The Pale Blue Eye review – baffled, beardy Christian Bale in gruesome murder yarn
Set in 1830, a mildly ridiculous plot sends a haunted Bale to investigate the gothic killing of a military cadet
Think Cinderella’s a fairytale? Fabled glass slipper is revealed as a joke on royalty
The footwear at the heart of the age-old panto tale is a satirical jibe at fashionista king Louis XIV’s obsession with ornamental glass and impractical aristocratic styles
Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol review – humbug hoedown
Parton’s music is as warming as ever but a snowfall of schmaltz and minimal menace make this Dickens adaptation sickly sweet
A Christmas Carol review – glorious musical version of Dickens’s festive treat
Charles Dickens takes to the stage and Ebenezer Scrooge is a woman with a moving backstory in Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s adaptation
Alice in Wonderland review – Carroll’s classic goes down the Victoria line
Poltergeist theatre company send Alice into the underground in this offbeat adaptation with tube-inspired nonsense language
On my radar: Colm Tóibín’s cultural highlights
The Irish writer on New York’s hidden music scene, poetry and the wonders of Peru
Hilary Mantel remembered by Ben Miles
6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022The actor, who played Thomas Cromwell in the stage adaptations of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, on the writer whose genius was matched by her openness
Orlando review – Emma Corrin is glorious in a giddy, heartfelt show
In Neil Bartlett’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s wild-goose chase through time, Corrin shines as the hero who falls asleep as a man and wakes as a woman
The arts Christmas gift guide 2022: Dolly Parton dog wigs, Strictly tea towels, Bauhaus teapots and much more
From 007 socks to the Dark Side of the Spoon cookbook, from David Shrigley’s foot to AC/DC Monopoly, here are 40 perfect present ideas for culture-lovers everywhere
Alice in Wonderland review – dive down a sublime theatrical rabbit hole
Lewis Carroll’s fantastical classic is transposed into the world of stage magic in this gloriously hallucinatory show
The Wind in the Wilton’s review – Mr Toad and pals take on weaselly property developers
Piers Torday’s update of the children’s classic brings Kenneth Grahame’s animals to modern-day London
The Borrowers review – less a wild adventure more an escape from trauma
Mary Norton’s 1952 novel about tiny pillagers gets a sober stage remake that blends minor-key music with contemporary fears
A Sherlock Carol review – the detective takes on Dickens in a fresh festive mashup
There’s only one sleuth in Victorian London who can get to the bottom of the suspicious death of Ebenezer Scrooge, in this winning crossover mystery
James Norton to star in West End version of bestselling novel A Little Life
Author Hanya Yanagihara and director Ivo van Hove adapt ‘mesmerising’ story about effects of child abuse for London stage
The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary! review – Flaubert farce flops
The cast’s hard work can’t save a confused script that struggles to mine comedy from a desperately sad story