culture
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Maxine Peake to star in A Streetcar Named Desire in ManchesterExclusive: Actor will portray troubled Blanche DuBois in Sarah Frankcom production of Tennessee Williams play
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Storm Troupers: the Fight to Forecast the Weather review – leeches and allWe still can’t predict the weather, but that doesn’t stop us trying. Plus: gluten-free baking with the Hemsleys -
The Dyson vacuum cleaner‘When I saw industrial cyclones sucking up sawdust, my instincts kicked in’
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Our alternative awardsWith due cap-doffing to Ken Loach, here’s how we’d have liked to see the prizes shake down on Sunday night – plus a few extras
news
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Ondaatje prize goes to 'beautiful and disquieting' history of BaghdadRoyal Society of Literature’s £10,000 award won by Justin Marozzi’s book, which spans centuries of city’s turbulent history
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Contract that helped bring Bach's St Matthew Passion to the world to be auctionedThe contract for the first ever publication of Bach’s Matthew Passion - the work that Mendelssohn rediscovered and which introduced Bach to a modern audience - is to be auctioned today at Sotheby’s.
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Work from 1616 is 'the first ever science fiction novel'The Chemical Wedding, a fantastical story of Rosicrucianism by Johann Valentin Andreae, pioneered the genre, says author who has written a new version
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Call to raise £10m to buy famed Elizabeth I portrait for BritainNational Maritime Museum and Art Fund want to acquire the ‘Armada portrait’ when it is sold by the family of Sir Francis Drake
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Hollywood’s child sex abuse comparable to Jimmy Savile caseLord of the Rings star draws parallels between attacks carried out by British TV personality and paedophile rings in Los Angeles
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Stephen Fry joins supporters of public libraries in new documentaryCinema documentary charts 250-year history and features Fry and other stars calling for rescue of UK institution which is ‘source of learning and nourishment’
Shakespeare Solos
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'Now, gods, stand up for bastards'Riz Ahmed speaks Edmund’s soliloquy from King Lear, in which Edmund reflects upon being an illegitimate son and plots against his half-brother, Edgar
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You call me misbelieverPaterson Joseph speaks Shylock’s lines from The Merchant of Venice, in which the moneylender reminds Antonio of the times he has insulted him
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All the world’s a stageJaques’s speech about the seven ages of man from As You Like It is performed by Zawe Ashton
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The forgeries of jealousyAyesha Dharker plays Titania, the queen of the fairies, in a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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If wives do fallEileen Atkins speaks Emilia’s lines from Othello, act IV scene 3. Emilia, Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s maid, counsels Desdemona on marital fidelity
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Are you meditating on virginity?In a speech taken from the first scene of All’s Well That Ends Well, Sacha Dhawan’s Parolles stresses the importance of losing one’s virginity
reviews
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Inside the Switch House – Tate Modern's power pyramidWith its chainmail brickwork, vast spaces and panoramic views, the Tate’s £260m ziggurat is a mesmerising twist on the existing gallery
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What Remains – dancing up a storm to Kate Tempest and roller-skating for a Warhol starA festival at Siobhan Davies dance studio featured Julie Cunningham’s moves to match Tempest’s verse and Jamie Atherton’s solo for Fred Herko
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We’ll All Be Murdered in Our Beds: The Shocking History of Crime Reporting in Britain by Duncan CampbellThe Guardian’s former crime correspondent reveals the often corrupt relationship between journalists and the police in this thoughtful exposé of his trade
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Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – Gerard Finley brings subtlety and warmth to Glyndebourne’s SachsOn its first revival, David McVicar’s handsome production feels less convincing and offers few real insights into Wagner’s comedy. Gerard Finley’s Sachs remains a standout
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The Joke – an Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman walk into a showWill Adamsdale, Lloyd Hutchinson and Brian Logan find themselves trapped inside a gag in a piece that pays homage to the theatrical imagination
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Vale of Glamorgan festival – excursions into ecstasy and the etherealBBCNOW under Edwin Outwater explored the relationship between soloist and orchestra in works by Pēteris Vasks and John Metcalf
people
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Why I invited people to a talk by ‘Jeremy Corbyn’ (AKA a cardboard box)Lancaster undergraduate Lucie Carter annoyed her local MP by advertising a talk by the Labour leader. She explains why she used Corbyn for her latest experiment in ‘object-orientated ontology’
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War Horse? Obscene. Downton? SpitefulHe has walked out of his own plays, been chased up the A1 by a director and thinks British drama is dead. Mark Lawson meets the magnificently irascible Edward Bond
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People thought an all-female Julias Caesar was hilariousThe Good Wife’s star recalls how appearing in Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Julius Caesar gave her the confidence to write her own play
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There were bags of drugs, I was having sex with a strangerHe was the sober, Christian dance music pioneer – but then Moby found success... Now he’s coming clean
talking points
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Was this the most tragic death of all?What an incredible episode all about bravery and big reveals. If anyone holds a door for you today, say thank you and try not to cry
critics' picks
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There Goes the Neighborhood, Invisibilia and WeinerFrom WNYC’s new show about gentrification to Carly Rae Jepson explaining how she crafts pure pop, this week is a bumper time for all things podcast
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From Bloodline to Mr ShowNetflix’s vicious family drama is back for a second series while Bob and David make a welcome return on Amazon Prime
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Plan your week’s theatreCurious Directive combine science and storytelling in Norwich, Katie Mitchell and Duncan Macmillan collaborate at the Barbican, and the world premiere of Edward Bond’s Dea is in Sutton
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The best UK pop and rock festivals for 2016Dig out that tent – this summer’s music festivals look as good as they’ve ever been. Here’s our top ten – and the best of the rest
pictures & video
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Martin Creed's Understanding: the new singleIn his video for Understanding, multiple Martin Creeds fill the screen. The Turner prize-winning artist’s latest single is taken from his new album
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A documentary on the decline of UK librariesStephen Fry, Irvine Welsh, Amma Asante and John Cooper Clarke are among those pleading for libraries to be saved from relentless cuts
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Everyday life in the occupied territoriesJovial bodybuilders, sun-kissed surfers, free-running teenagers … can this really be Palestine?
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Teenagers, bubblegum, summer beach days'I wanted to capture the feeling of growing up, and one of the most free places was on the beach during the summer,' says Hackney-based photographer Emily Stein
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Philip Pullman's The Adventures of John Blake: The Mystery of the Ghost ShipRead our extract from the new graphic novel by Philip Pullman and illustrator Fred Fordham
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The 400-year-old colouring bookIn the early 17th-century, cartographer William Hole illustrated strange maps of England and Wales, left uncoloured for nobles to fill in. Hole’s maps are regarded as one of the earliest examples of a colouring book
lists & playlists
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Top 10 shapeshifters in fictionFrom werewolves and vampires to sorcerers and wizards, fiction is packed with characters who have the fascinating power to take on another form
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No 17 – Ariel by Sylvia Plath (1965)The groundbreaking collection of work that established Plath as one of the last century’s most original and gifted poets
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you may have missed
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A rare tour around tech's mind-boggling HQsFacebook has wifi-enabled wildflower meadows, LinkedIn an inhouse pastry chef, and Samsung tai chi in the cactus garden. But they’ll all be left behind by Amazon’s jungle biospheres. Take our tour of the tech campuses of Silicon Valley
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Showgirls was a major feminist filmOne of France’s most revered actors is preparing a radical reworking of Phaedra for the British stage
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No male in my family has made it beyond 72The broadcaster has swallowed a tapeworm, faced his fear of confined spaces and popularised the 5:2 diet in the name of science. Next up: e-cigarettes…
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The A-lister who’s playing for high stakes off screenThe House of Cards star is embracing activism, fighting for equal pay in Hollywood and highlighting the role of ‘conflict minerals’ in wars in central Africa
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Paul McCartney: The Biography by Philip NormanJohn Crace reduces this exhaustive biography of the Beatles legend to a pitch perfect (and smooth-legged) 700 words
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13 reasons to get excited about the new trailerAfter a goofy teaser trailer, the second preview of the upcoming sci-fi sequel has enough mystery, hardware and aliens to get fans excited
what we're reading
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In this exclusive article for LISTEN, Evelyn Morris recounts a difficult story of sexual trauma and how it impacted her love for Shellac, before posing a series of incisive question to the band’s frontman, Steve Albini. Albini answers Evelyn’s questions in detail here, saying: “this is the first time I’ve ...Steve Albini: 'I try to be an ally in feminism'
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Sometime in the 1970s, at the home of the feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey, I found myself in the company of another critic, who had just returned to London from the Berlin Film Festival. Over dinner he took pleasure in regaling us with stories of the male to female transsexual . . .Trans narratives: who do you think you are?
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The first time I was ever on an airplane was in 1955 and flights had names. This one was “The Golden Gate,” American Airlines. Serving Transcontinental Travelers between San Francisco and New York. A week before, twenty-one years old, I had been moping around Berkeley in my sneakers and green raincoat and now I was a Transcontinental Traveler, Lunching Aloft on Beltsville Roast Turkey with Dressing and Giblet Sauce.California Notes by Joan Didion
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I love Twitter, but I can't spend any more time there until something is done about its harassment problem.Twitter has become a park filled with bats and perverts
the big picture
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The life and death of my glamorous grandmotherRachel Cox charts with painful honesty her grandmother’s final days with a degenerative brain disease in this Lens Culture award-winning photo series
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Archaeology must open up to become more diverseArchaeology classrooms are becoming more representative, but we need practitioners with more varied backgrounds and perspectives
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Art meets audience: how to create unique, immersive experiencesBig or small, interactive art is about making allowances for time, responding to space – and always looking after the audience
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Arts research and development tips – 'double your dev time'From jargon busting to getting started, London Sinfonietta, the National Holocaust Centre and more share their tips for good R&D
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Creating positive action to support unrecognised female artistsTate Modern will show more women’s art and Freelands Foundation’s £100,000 award for female artists marks progress, but there is more work to be done
Out with bourgeois crocodiles! How the Soviets rewrote children's books