PERFORMANCE

Three very different tragedies were my theatrical highlights this year - Nicholas Hytner's production of Othello, set in a military base in Cyprus, Ibsen's Ghosts directed by Richard Eyre, and Michael Grandage's staging of The Cripple Of Innishmaan, Martin McDonagh's 1997 play.

There are many different types of tragedy, from Aristotle's categorisation of its essential elements being pity, fear, catharsis and the tragic individual to Raymond Williams's definition of its liberal and modern manifestations.

Certainly Adrian Lester's Othello fulfilled all of Aristotle's criteria in a searing performance in which Othello's heroic character is wracked with self-doubt, making his murderous jealousy leading to the death of the innocent Desdemona all the more compelling. 

The production was director Nicholas Hytner's swan song at the National Theatre and it was one of the most memorable stagings of Shakespeare to be seen.

In his book Modern Tragedy Williams expounds on the democratisation of the tragic hero and the emergence of moral or ethical predicaments of the liberal individual and Lesley Manville's (below) highly charged performance of Helene Alving in Ghosts certainly exemplifies this.

She is a bourgeois woman determined to free herself of "dead ideas, dead customs, dead morals" but her failure to do so is the crux of liberal tragedy where the change still lies with the individual.

The Cripple Of Inishmaan does not ostensibly fulfil any of the functions of tragedy and is the polar opposite of Aristotle's high born tragic hero. Daniel Radcliffe's impressive performance presents us with a crippled boy who stands no chance of being kissed "unless it was by a blind girl."

The action takes place in an Ireland which is parodied in stock dramatic types - the prostitute, the drunk, the wild storyteller, characters trapped not only within a dysfunctional Ireland that doesn't function but also within representations of themselves that are fed to the outside world.   

The sense of tragedy here lies in the gulf between an imagined Ireland and its impoverished inhabitants who restlessly search for a means of escape.

Yvonne Lysandrou

MUSIC

The great news of 2013 was that Suede (above)were making a comeback with a brilliant tour around Britain as well as a not-so-disappointing album. Not so great news was that Wet Wet Wet still insist on performing and bad news came with Modest Mouse cancelling their European tour "to concentrate on a new album."

Whether you're a fan or not, Suede's excellent performance at Live By The Lake proved that the former Britpop gods still give as good as they get two decades after they burst on to the scene, with frontman Brett Anderson still oozing the raw passion which made him so popular all those years ago.

While older anthems such as Electricity and Animal Nitrate clearly excited the fans, their new stuff proved that they can still light up the stage with their electric tunes.

Another band to make a return after a few years of silence are alternative rock outfit the Boxer Rebellion. At Kentish Town's HMV Forum their epic guitar riffs, solid melodies and lead singer Nathan Nicholson's beautifully strong vocals made this a gig well worth watching.

But the surprise live highlight this year has to be Danish-born singer-songwriter Ulla Nova. With her deliciously rich vocals - think Adele, think Duffy - and big electro pop tunes, she brings something delightfully refreshing to the music scene.

Although unsigned at the moment, you'll be sure to catch her floating about the more quirky venues across Britain in 2014.

Indianna Purcell

PERFORMANCE

There were so many memorable scenes in Tristan & Yseult that one viewing felt insufficient.

Kneehigh's reimagining of the tragic love story between the Cornish King, his enemy's sister and an enigmatic traveller was told from the point of view of the "unloved" rather than the central characters.

These anorak-clad twitchers watched the tumultuous love affair with a mixture of wistful despair and longing, occasionally being called upon to operate a series of pulleys during scenes of physical theatre.

In this way Carl Grose and Anna Maria Murphy's script perfectly blended humour, pain and pathos.

Black comedy was also used to tremendous effect in The Animals And Children Took To The Streets. The 1927 theatre company's dystopian vision of unruly child-pirates going on the rampage was a truly original combination of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's Delicatessen and Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

Set in a crumbling tenement block populated by social outcasts, Suzanne Andrade's play pick-pocketed the most creative elements of graphic novels, silent films, music and cabaret.

The resulting spectacular visuals and lewd one-liners were almost a sensory overload, yet the production still managed to highlight injustice and the way in which society treats children through the eyes of key individuals.

On a much grander scale, Blood + Chocolate also used the personal to explore wider social and political issues.

The promenade production - a collaboration between Slung Low, Pilot and York Theatre Royal - took over York city centre to tell the story of a mother and her four sons, a young couple and a conscientious objector during the Christmas of 1914.

Taking inspiration from the Lord Mayor sending a Rowntree's chocolate tin to every local soldier who fought at the front, Mike Kenny's script created a powerful intimacy that gained extra resonance by being staged on the brink of the war's centenary.

Susan Darlington

MUSIC

Folky singer-songwriter Grace Petrie (below) has captured the spirit of struggle against Cameron's "broken Britain" better than anyone else. Her third album, Love Is My Rebellion (www.gracepetrie.com) is further evidence of an artist at the top of her game.

Broadsides about our duplicitous political class on We're All In It Together and Thatcher's funeral on Bonfires In The Street sit alongside ultra-personal stories of hurt and heartbreak.

The politics are right on but it's songs like the pathos-filled Good Luck With It All, directed at a friend who's had to move back in with their parents, that make you realise Petrie is a very special talent.

With 2014 set to become a year-long political fight over the meaning of the first world war, the two-disc Gentle Men (Irregular Records) is a timely record indeed.

The story of Robb Johnson's two grandfathers and their experiences surviving in the trenches is a brilliant slice of social history. First released in 1997, folk singer-songwriter Johnson brought the performers - Jude Abbott, Roy Bailey, Jenny Carr, John Forrester and Barb Jungr - together again and updated the ending to include Britain's current occupation of Afghanistan.

Like Johnson, 27-year-old Swede Anna Von Hausswolf is currently working at the margins of the mainstream. But if there is any justice her astonishing new album Ceremony (City Slang) will change this. With a deep, ethereal church organ taking centre stage and Cocteau Twins-style atmospherics it's a captivating and mysterious 60 minutes of music.

Slow-burning songs like Deathbed and the pulsing Mountains Crave suggest she's aiming for the moon- and getting pretty close. Expansive and emotional, Von Hausswolf can rightly take her place alongside other fantastical songwriters like Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush.

Ian Sinclair