By: Steve Dinneen

Life&Style Editor I'm the editor of City A.M. The Magazine, and editor of the daily newspaper's Life&Style section. We cover food, wine, going out, culture, technology and travel. I'm also the head judge of our Toast the City awards that celebrates hospitality in the Square Mile. Find me on X @steve_dinneen

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The Forest at Hampstead Theatre is a fascinating puzzle-box

February 21, 2022

Were it not for the involvement of award-winning French playwright, novelist and film director Florian Zeller, The Forest might have flown under the radar as a stylish but straightforward psycho-drama. That would have been a shame, because this is a play more delicate and layered than its elevator pitch might otherwise suggest. It first presents [...]
The Chairs at the Almeida review: Experimental comedy is a treat

February 19, 2022

Comedy, as you might have heard, is in crisis. The backlash against Jimmy Carr for his bit about the ‘positives’ of Nazi genocide have thrown petrol on a debate that’s already been raging across the Atlantic, where comedians have increasingly found themselves defending their trade. This feels like an appropriate backdrop for The Chairs, the [...]
Wuthering Heights at the NT: Emma Rice finds gold on the moors

February 13, 2022

There can be little sympathy for any theatre-goers expecting a traditional retelling of Wuthering Heights in this new version at the National Theatre. Emma Rice is the controversial director who proved too ‘out there’ for Shakespeare’s Globe, her tenure as artistic director cut short after a backlash by the theatre’s more conservative members, who weren’t ready for [...]
A Number at the Old Vic review: Cloning drama never seems to age

February 7, 2022

What is the value of a human life? What makes us who we are? How can we weigh our good deeds against our bad? Does any of this really matter? A Number asks these heavy questions with a remarkable lightness of touch. Among the most commonly-performed of Caryl Churchill’s plays, it’s a blistering hour and [...]
The Glow at the Royal Court review: A messy time-travel conundrum

February 4, 2022

Were playwright Alistair McDowall and I to go for a pint, I think we’d get on pretty well. Having seen three of his plays to date – Pomona, X and now The Glow – we seem to share a love of lo-fi sci-fi, dystopian fiction and Lovecraftian horror. Each of his plays have tickled that part of [...]
Bacon: Man and Beast at the Royal Academy review

January 29, 2022

The galleries of the Royal Academy are shrouded in an appropriate gloom for this Francis Bacon retrospective, the atmosphere part cathedral, part occult gathering. Rather than simply present the works chronologically, which would have been easy given the number of paintings brought together, the RA explores Bacon’s work through a single recurring theme – his [...]
Scream review: 2022 reboot-cum-sequel lacks cutting edge

January 20, 2022

Tara Carpenter, a young potential murder victim in the new Scream, doesn’t much care for the Stab franchise, the film’s in-universe analogue for itself. She prefers “elevated horror” – The Babadook, The Witch, It Follows, Hereditary. The first Scream notwithstanding – the 1996 “meta slasher-whodunnit” still holds up brilliantly – I tend to agree, and [...]
Sessions Arts Club review: A restaurant worthy of all the hype

January 14, 2022

Every now and then, sometimes once or twice a year, sometimes less, a place opens that combines all the right elements in just the right order to create the rare alchemy that we call the “it” restaurant. Gloria did it with its maximalist Italian amore della vita, as did Gymkhana with its studiously crafted modern [...]
Could EMS be the key to your new year fitness goals?

January 13, 2022

Over the years working for City A.M. I’ve found myself in some interesting situations in search of health and mental wellbeing. I attended Europe’s first legal ‘magic mushroom therapy’ retreat, went through an intensive ‘total body transformation’, and lived alone for a week in a self-sustaining cabin in the woods. For 2022 I’ve signed up [...]
The best upcoming art, film and theatre to see in London in 2022

January 7, 2022

Despite Covid uncertainty, London’s cultural scene is set for a jam-packed opening to 2022. We collect our top picks for the first few months of the year. Theatre The Collaboration, Young Vic The last few years have seen blockbuster London retrospectives of both Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. In this new play starring Paul Bettany [...]

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A Doll’s House at the Almeida: Thrilling, steamy and ambitious

By: Steve Dinneen

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