theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
theartsdesk |
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts lovers and professionals alike – but the…
Adam Sweeting |
Location, location, location... a tangible sense of place and local identity can make or break a TV drama, and Under Salt Marsh exploits this to the full. It’s a haunting murder…
David Nice |
In 2016, when Richard Jones's production of Musorgsky's original 1869 Boris Godunov first amazed us, Putin had invaded Crimea but not the rest of Ukraine, and tens of thousands…
Helen Hawkins |
The latest brainwave of director Richard Linklater is wonderfully simple: don’t do another remake of Jean-Luc Godard’s debut film, A bout de souffle (1959), make a movie about the…
Joe Muggs |
One of the great problems with modern music criticism is that it hasn’t got past the models of the second half of the last century, and this leads to some very serious seeing-the-…
Adam Sweeting |
The typical Jason Statham character is a taciturn loner with a dark and secret past, maybe as a hitman, a safe-cracker or a former member of some special forces unit. Statham…
Markie Robson-Scott
Kangaroo has promising ingredients: a Sydney TV weather reporter accustomed to soft city life is forced to reconsider his priorities (what, no sparkling Icelandic water or spa…
Gary Naylor
When it comes to the proletariat taking matters into their own hands, the British working class does not have many spectacular victories to celebrate. There are glorious defeats…
Guy Oddy
While it’s almost six years since arch Parisien hipster and former Eurovision performer Sébastien Tellier released his last album, he can hardly be described as a slacker. In the…
Rachel Halliburton
The cellist and the pianist famously have a more competitive relationship in Brahms’ Cello Sonata in E minor than in many compositions for solo instrument and piano. Brahms…
Adam Sweeting
Evil capitalists are in the cross-hairs of this six-part thriller, conceived and mostly written by Sotiris Nikias. Possibly not the most original of villains, but they serve well…
Miriam Figueras
The British film industry of the 1950s underwent intense financial pressure. Audiences were changing and diminishing, and earlier attempts to protect domestic production had often…
David Nice
Any conductor undertaking a journey through Mahler's symphonies - and Vladimir Jurowski's with the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been among the deepest - needs to give us the…
Robert Beale
Perhaps it was the thought of “Blue Monday”, which fell a week ago, that stimulated the choice of Lili Boulanger’s D’un soir triste as the opening piece of this concert. Certainly…
Ellie Roberts
After over 600 gigs, London based brother-and-sister duo The Molotovs have finally released their debut album. It’s fair to say that for a band so aligned with punk, Wasted On…
Kieron Tyler
Following the 2010 release of The Fallen By Watch Bird, Jane Weaver has gone on to issue a further four conventional albums – there are also remix sets, reconfigurations,…
aleks.sierz
This year the Royal Court is 70 years old. Yes, it’s that long since this premiere new writing venue staged its opening season, whose third play was John Osborne’s Look Back in…
Jenny Gilbert
If modern and post-modern dance has a reputation for being earnest, then this latest curation of British and American pieces shows another face. For while there is rigour in…
Gary Naylor
Scottie Fitzgerald, the sole offspring of F Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda, swigs from a hip flask where she shouldn’t (she inherited the transgression gene). She’s in the room that…
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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
Sinister shenanigans amid ravishing Welsh landscapes
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck reunite in fierce Miami crime drama
film
Richard Linklater recreates the eccentric 20-day shoot that left cinema 'A bout de souffle'
Grizzled Jason Statham teams up with new star Bodhi Rae Breathnach
Kate Woods directs a warm-hearted Australian family comedy
new music
A sprawling epic of Arabic gothic ambition
French electro-hipster lays down pop hooks, woozy head-spins and mellow folktronica
A slightly clunky but impressive effort
classical
Sonatas by Brahms and Prokofiev were revealed in all their intricacy
Rudolf Barshai's performing version undermines fine conducting and playing
From misery to fun to grim discovery in a vivid opera-in-concert performance
opera
Deep sound under Mark Wigglesworth complements Richard Jones's vision
Marlis Petersen captures the infinite variety of Janáček's 337-year-old heroine
theatre
Blackshirts seen off in a third outing for the bright new musical
New play about a devastating event is an excruciatingly powerful piece of new writing
One-pitch show has its heart in the right place
dance
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
A surprise new work from Christopher Bruce pays tribute to Leonard Cohen in this captivating programme
For all its ambitious range and scope, Wayne McGregor's big ballet is a big yawn
comedy
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Some hits among the misfires
books
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Writer Barry Joseph recounts his moments of clarity and connection with Stephen Sondheim’s lifelong love of puzzles
visual arts
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
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