Category Archives: Culture

Scholars conclude ‘beyond doubt’ that Shakespeare was main author of Edward III

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Exclusive: Play anonymously published in 1596 was collaboration between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, according to computer analysis

Dramatic new evidence concludes that the play Edward III should be added to William Shakespeare’s canon, and also that it was a major collaboration with his contemporary rival Christopher Marlowe.

The history was published anonymously in 1596, and it has long been thought that Shakespeare wrote at least a few scenes. However, Dr Rory Loughnane, a leading scholar and co-author of the research, told the Guardian that computerised textual analysis pushed the case “beyond any reasonable doubt” that the Stratford-born playwright was the principal writer.

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‘Many family stories’: Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet takes out ABC radio poll of top 100 Australian books

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Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief secures second place, while Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe rounds out podium dominated by men

Cloudstreet, Tim Winton’s sprawling Australian family epic, has been voted Australia’s favourite book in a poll run by ABC Radio National.

The broadcaster announced over the weekend the results of a nationwide poll to determine a list of readers’ top 100 Australian books.

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Selma Blair ‘did not intend to harm anyone’ during airplane incident, representatives say

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Actor experienced a ‘medical emergency’ on flight during which she allegedly injured crew members, statement says

Actor Selma Blair did not mean to hurt anyone during the recent flight which led to her arrest on allegations that she assaulted a pair of cabin crew members, a police officer and a nurse, her representatives said on Friday in a statement that characterized the episode as a medical emergency.

The lengthy statement also dismissed prior media coverage of Blair’s arrest after a Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to New York as unsympathetic and inaccurate, singling out reporting from several outlets alleging that she tried to open the door of the airplane that she and her fellow passengers were on.

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‘Tough to watch, impossible to ignore’: reviewers on NAZA documentary

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Film interviewing military insiders about mass killing of civilians in Gaza wins widespread praise around the world

Critics around the world have hailed the award-winning documentary NAZA as a “brilliant and harrowing” film that is “impossible to ignore”.

NAZA, which is produced by the Guardian and details Israel’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza, was released in UK cinemas this week and will be shown in more than 50 countries. As well as its global cinema releases, NAZA will be available free on the Guardian’s website from late November.

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‘Opening the lid of a horrible secret’: Jamaicans confront enslavement with taboo-busting stories on screen

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As violent spirits are unleashed in Sky’s Possession, observers see confident creatives reclaiming the island’s narratives in a form of ‘cultural reparation’

A woman opens a 300‑year‑old box, unleashing a violent spirit – it is the spirit of colonialism and oppression roaring back to life. It is a pivotal scene in Sky’s supernatural series Possession and symbolises a wider shift in Jamaica’s film industry, where directors are increasingly using the landscape to tell Jamaican stories – including those that confront enslavement, trauma and historical memory.

The series is about a biracial British lawyer who travels to Jamaica to investigate a multimillion-pound inheritance dispute, only to uncover a dark, vengeful spirit tied to the plantation’s brutal colonial past.

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Verse from the waste land: Rotterdam’s poetic bin lorries granted cultural status

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Lyrical lines printed on side of city’s fleet of rubbish trucks now recognised as one of Netherlands’ proud traditions

It is best known for its rich migration history and striking modern architecture. But now the Dutch city of Rotterdam is seeking recognition for a rather different characteristic: its tradition of printing poetry on bin trucks.

Since a poetry festival first came up with the idea in 1988, lines of verse have been printed on all of the city’s waste vehicles. The practice was this week elevated to the status of intangible cultural heritage, with formal recognition from a Dutch body that guards the nation’s traditions.

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Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza denies using AI to write prize-winning story

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Article in Atlantic claims The Blue Fighter was artificially generated, days after it won Caine prize for African writers

The Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza has denied using AI to write a prize-winning short story after an article in the Atlantic said software had flagged it as almost completely AI-generated.

Kundizeza’s story The Blue Fighter was announced as the winner of the prestigious Caine prize for African writers on 6 October. Five days later, The Atlantic published an article by the author and journalist Vauhini Vara titled: “Yet Another Literary prize winner Seems to Be AI.”

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Joni Mitchell becomes US citizen: ‘A journey that began 62 years ago’

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Canada-born singer-songwriter, 82, posts footage of citizenship ceremony to Instagram

Joni Mitchell has become a US citizen, after first moving to the country in the mid-1960s. The Canada-born singer-songwriter, 82, posted footage of her citizenship ceremony on her Instagram account, along with a photo of her next to an American flag, accompanied by the caption: “A journey that began 62 years ago.”

It means that Mitchell can now vote in US elections, something that she had complained she wasn’t able to do.

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Ian McKellen to star in UK premiere of ‘mixed reality’ play – but not in person

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Audiences in Manchester will be asked to wear smart glasses for An Ark, which debuted in New York this year

Ian McKellen will star in a groundbreaking new play that gets its UK premiere in Manchester next spring. But the veteran actor will not set foot on stage.

The Lord of the Rings star is taking part in An Ark, a “mixed reality” play that had its debut in New York earlier this year. Theatregoers are asked to wear smart glasses, which project the actors into the room.

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NAZA: Netanyahu orders identification and prosecution of film’s interviewees

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Israeli PM calls for criminal investigation into soldiers and officers interviewed in Guardian-produced documentary

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered the country’s attorney general and the head of the Shin Bet security service to reveal the identities of soldiers and officers interviewed in the investigative documentary NAZA and prosecute them for causing “harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests”.

The award-winning documentary, directed by the Oscar-winning film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and produced by the Guardian, details Israel’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza. The film is in cinemas, including in the UK and the US, and will be shown in more than 50 countries.

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Richard E Grant admits Traitors mistakes: ‘I never thought they would take me seriously’

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Actor says he should have made a joke of his admission, he felt institutionalised there and he is not watching the series

Richard E Grant has said his early exit from The Celebrity Traitors was due to his failure to realise his fellow contestants would take him seriously.

The Withnail and I actor was voted off as a traitor after brazenly admitting his status to other contestants.

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There’s more to our music than Oasis, says Manchester mayor

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Bev Craig pledges £2m in funding to nurture local artists by improving access to rehearsal and production space

The Manchester mayor, Bev Craig, has said the city’s music scene is about more than just Oasis, as she announced funding to nurture a diverse range of local artists, be they “guitar bands or not”.

Craig pledged the £2m investment funding in Greater Manchester, as the city region hosted a conference for the creative industries at MediaCity in Salford.

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Lightsaber Darth Vader used in ‘I am your father’ Star Wars duel up for auction

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Saber is expected to fetch at least $1m and is one of more than two dozen props that will be up for sale

A lightsaber used by Darth Vader in the duel where he tells Luke Skywalker “I am your father” is going up for sale at Heritage Auctions next month.

The Vader saber, also used in Return of the Jedi, is expected to fetch at least $1m. It is one of more than two dozen lightsaber props that will be up for sale at the auction that spans Star Wars Episodes I through IX and other films and TV shows from the universe George Lucas created.

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Sydney festival 2027: 11 international dance works to headline ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ program

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Making its southern hemisphere debut, Dance Reflections will feature collaborators of Rosalía, Madonna and Beyoncé – and a high-wire takeover of the Cutaway

A “once-in-a-lifetime” program of dance works of scale will be coming to Sydney in January, including 11 international works from France, Belgium, South Africa and beyond making their Australian premiere.

The program, which triples the scale of the dance offering at the last Sydney festival, will bring 174 performers and crew to Sydney, with the crowning jewel being the acclaimed French choreographer Rachid Ouramdane’s Outsider. The 2024 work features 21 dancers from the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and four elite athletes, navigating a “cat’s cradle” of high wires and slack lines, to the mesmerising, minimalist music of the avant garde composer Julius Eastman.

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Queensland literary awards: ‘stunning’ debut inspired by segregated shantytown wins top prize

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Lenora Thaker wins $30,000 prize for ‘a work of state significance’ for The Pearl of Tagai Town, which draws on her family’s history in Cairns-Malay Town

A “stunning” debut novel described as “unambiguously and distinctively Queensland” has won the $30,000 top prize at the Queensland literary awards (QLAs).

Meriam and Wagedagam author Lenora Thaker won the Queensland premier’s award for a work of state significance for her historical novel The Pearl of Tagai Town, which was inspired by her ancestors’ lives in an unmapped shantytown known as Cairns-Malay Town. The town once housed Indigenous Australians, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Malaysian and Sri Lankan residents who had been segregated from the white population; it existed from the late 1800s until the late 1950s.

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O2 signs record £200m deal to keep London venue’s naming rights

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Exclusive: 10-year sponsorship extension at a 50% premium on last agreement crowns bonanza year for live venue

O2 has struck a record £200m deal to retain the naming rights to the London venue the O2 in what is thought to be the largest renewal of its kind in UK history.

The 10-year agreement will extend O2’s relationship until at least 2038. It cements the sponsorship as the second longest-running UK stadium naming rights deal after Arsenal’s partnership for the football club’s London ground,

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Greek prime minister vows to ‘ramp up’ efforts to regain Parthenon marbles

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis says his UK counterpart, Andy Burnham, has been supportive of restitution efforts in the past

The Greek prime minister has vowed to “ramp up” his country’s claims to get back the Parthenon marbles from the British Museum, emphasising that his UK counterpart, Andy Burnham, was hugely supportive of restitution efforts before he moved into Downing Street.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would raise the issue in the strongest of terms when he met Burnham, who was culture secretary in a previous Labour government.

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George Fenton, Oscar-nominated British composer for more than 100 films, dies aged 76

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Fenton’s successes include scores for Gandhi, Groundhog Day and 18 Ken Loach films, plus BBC TV news themes, Blue Planet and more

George Fenton, the British composer who earned five Oscar nominations for scores to films such as Gandhi and Dangerous Liaisons, has died aged 76.

A statement from his family said his death was “unexpected” but did not give a cause. The statement added that he was survived by various family members, as well as “a life of music”.

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Axe used by Jack Nicholson in The Shining for sale as part of Stanley Kubrick auction

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Exclusive: Weapon is one of hundreds of items to be sold as part of the influential late director’s personal archive

The axe wielded by Jack Nicholson as he delivered his chillingly manic line “Here’s Johnny!” in the 1980 horror movie The Shining is to go on sale.

Nicholson’s character, Jack Torrance, uses the axe to hack out an opening in a locked door protecting his terrified wife Wendy, played by Shelley Duvall. It is also the murder weapon in the killing of Scatman Crothers’ character, Dick Hallorann. One of cinema’s most famous axes could be yours for a list price of between £30,000 and £50,000.

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A medieval manuscript has confounded scholars for centuries. Have they been reading it wrong all this time?

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Researchers argue incorrect binding of Voynich manuscript radically changes ideas about its drawings and indecipherable text

It has been called the world’s most mysterious manuscript: a medieval set of pages filled with botanical drawings, astronomical diagrams, pictures of nude women and indecipherable text. Claimed at various times to be a book in a lost language, a musical score, an instruction manual or just an elaborate hoax, the so-called Voynich manuscript’s true meaning has defied cryptographers and codebreakers for centuries.

Now, new research offers an explanation for why a scholarly consensus over this enduring puzzle has been so hard to come by: not only because its truth is so profoundly mysterious – but because everyone has been reading its pages in the wrong order.

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