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theartsdesk |
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts lovers and professionals alike – but the…
Demetrios Matheou |
It feels fitting that this latest revival of Copenhagen should open so soon after Arcadia at the Old Vic. These masterworks by, respectively, Michael Frayn and Tom Stoppard have…
Helen Hawkins |
James McAvoy’s directing debut has a plot that’s so implausible, it would probably be laughed out of pitch meetings. But the story is essentially true, as recounted in the 2013…
Tom Carr |
It is always fascinating recognising influences in a band or artists style, but noting how they have been adapted, morphed into something different and new. For the Brighton based…
David Nice |
Good Friday and the days before it are times to contemplate Bach's great passions - the St Matthew was performed at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival before I arrived with Klaus…
Sebastian Scotney |
It was something of a miracle how long They Might Be Giants managed to preserve their trademark madcap optimism intact. It lasted right through to their last album, Book (2021).…
Joe Muggs
It’s not often I feel guilty about making an assessment of a set almost instantly after making it. The support act for the first full-band live show in the UK by NYC alt-pop…
Pamela Jahn
François Ozon has typically filtered his version of Albert Camus's existential novella The Stranger through his cool, ironic sensibility, the film's fluidity recalling at times…
aleks.sierz
Stories about slavery tend to be simplistic: white perpetrators are bad, black victims good. One of the more striking features of Winsome Pinnock’s new play, The Authenticator, is…
Nick Hasted
David Mackenzie’s second superbly marshalled thriller in a year makes an unexploded bomb the backdrop for a London heist and its chaotic aftermath. Like his Riz Ahmed/Lily James…
Veronica Lee
Sarah Millican is at an age where she is pausing to reflect and in Late Bloomer, her most recent show – shown as a special on Channel 4 and Netflix outside the UK and Ireland –…
Ellie Roberts
Johnny Franck’s energy is palpable with the latest Bilmuri instalment, his signature comedic country metalcore style is as honed as ever and Kinda Hard really just sounds…
Kieron Tyler
The opening track is Hoyt Axton’s “Evangelina.” After first appearing on the 1976 album Fearless it was re-recorded and issued as a flop UK single in July 1980. The new version…
Matt Wolf
Time is a terrifying force in Romeo & Juliet, and Robert Icke's headlong production never lets playgoers forget that fact. Returning to a tragedy he first directed for…
Adam Sweeting
Just a year after the first series, Your Friends & Neighbours returns to titillate and amuse us with the escapades of the moneyed but never satisfied burghers of Westmont…
Gary Naylor
Science on stage is quite the thing at the moment with a revival of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen opening at Hampstead Theatre next week and Lifeline, a British musical, injected…
Sebastian Scotney
Mountain Call from ECM – it consists of recordings made in Prague in very different contexts and settings between 2003 and 2010 – is a timely reminder of what a fearsomely…
Demetrios Matheou
If ever there was a piece that epitomised the view that villains are infinitely more fun than heroes, it would be Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s epistolary novel Les Liaisons…
Jonathan Geddes
There was something incongruous about seeing Basement Jaxx in a venue best known for regularly playing host to the likes of Scotland’s national orchestra and the roots and trad…
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tv
Jon Hamm heads a rich cast of vividly-drawn characters
The sadness of multiple miscarriages gets a tender treatment and great performances
Tobias Santelmann is perfectly cast as Jo Nesbø's hard-bitten detective
film
A feelgood true story about the Scottish rappers who hoaxed the music industry
The French director describes why he chose to emphasise the inherent racism of Camus's story
new music
Angsty yet immediate, powerful dose of alternative rock
The New Yorker's first UK show with full band shows nerdy personality and grand vision
classical
Electrifying Britten and Wagner under Joana Mallwitz, plus top chamber music and song
Different works call for different gifts in skills and sense of musical coherence
This year’s chorus of soloists has yet more revelations, but the overall vision’s the thing
opera
Electrifying Britten and Wagner under Joana Mallwitz, plus top chamber music and song
Waterworks fail to douse the power of Britten's sinister masterpiece
Orpha Phelan's multi-layered production looks at tyranny over the centuries
theatre
Michael Frayn's great play remains a potent cautionary tale
Latest drama from Winsome Pinnock is too short to be thoroughly satisfying
Robert Icke's starry production elides 'Sliding Doors' with Shakespeare
dance
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Body & Soul, English National Ballet, Sadler's Wells review - a surefire hit and an absolute plonker
Getting it very right and very wrong in this contemporary double bill
After 25 years and counting, Cassa Pancho's fine company remains essential
comedy
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
books
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Story of the rise and fall of Sir Roger Casement works on the small and large scale
Saskia Vogel brings a darker than dark tale of rural grief to English for the first time
visual arts
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
A frieze of iPad pictures that sends you hurrying for the door
Photographs of California’s queer community in the 1990s
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