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Saskia Baron
Thursday, 17 September 2020
Rocks is a beautifully made slice of neo-realist filmmaking which deserves to get a wide audience but may well slip off the radar in the current climate. It really should be...
Peter Culshaw
Thursday, 17 September 2020
GogolFest:Dream in Kherson, somewhere near the Crimea in Ukraine was the music festival of the summer. Admittedly, in my case and for many, having missed out on WOMAD, Glastonbury...
David Nice
Thursday, 17 September 2020
An early hero of lockdown, livestreaming from his Berlin home in terrible sound at first, Igor Levit is a supreme example of how adaptable musicians can survive in times like...
Joseph Walsh
Thursday, 17 September 2020
There’s no denying the Faulknerian ambition to the construction of Anthony Campos’ latest feature Devil All the Time. It’s a brooding, blood-soaked Semi-Southern Gothic drama...
David Nice
Wednesday, 16 September 2020
One source of advance information told us to expect a reduced version of Bartók’s one-act Bluebeard’s Castle, among the 20th century’s most original and profound operatic...
Russ Coffey
Wednesday, 16 September 2020
"This party's over" snarls Fish on Weltschmerz, and, this time, it seems the big man really means it. After threatening retirement for many years, the ex-Marillion...
David Nice
Tuesday, 15 September 2020
It wouldn’t be true to say I’d forgotten what a solo cello in a fine concert hall sounds like; revelation of an admittedly...
Saskia Baron
Tuesday, 15 September 2020
This warm-hearted and informative documentary series about life in a Welsh special education school probably isn’t going to...
Guy Oddy
Tuesday, 15 September 2020
Michael Gira, Swans’ band leader and last remaining original member, has a reputation for being an intense and difficult...
David Nice
Monday, 14 September 2020
Music going back to nature, or rather the managed nature of a London park, can make you think and feel quite differently...
Marina Vaizey
Monday, 14 September 2020
Fires are raging: by human agency – unthinking greed – in the Amazonian rainforest, by climate change, arson and accident in...
Sebastian Scotney
Monday, 14 September 2020
“It’s SO good to be back,” said Catherine Bott, and it would be impossible to disagree with her. She was presenting the...
Saskia Baron
Monday, 14 September 2020
ITV’s Sunday evening costume drama slot is filled for the next six weeks with this lacklustre adaptation of JG Farrell’s...
Russ Coffey
Monday, 14 September 2020
It's the self-portrait on the cover that gives the first hint that something's changed with Marilyn Manson. The eyes...
Marina Vaizey
Sunday, 13 September 2020
This is a biography like no other, more or less dictated by Lucian Freud. William Feaver spoke with the artist perhaps...
Sarah Collins
Sunday, 13 September 2020
Nick Hornby’s protagonists are worlds apart. Joseph is a Black 22-year-old with a “portfolio career", which includes shift...
Boyd Tonkin
Sunday, 13 September 2020
The man called Piranesi lives in a House (he likes Capital Letters, and he tells the story). This House consists of an...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 13 September 2020
The standard recitation goes like this. In the early Seventies a London scene evolved, centring on bands playing in pubs....
Daniel Lewis
Sunday, 13 September 2020
Strange, that novels like this, which seem to have their finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist, already have a tinge of sepia...
tv
A Special School, BBC Wales review - heartwarming film about special needs education
Lovingly made and inspiring new series shows what's possible for students with special needs
Extinction: The Facts, BBC One review - David Attenborough tells a devastating story
This horrifying prognosis on the future of our planet was essential viewing
The Singapore Grip, ITV review - colonial clichés
Christopher Hampton’s lacklustre adaptation of JG Farrell fails to develop characters beyond caricature
film
Rocks review - impressively well-crafted neo-realist drama
Sarah Gavron and Theresa Ikoko’s collaboration pays off in this lovingly observed tale of teenage girls
The Devil All The Time review – a test of faith in a Southern Gothic tradition
Anthony’s Campos’ blood-drenched period tale based on Donald Ray Pollak’s novel
DVD/Blu-ray: Where Does a Body End?
Post-punk giants Swans’ documentary is a fascinating trawl through the band’s first 35 years
new music
GogolFest:Dream review - the best music festival of the summer?
A socially-distanced festival of new music and head-banging Nova Opera in Kherson
DVD/Blu-ray: Where Does a Body End?
Post-punk giants Swans’ documentary is a fascinating trawl through the band’s first 35 years
classical
Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall/Hill Quartet, Bandstand Chamber Festival review – seamlessness inside and out
Total fluency from the great pianist and a young team already rich in wisdom
Alban Gerhardt, Markus Becker, Wigmore Hall review - long shadows and rich sounds
Shostakovich's dark intensity carries over to Schumann and Beethoven
Maggini Quartet/Friend, Solem Quartet, Bandstand Chamber Festival review - in harmony with nature
More cultured beauty from outstanding musicians in the heart of Battersea Park
opera
Eavesdropping on Rattle, the LSO and Bartók’s Bluebeard
Ahead of the London Symphony Orchestra’s streaming next month, a privileged preview
La bohème, Scottish Opera – pandemic Puccini
Top-quality cast and players put on a potted version in a parking lot
The Royal Opera: Live in Concert review - Italianate fizz with a patch of flatness
A glorious orchestra and chorus under their inspiring music director are back in style
theatre
The Shrine & Bed Among the Lentils, Bridge Theatre review - loneliness shared, with wit and melancholy
Monica Dolan and Lesley Manville are peerless in this Alan Bennett double bill
The Outside Dog & The Hand of God, Bridge Theatre review - gems of frustration and disquiet
Alan Bennett's monologues make us reflect on our own little worlds
Rose, Hope Mill Theatre online review - a performer at her peak
Maureen Lipman in fearless form in Martin Sherman's discursive solo play
dance
'She was Paris': RIP Zizi Jeanmaire (1924-2020)
Ballet or cabaret, Zizi's passion was for performance - preferably with her husband
Dancing at Dusk: A Moment with Pina Bausch’s 'The Rite of Spring' review - an explosive African rite
Continents collide in a film documenting an inspired re-staging of a 20th-century masterpiece
'If they had been any closer my face would have misted up': filming 'Men at the Barre'
The director Richard Macer had exclusive access to the male stars of the Royal Ballet. He describes what he discovered
comedy
Mixed bill, 21Soho review - opening of new club is cause for celebration
Strong line-up with engaging MC
The Warren Outdoor Season, Brighton review - creatives take to the beach
Performances in a pop-up theatre
The New Normal, Royal Victoria Patriotic Building review - strong mixed bill
Pop-up arts festival in a lovely Gothic venue
gaming
Rage 2 review – garish but great post-apocalyptic shooter
Challenge The Authority in this 'Mad Max on mushrooms' renegade romp
World War Z review - bloodthirsty fun with the zombie apocalypse
Chainsawing the brain-eaters as you battle against the tide of the undead
The Lego Movie 2 Videogame review - everything is not awesome
Few fresh ideas means this movie adaptation treads the same old ground
visual arts
My Rembrandt review - hard cash and hubris
Characters historical and contemporary mingle in an entertaining portrait of the art world
George IV: Art & Spectacle, The Queen's Gallery review - all is aglitter
A sumptuous display from the Royal Collection heralds a top class reopening
Khadija Saye: In This Space We Breathe, 236 Westbourne Grove review - a celebrated series finds new resonance
The artist's most celebrated works launch a new public art project in west London
latest comments
Christian Madsbjerg and ReD Associates are...
Series 2 of The Split Seeing the characters from...
Thank you for all that you are doing. You are an...
So exits would need to be choreographed. I saw it...
Jessica, excellent review. I was one of the...
It’s a great LP. Just one point of info, she...
Yes, I had no idea it was amplified. Just sounded...
Thanks Matthew - I was overcompressing my...