http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/david-lister/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/david-lister/david-lister-the-week-in-arts-825470.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/david-lister/david-lister-the-week-in-arts-825470.html?r=RSS <p>There is an illness that afflicts leading lights in the arts, an illness that you rarely encounter elsewhere. I call it "cultural paranoia". It involves major celebrities taking popular and populist stances, and then convincing themselves that they are being persecuted for doing so. Vanessa Redgrave suffered from this debilitating disease for several decades. And this week the celebrated actor Mark Rylance appeared to be showing symptoms. </p> David Lister Sat, 10 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/david-lister/david-lister-the-week-in-arts-820384.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/david-lister/david-lister-the-week-in-arts-820384.html?r=RSS <p>As Gordon Brown licks his wounds, it might be some consolation to him that his miseries and mistakes are unlikely to be portrayed on stage. OK, in the pain of post-election depression that's a fairly small consolation. But to those of us interested in how theatre portrays and analyses contemporary life, it is puzzling that playwrights fail to be inspired by the travails of the Prime Minister.</p> David Lister Sat, 03 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/david-lister/david-lister-the-week-in-arts--would-you-keep-your-elvis-moment-a-secret-815879.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/david-lister/david-lister-the-week-in-arts--would-you-keep-your-elvis-moment-a-secret-815879.html?r=RSS <p>A few years ago I wrote a story for this paper about a plaque being placed at Prestwick airport in Scotland to mark the only time that Elvis Presley set foot in Britain. It was a brief stop-over on his way to Germany.</p> David Lister Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/david-lister/david-lister-the-week-in-arts-811811.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/david-lister/david-lister-the-week-in-arts-811811.html?r=RSS <p>Now here's a scene I find hard to imagine happening at Covent Garden. It occurred this week in Oslo at the opening of a splendid new opera house, the national home for Norway's opera and ballet companies. At the opening gala, in front of several of Europe's crowned heads, foreign dignitaries and an invited audience, the final speech from the stage came not from the culture minister, but from the minister for defence. She (I'm not sure we'd see that over here either) proclaimed to a thunderous ovation: "Without culture we have nothing worth defending." </p> David Lister Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100