoon's events unfolded. I left work and went to the theatre with my friend. We talked about the...

A stunning scale-model of the Moon has gone on display to give star-gazers a chance to see it up close. The model - measuring 21 feet in diameter - uses NASA imagery at a sale of 1:500,000 to reveal amazing detail of its pitted surface. 'Museum of the Moon' has gone on display in the Great Hall of the University of Bristol where scientists there examined moon rocks from the first landings in 1969. Designed by artist Luke Jerram, members...

David Hockney is one of the most iconic living artists in the world and as he approaches his 80th birthday the Tate Britain has gathered a huge selection of his works. His career has spanned six decades and the versatile artists working in various forms including drawing, print, photography, painting and digital creations. Hockney has always embraced new technology and used it to bring a new style to his masterpieces. I spend virtually all my time running the site (violins...