By: Steve Dinneen

I'm the editor of City A.M. The Magazine, and editor of the daily newspaper's Life&Style section. We cover food, going out, art, technology and travel. I like to write about restaurants, theatre and video games.

Middle theatre review: A bleakly comic but overlong relationship drama

theatre review

When things are going well in a relationship you might hear three little words, when they’re going badly you might hear four: we need to talk. David Eldridge’s new play Middle is about that talk, picking apart the remnants of a marriage that’s already “smashed on the rocks, bleeding to death”. We meet middle-aged couple [...]
Age of Rage review: Ivo van Hove sprawling Greek epic is a hot mess

You wait a lifetime for a play retelling the fall of Troy through the medium of interpretive dance and then two come along at once. Following hot on the heels of Punchdrunk’s immersive The Burnt City comes Age of Rage, the first post-pandemic work By Dutch auteur Ivo van Hove (The Network, Hedda Gabler). From [...]
Trivet restaurant review: A masterclass in the fine art of simplicity

restaurant review

When you visit the Fat Duck website you’re greeted by the message: “Welcome questioneer… Are you ready?” Beside this plays a video of a steam train whizzing past a rapidly-growing crystal formation that, like an acid trip, becomes a lime, then a flower. Am I ready? I’m not sure. Scroll down and the restaurant’s famous [...]

The Burnt City review: Punchdrunk return in spectacular fashion

April 22, 2022

Punchdrunk is the company that put immersive theatre on the map. Its productions of The Drowned Man (2013) and Sleep No More (2003, although best known for its 2011 revival in New York) created the modern blueprint for the medium, spawning a thousand imitators, most of whom only served to highlight how difficult immersive theatre [...]
After 12 weeks of ‘EMS’ electro muscle stimulation, here’s what we learned

April 13, 2022

Every four years, a bit like the Olympics, I take on a mad fitness regime to see how far I can push myself out of a largely sedentary lifestyle. The first time, back in 2014, having never been a member of a gym, I went back to basics, learning about nutrition, how to properly use [...]
Fever Syndrome at Hampstead Theatre: A family drama with lofty ambitions

April 9, 2022

Fever Syndrome has lofty ambitions. It wants to exist in the same space as the great family dramas of Sam Shepard but feels more apiece with the middlebrow family dramas of Sunday evening on the BBC. It is neither a great play nor a terrible one, comfortably carrying its 2 hour 40 minute running time [...]
George the Poet interview: George Mpanga on how to change the world

April 7, 2022

It seems almost unbelievable that Harry and Megan’s wedding – global audience: 1.9 billion – was opened by… a podcaster. But George Mpanga, better known as George the Poet, is no ordinary podcaster; he’s a musician and a thinker, pushing the boundaries of the medium so far he’s created a genre all of his own. [...]
Why your next meal out should be in Sheffield thanks to Jöro

April 6, 2022

Taking a two hour train ride to Sheffield to dine inside a shipping container next to a bypass may sound like a hard sell, but having done exactly that last week, allow me to try… Jöro is a labour of love from husband and wife duo Luke French (chef director) and Stacey Sherwood-French (managing director). [...]
Sennheiser CX Plus W1 earbuds review: Outstanding value

April 1, 2022

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the most important piece of consumer technology you’ll ever buy isn’t your laptop or your phone, it’s a decent pair of headphones. You’ll spend far longer listening to music than you will scrolling on your iPhone, and you’ll push them to the limits far more [...]
Jon Ronson on fine form in Leicester Square Things Fell Apart show

April 1, 2022

It’s hard to categorise Jon Ronson’s live shows. To call them stand-up would imply the presence of jokes but they’re far more involved than a simple book reading. They’re kind of like meandering Ted Talks, complete with slide presentations, delivered by the world’s most endearingly anxious man. This time Ronson brings his podcast series Things [...]

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