theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Veronica Lee
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
It’s hard to convey in an age of equal marriage and gender fluidity the impact that k.d.lang’s Ingénue had when it was released in 1992. The album, 10 tracks that tell of the pain...
Owen Richards
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
Oh to be inside the head of Wayne Coyne. The frazzle-haired frontman has always been an enigma, persistently quirky, morally dubious, and undeniably fascinating. Perhaps King’s...
Aleks Sierz
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
One of the glories of contemporary London theatre is its revivals of classic American drama. Year after year, audiences are able to revisit and enjoy the great landmarks of...
Adam Sweeting
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
It was on 16 July 1969 that Apollo 11 lifted off from Florida en route for the Moon, and exactly 50 years later, as we nervously anticipate the dawn of commercial flights into...
Adam Sweeting
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Not everybody is on Facebook, yet. So far, Mark Zuckerberg’s social media monolith has only managed to scrape together about 2.3 billion users, roughly one-third of the planet....
Tom Birchenough
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
When he gave Martin Dysart, the troubled psychiatrist protagonist of Equus, a line in which he speaks about “moments of experience” being “magnetised”, Peter Shaffer might almost...
Robert Beale
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Who would have thought that a one-narrator show, mainly about projects that never got off the ground, would turn out to be...
Kathryn Reilly
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Thirty-three years ago, at Manchester's Festival of the Tenth Summer, I fumed that New Order had been given top billing...
Rachel Halliburton
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
This witty street-smart play about a white-skinned boy born to a mixed-race mother deploys its narrative with the dexterity...
Guy Oddy
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Sum 41 were one of those light-weight punk-ish bands in unfeasibly large pairs of shorts that washed up in the wake of Green...
Sebastian Scotney
Monday, 15 July 2019
"Genius" is a word to be used sparingly, but Django Bates surely is one. “A musical polymath and prodigiously gifted...
Stephen Walsh
Monday, 15 July 2019
One of the features of the converted barn that forms the theatre at Longborough is a trio of statues that tops the front...
Russ Coffey
Monday, 15 July 2019
It was billed as a moment of musical history: two of the great icons of rock'n'roll sharing a double-headline. A dream...
Veronica Lee
Monday, 15 July 2019
How to describe a show that by Robin Ince’s own admission doesn’t have a narrative strand, and for which he has written...
Katie Colombus
Monday, 15 July 2019
It’s a rare thing that musicians sound better live than they do on Spotify. But Florence Welch sings a note perfect set –...
Asya Draganova
Monday, 15 July 2019
It’s been 20 years since Sabaton’s formation in 1999, and the Swedish power metal band have decided to mark their...
Boyd Tonkin
Sunday, 14 July 2019
As in other countries born out of 19th-century uprisings against imperial power, the literary roots of the Philippines run...
Heather Neill
Sunday, 14 July 2019
Lia Williams is not an actor who looks for easy options. Twice she has played two characters in the same production,...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 14 July 2019
Although British folk-jazz stylists Pentangle played their first official concert in May 1967, their name is borrowed for...
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tv
The Day We Walked on the Moon, ITV review - it was 50 years ago to the day
You've heard it all before, but this was an entertaining ride
Inside the Social Network: Facebook's Difficult Year, BBC Two review - how big can it get?
A force for good or Big Brother in the making?
8 Days: To the Moon and Back, BBC Two review - intimate peek at life in lunar capsule
Insightful doco-drama combines re-enactments with real cockpit audio
film
The Brink review – behind the scenes with Steve Bannon
Funny and frightening fly-on-the-wall documentary
Armstrong review - the man behind the leap
Documentary offers a sombre but interesting look at the first man
The Dead Don't Die review - return of the zom-com
Indie hero Jim Jarmusch brings signature touch to living-dead genre
new music
k.d.lang, Brighton Dome review - superb revival of classic album
Iconic Ingénue revisited after 25 years
Elbow and New Order, Lucca Summer Festival review – a meeting of Mancunian minds?
Much-loved bands at the opposite end of the pop spectrum magic up a spectacular night
classical
Londinium, Griffiths, St John’s Waterloo review - a choral Grand Tour
Leading London choir demonstrate imaginative programming and committed singing
Classical CDs Weekly: Jupiter String Quartet, Bruce Levingston, Paul McCreesh
Newly-commissioned chamber music, a thought-provoking piano recital and a spectacular choral anthology
theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2019 - in heaven with Dante's Purgatorio and Estonian rites
A dramatic tour from the tomb of Italy's greatest poet and music among the mosaics
opera
Don Giovanni, Longborough Festival Opera review - Mozart in the urinal
Coarsened, disembowelled and only quite well sung
Eugene Onegin/Georgiana, Buxton Festival review - poetry and pantomime
Thought provoking Tchaikovsky meets the operatic equivalent of Frankenstein's Monster
La Fille du Régiment, Royal Opera review - enjoyable but questionable revival
Tenor Javier Camarena excels in an otherwise only serviceable account
theatre
The Night of the Iguana, Noël Coward Theatre review - Clive Owen and Lia Williams burn bright
Star cast deliver a terrific revival of Tennessee Williams's last masterpiece
Equus, Trafalgar Studios review - passionate intensity
Lean and hungry brilliance in Ned Bennett's production of Peter Shaffer
Tao of Glass, Royal Exchange, Manchester review - brilliant, enchanting tales fascinate
Phelim McDermott's show about the bits that were left over
dance
Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras, Sadler's Wells review - storming opening to flamenco festival
Sara Baras confirms flamenco as a dynamic and innovative force
Mari review - bittersweet drama with flair
Unusual mash-up of styles creates a strangely compelling film
The Mother, QEH review - Natalia goes psycho
Osipova is mesmerising in bleak dance-drama about maternal mental health
comedy
Robin Ince, Soho Theatre review - fun among the chaos
Celebration of the complexities of the human mind
Jerry Seinfeld, Eventim Apollo review - slick and smart but curiously soulless
US star makes rare UK appearance
gaming
Rage 2 review – garish but great post-apocalyptic shooter
Challenge The Authority in this 'Mad Max on mushrooms' renegade romp
Win a Luxury Weekend for Two to Celebrate Brighton Festival!
An eclectic line-up spanning music, theatre, dance, visual art, film, comedy, literature and spoken word could be yours with boutique hotel and exquisite meals included
World War Z review - bloodthirsty fun with the zombie apocalypse
Chainsawing the brain-eaters as you battle against the tide of the undead
visual arts
Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life, Tate Modern review – beautiful ideas badly installed
The Danish artist who opens our eyes to climate change
Takis, Tate Modern review - science and art collide
Sculptor of magnetism, light and sound gets his first major UK retrospective
Les Rencontres d’Arles 2019 review - strength in tradition
To celebrate its 50th year, the photography festival takes a long view
latest comments
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Spot-on review. Very expensive and disappointing...
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