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We are bowled over! 

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Guy Oddy |

It is almost without fail that Birmingham’s Supersonic Festival is guaranteed to be one of my annual musical highlights – and despite it still only being April, I suspect that it will be the same again this year. As is usually the case, the line-up of this celebration of the weird and distinctly wonderful was one where only the most musically literate would be aware of more than a handful of the performers.

Veronica Lee
Scott Bennett is a busy guy at the moment, touring as he is with not one, but two shows; Blood Sugar Baby, a personal piece of storytelling about a…
Helen Hawkins
David Pearson’s debut play, Firewing, part of Hampstead Theatre’s INSPIRE project for emerging writers, is a heartfelt two-hander about the…
Boyd Tonkin
In the delirious and exhilarating Sephardic dance that finished their concert devoted to the Jewish, Muslim and Christian music of Jerusalem, one of…

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James Saynor
A sleaze-free celebration of Michael Jackson before the fall
Robert Beale
Romantic cornerstones shine alongside Julia Wolfe’s document of trauma
David Nice
Berg's queasy setting of a visionary play as you never quite heard or saw it before
Nick Hasted
A fishing boat falls through time in Mark Jenkin's immersive, haunted tale
Kieron Tyler
Soul treasures from 1969 are made easily available for the first time
aleks.sierz
Life of Brian Epstein explored in new play which never really satisfies
Rachel Halliburton
Circa's acrobatics bracingly express a philosophical idea of the body
Katie Colombus
The Brooklyn four prove less is more
Bernard Hughes
Messiaen’s 'Turangalîla' well played, but overwhelmed by a trivialising animation
Jonathan Geddes
The singer has gone from tiny clubs to arenas in just three years
Robert Beale
A scenic journey through 20th and 21st century landscapes
aleks.sierz
Autobiographical show about the Middle East prefers utopian longing to political engagement
David Nice
Fiddly but felt, the interpretations of the ICO's Norwegian violinist-director always compel
Rachel Halliburton
A spiky depiction of the struggle between trade union leader Brenda Dean and Rupert Murdoch
Adam Sweeting
Charlotte Regan's genre-jumping drama defies categorisation
Boyd Tonkin
Tenderness, and terror, outshine majesty in Elgar's journey of the soul
Mark Kidel
Brilliant trio seamlessly combine composition and improvisation
Helen Hawkins
Well paced and excellently cast, this revival still needs more of a sense of danger
Simon Thompson
Love among the chills in Bartók’s House of Horrors
Gary Naylor
Can it be as good as it was 20 years go? Of course it can!
David Nice
Paradoxically both ordered and wild(e), with weird twists and superb performances
Rachel Halliburton
This semi-dramatised evening was as illuminating as it was exhilarating
stephen.walsh
Lusty singing, plenty of space and not a sail in sight
Guy Oddy
Socialist troubadours spread hope and optimism

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