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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 |
It was back in 2019 when The Capture made its debut on BBC One, with writer Ben Chanan skilfully exploiting the sinister potential of deep-fake technology and ubiquitous mass…
Guy Oddy |
It’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that Tori Amos might inhabit a music genre populated by one artist. That doesn’t make her tunes indescribable though. There’s the mezzo-…
Pamela Jahn |
Cate Blanchett is not a diva, but a star. Thanks to her boundless versatility and yen for risk-taking, she's at home in arthouse films as she is in Hollywood blockbusters. The…
Gary Naylor |
As a reviewer, if you’re lucky, you get a tingle down the spine – rarely, but you know it when you feel it. It’s the sensation of seeing theatre anew, not just something good or…
graham.rickson |
JS Bach: St John Passion Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon (Harmonia Mundi)Handel: Messiah Irish Baroque Orchestra/Peter Whelan (Linn)
Image…
Sarah Kent
Hidden among rampant foliage, a couple makes out with an urgency transmitted through Cecily Brown’s vigorous brush marks (pictured below right: Couple 2003-4). Their passion seems…
Thomas H. Green
The pairing of Chemical Brother Tom Rowlands and Norwegian pop star Aurora sounds interesting but not, on paper, like the formula for something extraordinary. Tomora’s debut album…
Sarah Kent
“Welcome” reads a sign hidden behind a metal screen whose spider-web of bars is designed to keep out unwelcome visitors (pictured below: Welcome: Carib, 2005). Through the grille…
Helen Hawkins
The new version of Ibsen’s classic by Anya Reiss at the Almeida prompted me to wonder at times whether wrenching a play out of its era and transposing it to a contemporary setting…
Robert Beale
A concert by the National Youth Orchestra is like no other. For one thing, there are 160 of them – you simply don’t get the kind of power and intensity they can create from a…
Saskia Baron
When Jim Jarmusch won the Golden Lion at last year’s Venice film festival, it came as something of a surprise. The best film award had been widely expected to go to the…
Markie Robson-Scott
“He’s got a brother who’s a brotha!” exclaims an ecstatic Anna (Halle Bailey; The Little Mermaid; The Colour Purple) to her bestie (Aziza Scott) back in New York. She’s just…
Thomas H. Green
Lincolnshire singer Holly Humberstone, now London-based, was awarded the Brit for Rising Star in 2022. A UK Top 5 album followed, Paint My Bedroom Black. But her second album,…
James Saynor
Communication devices have long been taken over by unwelcome entities in scary movies. Maybe it was the bedevilled TVs in David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983) that started it. It’…
Demetrios Matheou
It feels fitting that this latest revival of Copenhagen should open so soon after Arcadia at the Old Vic. These masterworks by, respectively, Michael Frayn and Tom Stoppard have…
Helen Hawkins
James McAvoy’s directing debut has a plot that’s so implausible, it would probably be laughed out of pitch meetings. But the story is essentially true, as recounted in the 2013…
Tom Carr
It is always fascinating recognising influences in a band or artists style, but noting how they have been adapted, morphed into something different and new. For the Brighton based…
David Nice
Good Friday and the days before it are times to contemplate Bach's great passions - the St Matthew was performed at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival before I arrived with Klaus…
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tv
Jon Hamm heads a rich cast of vividly-drawn characters
The sadness of multiple miscarriages gets a tender treatment and great performances
Tobias Santelmann is perfectly cast as Jo Nesbø's hard-bitten detective
film
The Australian actress talks family dynamics, awkward tea parties, and Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch's slow take on intergenerational tensions
Shirts off in a vineyard: Kat Coiro's silly rom-com stars Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page
new music
A set that is short on hits but that keeps the fans more than happy
A stunning set, rife with wild vocals and explosive electronics
Lyrically chewy, youthful, indie-tinted, and mostly likeable
classical
Three choral blockbusters, plus fiery symphonies and percussive contemporary music
Eagerness and skill from the musicians of tomorrow
Electrifying Britten and Wagner under Joana Mallwitz, plus top chamber music and song
opera
Electrifying Britten and Wagner under Joana Mallwitz, plus top chamber music and song
Waterworks fail to douse the power of Britten's sinister masterpiece
Orpha Phelan's multi-layered production looks at tyranny over the centuries
theatre
Distance grows between two lovers - and extends to millions of miles
Anya Reiss has turned Ibsen's repressed married couple into money-mad monsters
Michael Frayn's great play remains a potent cautionary tale
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
books
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Story of the rise and fall of Sir Roger Casement works on the small and large scale
Saskia Vogel brings a darker than dark tale of rural grief to English for the first time
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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