Masquerade: The Lives of Noël Coward by Oliver Soden review – the man in the ironic mask

A lively, affectionate but far from adulatory new biography of the playwright marks the 50th anniversary of his death and draws on unpublished letters and diaries to expose a painful private life obscured by success

‘Torture porn or serious literature?’: the love-hate phenomenon of cult novel A Little Life

One million copies sold, sobbing superfans on TikTok and a new stage adaptation starring James Norton – yet Hanya Yanagihara’s 2015 book continues to divides readers

Orlando review – Tilda Swinton is magnetic in Sally Potter’s swoony reverie

Potter’s 1992 adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s book remains trance-inducingly strange, stuffed full of style and stars

The Time Machine: A Comedy review – malfunctioning merriment

This riff on HG Wells’s sci-fi novella has a sharp cast but relies on a wearisome play-within-a-play concept and lacks momentum

The best theatre to stream this month: The Boys Are Kissing, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends and more

Our roundup of drama to watch at home includes Hans Christian Andersen on skates, a verbatim play five years in the making and poems from Ukraine

Flies review – the effects of the male gaze on adolescent girls

The new work by Charlie Josephine gives us teenagers’ thoughts about objectification, shame, body image and sex

The Time Traveller’s Wife musical sets a date for London’s West End

With music and lyrics by Dave Stewart and Joss Stone, the show based on Audrey Niffenegger’s bestseller will open in autumn

Chris Peachment obituary

Other lives: Journalist and arts critic who started out in the RAF and also had a spell working backstage in the theatre

The Trial of Josie K review – kidding around with Kafka

Inspired by the classic novel, this play for children leads its young heroine through surreal encounters with bureaucracy – and a giant rabbit

January review – Pinteresque winter’s tale in wolf-filled Bulgarian badlands

Andrey Paounov’s opaque but arresting feature turns on mysterious disappearances and wolfish arrivals in a deep dark forest

Baftas 2023: the full list of nominations

All the films and actors up for awards at the 76th edition of the British Academy film awards

The new Matilda musical film is traumatic for child abuse victims. Hollywood must be careful

Emma Thompson’s sadistic Agatha Trunchbull follows in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm, Stephen King and M3gan – but graphic scenes of abuse should not be seen as entertainment

Production Notes from a Small Island: Bill Bryson’s bestseller travels to the stage

A theatrical adaptation of the beloved 1995 book about the UK’s ‘public face and private parts’ is both an account of national identity and a tribute to a national treasure

Zdenka Fantlová obituary

Czech actor who described how she survived several Nazi camps during the Holocaust in her book The Tin Ring

David Pownall obituary

British playwright best known for Master Class, as well as for comic novels inspired by his time in Zambia