Sarah Snook’s one-woman The Picture of Dorian Gray is gimmicky and shallow
Technical bravura, camera trickery and a high-wire, high-energy performance are not enough to make this show enjoyable or meaningful.
ByMagazine
Subscriber of the week: Bill Gilby
Please email zuzanna.lachendro@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be featured.
By
Evgeny Lebedev’s vanity podcast
The media mogul and lord of the realm dabbles with psychoactive substances in the latest episode of Brave New World.
By
Jen Gunter Q&A: “I wanted to be a detective and drive around in a convertible”
The gynaecologist and author on Nancy Drew, abortion rights, and what would be a truly unforgettable episode of Mastermind.
By
Antarctica’s penguins may yet be safe from bird flu, but other threats remain
If the birds are lost, it will be due to commercial over-fishing and our failure to take simple steps to…
By
I was excited about The New Look – but the series is cringe inducing
This Apple TV+ drama following Christian Dior during the rise of the Nazis is full of poor dialogue and every…
By
Frank Auerbach’s unsettling charcoal heads
These portraits have a haunted quality, the spectres of all the deleted images that went before.
By
Why The Taste of Things is more than just “food porn”
The movie was derided by French critics as indulgent, with undertones of rancid conservatism. Actually, it’s a love story.
By
John Tavener’s sacred music for a secular world
The English composer’s accidental masterpiece The Protecting Veil communicates a deep human longing for the eternal.
By
Layla Moran: “I’m searching for kernels of hope in the rubble”
The Liberal Democrat MP on polarisation and her relatives trapped in Gaza.
By
This England: Send in the artillery
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain –…
By
Water bills rise because we have sold off the very rain that falls on our soil
Private water companies have gorged on debt and neglected infrastructure, leaving Britain unable to deal with either drought or deluge.
By
I crave human contact, mainly with someone in Sky’s technical department
With its awful hold music and bot-driven customer service, no one could have predicted the Rise of the Machines would…
By
In “sniper’s alley” well-being is all about feeling in control
Apparently I should be eating 30 plants a week. It’s a plan I can get behind.
By
The Tory party’s theatre of hate
The Conservatives are dissolving into bitter factions. Can anyone hold the party together as it nears defeat?
By
From Lyndsey Stonebridge to Sophie Elmhirst: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Spent Light by Lara Pawson and Moral AI And How We Get There.
By
Israel is pushing Palestinians to the edge
With its military focusing on Rafah, Netanyahu’s government has spoken of large numbers of Palestinians being forced to leave the…
By
The prime minister for victims
Britain is a nation beset by trauma, and Keir Starmer’s role will be to assuage it.
By
The unlikely refuge of British supermarkets
As libraries and community centres disappear, retail spaces are becoming the last resort of people seeking connection.
By
No country for old men?
As a Trump vs Biden rematch looms, the US prepares for a second term with an octogenarian in the Oval…
By