Culture

The election of a new conservative government begs the question of how British culture and the Arts will be affected. Close to a decade of Tory rule caused a sharp decline in the funding and support of art and culture, and it doesn’t look like it’s getting any better.

It would be hard to think of another set of myths that are so present in contemporary culture as those surrounding the fall of Troy and its aftermath, immortalised most notably by Homer and Virgil. Stories such as the judgment of Paris, which sets the war in motion, the deception of the ‘Trojan Horse’ and Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops during his decade-long journey home are many people’s first introduction to the classical past as children, and the past few years have seen a resurgence of the Trojan cycle in popular culture. Novels such as Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles and Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls have reconsidered the war and its characters from different angles, and the BBC’s Troy: Fall of a City adaptation brought the saga to a generation raised on Game of Thrones. Therefore, the British Museum chose an opportune time for this year’s BP exhibition, Troy: myth and reality, which aims ambitiously to exhibit artistic depictions of the well-known myths and their various post-classical reinterpretations alongside the archaeological evidence that Troy and the war actually existed.

The last three years of politics are enough to make a person want to do some Malcolm Tucker-esque screaming into the void. You can’t...

Nine years after they last took Muswell Hill by storm, indie giants Vampire Weekend played a two-night engagement at London’s Alexandra Palace as part...

Emily Capon argues that pantomime (when done well) still has an important place in the modern theatre.

The following article is Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoiler-free. In the several weeks leading up to the release of the newest Star Wars...

The Royal Academy’s current exhibition, Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits, is a bold and singular response to this century’s fascination with self-image. Lucian Freud’s artistic career predates the selfie-saturated 2010s, yet his work captures the obsession and volume with which we display ourselves today.

British audiences know the whodunit genre well. The Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, wrote 66 murder mystery novels over the course of her prolific...

Many years ago, all the good girls and boys of the United Kingdom would get a special present from Santa every Christmas – a...

What happens to satire when politics is already a joke?

Holiday dressing with a new old approach We love the holiday season because dazzling decorations adorn our neighborhoods as we revel in the joy of...

In our current political climate escapism is a dirty word. Moreover, it is a risky form of mental engagement in a culture that calls...

Two years since his solo debut, Harry Styles is back with his second album, Fine Line. Styles’ self-titled album in 2017 had to fight...

Food - whether symbolising power, desire, loss, despair, love, murder or moral, social and political disorder - provides an extensive menu for films. Imogen Harter-Jones explores its symbolic capabilities.

Leone Van den Schrieck reviews Collarbone Productions' 'Macbeth' at the BT.

Frazer Martin reviews 'American Buffalo' at the Pilch.

Ottilie Mitchell reviews new play Malcolm The Miserable at the BT studio.

Clementine Scott is impressed by the Oxford Contemporary Opera Festival at Saint Hilda's.

A massive portrait of Ashley Walters looms over Kingsland High Road. Plastered across the second storey of a retail block, it gazes serenely over chicken shops, artisanal coffee houses, strip-lit barbershops, sourdough pizza restaurants.

Yii-Jen Deng reviews 'The Importance of Being Earnest' at Teddy Hall.