The Times - UK (2022-06-11)

the times | Saturday June 11 2022 saturday review 3

Dance

The Crucible

Scottish Ballet offers Helen Pickett’s dance

staging of Arthur Miller’s classic play about per-

secution and power, set in the village of Salem,

Massachusetts, site of the infamous 17th-centu-

ry witch trials. Her darkly compelling two-act

production has a commissioned score by the

appropriately named Peter Salem. Sadler’s

Wells, London EC1 (sadlerswells.com), Tue-Jun 18

Alex O’Connell

Comedy

Barry Cryer: A Celebration

Nobody did more to stay in touch with different

generations of comedian than Cryer, who died

this year at the age of 86. Scriptwriter, stand-up

and I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue mainstay, “Uncle

Baz” would check in regularly with those he had

worked with, those he had mentored and those

he just liked. Now several of them are playing

Books 12-21

John Foot’s history of

the rise and fall of Italian

fascism — plus, Sheila

Hancock’s fruity memoir,

the case for bringing

back British Rail and

the best of the latest

science fiction novels

TV & radio 23-51

New BBC1 murder drama

Sherwood; plus Paapa

Essiedu in The Lazarus

Project and the riveting

film Our Falklands War

Puzzles 52-55

Crosswords, sudoku,

Scrabble and your

favourite brain teasers

Cover photograph

Courtesy of Netflix

this one-off West End show in aid of the Royal

Variety Charity. Guests include Stephen Fry,

Judi Dench, Barry Humphries, Bill Bailey, Har-

ry Hill, Maureen Lipman and Stewart Lee. Lyric

Theatre, London W1 (nimaxtheatres.com), Mon

Dominic Maxwell

Pop

Grace Jones’s Meltdown

It really did melt down, along with everything

else over the past two years, but the Jamaican

glamazon’s long-delayed mini-festival is finally

here. A roller disco dancing session rubs up

against the feminist electro rock/shock sensa-

tion Peaches, and Beninese singing royalty An-

jelique Kidjo is pitched against the dark wit of

the British post-punk band Dry Cleaning. With

Jones making a couple of appearances, this will

prove to be a Meltdown well worth the (three-

year) wait. Southbank Centre, London SE1 (south-

bankcentre.co.uk), Sat-Jun 19

Will Hodgkinson

Film

All My Friends Hate Me
This savagely funny feature debut by the direct-
or Andrew Gaynord is a bleak riposte to an
entire genre of quirky Richard Curtis-inspired
“posh” comedies. The film dares to ask bleak
questions about the primitive nature of most
social relationships and ultimately finds that
human beings of all classes are severely lacking.
In cinemas
Kevin Maher

Theatre

Playboy of the West Indies
In the early 1980s the playwright Mustapha
Matura’s cheery Caribbean reworking of the
classic JM Synge play The Playboy of the West-
ern World was a hit with audiences across the
country. Now the piece — about a ne’er-do-well
who charms the denizens of a Trinidadian fish-
ing village — has been turned into a musical.
Birmingham Rep (birmingham-rep.co.uk), to Jul 2
Clive Davis

Television

Sherwood
Robin Hood and the wounds from the 1984 pit
strike form a heady and intriguing spine to this
six-part drama from James Graham based on
recollections of real events from his Notting-
hamshire childhood. David Morrissey, Robert
Glenister and Lesley Manville head an impress-
ive cast in an involving procedural more
interested in portraying a fractured community
and the why rather than the whodunnit.
BBC1, Mon and Tue
Ben Dowell

Opera

Madama Butterfly
Two things to note in this revival of Covent Gar-
den’s Puccini production: Britain’s great tenor
hope, Freddie de Tommaso (who should have
been singing Nessun Dorma at the Palace last
Jubilee weekend instead of the quavering An-
drea Bocelli) sings Pinkerton, and the staging
has been tweaked by appropriate experts to en-
sure greater sensitivity in the depiction of Japan
and Japanese characters. Royal Opera House,
London WC2 (roh.org.uk), Tue and in rep to Jul 6
Neil Fisher

What the critics are watching and listening to

showing this week

Tom Stourton and “friends” in the country-house-party satire All My Friends Hate Me

Contents

Cover story 4-5

Rowan Atkinson talks to

Andrew Billen about Mr

Bean and his new Netflix

show, Man vs Bee

My culture fix 6

The comedian Marcus

Brigstocke lets us into

his cultural life

Hugo Rifkind 7

“It’s funny, for one

thing, and sometimes

savagely so”: the BBC

drama Everything I Know

About Love reviewed

Visual art 8-9

Rachel Campbell-

Johnston shares what

she’s learnt in 20 years

as our chief art critic

Podcasts 10

David Frost’s son Wilf

tells Andrew Billen about

his inspirational father

and a new series of the

podcast The Frost Tapes