The Times - UK (2022-04-09)

the times | Saturday April 9 2022 saturday review 3

coach to work with the dancers.

Theatre Royal, Glasgow (scottishball-

et.co.uk), Wed-Apr 16, then touring

Alex O’Connell

Pop

The War on Drugs

Here’s a rare thing, a contemporary

alternative rock band who have got

massive the old-fashioned way: by

slogging it out on the live circuit and

honing their craft. Led by

Philadelphia’s Adam

Granduciel, The War

on Drugs started

out 17 years ago

with a shimmer-

ing, dreamlike

take on guitar

music before

heading increas-

ingly towards

Bruce Springsteen-

indebted heartland

rock. It has led to the

huge success of the 2021

album I Don’t Live Here Any-

more and this, their first UK arena

concert. O2 Arena, London SE10, Tue

Will Hodgkinson

Visual art

Raphael

“When this noble craftsman died, the

art of painting might well have died

also,” the Renaissance biographer

Vasari lamented after the death of

Raphael. Loved even in his day, his

reputation has remained unaltered.

Now, with this, the first exhibition

outside his native Italy to look at all

aspects of his multifaceted talents,

you also have the chance to enjoy him

to the full: not just as a gracefully lyri-

cal painter, above, but also as poet and

draughtsman, tapestry designer,

architect and printmaker. National

Gallery, London WC2 (nationalgal-

lery.org.uk), to Jul 31

Rachel Campbell-Johnston

Film

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of
Dumbledore
JK Rowling and her co-screenwriter
Steve Kloves have taken an axe to her
mediocre Fantastic Beasts franchise
and hewed away the excess non-
sense. What remains is a muscular
story with unexpected soul, slickly
directed by David Yates and with
Jude Law quietly commanding as
Albus Dumbledore. This time round,
Dumbledore is troubled by sadness
and complex feelings for his first
great love, the evil wizard Gellert
Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen). If
the franchise were to end here it
would be an entirely satisfying con-
clusion. In cinemas
Kevin Maher

Theatre

To Kill a Mockingbird
How refreshing to report that, now
that it’s finally opened in the West
End, the stage version really does live
up to the hype. Aaron Sorkin’s imagi-
native adaptation of Harper Lee’s
novel is beautifully mounted by the
director Bartlett Sher and driven by
a charismatic performance by Rafe
Spall as the principled small-town
lawyer Atticus Finch. Gielgud
Theatre, London W1 (tokillamocking-
bird.co.uk), to Aug 13
Clive Davis

Television

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
Some may recall ITV’s 1980 take on
the Agatha Christie 1934 favourite.
Clive James suggested that “non-
sense has rarely been so well dressed”
while adding that it was highly enjoy-
able, which is high praise. Now Hugh
Laurie is having a crack at it, directing
as well as appearing, and things are
pacier than before, while still showing
an evident love of the source ma-

terial. A big cast is led by Will Poulter

— proving he can be quite dashing —

with things starting beside a links golf

course where a dying man utters the

famous, titular words. Britbox, Thu

James Jackson

Classical

Bach at Easter

Not since 2019 have choral groups

and churches been able to present

full-scale performances of

Bach’s St John or St

Matthew Passion to

packed houses. Top

picks include the

Dunedin Con-

sort’s Matthew

Passion at St

Mary’s Cathe-

dral, Edinburgh

(tonight), in

which Nicholas

Mulroy sings the

Evangelist and directs

the ensemble; the mighty

Bach Choir’s Matthew Pas-

sion with singers including Toby

Spence and Roderick Williams

(Royal Festival Hall, London SE1,

Sun); and Laurence Cummings and

the Academy of Ancient Music’s per-

formance of the rare 1725 version of

the St John Passion (Barbican,

London EC2, Fri).

Neil Fisher

Dance

The Scandal at Mayerling

Scottish Ballet unveils its new

streamlined version of Kenneth Mac-

Millan’s 1978 blockbuster about

Crown Prince Rudolf, the drug-

addled heir to the Austro-Hungarian

empire who killed himself and his

teenage mistress in 1889. Presumably

the company won’t be cutting the

many erotic pas de deux that make

this ballet so popular. Indeed, Scot-

tish Ballet even hired an intimacy

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Interview 10

Douglas Stuart, the

author of Shuggie Bain

and Young

Mungo, tells

Sathnam

Sanghera

about his

love for

Glasgow

What the critics are watching and listening to

showing this week

Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore and Richard Coyle as Aberforth in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Contents

Cover story 4-5

Ben Macintyre, Lyse

Doucet, Margaret

MacMillan, Anthony Loyd

and Antony Beevor

on war films

My culture fix 6

Zadie Smith lets us into

her cultural life: from

Buffy to Kendrick Lamar

Books 12-21

Norman Scott, Jeremy

Thorpe’s lover, speaks

out; plus, the best new

sci-fi novels

TV & radio

23-51

Gentleman Jack

returns, plus David

Attenborough on the

dinosaurs’ last day

Puzzles 52-55

Crosswords, sudoku,

Scrabble and your

favourite brain teasers

Cover photograph

Warner Bros UK

JAAP BUITENDIJK

Ben Dowell 7

“Some questions don’t

need answering”:

The House of Maxwell

reviewed

Visual art 8-9

Jean-Michel Basquiat:

the real man behind the

1980s art superstar by

his sisters, as they launch

an exhibition in New York

Comedy

11

Kathy Lette

on her old

friend Barry

Humphries,

the man

behind

Dame Edna

Everage