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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
Friday, 18 April 2025
A single sofa is all we have on stage to attract our eye - the signifier of intimate family evenings, chummy breakfast TV and, more recently, Graham Norton’s bonhomie. Until you...
Markie Robson-Scott
Friday, 18 April 2025
“I was born with the ability and the demon to write. I have been punished for it constantly.” Written and directed by Sinéad O’Shea, this fascinating documentary is a...
Sebastian Scotney
Friday, 18 April 2025
In this new album, three top-flight musicians based in Berlin, guitarist Ronny Graupe, Lucia Cadotsch (voice) and Kit Downes (piano) work collaboratively, superbly, as a real team...
Bernard Hughes
Thursday, 17 April 2025
The name Arthur Bliss always summoned up for me the image of a fuddy-duddy old buffer writing boring music. But as I’ve discovered his work over the last few years – initially...
Tim Cumming
Thursday, 17 April 2025
For lovers of British folk from the 1970s on, Peter Knight is a potent force – renowned for his years with Steeleye Span, in their 1970s heyday and from 1980 through to 2013’s...
Aleks Sierz
Wednesday, 16 April 2025
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. Or words to that effect. This quote...
Bernard Hughes
Wednesday, 16 April 2025
The London Choral Sinfonia are a very impressive group, a professional choir who are churning out terrific recordings at a...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Mark Morton is best known as a guitarist with US metallers Lamb of God. They’ve been going for three decades, established...
Jenny Gilbert
Tuesday, 15 April 2025
It’s hard to think of anyone even half as persistent as William Forsythe in changing the conversation around ballet. The...
Manic Street Preachers, Barrowland, Glasgow review - elder statesmen deliver melody and sing-a-longs
Jonathan Geddes
Tuesday, 15 April 2025
As you might expect from a Manic Street Preachers gig, literary influences were never far away. A DH Lawrence quote was...
Nick Hasted
Tuesday, 15 April 2025
A longshot of transgender Elvira (Volker Spengler) circled by gay men, assignation turning to assault as dawn mist rises...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 14 April 2025
It had begun to seem that Jon Hamm, whatever other roles he might appear in, was destined to be forever remembered...
Boyd Tonkin
Monday, 14 April 2025
Víkingur Ólafsson had something to prove at the Wigmore Hall. And prove it he did, even if, this time, his Goldberg...
Helen Hawkins
Monday, 14 April 2025
The writer Amy Ng has made a sterling effort in digging up the true story behind her new play at the Kiln, Shanghai Dolls,...
Mahler's Ninth, BBC Philharmonic, Gamzou, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - vision and intensity
Robert Beale
Monday, 14 April 2025
There was a change of conductor from the one advertised for this BBC Philharmonic performance at the Bridgewater Hall – but...
Aleks Sierz
Monday, 14 April 2025
Are we really in “a new era of male anger, societal discontent and rage”? This is what Royal Court artistic director David...
Liz Thomson
Monday, 14 April 2025
At a time when the powers that sadly be in America are trying their damnedest to erase and rewrite history, the latest...
Simon Thompson
Sunday, 13 April 2025
I was in Germany last week, and nearly every town I went to was advertising a St Matthew or a St John Passion taking place...
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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.
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tv
Your Friends & Neighbors, Apple TV+ review - in every dream home a heartache
Jon Hamm finds his best role since 'Mad Men'
MobLand, Paramount+ review - more guns, goons and gangsters from Guy Ritchie
High-powered cast impersonates the larcenous Harrigan dynasty
This City is Ours, BBC One review - civil war rocks family cocaine racket
Terrific cast powers Stephen Butchard's Liverpool drug-ring saga
film
Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story - compelling portrait of the ground-breaking Irish writer
Glitz and hard graft: Sinéad O'Shea writes and directs this excellent documentary
DVD/Blu-ray: In a Year of 13 Moons
UK disc debut for Fassbinder's neglected, tragic, tender trans tale
The Amateur review - revenge of the nerd
Remi Malek's computer geek goes on a cerebral killing spree
new music
Album: Mark Morton - Without the Pain
Second solo album from Lamb of God guitarist lays down hefty southern boogie
classical
Donohoe, RPO, Brabbins, Cadogan Hall review - rarely heard British piano concerto
Welcome chance to hear a Bliss rarity alongside better-known British classics
London Choral Sinfonia, Waldron, Smith Square Hall review - contemporary choral classics alongside an ambitious premiere
An impassioned response to the climate crisis was slightly hamstrung by its text
Goldberg Variations, Ólafsson, Wigmore Hall review - Bach in the shadow of Beethoven
Late changes, and new dramas, from the Icelandic superstar
opera
Owen Wingrave, RNCM, Manchester review - battle of a pacifist
Orpha Phelan brings on the big guns for Britten’s charge against war
theatre
Ghosts, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre - turns out, they do fuck you up
Ten years on, Gary Owen and Rachel O'Riordan top their triumphant Iphigenia in Splott
All the Happy Things, Soho Theatre review - deep feelings, but little drama
New play about a sibling’s death is well imagined and deeply felt, but a bit slender
Shanghai Dolls, Kiln Theatre review - fascinating slice of history inadequately told
Amy Ng's take on two Chinese titans needs more dramatic ballast
dance
The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - brains, beauty and bravura
Once again the veteran choreographer and maverick William Forsythe raises ENB's game
Sad Book, Hackney Empire review - What we feel, what we show, and the many ways we deal with sadness
A book about navigating grief feeds into unusual and compelling dance theatre
comedy
Marcus Brigstocke, Touring review - modern manhood laid bare
Observations on what it is to be a bloke today
Books
Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham review - New York stories
Fair-minded Woody Allen biography covers all bases
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
visual arts
Ed Atkins, Tate Britain review - hiding behind computer generated doppelgängers
Emotions too raw to explore
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
latest comments
Hi Robert,If I may make a correction to your...
the review doesn't match the score. you only have...
This rock solid testimony from his other son...
Tripla means Treble in hungarian, Three is Három...
Very illuminating and evocative assessment of an...
The memoir is engaging and perceptive, catching...
I think he got coverage on RTE Lyric FM. It takes...
Well, Biss is at least a reasonably well known...