theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Gary Naylor |
Growing up in Liverpool, it’s usually not long before you visit the vast golden sands of Prestatyn, still the best beach I’ve ever seen, and the dubious arcades of Rhyl to roll a…
Graham Rickson |
“Your civilisation is young but controlled by minds which are old,” says one of the alien Alphoids in Toomorrow to the four young musicians beamed aboard his spacecraft. He’s also…
David Nice |
You never quite know what to expect from the acoustics of the Royal Albert Hall. It was hard to credit the total focus Kazuki Yamada drew from his City of Birmingham Symphony…
Joe Muggs |
We’ve said it before but it bears repeating. The globalisation of music culture, from ultra mainstream to underground, in the past decade has been a bigger revolution, affecting…
Kieron Tyler |
The reappearance of Gloria Mundi’s I, Individual is a surprise. Most of what related to UK punk – however tangentially – over 1977 and 1978 has been reissued, and has often been…
Sarah Kent |
The air is thick with theatrical smog… then comes prolonged darkness. Gradually, a dull glimmer of warm light reveals a tangle of limbs moving slowly like the coils of a giant…
David Nice
Forget Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture with bells, cannons and military bands (most people have, but it was my introduction to the Albert Hall as a child). Respighi's raucous…
Helen Hawkins
E Jean Carroll is the all-American modern woman: Miss Cheerleader USA 1964, gonzo journalist, TV counsellor, glossy magazine agony aunt and, latterly, the victor in two civil…
Tom Carr
If there is only one artist who you could say is in their moment, then it would be hard to look past Charli XCX. Having set in motion a whole cultural zeitgeist with previous…
Helen Hawkins
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s film was a surprise hit at Cannes last year, winning the Critics’ Week Grand Prize. It’s a ghost story that wears its genre trappings lightly, because…
David Nice
"It was insanely excellent," enthused one of the Järvi Academy Symphony Orchestra's young musicians about the Estonian Festival Orchestra's performance of Nielsen's Third Symphony…
Liz Thomson
London was where James Taylor got his big break when, after a rocky, drug-strewn apprenticeship in New York City, he reinvented himself as a solo performer and managed to get a…
Adam Sweeting
If a week is a long time in politics, 30 years is an aeon in popular culture. It was in 1996 that Danny Boyle’s film of Irvine Welsh’s novel, Trainspotting, exploded over Britpop…
Ibi Keita
Fans have been waiting for a new Strokes album for six years, and after a few listens, Reality Awaits left me feeling more disappointed than excited. There are moments where the…
David Nice
Can the 1916 Prologue of Strauss and Hofmannsthal added to a revised version of a 1912 opera-within-a-play setting the backstage shenanigans to music ever fail? Yes, alas. It fell…
Adam Sweeting
Based on the novel by Marissa Stapley and telly-ised by screenwriter/creator Jonathan Tropper, Lucky is a rip-roaring tale of dysfunctional criminal families, enlivened by a batch…
Gary Naylor
If the secret of comedy is timing and location, location, location determines a property’s success, then the producers of Here Comes J. Edgar! are batting on a sticky wicket. How…
Mark Kidel
It’s always a pleasure to meet again with Charles Lloyd, whose sweet and expressive tone first enchanted me as a teenager in 1963, when he graced the Chico Hamilton Quartet, along…
David Nice
You don't have to be mad to enjoy Gerald Barry's methodically berserk approach to Wilde, but your wits might have begun to turn by the interval and you'll question your sanity by…
disc of the day
tv
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time...
Harlan Coben thriller does what it says on the tin
film
The pioneering journalist E Jean Carroll's story is heartening, funny and troubling
A surprise Thai hit combines deadpan-dry humour with sharp-toothed social commentary
new music
A championing, but also perhaps a dilution, of South African innovation
The return of a punk-era landmark of British art rock
With a danceable rock feel she displays her burgeoning creativity
classical
The bigger the chorus, the harder to catch the words of great poetry
Introspection in Walton's Cello Concerto between Italian fireworks
The Estonian Festival Orchestra rules supreme, but other aspects just got even better
opera
Laurent Pelly's production proves you can have a great cast yet fail them as characters
A magnificent cast manages to master Gerald Barry's Wilde and act their crazy socks off
Two tales of magic and mystery - as TV reality show and environmental parable
theatre
Emily White’s new play is important, but too often tells where it could show
You saw the movie and you read the book...
Curious show struggles to find the right tone
dance
A test of stamina for the audience as well as the dancers
Aakash Odedra is superb as a tortured creature seeking freedom and transcendence
A company that is alive and kicking - literally
comedy
Comic looks back on his life and career
Comic revisits her alma mater to talk politics
books
Joyce lurks in the margins of his own biography in a detailed history of Irish politics
An enjoyable look at 'missingness' and how it affects the way we experience the world
This not-a-biography of the 80s pop icon feels like an overextended magazine feature
visual arts
Ritualistic performances and evocations of fertility goddesses
Darkness reigns in powerful but competing installations
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