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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…
Rachel Halliburton |
Puck is an assassin in a tutu and Theseus is a murderous thug. In Headlong's deliciously macabre dramatisation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for midwinter audiences, director Holly…
Thomas H. Green |
The Last Dinner Party’s second album, From the Pyre, is one of this year’s most enjoyable. Its lead single, “This is the Killer Speaking”, is a belter that’ll be around for years…
Kieron Tyler |
Axis: Bold As Love, the second album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, was released in the UK during the first week of December 1967. In America, it came out in January 1968. Now,…
Sarah Kent |
Whoever thought of creating an exhibition comparing the brilliance of JMW Turner with that of John Constable deserves a medal – maybe Tate Britain’s senior curator, Amy Concannon…
Adam Sweeting |
Having given us Peter Jackson’s monster documentary series The Beatles: Get Back four years ago, Disney have returned to the Moptop well to deliver this spruced-up reissue of the…
aleks.sierz
Spies are basically actors. They create fake personas in order to achieve their ends. But the difference is that they do this 24/7. All the time. Especially during a secret…
Jonathan Geddes
When Yard Act headlined the O2 Academy in Glasgow back in 2023, they might have thought returning there as a support act would indicate a career that had taken a wrong turn. That’…
Robert Beale
You have to admire Samantha Fernando’s concept of the “To Do” list. Hers has one item: “Do Less”. That’s the subtitle of one section of the new work, Wintering, for which she…
Clare Stevens
Since 1981 Ryedale Festival has presented a mouthwatering array of concerts in picturesque churches and glorious stately homes in North East Yorkshire, characterised by interval…
peter.quinn
Named after and dedicated to his wife, filmmaker and director Shiraz Fradi, Tunisian vocalist and oud maestro Dhafer Youssef's first album as leader on the ACT label is a thing of…
Matt Wolf
It's not easy witnessing your own death. But that's the situation in which we find the lyricist Lorenz Hart at the start of Blue Moon, Richard Linklater's startling film about a…
Rachel Halliburton
The battle of the Scrooges is fast becoming an unofficial London theatrical tradition, as – for the third year – audiences must choose between the mince-pie-laden delights…
Guy Oddy
Even people who are unfamiliar with Kneecap’s sharp but raucous music may well be aware of the legal issues that have beset the Irish-English bilingual rappers over the last…
Jonathan Geddes
According to legend, Glasgow can be a tough place for a support band a crowd do not warm to. Therefore brotherly duo Faux Real were perhaps taking a risk when they elected…
aleks.sierz
Hail the spirit of the dance. And of acting. And of driving and flying. At a time when new writing is clearly in decline, and the most successful shows are adaptations or revivals…
David Nice
Even top conductors can have difficulty with Elgar’s late romantic suppleness. Vasily Petrenko of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Santtu-Mattias Rouvali of the Philharmonia…
Tim Cumming
Detroit musician, Blue Note artist and expressive saxophonist Dave McMurray’s fourth album for the label, I Love Life Even When I’m Hurting, sets out to celebrate his home town,…
Adam Sweeting
She’s still best remembered for her portrayal of Carrie Mathison in Homeland, but Claire Danes is an actor with plenty of moves up her sleeve. In this eight-part drama penned by…
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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
Vintage documentary series boosted by sound and vision upgrades
Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys star in addictively twisty mystery
film
Single-set film speaks volumes
The French writer-director discusses the unique way her new drama memorialises the AIDS generation
Brilliantly gifted keyboardist who played with the rock'n'roll greats
new music
Pop-rockers on fine musical form but undermined by stop-start dynamics
Too-often below par box-set version of the album which used to be called ‘Axis: Bold As Love’
The Hives were on typically brash, sweaty form
classical
Four voices and four strings capture hibernian experience from Lassus to the recent past
A splendid if in some ways provisional inauguration
True contralto drama alongside coruscating orchestra
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
This is Athens as a violent dictatorship
Adaptation of the John Le Carré Cold War thriller could do with more fleshing out
Should the productions be compared on spine chill factor or pathos?
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
Reunion of sketch show's creators
Storytelling that playfully wrongfoots the audience
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
The sky’s the thing
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