The Storm Whale review – touching tale of a little leviathan’s surprise visit

Two children’s books by Benji Davies are adapted for an attractive production that would benefit from a bit more raucous fun

Hamnet review – Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley beguile and captivate in audacious Shakespearean tragedy

Chloé Zhao’s film version of Maggie O’Farrell’s myth-making novel powerfully reimagines the agonising loss of a child as the source of Hamlet’s grand stage drama

Actor and writer Paterson Joseph: ‘Tilda Swinton asked me a question that changed everything that came next’

Joseph on sussing the school system at the age of four, an awkward audition for the National Youth Theatre, and why he loves his ‘horrible’ Peep Show character

There’s a new space race – will the billionaires win?

The commercialisation of the cosmos is already underway, and our current laws aren’t fit for purpose

Not just love, actually: why romance fiction is booming

From Emily Henry to Rebecca Yarros and Alison Espach’s The Wedding People – romance has dominated the book charts this year. So why is it still dismissed by critics?

From Dr Seuss to All Quiet on the Western Front: 19 books to help you find hope, sense and resistance in difficult times

Writers, activists and politicians on the books they turn to for wisdom and perspective – and to restore their faith in human nature

‘There’s a sense of our freedoms becoming vulnerable’: novelist Alan Hollinghurst

A knighthood, a lifetime achievement award and a hit theatre production of The Line of Beauty… the author on a year of personal success and political change

Christmas Carol Goes Wrong review – a Dickensian disaster to savour

Mischief Theatre return to the am-dram battlefield, turning the Victorian tale into a blizzard of bruised egos and expertly timed farce

Horror hit Paranormal Activity spawns a West End play – and even its director yelped with fear

Inspired by the scary film franchise, playwright Levi Holloway and Punchdrunk maestro Felix Barrett are bringing the ‘bizarrely joyous’ world of terror to the stage

Into the Woods review – Brothers Grimm gloriously mashed up by Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s fairytale adventure follows its archetypal characters into real-world emotion, brilliantly drawn and sung

The BFG review – RSC’s big friendly mishmash lacks Matilda’s confidence

This adaptation of the beloved tale about an ogre looks beautiful but does not grow into a giant to rival the company’s hit Roald Dahl musical

Dracapella review – power ballads and beatboxing as ghoulish comedy gets down for the count

Gleefully leaning into all the cliches and groansome laughs, Dan Patterson and Jez Bond’s musical vampire romp is supremely silly

The Guardian view on reboots of A Christmas Carol and Paddington: refugee tales for today

Editorial: An Asian Scrooge, a break-dancing Bob Cratchit and a musical bear – new versions of classics keep stories alive

From the Gruffalo to Dog Man: how to put children’s classics on the stage

With Dog Man making his London theatre debut next summer, theatre makers explain how to make a successful jump from page to stage

Alice: Return to Wonderland review – a wonderfully eccentric new rabbit hole to go down

Alice is a boring grownup at the start of this intelligent and catchy Christmas musical – then she’s whisked off to Wonderland again