Arts

The sleeping labrador Dilly photo (that was shared over 23 million times to date) has been awarded SWNS Picture of the Year 2015.  SWNS is the largest independent press agency in the UK, supplying up to 20% of daily print news. This beautifully composed picture shot Villager Jim to fame after it "broke" the internet.  Father of two Jim, from Derbyshire, didn't want recognition for his talent but allowed SWNS to publish the photo in the national press. Jim is known as...

BY Daniel Harding New LONDON fringe production raises the tough questions that MEN don’t like to answer. ‘Beetles from the West’ is the debut play by James Hartnell, at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre. Tackling the very real issues surrounding men’s health and how we shy away from dealing with it. Promising a raw and emotional glimpse into what happens when your world comes crashing down. The show which follows a cast of three, sees a son deal with one...

By Miranda Hazrati (@mirandahazrati) Bristol Old Vic’s production of Welsh poet/novelist Owen Sheer’s play, originally written for Radio 4 and inspired by interviews with returning soldiers and their families, packs a powerful punch. Running at the Bush Theatre until February 13, the company’s six young actors relate the horrors of war in a heartbreaking story which is both immediate and highly disturbing. Three teenage boys from Bristol - Arthur, Taff and Hads - decide to join the army to “raise...

By Ben Gelblum The death of pop legend David Bowie, aged 69 just days after releasing his 28th studio album, the haunting Backstar, has inspired tributes from pretty much everybody who woke up to the sad news today. Perhaps our favourite tribute to The Man Who Fell To Earth, then reinvented himself endlessly, is Soulwax's "Dave" - a flawless one hour mix by Belgium's eccentric Dewaele brothers of their favourite Bowie hits. Premiering in 2012, as part of the Radio Soulwax project that Soulwax aka 2manydjs hope...

By Georgette Culley BRITAIN’S most notorious former dungeon has opened its halls at night - for life drawing. One of the world’s most famous landmarks The Tower of London has allowed an art group to stage their ‘historical’ drawing classes, which see real life models emulate historical characters in the old stone castle. During the first show, models posed as King Edward I and Queen Isabella – consort of Edward ll – in the draughty halls of Wakefield Tower and...

Marking 100 years to the day since of the debut Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich 1916, Lost Property presents an evening of performances and talks that draw on Dada as inspiration. Eschewing an overly retrospective approach - not least because Tristan Tzara’s original Dada Manifesto called for the “abolition of memory and archaeology” - they have instead picked a line-up of artists in whom some trace of the Dadaist sensibility can be felt: Performance: Phil Minton Sarah Kenchington Blood Stereo Ring...

Vote for your favourite image for the Press Photograph of the Year award from SWNS The UK's largest independent press agency, SWNS, has opened the voting for their Press Photograph of the Year award 2015. The photos are made up of national news images supplied through SWNS from both staff their own staff photographers and members of the public who sell their images to the press through the agency. SWNS provides up to 20% of all daily print news content...

By Miranda Hazrati Misogyny with a capital M takes centre stage in Jamie Lloyd’s tense, compacted production of Pinter’s ‘The Homecoming’ at Trafalgar Studios. Lloyd’s pumped up Pinter loses none of its punch or ability to shock audiences 50 years on in this very modern, cinematographic  interpretation with its cool blend of stark staging, lightning flashes between scenes and pulsating sixties soundtrack. John Simm delivers a standout performance as perfectly-suited, leering pimp Lenny, with his dangerously clipped dialogue and squirmingly...

By Miranda Hazrati @mirandahazrati Rufus Norris has enjoyed a successful few months since he took over as Artistic Director at the National Theatre in April this year with ‘Beaux’ Stratagem’, ‘Everyman’ and The Motherf**cker With A Hat’ all proving his salt. But that might be about to change with ‘An Evening At The Talkhouse’ which opens this week and looks set at the very least to divide audiences. An almost unbearable 100 minute no-interval mish-mash of undeveloped and half-baked themes and...