The Guardian Culture

Stripteases, ecstatic embraces and a dog in a dress: the full-on photos celebrating queer dancefloors worldwide

A thrillingly unsanitised new photo book captures the liberating power of queer clubs in all their sexy, messy, kinky, cacophonous glory. ‘I wanted it to feel like a night out,’ says the woman behind itThese days, waking up after a big night out, no evidence can be good evidence. Perhaps the bar lights were too dim and the music so great that smartphones (and the outside world) were forgotten for a few blissful hours. Camera rolls: empty.However, a new photo book called Sex, Clubs, Dissent: Visu

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘Shocking? It’s only what you see in ancient temples’: painter T Venkanna on his joyous carnivals of copulation

Penises, vaginas and breasts abound in the Indian painter’s work. As the son of a Hindu priest, he says his orgasmic scenes give us a way to consider religionT Venkanna’s paintings land like a sucker-punch. At the centre of his first institutional solo show at London’s Studio Voltaire is an overbearing altarpiece, modified by two squat side panels to take the overall shape of a juvenile dick drawing. Perched at the bottom, on either side, are Adam and Eve. Their backs are turned as they look out

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

125th anniversary gala concert review – back to 1901 as Wigmore celebrates birthday playing to its strengths

Wigmore Hall, LondonThe veteran chamber music venue kicked off a celebratory two-week festival with a starry lineup of performers playing works that had featured on the first ever programmeIn May 1901, Wigmore Hall’s inaugural concert began, of course, with God Save the King – the words sounding novel to an audience who, until a few months earlier, had been singing it for Queen Victoria. The programme continued with a starry lineup including the composer and piano virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni perfo

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Los Angeles Philharmonic announces Daniel Harding as next music director

The British-born maestro will replace Gustavo Dudamel as the orchestra’s chief conductorThe Los Angeles Philharmonic has announced that Daniel Harding is to be its next music director.The UK-born Harding, 50, will begin his tenure in the 2027/28 season, with an initial contract for six years. Gustavo Dudamel, the orchestra’s music director since 2009, leaves the role in August 2026 – the Venezuelan conductor is heading east to become music and artistic director of the New York Philharmonic, but

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Dada Masilo’s Hamlet review – dance remix gives the tragedy some potent tweaks

Sadler’s Wells, LondonThe late choreographer heightens Ophelia and Gertrude’s stories yet squanders some speeches in an intense hourWords, words, words. Can Hamlet retain its tragic force without using most of them? This hour-long dance-theatre remix by the late South African choreographer Dada Masilo preserves few speeches and its opening is not auspicious, crashing straight into “To be, or not to be” shorn of context and characterisation.There follows, as is customary, a meeting between the pr

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

No Place for Football review – battling ice and snow to play the beautiful game in Greenland

Life is tough on the autonomous territory – not least for its footballers, as this documentary testifiesAs the football-industrial complex churns out ever more eyeball-aimed product, precision engineered to trigger either triumphalism or nostalgia (or both), there’s occasionally room for stories like this about Greenland’s eight team championship playoff: scrappy chronicles of big-hearted underachievers in obscure corners of the football universe. (One of them, about perennial losers American Sa

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

007 First Light review – a triumphant James Bond game made by obsessive fans

PC, Xbox, PlayStation 5; IO InteractiveThe stealth masters behind Hitman go loud for this game about Bond’s brilliant beginningsGiven that we’ve not had a great James Bond video game in decades – or any Bond film at all in five years – there’s a lot of pressure on 007 First Light to reinvigorate a British cinematic hero. But developer IO Interactive has been auditioning for this role for some time. It’s there in the globetrotting nature of its Hitman assassination games, starring a besuited hero

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘If you try to fix Holmes, you’ll get your arse handed to you’: do we really need another Sherlock remake?

Rafe Spall will play Conan Doyle’s super sleuth in a huge new drama next year. While some fans fear ‘Sherlock fatigue’, others – including Steven Moffat – insist he will always make great tellyIn 1893, in The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes’s older brother, Mycroft. Meeting Dr Watson for the first time, Mycroft shakes his hand and sighs: “I hear of Sherlock everywhere since you became his chronicler.”Spare a thought for the rest of us, Mycroft. M

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘Everyone is equal in this space’: the cosmic world of neurodivergent-friendly club night Robyn’s Rocket

Trumpeter Robyn Steward thought clubs weren’t for her until she encountered Fabric’s accessible upgrade – the new home for her radically inclusive, space-themed nightUntil May last year, trumpeter Robyn Steward had never been in a nightclub space, save for playing trumpet with Lancaster duo the Lovely Eggs at London’s Heaven, and a few nights in a university hall that doubled as a lunch room. Steward is autistic and has multiple disabilities including cerebral palsy. “Sometimes strobes can trigg

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Fairyland review – moving memoir of queer parenting and new kinds of family in 70s San Francisco

Andrew Durham’s tender adaptation of Alysia Abbott’s book finds warmth, humour and heartbreak in an unconventional family unit shaped by love and lossFor anyone familiar with the Bay Area in the 1970s and 80s, this offers a glorious wallow in nostalgia, from the grainy archive footage of San Francisco Gay Freedom parades to the novelty of sushi at a book launch and the new wave hairstyles. But this film is not just about the set dressing and the costumes; at the story’s core is what was then a n

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Untold UK: Vinnie Jones review – this chaotic biopic is an unexpected amount of fun

Does the footballer have any regrets? This documentary doesn’t care to ask deep questions. Still, his colourful career from midfielder to movie star is an undeniably great story Do not come to the Untold UK documentary series about some of our greatest – or at least most famous – or at least most infamous – footballers looking for insight, interrogation, reflection, analysis or contemplation. Come for energetic hagiography and celebration. Or fuck off, as its latest subject, Vinnie Jones, would

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Crossing the Wine Dark Sea by Emily Wilson review – a masterclass in translation

The polarising translator of the Odyssey and the Iliad sets out her philosophy in this fascinating collectionEmily Wilson’s translations of the Odyssey in 2017 and the Iliad in 2023 are now the standard English-language versions, acclaimed for their conciseness and fluency. Her infatuation with Homer began at the age of eight, when her primary school put on a production of the Odyssey, with her in the role of Athena, and the excitement hasn’t worn off. You can question some of the choices she ma

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Landmarks review – Lucrecia Martel’s beautiful account of an Indigenous murder case

Martel’s documentary about the shooting of Javier Chocobar is a mannered and dignified work, laden with post-colonial tension and the weight of institutionsThe great doyenne of Argentine cinema, writer-director Lucrecia Martel (La Ciénaga, The Holy Girl, The Headless Woman), ventures into documentary to cover a murder trial, the issues of which spill out into very Martelian areas of concern: land and terrain as an active force in people’s lives, the tension between Indigenous people and the desc

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Medieval King Arthur manuscript could fetch £2m at auction

Book containing early versions of the Merlin and Grail legends has remained in private hands for 700 years In one illustration, painted on vellum and decorated with gold leaf, the sorcerer Merlin is depicted as a powerful shape-shifter who has transformed into a talking stag. In another, the Knights of the Round Table are shown returning, victorious, from battle.The illustrations appear in one of the earliest manuscripts to tell the tale of King Arthur and the search for the holy grail – a rich

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘I’m an absolute gurner. I’m worried’: The Archers stars on their flower power stage show

The hallowed radio show is celebrating 75 glorious years – by stepping out of the studio and on to the stage. We sent the Guardian’s food writer (and Ambridge obsessive) along to meet her heroes and find out moreI’m very careful not to betray my true levels of excitement when I speak to The Archers actor Susie Riddell, before a nationwide theatre tour to mark the rural radio drama’s 75th anniversary. I may be an Ambridge superfan but I still don’t want to scare the horses (nor indeed the cows, p

entertainment  May 26, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Ian McEwan says pessimism ‘a bigger problem than climate change’

Speaking at Hay festival as UK breaks May heat record, author says optimism is a ‘moral duty’Pessimism is probably “a bigger problem than climate change”, said the novelist Ian McEwan on Monday afternoon, as temperatures broke May records in the UK.McEwan “constantly” hears people say that they don’t “expect their children to have as good a life as they did”, but suggested that optimism is a “moral duty”. Continue reading...

entertainment  May 25, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Thespians review – world’s first actor gets comic kudos from Mischief’s merrymakers

Mercury theatre, ColchesterThis musical from the company behind The Play That Goes Wrong unearths the invention of acting in ancient Greece – and finds little has changedThe Mischief theatre company has been making fun of actors’ foibles for years, especially in the deliriously amusing Goes Wrong series. Its first musical asks if all those rampaging egos, heated rivalries, creative differences and hammy activities can be dated back to the world’s very first acting troupe. Did the proto-thespians

entertainment  May 25, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Criminal review – homelessness show delivers a rage-making punch in the gut

Museum of Homelessness, LondonThis mostly alfresco exhibition expertly unpicks how homeless and nomadic people have been persecuted over the centuriesA trim caravan sits in an idyllic garden in the grounds of a former gatehouse. Its cosy interior is decked with a cornucopia of crafts: pastel-coloured bunting, felt embroidery, a bright rag rug, plumply immaculate cushions. On the sideboard is a small display of pristine china. It feels like a glamping retreat or a chi-chi refuge from the Chelsea

entertainment  May 25, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘Bowie compared us to T Rex. Couldn’t get any better’: the Mekons on how they made Where Were You?

‘It’s about loneliness, really. It was the total opposite of that “It’s Friday night, let’s have sex” macho mentality that was in most rock music at the time’Most of the people who started the Mekons and Gang of Four were on the same fine art course at Leeds University. In December 1976 we went to see the Anarchy tour at the nearby polytechnic. I liked the Sex Pistols but the Clash, in their paint-spattered clothes, sounded particularly great. It was the first time I saw a band and thought: “Tha

entertainment  May 25, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Fatiha El-Ghorri: Cockney Stacking Doll review – Taskmaster star’s endearing, earthy tour of the East End

Leicester Square theatre, LondonThe comic delivers gags about her life and neighbourhood with choice descriptions and brutal punchlines‘What comes out of here,” says Fatiha El-Ghorri, indicating her mouth, “and this” – how she presents to the world – “don’t match.” From that contrast – a kindly-seeming woman in a hijab peddling gobby East End standup – this Taskmaster graduate and rising standup star draws much of her comic power. She’s a British Moroccan Muslim from Hackney, where she grew up g

entertainment  May 25, 2026