theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
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...
Gary Naylor
Thursday, 03 April 2025
It’s a greater accolade than a Nobel Prize for Literature – one’s very own adjective. There’s a select few: Shakespearean; Dickensian and Pinteresque. Add to that list, Wildean....
Guy Oddy
Thursday, 03 April 2025
Pigsx7 have hardly got a reputation for penning tender and soulful ballads, but Death Hilarious is a particularly aggressive and punishing album even by their standards. Taking...
Gary Naylor
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
That friend you have who hates musicals – probably male, probably straight, probably not seen one since The Sound of Music on BBC 1 after the Queen’s Speech in 1978 – well, don’t...
Graham Fuller
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
“Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.” The Aesop-ian maxim roughly applies to Jérémie Pastor (Félix Kysyl) in Alain Guiraudie's Misericordia. Though unemployed Toulouse...
Robert Beale
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
It’s quite ironic that the Royal Northern College of Music should have invited, as director of this, Britten’s avowedly pacifist opera, Orpha Phelan – whose version of his Billy...
Aleks Sierz
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Motherhood is a high stress job. Ask any woman and they will tell you the same: sleepless nights, feeding problems and worry...
Liz Thomson
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Spring may have sprung, but there’s little in life to truly raise the sprits, so this week’s release of Who Believes in...
Helen Hawkins
Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Is the Royal Ballet a “Balanchine company”? The question was posed at a recent Insight evening to Patricia Neary, the...
Pamela Jahn
Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Joshua Oppenheimer made his name directing two disturbing documentaries, The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (...
India Lewis
Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruin of Empire, the journalist Howard Amos’ first book, is a prescient and fascinating...
Markie Robson-Scott
Tuesday, 01 April 2025
“I knew I wanted all the effects practical and made for real. The movie is about flesh and bones, about women’s bodies.”...
Justine Elias
Monday, 31 March 2025
The typical Jason Statham movie character – muscular, resourceful, drily humorous – could probably carve an army into...
Robert Beale
Monday, 31 March 2025
The BBC Philharmonic took its Saturday night audience on a journey into French sonic luxuriance – in reverse order of...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 31 March 2025
The dramatic allure of families neck-deep in organised crime never seems to falter, and Stephen Butchard’s new series...
Rachel Halliburton
Monday, 31 March 2025
Over the last three years of the London Handel Festival, two experimental productions have proved to be highlights – not...
Kieron Tyler
Monday, 31 March 2025
A pizzicato violin opens Song Over Støv. Gradually, other instruments arrive: bowed violin, a fluttering flute, pattering...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 30 March 2025
The sticker on the front cover says “The heaviest proto-metal compilation ever released.” And considering the label behind...
Graham Fuller
Sunday, 30 March 2025
On the spoken word LP Loose Talk, Amelia Barratt reflects on her or other women’s experiences, real or imagined, over tunes...
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?
disc of the day
Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious
Geordie rockers’ pulverising psych metal is guaranteed to rattle windows
The future of Arts Journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
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
This City is Ours, BBC One review - civil war rocks family cocaine racket
Terrific cast powers Stephen Butchard's Liverpool drug-ring saga
The Potato Lab, Netflix review - a K-drama with heart and wit
Love among Korean potato-researchers is surprisingly funny and ideal for Janeites
Adolescence, Netflix review - Stephen Graham battles the phantom menace of the internet
How antisocial networks lead to real-life tragedy
film
Misericordia review - mushroom-gathering and murder in rural France
A deadpan comedy-thriller from the director of ‘Stranger by the Lake’
theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer on his apocalyptic musical 'The End'
The documentary director talks about his ominous first fiction film and why its characters break into song
DVD/Blu-ray: The Substance
French director Coralie Fargeat on the making of her award-winning body-horror movie
new music
Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious
Geordie rockers’ pulverising psych metal is guaranteed to rattle windows
Album: Elton John and Brandi Carlile - Who Believes in Angels?
Elton John & Brandi Carlile step out in style
Album: Erlend Apneseth - Song Over Støv
Norwegian musical impressionist’s journey into the centre of a vortex
classical
Connolly, BBC Philharmonic, Paterson, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a journey through French splendours
Magic in lesser-known works of Duruflé and Chausson
Biss, National Symphony Orchestra, Kuokman, NCH Dublin review - full house goes wild for vivid epics
Passionate and precise playing of Brahms and Berlioz under a dancing master
Verdi Requiem, Philharmonia, Muti, RFH review - new sparks from an old flame
Discoveries on a veteran maestro's epic journey
opera
Owen Wingrave, RNCM, Manchester review - battle of a pacifist
Orpha Phelan brings on the big guns for Britten’s charge against war
Tales of Apollo and Hercules, London Handel Festival review - compelling elements, but a failed experiment
Conceptually the two cantatas just don't work together
theatre
The Importance of Being Oscar, Jermyn Street Theatre review - Wilde, still burning bright
Alastair Whatley honours his subject in a quietly powerful performance
Stiletto, Charing Cross Theatre review - new musical excess
Quirky, operatic show won't please everyone, but will delight many
Apex Predator, Hampstead Theatre review - poor writing turns horror into silliness
New play about motherhood and vampirism is disappointingly incoherent
dance
Balanchine: Three Signature Works, Royal Ballet review - exuberant, joyful, exhilarating
A triumphant triple bill
Romeo and Juliet, Royal Ballet review - Shakespeare without the words, with music to die for
Kenneth MacMillan's first and best-loved masterpiece turns 60
comedy
Harry Hill, Wilton's Music Hall review - madcap comic on terrific form
Utterly daft mix of new material and favourite old characters
Books
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
Henry Gee: The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire - Why Our Species is on the Edge of Extinction review - survival instincts
A science writer looks to the stars for a way to dodge our impending doom
visual arts
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
Hylozoic/Desires: Salt Cosmologies, Somerset House and The Hedge of Halomancy, Tate Britain review - the power of white powder
A strong message diluted by space and time
latest comments
I think he got coverage on RTE Lyric FM. It takes...
Well, Biss is at least a reasonably well known...
One of the greatest experiences of my life. Muti...
Finally, someone with some taste. This movie was...
I saw Nureyev and Fonteyn dance this wonderful...
This reworking of the original is soulless and...
A bit of a stretch. Could have been done in 2...
Thank you for this fantastic review. While I...