Shortlist unveiled for dance’s answer to the Turner prize
Choreographers from the US, Brazil, Greece and Portugal in the running for the £40,000 inaugural Rose international dance prize
February 2024
A cultural manifesto to breathe new life into our dying high streets
Letter: Flexible auditoriums and art displays from museums could help to revive urban community spaces, says Peter Higgins
January 2024
‘Engage their curiosity’: immersive art can boost UK high streets, says artist
Es Devlin says defunct department stores could be art buildings, and big screens ‘reclaimed’ for public for art
October 2023
Free Your Mind review – The Matrix triumphantly reloaded by Danny Boyle and co
This dance adaptation of the cult sci-fi movie is a work of breathtaking ambition that fully inhabits Manchester’s stunning new £240m venue
On my radar
On my radar: Es Devlin’s cultural highlights
The set designer and artist on the most extraordinary opera, a gut-wrenching Sudanese-American poet and a writer’s new angle on economics
Free Your Mind review – Danny Boyle’s Matrix reboot is a thrilling shock to the system
The director’s collaboration with hip-hop dance company Boy Blue, designer Es Devlin and writer Sabrina Mahfouz conveys the march of AI
February 2023
The Lehman Trilogy review – Sam Mendes’ banking saga returns with dividends
Hadley Fraser, Nigel Lindsay and Michael Balogun are astonishing as the 18th-century bankers who helped to define the American dream
September 2022
Es Devlin: ‘Has everything I’ve made been worth the resources? Probably not’
The multihyphenate set designer has worked with Adele, Kanye West and Beyoncé – but her new project is a shrine to endangered species whose stars are pipistrelles, planthoppers and bearded tits
June 2022
How do you make a lavish spectacle sustainable? Theatre’s radical green agenda
A meeting of minds at the National Theatre showed ways to stage drama along environmentally sound lines. But is everyone on board?
May 2022
Tony awards 2022: A Strange Loop leads the nominees, while British talents are lauded
Three actors from The Lehman Trilogy go head to head, the musical Six picks up eight nominations and the production MJ – about Michael Jackson – is also recognised
February 2022
A Number review – Lennie James and Paapa Essiedu scintillate as father and sons
The powerhouse duo’s effortless chemistry and emotional realism brings Caryl Churchill’s cloning tragedy blazing into new life
October 2021
Notebook
What’s our message to outer space? We are not so brilliant here on Earth
Rowan Moore
The prize-winning poetry of the Azerbaijani president’s daughter and the Dubai Expo both lack inspiration
May 2021
Plans for 50% funding cut to arts subjects at universities ‘catastrophic’
Artists and musicians speak out against proposal by education secretary and Office for Students
November 2020
Tristram Kenton at the Guardian
Sets appeal: staggering designs for theatre and dance – in pictures
We mine the archive of Guardian photographer Tristram Kenton for the great creations of designers including Tim Yip, Rae Smith and Tom Scutt
August 2020
I Saw the World End review – how a bomb changed life on Earth in a flash
Marking 75 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, stage designers Devlin and Weston have made a film of immense power – but it won’t be seen as it was meant to
July 2020
'The nearest to God we get': stars pick the Beethoven work they cherish
What's the future of theatre? A Scottish seaside town may have all the answers
April 2020
Lockdown culture
'When I've tried to write about it, it's sounded meh' – George Ezra and more on coronavirus
In the second part of our series, we ask set designer Es Devlin, director Claire Denis, composer Mark Simpson and others about how the pandemic has changed their work
September 2019
Observer Design
Designer Es Devlin: all the world’s her stage
Es Devlin review – a bendy bamboo history of the world from Adele's designer
