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Theartsdesk
Sunday, 01 December 2024
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...
Helen Hawkins
Wednesday, 06 November 2024
The latest true-crime adaptation about a murderous man and his female victims turns its star into a bloody mess on a hospital table, her vital signs flatlining. And that’s just...
David Nice
Wednesday, 06 November 2024
As Steven Isserlis announced just before the final work, in more senses than one, of a five-day revelation, the 79 year old Fauré’s last letter told his wife that “at the moment...
Matt Wolf
Wednesday, 06 November 2024
The Catalan capital has given its name to a famous number in the Stephen Sondheim musical, Company. And here it is lending geographical specificity to the second two-hander,...
Joe Muggs
Wednesday, 06 November 2024
If the names Pinch, Vex’d, Burial, Digital Mystikz, The Bug mean anything to you, stop reading now and buy or stream this album. Seriously, go. Go get it. That honestly is all you...
Guy Oddy
Tuesday, 05 November 2024
More than once during their barnstorming performance this weekend, Bobby Vylan, vocalist with Bob Vylan proclaimed from the stage of Birmingham’s O2 Institute that “We are the...
Robert Beale
Tuesday, 05 November 2024
The BBC Philharmonic were right to bill Garrick Ohlsson, soloist in Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1, as the main attraction in...
David Nice
Monday, 04 November 2024
Earlier this year, Steven Isserlis curated a revelatory Sheffield Chamber Music Festival spotlighting Saint-Saëns, with...
Hugh Barnes
Monday, 04 November 2024
In Alan Hollinghurst’s first novel, The Swimming Pool Library (1988), set during the summer of 1983, the young gay narrator...
Kieron Tyler
Monday, 04 November 2024
Springs begins cooking with “Spaced Out Invaders - Part I Quirks,” its fourth track. A spindly, rotating guitar figure...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 03 November 2024
After the chart success of his second album, June 1969’s Hot Buttered Soul, it was inevitable that any single had to...
Helen Hawkins
Saturday, 02 November 2024
It’s 1648 in Agra, and an excitable young guardsman has come up with an idea: a giant flying platform that he calls an “...
Jenny Gilbert
Saturday, 02 November 2024
In the foyer of the Linbury Theatre is an exhibition which gives a very upbeat account of the presence of black dancers in...
Irène Duval
Saturday, 02 November 2024
"I always enjoy seeing sunlight play on the rocks, the water, the trees and plains. What variety of effects, what brilliance...
Saskia Baron
Saturday, 02 November 2024
Anora has had so much hype since it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in May that it doesn’t really need another reviewer...
Rachel Halliburton
Saturday, 02 November 2024
Last time I saw the lovelorn Cyclops from Handel’s richly turbulent cantata, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, he was in a warehouse...
Nick Hasted
Saturday, 02 November 2024
Chuck Prophet speaks the old language of rock’n’roll as if it’s bright and new. His long gone band Green On Red were R.E.M.’...
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Disney+ review - the Boss grows older defiantly
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 01 November 2024
Director Thom Zimny has become the audio-visual Boswell to Bruce Springsteen’s Samuel Johnson, having made documentaries...
Graham Fuller
Friday, 01 November 2024
Blitz, set on a vast CGI canvas in September 1941, is an improbable boy’s adventure tale that depicts the misery and terror...
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disc of the day
Album: Alley Cat - The Widow Project
Enter a haunted factory and quiver in the shadows with a dubstep auteur
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.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
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
Until I Kill You, ITV1 review - superb performances in a frustrating true-crime story
Anna Maxwell Martin and Shaun Evans are compelling, but the script needs more ballast
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Disney+ review - the Boss grows older defiantly
Thom Zimny's film reels in 50 years of New Jersey's most famous export
Industry, BBC One review - bold, addictive saga about corporate culture now
Third season of the tale of investment bankers reaches a satisfying climax
film
Anora review - life lesson for a kick-ass sex worker
Sean Baker's bracing Palme d'Or winner twists, turns, and makes a star of Mikey Madison
Blitz review - racism persists as bombs batter London
Steve McQueen's overwought World War Two boy's adventure film delivers its message
Small Things Like These review - less is more in stirring Irish drama
Cillian Murphy is exceptional as a man wrestling with his church and conscience
new music
Album: Alley Cat - The Widow Project
Enter a haunted factory and quiver in the shadows with a dubstep auteur
Bob Vylan, O2 Institute, Birmingham review - self-proclaimed most important band in the UK blow the roof off
Political punk-rappers see the weekend out with a bang
classical
Fauré Centenary Concert 5, Wigmore Hall review - a final flight
The master of levitation in transcendent performances from Steven Isserlis and friends
Ohlsson, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - grace and power in Brahms
A time-travelling journey through the Austro-German Romantic tradition
Fauré Centenary Concert 1, Wigmore Hall review - Isserlis and friends soar
Saint-Saëns is no also-ran in the opening event of a wondrous homage
opera
Rigoletto, English National Opera review - another hit for Miller's Mob
More tragic than gimmicky, this classic staging can still succeed
theartsdesk at Wexford Festival Opera - let's make three operas
Donizetti triumphs, with help from Bernstein, Rossini, two stars and director Orpha Phelan
theatre
Barcelona, Duke of York's Theatre review - Lily Collins migrates from France to Spain
The 'Emily in Paris' star surrenders to cliche - or does she?
Guards at the Taj, Orange Tree Theatre review - miniature marvel with rich resonances
Rajiv Joseph’s play pitting beauty against duty gets an impressive staging
The Buddha of Suburbia, Barbican Theatre review - farcical fun, but what about the issues?
Hanif Kureishi classic gets a compulsively comic makeover from Emma Rice
dance
Legacy, Linbury Theatre review - an exceptional display of black dance prowess
An all-too-fleeting celebration of black and brown ballet talent that demands a reprise
Encounters, Royal Ballet review - exciting mixed bill with a gem of a premiere
Pam Tanowitz's latest piece is a stunner that larkily subverts the rules
comedy
Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Brighton Dome review - a foster carer's tale
Comic skilfully melds a personal story with sharp social commentary
Rose Matafeo, Arcola Theatre review - Starstruck star muses on love
Kiwi comic on dating, phone apps and Taylor Swift
Books
Alan Hollinghurst: Our Evenings review - a gift that keeps on giving
Common themes are retuned with political edge in critique of Brexit, race, and sexuality
Jonathan Coe: The Proof of My Innocence review - a whodunnit with a difference
Political satire, social observation and literary artifice elevate this ostensibly 'cosy crime' caper
visual arts
Vanessa Bell, MK Gallery review - diving into and out of abstraction
A variation of styles as the Bloomsbury artist breaks free from Victorian mores
Lygia Clark: The I and the You, Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation, Whitechapel Gallery review - breaking boundaries
Two artists, 50 years apart, invite audience participation
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