Entertainment

When the weather reaches over 30 degrees, all plays should have to incorporate an air conditioning unit into their set by law. Fortunately, HIR has come prepared, and sitting in the auditorium of the Bush Theatre is a sweet, blessed relief after the persistent heat wave raging outside. In the middle of the auditorium is a kitchen, with the audience sitting along each of the two long sides. Both edges of the stage are littered with laundry. Chairs are stacked...

A London bookshop has uncovered a shocking conspiracy about the coveted Griffin Poetry Prize, linking winners of the award to the TV drama Midsomer Murders. The thread, which starts "does anyone want to hear my conspiracy theory", links winners of the poetry prize to elements of the show dating back as far as 2005. Although the latest incidents seem quite normal - Alice Oswald won the Griffin Prize in 2017 for 'Falling Awake' and her brother, Will Keen, played 'Preaching' Pete Kubatski in Midsomer...

On July 14th 2017, almost 10 years after it was originally released, Reuben will reissue their 3rd and final album 'In Nothing We Trust' through Big Scary Monsters (BSM) as a very limited vinyl run, as well as digitally across streaming and purchase platforms (for the very first time). Often cited by fans of the band as a true lost classic, and originally released on the bands own Hideous Records label, it is currently unavailable on vinyl or digitally anywhere, hence this...

Kate Tempest didn't hold back as she launched in Theresa May in an angry and emotional attack on the Tory leader. The crowd and many on social media were deeply touched by her words and her unrelenting delivery. She said: "School kids on the hunt for lunch, cut the apron strings at least it keeps the bastards leaning,” she said. “Murdoch headlines leeches for the letting of our blood lost, blame it on the migrants suffocated in containers, blame it...

Let us speak then of victimless crimes, the pretense that somehow by expunging certain acts from the criminal justice system we are in fact advancing civilization, casting aside the repressions, the myths, the lies our churches told us for centuries upon centuries that those acts were evil when of course we the educated sophisticates know ever so much better that they are not evil merely ... pleasures that do no harm to no one else. If I choose to smoke...

Jeremy Corbyn is set for a rapturous reception when he steps on to the Pyramid stage tomorrow with 81-year-old festival founder Michael Eavis. People queuing at the event yesterday broke out in the viral "Oh Jeremy Corbyn" chant which was started when the Labour leader appeared at a Libertines concert in Tranmere. Sang to the tune of the Seven Nation Army song by the White Stripes it has become a UK-wide hit, and with revellers at Glasto throwing their support behind Jeremy he...

With their critically acclaimed new album Write In now released world-wide, and a whole host of festival appearances coming up across the summer, Moshi Moshi Records signings Happyness have confirmed another London UK headline show of their own for October 27th at The Garage. Tickets will be on sale from Friday June 23rd. The band are also celebrating signing to Rough Trade Publishing and the release of a new single Uptrend / Style Raids, which can be heard below. Discussing...

There is a reason I love short stories as much as I do. Show me a city, I'll write you a novel; read me a short story and you sing the whole planet. Yes I know that seems counter-instinctual. After all, how can three hundred or three thousand words possibly be more revealing of more of life than three hundred pages probing, extracting, peering at through the magnifying glass of words the lives of major characters with all their psychology...

Reviewing theatre in the summer is a fool’s game. Unless you’re in Edinburgh, or anywhere outside with your head in a bucket of Pimms, you’re an idiot. The notable exception this year is These Trees Are Made of Blood, a cabaret set in Argentina currently showing at the Arcola Theatre; fortunately the show perfectly suits the muggy, still heat of an unventilated brick building in the middle of a heat wave. It is dark, loud and hot. Half naked men...