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…
Kieron Tyler |
“A rich and occasionally irritatingly gimmicky album…less perfectly realised than Autobahn, though there are some quite pretty tunes. People often charge electronic music with…
Pamela Jahn |
Lindsay Duncan, CBE, might be British acting royalty, yet her character as gangster matriarch in Charlotte Regan’s BBC-drama series Mint is anything but noble. Being flamboyant,…
David Nice |
It all adds up to a cleverly interconnected triple bill and the perfect experience for five singers from the Royal Opera's Jette Parker Artists Programme. There are three losses,…
Liz Thomson |
The Puppini Sisters brought their signature blend of close harmony singing to Islington’s Union Chapel on Friday, the opening night of a three-week UK tour marking their 20th…
Thomas H. Green |
London band David Cronenberg’s Wife, a grimy stew of Eighties indie and folk trimmings, deal in the abject; shame, sadness and lust gone rotten. Their new album, for instance,…
Pamela Jahn
One of the most extraordinary time-travel films of recent years takes George MacKay and his co-star Callum Turner aboard a spooky fishing boat. Mark Jenkin's Rose of Nevada is as…
aleks.sierz
Patriarchy is a trap for both men and women. This we know. But it’s not often that its takedown is as amazingly theatrical as this fabulous entertainment, Tender, by American…
Demetrios Matheou
The aftermath of school massacres for those left behind, and the pros and cons of restorative justice have become two strong themes for drama in recent years. Writer Fran Kranz…
Rachel Halliburton
There has been a trend in productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in recent years to portray Athens as a sexually repressive regime in which Queen Hippolyta is resentfully…
Gary Naylor
The USA was still months short of Pearl Harbour’s shove into World War II when Bertholt Brecht wrote The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. It was many years into a Cold War by the…
Kathryn Reilly
Cast your mind back to the release of “Never Be The Same Again” (1999), which seemed to come out of nowhere and turned Sporty Spice’s image on its head. For the least pushy of the…
Helen Hawkins
The writer of the edgy TV drama The Responder, Tony Schumacher, is back with an equally edgy but surprisingly warm-hearted story of people down on their luck in Liverpool. On…
Sarah Ruhl
Perhaps fate led me inevitably to the theatre as a great love because my first kiss was in a scene study class when I was 14 years old. My scene partner and I were working on a…
Tim Cumming
I first saw country singer songwriter Kacey Musgraves perform at the Arts Club on Dover Street back in 2013 for the launch of her first major-label album, Same Trailer Different…
Guy Oddy
It is almost without fail that Birmingham’s Supersonic Festival is guaranteed to be one of my annual musical highlights – and despite it still only being April, I suspect that it…
Veronica Lee
Scott Bennett is a busy guy at the moment, touring as he is with not one, but two shows; Blood Sugar Baby, a personal piece of storytelling about a family medical ordeal, and…
Helen Hawkins
David Pearson’s debut play, Firewing, part of Hampstead Theatre’s INSPIRE project for emerging writers, is a heartfelt two-hander about the importance of passing stuff on.“Stuff”…
Flora Wilson Brown
How do you adapt a book like The Waves? A terrifying idea, and one I could not get out of my brain, from the moment the director Jùlia Levai asked if I had ever considered doing…
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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
The Tony Award-winning stage and screen star talks female power, sexism and becoming more Scottish with age
Sheridan Smith and Michael Sorcha prove a winning team in this unexpected treat
... as well as Ridley Scott, Jacques Audiard, Julia Ducourneau and Charles Aznavour
film
The BIFA award-winning actor discusses his approach to performing, working with limitations and why sometimes less is more
... as well as Ridley Scott, Jacques Audiard, Julia Ducourneau and Charles Aznavour
A sleaze-free celebration of Michael Jackson before the fall
new music
The follow-up to ‘Autobahn’ is given a startling aural makeover
Fifth album by queasy indie-folk sorts finds poetry in dark corners
classical
Uplifting celebrations of musical kinship across cultures
Romantic cornerstones shine alongside Julia Wolfe’s document of trauma
Circa's acrobatics bracingly express a philosophical idea of the body
opera
Elizabeth Maconchy and Elena Langer hit their targets, Charlotte Bray falls short
Berg's queasy setting of a visionary play as you never quite heard or saw it before
Love among the chills in Bartók’s House of Horrors
theatre
The team behind Tambo & Bones return with a hilarious show about sex, sex and more sex
Fran Kranz’s new play explores the emotional aftermath of a school massacre
Emma Lim's irreverent production is a delightful aperitif for the summer
dance
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Body & Soul, English National Ballet, Sadler's Wells review - a surefire hit and an absolute plonker
Getting it very right and very wrong in this contemporary double bill
After 25 years and counting, Cassa Pancho's fine company remains essential
comedy
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
The character comic looks back at his career
books
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
The last surviving member of Beyond the Fringe never ceases to engage
A small-scale journey through literary afterlives unveils a world of wonders
visual arts
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
An artist who has lost her way
Gorgeous paintings in search of belonging
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