Category : Focus

‘They feel cleansed, they cry … some really don’t like it!’ The 12-hour psychedelic theatre-rave Trance

Inspired by club culture and reincarnation, Tianzhuo Chen and Asian Dope Boys have devised a mesmerising show that unfolds in six two-hour chapters. Prepare to enter hell and then be healedNaked performers covered in paint roll around atop dirt and f...

‘They rewrite the ending’: the knife crime play with its own outreach scheme

Sam Edmunds hopes to help young people with his play The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt ReturnGrowing up in Luton in the late 90s and early 00s, the playwright Sam Edmunds witnessed an abundance of knife violence that has stayed with him to th...

Wolf Moon by Arifa Akbar review – night terrors

The Guardian’s theatre critic’s imaginative exploration of life in the shadowsArifa Akbar, chief theatre critic of this newspaper, is used to working at night: the journey from curtain call to home computer screen, writing into the early hours to ma...

Suck it up! The sinister side of holiday snaps – in pictures

Kourtney Roy’s filmic photo series The Tourist exposes the loneliness and desperation behind even the most glamorous looking vacation snapshots Continue reading...

Frankie Freako review – cheap and cheesy comedy horror channels 80s schlock

Ineffectual office worker Conor calls on the services of a gremlin that looks like someone dipped a Muppet in latex, covered it in caustic soda, and ran a car over it a few timesCanadian writer-director Steven Kostanski has been one of the creative f...

TV tonight: hit show Couples Therapy just keeps getting better

Dr Orna continues to offer fascinating insight as she helps clients. Plus: it’s the last visit to Reuben Owen’s farm. Here’s what to watch this evening11pm, BBC Two The vulnerability of the clients and the utmost professionalism of Dr Orna (compared...

‘Like an academic’: private papers reveal John le Carré’s attention to detail

Exclusive: Oxford’s Bodleian libraries to put archive items on display for first time, celebrating spy author’s ‘tradecraft’The extent of John le Carré’s meticulous research and attention to detail are among insights into his working methods that wil...

Billion Dollar Playground review – drop everything! Your hate-watch of the summer is here

From moaning about the truffle to complaining their towels are too smooth, everyone is absolutely awful in this wild reality show about the super-rich and their minions. Prepare to lap it upWho among us, as the summer months and dreams of sun and clo...

Tim Minchin: Songs the World Will Never Hear review – a bumper night with the marvellous misfit

Hammersmith Apollo, LondonMinchin embraces his oddball status – is he musician, comedian, auteur or clown? – in this three-hour showIt’s 20 years since Tim Minchin’s life-changing Edinburgh fringe in 2005, and tonight he’s singing 20 songs of commemo...

‘God chose you, Jair Bolsonaro!’ Is Brazil now in the grip of evangelicals?

From TV soaps to the supreme court to the top job, Christian fundamentalists are on a power-grab in the country. We meet the director of Apocalypse in the Tropics, a new film charting their risePetra Costa was rewatching footage of what has become a...

Music trade bodies accuse BBC of ‘arbitrary’ changes after Bob Vylan Glastonbury set

Industry insiders cite free speech concerns, saying broadcaster overreacted by limiting live streaming of ‘high risk’ artistsMusic industry figures have accused the BBC of making “arbitrary and disproportionate” changes to its coverage of live music...

Kew Gardens to host largest outdoor exhibition of Henry Moore’s sculptures

Show will include 30 monumental pieces displayed across gardens and 90 works filling Shirley Sherwood GalleryHenry Moore believed “sculpture is an art of the open air” and that his works should be seen in “almost any landscape, rather than in or on t...

Jurassic World Rebirth smashes predictions at box office

Encouraging figures for latest reboot starring Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey, albeit below previous films in the seriesJurassic World Rebirth has outperformed expectations at the box office in its opening week, with the lates...

Beyond the bonnets: Jane Austen’s working women finally get their place in the spotlight

Exhibition looks at housekeepers, maids and governesses who ‘enable the lives of the heroines and heroes’After Elizabeth Bennet walked 3 miles across fields to visit her sick sister, the heroine of Pride and Prejudice came in for scandalised criticis...

Super Happy Forever review – glowing love story in reverse with echoes of Before Sunrise

In this beautifully acted film, a man returns to the Japanese seaside town where he met and fell in love with his wifeFor the first 40 minutes, this film’s title feels like a poke in the eye. There is nothing remotely happy about twentysomething Sano...