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We are bowled over!
We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership…
mark.kidel |
Keaton Henson is a master of dark introspection and unashamed vulnerability, a 21st century manifestation of what used to be called bed-sit blues. There isn’t a shred of extrovert…
Kieron Tyler |
Strings swirl. A flute drifts like a bird floating on warm air. The melody is subdued, its tonality evoking The Smiths’ “Please, Please, Please, Let me Get What I Want.” A wistful…
graham.rickson |
Quite why this dialogue-heavy monochrome science fiction series was first broadcast in a teatime children’s slot is outlined in TV historian Jon Dear’s booklet essay…
Veronica Lee |
Tim Key, besuited and wearing a baseball cap, stands on stage as the audience files in, smiling sweetly as people take their seats. He’s on stage but, in keeping with many of the…
Sebastian Scotney |
Barbra Streisand has given her blessing to Where We Fall (Backwards Dog Records), an album of six covers and five original songs. She wrote to her 1.8 million Instagram followers…
Kieron Tyler
Leisure Process issued four singles between March 1982 and May 1983. Signed to Epic Records, the electropop-inclined duo was primed for success. Debut 45 “Love Cascade” was Radio…
aleks.sierz
Did you know that women watch porn? That they wank? Shock. Horror. Dismay. If you really are surprised by this non-revelation then maybe you need to get a ticket to see Sophia…
Justine Elias
It's hard to criticise a movie that opens with a shot of an Allied G.I. spitting and urinating on a Nazi insignia, but that moment of smug satisfaction (Nazi punks must die!) is…
aleks.sierz
New writing for the theatre is good at taking us into the darkest of places – and there are few more painful environments than prisons and mental institutions. Places where agony…
Boyd Tonkin
Mozart’s unfinished C Minor mass lacks a canonical completion of the sort that Süssmayr so famously – and still contentiously – imposed on the Requiem. Even without its Agnus Dei…
Sarah Kent
The title of Joy Gregory’s Whitechapel exhibition is inspired by a proverb her mother used to quote – “you catch more flies with honey than vinegar” – and her aim is to seduce…
Gary Naylor
Hamilton may have helped the West End recover from The Covid Years, but it carries its share of blame too. Perhaps that’s not strictly fair on some of its spawn, but do we get…
Kieron Tyler
The first live performance at the inaugural Riga Music Week is by Saucējas (pictured above). This seven-piece vocal ensemble is avowedly Latvian. Formed in 2003 at the Latvian…
Guy Oddy
Implosion is a purely instrumental, collaborative album of cinematic, dystopian sounds from dubstepper and extreme electronica experimentalist the Bug and his pal Ghost Dubs.…
Demetrios Matheou
As a proposition, this production raises the immediate questions how, and why? While Suzanne Collins’s young adult series of books were logically and successfully adapted for the…
Pamela Jahn
He wouldn't teach English, Toby Jones says. But drama? "Maybe," he pauses, "drama in the widest possible sense of the word, because it is an ever-expanding field, I suppose."
It'…
David Nice
At least two facts stare us unflinchingly in the face here. For all the programme’s harping on how “everyone has their own view about the death penalty,” I don’t think there was…
Sarah Kent
Regarded as one of Denmark’s most important artists, Anna Ancher is virtually unknown here, so this overview of her paintings is a revelation as well as a delight.
At roughly the…
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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.
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tv
Rebecca Miller musters a stellar roster of articulate talking heads for this thorough portrait
Mick Herron's female private investigator gets a stellar adaptation
film
How a US Army psychiatrist came face to face with evil
The formidable character actor discusses mentorship, masculinity, and the importance of 'self-persuasion'
The traumatic private life of America's top woman boxer
new music
Dreaminess and frostiness from the Gallic singer-songwriter
classical
Drama and drive in Mozart's great unfinished mass
Music by Evelin Seppar highlights interesting intersection with Arvo Pärt’s holy minimalism
Superbly sequenced memorials balancing anger and reflection
opera
Heggie’s Death Row opera has a superb cast led by Christine Rice and Michael Mayes
Katie Mitchell sucks the strangeness from Janáček’s clash of legalese and eternal life
English National Opera's production of a 21st century milestone has been a tough journey
theatre
New play about porn addiction is rather superficially imagined and lacks drama
Cooking therapy in a secure hospital makes for an uncertain mix of comedy and cruelty
Feminism to the fore as drama disappoints
dance
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
ENB set the bar high with this mixed bill, but they meet its challenges thrillingly
Like Water for Chocolate, Royal Ballet review - splendid dancing and sets, but there's too much plot
Christopher Wheeldon's version looks great but is too muddling to connect with fully
comedy
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Storytelling that playfully wrongfoots the audience
Irish comic mixes sentiment and sauciness
books
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Broad and idiosyncratic survey of classical music is insightful but slightly indigestible
Thomas Pynchon's latest (and possibly last) book is fun - for a while
visual arts
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Photography used to question who and what is worth recording
Light as a physical presence
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