theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Boyd Tonkin |
Antonio Pappano’s pairing for last night’s Barbican concert intrigued – and, initially, baffled – me. Shostakovich’s Fifth: a clear choice, given the London Symphony Orchestra’s…
Liz Thomson |
Across seven decades, Alan Bennett has revealed a great deal of himself through plays and screenplays. In 1994, with the publication Writing Home, his first volume of diaries,…
Saskia Baron |
“Since when was getting older an honour?” asks Tereza, rightly suspicious when she finds officials nailing up a cheap garland around her front door and presenting her with a medal…
Thomas H. Green |
Record Store Day 2026 is this Saturday! At theartsdesk on Vinyl we’ve been playing through exclusive RSD goodies. Check the reviews. Then check head to your local record shop! See…
aleks.sierz |
One of the most resonant contemporary slogans is “Build bridges not walls”. Because it applies to the personal as well the political, it has the force of simplicity and directness…
Markie Robson-Scott |
This entertaining, gorgeous-looking film within a film, directed and written by multi-talented Turkish-Italian Ferzan Özpetek (he’s also directed operas and written several novels…
Liz Thomson
It’s 15 years since Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, two boys from Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, let slip their debut album. “Released” is not the right word, for Prologue (2011) was…
Guy Oddy
It’s ten years since Tiga’s last solo album, the slightly tepid No Fantasy Required was released. So, it is something of a relief to discover that the Canadian DJ, producer,…
Veronica Lee
As a catchline for a tour, “40 years of arsing about in comedy” is a grabber. That’s how Harry Enfield describes Harry Enfield and No Chums!, and it certainly shows that he is…
Markie Robson-Scott
Nine-year-old-year-old Callie-Rose (the extraordinarily talented Australian actor Lily LaTorre; Run Rabbit Run) needs the Wi-Fi to do her homework. The trouble is, there's no…
Kieron Tyler
Blues? Maybe, in atmospheric terms. But not in the 12-bar, blues-rock or Delta blues sense. Or most other senses. The album title is a play on Miles Davis’ end-of-Sixties LP…
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…
Jon Turney
Browsing second-hand books is one of life’s reliable gentle pleasures. Nicholas Royle, though, in Finders, Keepers: The Secret Life of Second-Hand Books, takes it to the next…
Robert Beale
The Northern Chamber Orchestra is unusual in that it plays almost always without a conductor. It’s been doing that for nearly 60 years, and there’s a unique frisson to be had from…
Thomas H. Green
Superbloom is the third chapter in Jessie Ware’s transformation, over the last six years, into a self-proclaimed and full-blown disco diva. How does it differ from 2020’s What’s…
Kieron Tyler
“Do You Believe in Magic.” “You Didn't Have to be so Nice”. “Daydream.” “Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind?” “Summer in the City.” “Rain on the Roof.” “Nashville Cats.”The…
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…
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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
Is anything real in Ben Chanan's digital dystopia?
Jon Hamm heads a rich cast of vividly-drawn characters
The sadness of multiple miscarriages gets a tender treatment and great performances
film
Full steam ahead for Rodrigo Santoro and Denise Weinberg
Soap-opera in the Roman style: Ferzan Özpetek's opulent, melodramatic meta drama
The things that got left behind: Max Walker-Silverman directs a film of quiet beauty
new music
Check our reviews of 29 Records Store Day exclusives
A seventh album from the Angelino folk duo
Canadian DJ, producer, remixer and label head returns with an order to dance
classical
Secret handshakes between works that weathered trauma
Orchestral music without a conductor has its own unique frisson
Three choral blockbusters, plus fiery symphonies and percussive contemporary music
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
New play about family trauma and grief is subtle, sensitive, but pitted with plot holes
Distance grows between two lovers - and extends to millions of miles
Anya Reiss has turned Ibsen's repressed married couple into money-mad monsters
dance
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
The kindly Skoog made history as a brutal Interrogator in a classic modern ballet
comedy
The character comic looks back at his career
books
The last surviving member of Beyond the Fringe never ceases to engage
A small-scale journey through literary afterlives unveils a world of wonders
Story of the rise and fall of Sir Roger Casement works on the small and large scale
visual arts
An artist who has lost her way
Gorgeous paintings in search of belonging
A frieze of iPad pictures that sends you hurrying for the door
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