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Bernard Hughes
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
The fourth Prom of this season featured only two contrasting pieces, pitching the unabashed joyfulness and good humour of Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto against the angst and...
Veronica Lee
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
Les Dennis was once a marquee name on Saturday night television as host of Family Fortunes, but since giving up the light entertainment lark he now plies his trade as an actor,...
David Nice
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
Light-filled Cadogan Hall is hosting the most fascinatingly programmed concerts in a Proms season not otherwise conspicuous for its adventurousness. There's also an honourable...
Graham Rickson
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
The first words we hear in The Piano are the thoughts of Holly Hunter’s Ada, and they set up the film’s premise perfectly: “I have not spoken since I was six years old. No one...
Sebastian Scotney
Monday, 16 July 2018
"Homeward Bound – the Farewell Tour", they were calling it. But with a show this strong, nobody would complain if that farewell were to turn out at some point not to be absolutely...
David Nice
Monday, 16 July 2018
How do you go about co-ordinating a spectacular like this, the first ever BBC Young Musicians' Prom? With 23 brilliant soloists from clarinettist Michael Collins, not even the...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 16 July 2018
So it’s back to London’s Bishop Street police station for a third series of screenwriter Chris Lang’s cold case saga. The...
Javi Fedrick
Monday, 16 July 2018
Hailing from Canada and born from the ashes of cult indie heroes Women (the band responsible for that chiming Calgary guitar...
Matthew Wright
Monday, 16 July 2018
This is Drake’s account of his astrological sign, the only one to be represented in multiple forms: an eagle and phoenix as...
Boyd Tonkin
Sunday, 15 July 2018
On new year’s day in 2013, Guy Stagg set out to walk alone from Canterbury to Jerusalem. He planned this journey, which...
Nick Hasted
Sunday, 15 July 2018
Father Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) calls himself one of God’s lonely men. The term given to Paul Schrader’s anti-heroes since...
David Nice
Sunday, 15 July 2018
Valiant Opera Holland Park, always taking up the gauntlet for Italian operas which should mostly never be staged again....
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 15 July 2018
Music from Sudan is overshadowed by the country’s recent history. At the end of June 1989, Colonel Omar al-Bashir assumed...
Matt Wolf
Saturday, 14 July 2018
There's surprising and then there's The Lehman Trilogy, the National Theatre premiere in which a long-established director...
Gavin Dixon
Saturday, 14 July 2018
The First Night of the Proms is always a tricky one to programme, bringing together themes of the season, perhaps a new work...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 14 July 2018
Mozart: Piano Concertos nos 12 and 13, Double Concerto in Eb Marie-Pierre Langlamet and Joan Rafaelle Kim (harps), Varian...
Aleks Sierz
Saturday, 14 July 2018
Britain is rightly proud of its record on multiculturalism, but whenever cross-cultural couples are shown on film,...
Stephen Walsh
Saturday, 14 July 2018
Much as I love Strauss’s Ariadne in its final form, I have a sneaking nostalgia for the original version (attached to...
Ellie Porter
Saturday, 14 July 2018
This woozy, seductive slice of gothic Americana is the Canadian quartet’s first album in six years, a swampy follow-up to...
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tv
Unforgotten, Series 3, ITV review - death on the M1
Detectives Stuart and Khan are back to tackle another long-buried mystery
Keeping Faith, BBC One review - this summer's watercooler drama
New BBC Wales drama promises to grip from opening episode
Picnic at Hanging Rock, BBC One review - camp girls' school gothic
Natalie Dormer leads a rebooted adaptation of the contemporary Australian classic
film
First Reformed - faith fights the eco-apocalypse
Hawke and Seyfried search for divine light in Paul Schrader's austere parable
Summer 1993 review - the tenderest fabric of childhood
Aching sensitivity and directorial magic in an outstanding Catalan debut
new music
Paul Simon, BST Hyde Park review - still sprightly after 76 years
Powerful and wide-ranging performance from one of the all-time songwriting greats
Preoccupations, The Haunt, Brighton review - energetic set struggles to win over audience
Four-man post-punk machine try to whip up a storm in reluctant seaside venue
classical
Proms at...Cadogan Hall 1, Perianes, Calidore String Quartet review - mysteries and revelations
The strange adventures of composer Caroline Shaw sit perfectly alongside Schumann
Prom 3, BBC Young Musician at 40 review - multi-layered birthday cake
Fabulous foursomes, five Gershwinistas and tziganery offer three-quarters perfection
Prom 1, BBCSO, Oramo review – spectacular First Night of the Proms
Dynamic but sensitive Holst, multi-media show high on spectacle but low on substance
opera
Isabeau, Opera Holland Park review - Mascagni's lumpy Godiva-ride rarity
Fine singing and playing can't quite sell a hoary slice of awkward medievalism
Ariadne auf Naxos, Longborough Festival review - appetising energy and wit
Strauss's chamber masterpiece brilliantly staged, finely played and sung
Alzira / The Daughter of the Regiment, Buxton Festival review – thundering good tunes
Early Verdi opera proves there’s life in the young dog yet, Plus a Californian Donizetti
theatre
End of the Pier, Park Theatre review - thought-provoking play about comedy and race
Les Dennis is superb as a washed-up comic
The Lehman Trilogy, National Theatre review - an acting tour de force
A newly-minimalist Sam Mendes guides an expert cast to sublime heights
Alkaline, Park Theatre review - faith, friendship and failure
Female friendship comedy drama is occasionally bright, but lacks plot and depth
dance
Enter theartsdesk / h Club Young Influencer of the Year award
In association with The Hospital Club's h.Club100 Awards, we're looking for the best cultural writers, bloggers and vloggers
The Sleeping Beauty, London Coliseum review - a triumph for English National Ballet
Kenneth MacMillan's timeless staging brings out the best in ENB
Michael Chance on continuing opera in Hampshire: 'good people like to work with good people'
The countertenor turned impresario launches a second season of The Grange Festival
comedy
Flight of the Conchords review, Eventim Apollo - New Zealand musical spoofers make welcome return
Worth the wait for Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement
Enter theartsdesk / h Club Young Influencer of the Year award
In association with The Hospital Club's h.Club100 Awards, we're looking for the best cultural writers, bloggers and vloggers
Bridget Christie, Brighton Festival review - politics through a domestic lens
Brexit and its fallout still an obsession
gaming
Jurassic World Evolution review - manage a dinosaur theme park and make a killing
A comprehensive management sim where you feed the exhibits, the punters and your bank balance
Enter theartsdesk / h Club Young Influencer of the Year award
In association with The Hospital Club's h.Club100 Awards, we're looking for the best cultural writers, bloggers and vloggers
Detroit: Become Human review – a robot story with real heart
A big budget interactive story where your decisions can flip the script
visual arts
Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, V&A review - appearances aren't everything
Sumptuous exhibition prioritises image over artist
diep~haven 2018 review - a missed connection?
Curiously apolitical festival of contemporary art at a ferry crossing
latest comments
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Having seen the production once I just had to...
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Mr Cooper is simply stating facts. What has the...