Singer, actor and writer who was the first black artist to appear regularly on British TV Cy Grant, who has died aged 90, was among the first set of RAF officers from the West Indies and qualified as a barrister, but such is the allure of television that he will be chiefly remembered as a singer, actor and broadcaster.
Every year, clowns from around the world gather in east London for a church service to remember one of their finest On cold, drizzly February afternoon in Dalston, East London, outside an unremarkable church on a quiet side street, a small but rapidly growing assembly of clowns has taken over the pavement. Some are gamely playing up for the assembled press, showing off circus skills and generally clowning around. Others stand nonchalant in their over-sized shoes and grease paint, making small talk with their families and greeting old friends.
Krzysztof Warlikowski adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s Streetcar named Desire dismissed as ‘futile stylistic exercise’ Ever since Marlon Brando was catapulted to stardom in the 1947 Broadway debut of A Streetcar named Desire, the play has been a big-name draw for big-name actors. Cate Blanchett and Rachel Weisz received unanimous plaudits for their performances in the work
French theatre-maker and Beckett specialist Pierre Chabert, who has died of a cerebral haemorrhage aged 70, was one of France’s leading actors in the intellectual theatre. He came to specialise in the work of both Samuel Beckett, with whom he collaborated for many years, and Robert Pinget
Can Cambodia begin to rebuild its shattered cultural heritage? Tim Etchells wonders if the answer lies with a team of Khmer dancers ..
Cuba has produced some of the world’s most explosive dancers – but its cultural isolation comes at a cost.
Royal Exchange, Manchester Lorraine Hansberry’s drama, in which a black family attempts to move into a white neighbourhood of Chicago in the 1950s, takes its title from a Langston Hughes poem that asks: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” It’s a hallowed text in America, where the most recent revival featured Sean “P Diddy” Combs in the central role of Walter Lee. The first British production following the election of President Obama seems a good moment to reappraise a work whose dreams may be deferred no longer.
The American historian, playwright and author of the bestseller A People’s History of the United States, which presents a leftist view of US history, has died American historian, playwright and social activist Howard Zinn died yesterday, aged 87. The author of the million-plus bestseller A People’s History of the United States, which gave a leftist view of American history, died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California, his daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn told the Associated Press today. Zinn wrote more than 20 books and his plays have been produced around the world, but it is for A People’s History, first published in 1980 with a print run of just 5,000 copies, which the historian is best known.
Eric Cantona has always known how to work a crowd. His theatrics on the pitch for Manchester United were greeted with roars of approval and his appearances before the press left journalists bemused but eager for more. Last night, however, a different kind of live audience awaited the striker from Marseille as he attempted to complete his transformation from temperamental sportsman to accomplished artiste.
British-born film star known for her roles in Great Expectations and Spartacus Jean Simmons, who has died aged 80, had a bounteous moment, early in her career, when she seemed the likely casting for every exotic or magical female role. It passed, as she got out of her teens, but then for the best part of 15 years, in Britain and America, she was a valued actress whose generally proper, if not patrician, manner had an intriguing way of conflicting with her large, saucy eyes and a mouth that began to turn up at the corners as she imagined mischief – or more than her movies had in their scripts.
