Panto in a pandemic: honks not hisses and an unprecedented cow

This season, pantomimes are shifting from the theatre to drive-ins and online. Two shows will still make a song and dance about itIain Lauchlan has been putting on panto in Coventry for almost 30 years. Whenever he starts rehearsals, the writer, direct…

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Culture to cheer you up during the second lockdown: part two

Following yesterday’s roundup of music, games, books, TV, dance and visual art, our critics continue their picks of culture to lift the spirits during tough timesCulture to cheer you up: part oneBringing Up Baby (1938) Here is the classic screwball com…

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Dot. Dot. Dot. review – Daniel Kitson’s unkempt everyman charts the strangest of years

Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh/onlineThe comedian – on a solo tour of UK theatres – finds warm and funny layers of humanity in the small details of everyday livesDaniel Kitson doesn’t strike you as an everyman. With his unkempt beard, his pyrotechnic turn of …

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Dot. Dot. Dot. review – Daniel Kitson’s unkempt everyman charts the strangest of years

Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh/onlineThe comedian – on a solo tour of UK theatres – finds warm and funny layers of humanity in the small details of everyday livesDaniel Kitson doesn’t strike you as an everyman. With his unkempt beard, his pyrotechnic turn of …

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Rock on, Bobby: Bobby Ball – a life in pictures

Entertainer Bobby Ball has died aged 76 after testing positive for Covid. One half of TV’s hugely successful comedy act Cannon and Ball, he was a mainstay on British televisions for much of the 1980s. He went on to act in comedies including Not Going O…

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Choirs and comedians among recipients of £76m Covid arts aid

Almost 600 cultural groups across England to benefit from latest funding roundComedy clubs, circuses, choirs and theatres across England are in line to receive a share of £76m of government funding for the cultural sector.The Military Wives Choirs, Som…

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‘We have £52 left’: the dire future for England’s small arts organisations

This week, the UK government announced £257m in emergency arts funding – we hear from some of those who missed out, complaining of baffling applications and a lack of guidanceOf course it was disappointing not to be successful in this round of the cult…

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Rage, white supremacy and roses: the art that sums up the Trump era

CocoRosie’s call to arms, a mauling from Michelle Wolf, Arthur Jafa’s white supremacy montage and Melania Trump’s gardening … Guardian writers pick the moments that encapsulate Trump’s reign Since he’s a former real-estate tycoon, it seems fitting that…

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Nimax to reopen six West End venues with social distancing

Adam Kay to launch series as theatres plan to host smaller audiences and run at a lossCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageNimax Theatres will reopen all six of its West End venues from October for a season of socially distanced …

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Jokes, guffaws and hardy perennials: Shedinburgh mows down the fringe

With the Edinburgh festival shelved by Covid, standups have turned a garden shed into a stage for an online extravaganza. Our writer enjoys flashes of brilliance amid a dislocating experienceThere are precedents when it comes to memorable Edinburgh fri…

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