MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
An excellent night of alternative comedy
'We’re a long way from Live At The Apollo and interchangeable telly panel shows here, and I mean that in the best possible way,' writes JAMES WALSH
BBC EAT YOUR HEART OUT! The winner of the competition, Sam Eley, performed as Basil Crumbwick, in a giant papier-maché head
[Author supplied] 
New releases from Christina Alden and Alex Patterson, Odette Michell, Clementine Lovell
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
Sketch Off Final
Leicester Square Festival, London
DESPITE the crisis in the arts, Britain has a never-ending supply of fresh weirdos. Some come straight from their university improv clubs, and some are doing their recovery in public after a year of being brutalised at infamous French clowning school Gaulier.
And some are here because their anarchic spirit allows them to belong nowhere else.
And many end up in the heats of Sketch Off, a competition dominated by character comedians, with the odd sketch act who surprise everyone by actually winning on occasion, like last year’s Burger + a Pint, who reprise their joyously stupid skits here while the judges make up their minds.
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JAMES WALSH has a great night in the company of basketball players, quantum physicists and the exquisite timing of Rosie Jones
GORDON PARSONS is bowled over by a skilfully stripped down and powerfully relevant production of Hamlet
MARY CONWAY applauds a study of comedians in whose cheap prejudice the tenets of the emerging political right are crystal clear
MAT COWARD offers invaluable advice on which type to grow according to flavour preferences, size of you pocket, timing and plant reliability