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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…
Pamela Jahn |
In 2016, Julia Ducournau arrived with a bang in the film world with her sensual coming-of-age cannibal horror drama Raw. She then took the top prize at Cannes five years later…
Adam Sweeting |
If you’re old enough to remember LPs and the lost art of reading sleeve notes (let alone writing them), this one’s for you. The titular session man is the fabled keyboard player…
Graham Fuller |
Seemingly shot in a snow globe containing haunted mountains and a neo-noirish Alpine ‘burg, The Ice Tower is the most expressionistic but relatable of the French-Bosnian director…
Kieron Tyler |
“Mrs Bluebird” is one of the great singles. Released in May 1968, it is airy yet lush. The filigreed harmony vocals are like velvet, the rhythm is insistent but soft. Overall,…
Guy Oddy |
It’s not often that a band manages to get a Birmingham crowd dancing from the front of the stage to the back of the hall. However, Lambrini Girls achieved this feat on Saturday…
Liz Thomson
Rufus Wainwright has long expressed his admiration for “pop music with an operatic sensibility, the profane with the divine”, inspired by The Unknown Kurt Weill and …
Sarah Kent
A lone slice of cherry pie sits on a plate inside a glass case (pictured below), waiting to be released from its solitary confinement and guzzled by a hungry diner. There it is…
Tim Cumming
Out of the hundreds of gigs, surprises and collaborations that make up the EFG London Jazz Festival (LJF), this review focuses on four concerts fusing jazz with world music. They…
aleks.sierz
Over the past few years, the National Theatre has specialised in trilogies. End is the final play in both playwright David Eldridge’s outstanding trilogy and in this venue’s…
graham.rickson
Image
American Dream: music by Amy Beach, Dana Suesse and Victor Babin Ludmila Berlinskaya and Arthur Ancelle (pianos),…
Tim Cumming
Noura Mint Seymali is possessed of the most extraordinary voice; its very fabric is electrifying, its reach, power and depth cut from an entirely different cloth to the rest of us…
David Nice
That spirit of delight which hovered over Christopher Alden’s stylish/surreal Handel bagatelle when I first saw it in the 2017 revival soars on eagle wings here. It’s hard to…
johncarvill
Bliss it was to be a fan of Thin Lizzy 50 years ago, in November 1975. Phil Lynott referred to fans as “supporters”, an apt term given Lizzy were followed with a level of partisan…
Guy Oddy
In the main, it could be assumed that Snarky Puppy’s bandleader, Michael League sleeps soundly in his bed every night. For sure, his band’s latest collaboration with Jules Buckley…
Helen Hawkins
The ballet world will soon run out of titles signifying a renaissance. After ENB’s recent Re:evolution comes London City Ballet’s Rebirth, following its debut programme last year…
Guy Oddy
This week, UK electronica originals Cabaret Voltaire hit Birmingham on their penultimate tour before they finally put their synthesizers into storage and call it quits this time…
Claudia Bull
Strictly speaking, an epistolary novel tells more than one story. You could say, for example, that Dracula is “about” a collection of letters and diary entries and in the same…
aleks.sierz
Obsession makes for good drama. Looking back over 30 years of in-yer-face theatre in general and female monologues in particular – anything from Fleabag to Superhoe – I’m struck…
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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
The French writer-director discusses the unique way her new drama memorialises the AIDS generation
Brilliantly gifted musician who played with the rock'n'roll greats
Lucile Hadžihalilović's exquisite fantasy about an orphan girl infatuated with a movie diva
new music
Smart new editions of the two albums by the late-Sixties American harmony pop outfit
Punk really isn’t dead
classical
Rarely-heard repertoire for two pianos, plus baroque transcriptions and guitar duets
Drama and drive in Mozart's great unfinished mass
Music by Evelin Seppar highlights interesting intersection with Arvo Pärt’s holy minimalism
opera
Best of all possible casts fill every moment of Christopher Alden’s Handel cornucopia
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
theatre
The final episode of David Eldridge’s emotionally strong trilogy is profoundly moving
New one-woman show about obsessive desire could be fuller and more detailed
New play about porn addiction is rather superficially imagined and lacks drama
dance
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Christopher Marney's revitalised company gains momentum with each appearance
ENB set the bar high with this mixed bill, but they meet its challenges thrillingly
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
Bennett’s virtuosic prose returns to ponder intimacy, but treads some old ground
Broad and idiosyncratic survey of classical music is insightful but slightly indigestible
visual arts
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Painting as gluttony
Photography used to question who and what is worth recording
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