I May Destroy You helped me confront being spiked

When I May Destroy You aired in the summer of 2020, I hadn’t yet been spiked. Michaela Coel’s comedy-drama, based on her own experience of sexual assault, follows Arabella (Coel) as she realises she was drugged and raped on a night out. With one in four women in Britain having experienced sexual violence, the 12-part series was a difficult watch for many. If not relatable, then confronting and familiar; something that had happened to others, but close enough to know that it could happen to you. Three months later, it did happen to me

From Song Sung Blue to Theatre Picasso: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

Song Sung BlueOut now In 2008, an inspirational documentary about Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning & Thunder warmed hearts with its unconventional love story about Mike and Claire Sardina. Now it’s been adapted into this drama, with all Neil Diamond songs present and correct, and Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman in the lead roles.Peter Hujar’s DayOut nowBen Whishaw stars as the photographer and artist-activist of New York’s gay liberation movement, who photographed figures such as Susan Sontag, Fran Lebowitz and John Waters. Set over the course of one day in 1974, this is an adaptation of the book by Linda Rosenkrantz, played here by Rebecca Hall.Menus-Plaisirs: Les TroisgrosOut nowFrederick Wiseman, the godfather of durational documentary, is back with a four-hour epic, observing a Michelin-starred family restaurant in rural France

Forget Keanu: Ulster Scots translation of Beckett classic takes on spate of celebrity Godots

Beneath a stark steel tree in a bleak upland bog, a literary masterpiece is set to assume a different linguistic mantle.Samuel Beckett’s enigmatic tragicomedy Waiting for Godot will make its world premiere in Ulster Scots, a moment described as a “coming of age” for the minority language, and the antithesis of the trend for celebrity Godots.On Good Friday, after an uphill trek of about 3km, the audience will arrive at a spot in the vast volcanic Antrim Plateau in Northern Ireland, if not footsore then certainly empathic to the physical discomfort of Estragon struggling to remove his ill-fitting boots.The “existential landscape of heath, moss and bog” in County Antrim lends itself to a script “peppered with exterior references”, said Seán Doran, of festival organiser Arts over Borders, which is staging the production as part of a major new arts festival, the Samuel Beckett Biennale.But while there have been previous outdoor productions, it will be the “forceful pronunciation and sound” of delivering it in Ulster Scots, or Ullans, for the first time and in a region where the language is spoken, that will “bring a whole new total register” and change the whole performative aspect of the play, said Doran

Demon Slayer economics: how the anime juggernaut became a saviour

An animated drama featuring hordes of carnivorous fiends might not sound like classic box office fodder, but that’s exactly what Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle proved to be in September.The film set new records for anime – Japanese animated films and series – making more than $70m (£52m) on its opening weekend in the US and £535m so far globally. To put that in context, Ghost in the Shell – an anime classic released in 1995 – made about £2m worldwide.In that 30-year period, anime has gone from an underground phenomenon to a saviour during one of the worst autumn box office slumps in recent memory. So how did we get here?Mitchel Berger, an executive vice-president and the head of theatrical at Crunchyroll – the specialist anime streaming service – was pleasantly surprised by the Demon Slayer mania

The year of the self-mocking man sketch: ‘Dumb masculinity is very funny’

“I’m gonna miss toxic masculinity,” says the comedian Kiry Shabazz. “I feel like it’s going to be in a museum someday.”In the ensuing standup routine, Shabazz describes a fight with a friend who, like him, is “doing the work” to be a better person. He called the friend several unprintable names while acknowledging: “I’m only calling you that because culturally that’s how I know how to express myself.” The friend’s reply to the torrent of insults: “I hear you and I receive that

‘An Arab in a post-9/11 world’: Khalid Abdalla’s one-man play about belonging comes to Australia

When British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla farewelled the hit series The Crown and his character, Dodi Fayed, he knew he was saying goodbye to a role with a depth and significance well beyond merely a love interest for Princess Diana.“Dodi is one of the first Arab characters I can think of in the history of [western] film that you get to know and love, not fear,” says Abdalla, seated in his London home two years after the series ended. “And so, when he dies, you mourn him.”Glasgow-born Abdalla, 45, whose father and grandfather were leftist political dissidents in Egypt, well understood the cultural significance of fleshing out the character of Alexandria-born Fayed beyond the playboy of legend.He was also acutely aware of the political moment in which his portrayal was being presented