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Theartsdesk
Wednesday, 01 October 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 27 April 2025
The blurb on the front of the double-CD set The Hamburg Repertoire says it collects “The original recordings of songs performed by The Beatles on stage in Hamburg.” Disc One opens...
David Nice
Saturday, 26 April 2025
“Let the music guide your imagination” was never going to be the slogan of the Southbank Centre’s Multitudes festival. Its 13 events offer parallel visions, intended in the case...
David Nice
Saturday, 26 April 2025
Back in 2009, there were Ben and Wystan on stage (Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art). Last year came Ben and Master David Hemmings (Kevin Kelly's Turning the Screw), followed by Ben...
Rachel Halliburton
Saturday, 26 April 2025
In 2012, an eight-hour long version of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby arrived in London at the Noel Coward Theatre. Rather than risk offending the novel’s...
Hugh Barnes
Saturday, 26 April 2025
The English title of a new film about the legendary singer-guitarist Stelios Kazantzidis, who popularised rebetiko, which is often called “the Greek blues”, may beguile some...
Thomas H Green
Saturday, 26 April 2025
There’s this mod milieu, harking back to the Eighties. Weller at the forefront; Dr Robert and his Blow Monkeys; all...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 25 April 2025
It’s been nine years since Ben Affleck’s original portrayal of Christian Wolff in The Accountant, who’s not only an...
Helen Hawkins
Friday, 25 April 2025
The Finborough has once again performed the miracle of creating a whole world in its intimate space: this time, inter-war...
James Saynor
Friday, 25 April 2025
Although both of the Brothers Grimm died around 1860, they still insist on getting dozens of film and TV credits in each...
Kathryn Reilly
Friday, 25 April 2025
Given that Prioritise Pleasure was Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s (RLT) Back to Black, and that there’s been a lengthy...
Adam Sweeting
Thursday, 24 April 2025
Documentaries about sports stars are now a dime a dozen, but you can only be as good as your subject matter. We know Andrew...
Aleks Sierz
Thursday, 24 April 2025
“They fuck you up your Mum and Dad; they may not mean to, but they do.” These lines from Philip Larkin’s 1975 poem, “This Be...
Katie Colombus
Thursday, 24 April 2025
Had I read the contextual blurb about Jenny Hval's latest album first, I might have assumed it was a perfume company...
Helen Hawkins
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
It’s easy to see metaphors about the status of modern Georgia, once again threatened by the Russian boot, in its recent...
Pamela Jahn
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
It doesn't take much to get lost in a film by Miguel Gomes. In fact, it's required. Multiple layers, timelines, and...
Joe Muggs
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
There’s always been a goofy charm about Billy Idol. As an implausibly chiselled Adonis shining out from the deliberate...
Veronica Lee
Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Greg Davies doesn’t spare himself in his new show, Full Fat Legend, his first tour in seven years after having been busy...
Boyd Tonkin
Monday, 21 April 2025
In a programme note for the St John Passion at the Barbican, the Academy of Ancient Music’s chief executive called their...
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disc of the day
Album: Dr Robert & Matt Deighton - The Instant Garden
A couple of old mods waft into delightfully Seventies hippy territory
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Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
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And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
tv
Flintoff, Disney+ review - tumultuous life and times of the great all-rounder
John Dower's documentary is gritty, gruelling and uplifting
Your Friends & Neighbors, Apple TV+ review - in every dream home a heartache
Jon Hamm finds his best role since 'Mad Men'
MobLand, Paramount+ review - more guns, goons and gangsters from Guy Ritchie
High-powered cast impersonates the larcenous Harrigan dynasty
film
Stelios review - Athenian rhapsody in blues
Big fat Greek biopic hits the high notes but lacks punk spirit
The Accountant 2 review - belated return of Ben Affleck's lethal bean-counter
Horror, humour and mind games combine in Gavin O'Connor's sequel
The Ugly Stepsister review - gleeful Grimm revamp
A cutting Norwegian take on Cinderella and her adversaries
new music
Music Reissues Weekly: The Hamburg Repertoire
Perplexing compendium of songs The Beatles covered while playing the German port city
Album: Dr Robert & Matt Deighton - The Instant Garden
A couple of old mods waft into delightfully Seventies hippy territory
Album: Self Esteem - A Complicated Woman
Dissecting the utter tripe 21st-century western women navigate every day. In song!
classical
Philharmonia, Alsop, RFH / Levit, Abramović, QEH review - misalliance and magical marathon
Kentridge’s film for Shostakovich 10 goes its own way, but a master compels in his 13th hour of Satie
Bach St John Passion, Academy of Ancient Music, Cummings, Barbican review - conscience against conformism
In an age of hate-fuelled pile-ons, Bach's gospel tragedy strikes even deeper
MacMillan St John Passion, Boylan, National Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Hill, NCH Dublin review - flares around a fine Christ
Young Irish baritone pulls focus in blazing performance of a 21st century classic
opera
Owen Wingrave, RNCM, Manchester review - battle of a pacifist
Orpha Phelan brings on the big guns for Britten’s charge against war
theatre
Ben and Imo, Orange Tree Theatre review - vibrant, strongly acted fiction about Britten and Imogen Holst
Let’s make a coronation opera, with bags of dramatic licence
The Great Gatsby, London Coliseum review - lavish and lively production fails to capture the novel's tortured soul
The production gets stronger in the second half as the shadows of tragedy begin to loom
The Inseparables, Finborough Theatre review - uneven portrait of a close female friendship
De Beauvoir's novel gets an often charming but undemanding staging
dance
The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - brains, beauty and bravura
Once again the veteran choreographer and maverick William Forsythe raises ENB's game
Sad Book, Hackney Empire review - What we feel, what we show, and the many ways we deal with sadness
A book about navigating grief feeds into unusual and compelling dance theatre
comedy
Greg Davies, Brighton Dome review - chocolate bars and errant bumholes
Taskmaster's first tour in seven years is a joy
Marcus Brigstocke, Touring review - modern manhood laid bare
Observations on what it is to be a bloke today
Books
Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham review - New York stories
Fair-minded Woody Allen biography covers all bases
Howard Amos: Russia Starts Here review - East meets West, via the Pskov region
A journalist looks beyond borders in this searching account of the Russian mind
visual arts
Ed Atkins, Tate Britain review - hiding behind computer generated doppelgängers
Emotions too raw to explore
Echoes: Stone Circles, Community and Heritage, Stonehenge Visitor Centre review - young photographers explore ancient resonances
The ancient monument opens its first exhibition of new photography
latest comments
Seen it last night in NYC, was a bit of a let...
I think the series portrays a parallel vision...
Corrected, with thanks.
Yep. It's an incredible album.
Hi Robert,If I may make a correction to your...
the review doesn't match the score. you only have...
This rock solid testimony from his other son...
Tripla means Treble in hungarian, Three is Három...