The shipyard painter, political activist and razor-sharp cartoonist Bob Starrett has just written a new book The Way I See It on his eventful life and times. Below we reprint one of his stories and review an essential read
A celebration of Phoenix Dance Theatre's 30th anniversary, this mixed programme offers a great opportunity to reflect on its diverse and ground-breaking output.
Crymych in the Preseli hills of north Pembrokeshire was made to raise rebels.
Scenes from The Nutcracker have been parodied so many times - from French and Saunders sketches to adverts for Mini Cheddars - that it can be easy to forget its charm.
Just before the opening night of Opera North's new production of Bizet's Carmen, its associated Howard Assembly Room was host to a free performance of eighth-century Moorish-influenced Spanish music by the Catalan singer and guitarist Clara Sanabras and the Lebanese singer and oud player Abdul Salam-Kheir.
The story of the star-cross'd lovers was enormously popular well before Shakespeare got hold of it and there have been numerous versions not only in theatre but in film, opera and ballet ever since.
It's not the most auspicious of opening nights when three key dancers have to be substituted due to illness. Then, to make matters even worse for Northern Ballet, a fourth member sustains an injury at the end of Act I and has to be replaced.
It is 18th-century opera but not as we know it.
This is not a show that you sit back and relax to.
Let me confess at the outset that I'm totally immune to the charms of the diddle-diddle-diddle-dum music of Arthur Sullivan.