Review

Based on a WWII deception that fooled the Nazis, Operation Mincemeat is a deft pastiche

Is The Ugly Duchess a work of misogyny, a portrait of deformity or the mocking of an aristocrat? Or all three?

East Germany’s first black policeman started the 1990s as a media phenomenon, but ended it in jail. A new series tells his story

A new exhibition explores whether Ancient Greece's labyrinth existed or was a confection of the imagination cultivated over the centuries

Many TV comedy actors come a cropper when they turn to serious stage roles, but the League of Gentlemen star captures Sir John magnificently

One of the greatest Impressionists, Berthe Morisot’s work offered perceptive, unusual glimpses of domestic life

A new book eschews cosy nostalgia to explore the fractures that Europe’s picture postcard tourist traps keep hidden

A new play about Sidney Poitier is a fitting allegory for our immoral times

Two new novels evoke the eeriness thrumming through small coastal towns, where lives wash up like the debris on the beach

Painstakingly plotted, the Swedish author’s bestselling debut Collected Works weighs in at 733 pages – over a quarter of a million words

A new show at the National Gallery maps startling changes in pre-first world war European art

The Brexit architect follows in a long line of stage heroes who are morally questionable or downright loathsome

Noel Coward's play is funny now in a way that is tragic

Thirty years on, the key to the enduring legacy of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours trilogy is creativity and love

Even the greatest of writers – from John Steinbeck to Maya Angelou – suffer from the idea that they’re about to be found out

This musical is a joyous explosion of colour, light and good humour

There’s almost certainly a great play to be written about gay black and mixed-race men but this sadly isn’t it

How Brigitte Reimann, once an idealistic socialist, wrote one of Germany’s great post-war novels

The late Israeli actor and singer performed If I Were a Rich Man more than 3,500 times in multiple productions of Fiddler on the Roof

It’s nothing short of terrifying that Tom Basden has managed to shift a story of Italian police corruption so effortlessly and convincingly to a metropolitan police station in this country

A triumphant production about life, love, growing old and dying has absolutely restored my faith in theatre

The Cuddy author has a rare gift for finding the right voice for the right people in the right era

Arguably the greatest footballer in the world has inspired a plethora of songs across Europe

Sleepova is one of those free-flowing, slice-of-life dramas that, with a no-frills staging, places a vast amount of pressure on the individual actors to make something of their parts

It’s clear everyone has tried very hard to make this show work. They failed

Cannes Best Actress winner Zar Amir Ebrahimi on her exile from Iran and why her work shames the regime

Kælan Mikla bring their witchy synth-punk to the UK for the first time since the pandemic

Should undiscovered Terry Pratchett stories, and other posthumous work, be published?

The story of a bored Liverpudlian housewife finding love on a holiday to Greece now feels very dated

This has been said to be a dark reimagining of the old classic, but it is taking the word too literally

Mark Zuckerberg has already spent $20bn on his new virtual reality project, and it’s boring, empty and clunky

Lukas Dhont’s Close is an ecstatic, tear-jerking tale of adolescent friendship