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The Way I See It

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

On the stage

Moving story of paralysed violinist

Wednesday 04 February 2009

IMAGINE what it must be like for a great international violinist to know that neither doctors nor her own determination can change her condition and that she will never ever play the violin again. She has multiple sclerosis.

Dreams of escape

Wednesday 28 January 2009

SUSAN DARLINGTON gets under the skin of two desperados so hell-bent on escape that they live in a world of fantasy.

Mixed feelings for box office hit

Wednesday 28 January 2009

A MIDSUMMER Night's Dream is the most performed of all Shakespeare's play. Professional and amateur companies all over the world rely on its box office takings. The Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park without a Dream every summer would have long since gone out of business.

Booker prize novel makes a splash onstage

Wednesday 28 January 2009

ROMAN Catholic priests have been getting a very bad press and their scandals are now regularly being turned into novels, plays and films.

Slaves of the beat

Wednesday 21 January 2009

TOM MELLEN delves deep into the fascinating history of the bewitching and graceful art form from Brazil - Capoiera.

Musical and political melee

Wednesday 21 January 2009

IN 1977, the London Symphony Orchestra's principal conductor André Previn invited Tom Stoppard to write something that would need a full-size live orchestra.

Atkinson's star turn in hit West End musical

Wednesday 21 January 2009

TO reproduce Sam Mendes's 1994 production of Lionel Bart's musical Oliver must have been a strange brief for director Rupert Goold. Stifling to say the least. But the all-singing, all-dancing, thumbs-in-buttonholes sing-a-long spectacular is already a roaring success.

A '60s eye-opener

Wednesday 14 January 2009

LEN PHELAN takes a trip down memory lane with a classic black farce that takes a sideswipe at figures of authority.

World Cup wonder can't end too soon

Wednesday 14 January 2009

LISTENING to Luciano Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma was, and still is, one of the greatest operatic experiences.

You're well out of watching this

Wednesday 14 January 2009

WELL with a question mark might be good for a comedy. Well with a definite article might be good for an old-fashioned Gothic melodrama.