theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Matt Wolf
Saturday, 20 July 2019
Robert Holman’s 1986 Bush Theatre play – seen most recently in London at the Donmar Warehouse in 2012 – makes for a beautifully acted curio of a film that, intriguingly, boasts...
Gavin Dixon
Saturday, 20 July 2019
A new commission, a Romantic tone poem and a choral spectacular – standard fare for the First Night of the Proms. Traditionally, the First Night sets out the themes for the season...
Graham Fuller
Saturday, 20 July 2019
In Tell It to the Bees, sex is aberrant unless it’s conducted by a straight married couple. Since Annabel Jankel’s low-key drama is set in a grim Scottish mill town in 1952, you...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 20 July 2019
Stewart Goodyear: Callaloo, Piano Sonata; Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue Stewart Goodyear (piano), Chineke! Orchestra/Wayne Marshall (Orchid Classics)Callaloo is Stewart...
Russ Coffey
Saturday, 20 July 2019
The first thing you notice about Guesswork is the sound. Or rather, what's missing: there are none of the usual jangly guitars. No trusty Rickenbackers. Instead, the...
Boyd Tonkin
Friday, 19 July 2019
Die Zauberflöte rarely attracts the plain cooks of the operatic world. Mozart’s farewell opera chucks so many highly-spiced ingredients into its outlandish pot – pantomime and...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 19 July 2019
One of the most memorable moments in Ron Howard’s documentary about Luciano Pavarotti is one of its earliest scenes. It’s a...
Sarah Kent
Friday, 19 July 2019
The City of London is an ecological disaster. Around Bank, Mansion House and Cannon Street there’s scarcely a green leaf to...
Tom Birchenough
Friday, 19 July 2019
French director Agnès Varda looks back over a cinematic career of seven decades in this a richly moving film farewell,...
Thomas H Green
Friday, 19 July 2019
Club music has its own micro-universe, with its own rules, jargon, and fans. It also has globe-trotting stars most people...
Nick Hasted
Thursday, 18 July 2019
The cynicism of this film’s existence squeezes all the feeling from it. It approaches cherished childhood memories of the...
Theartsdesk
Thursday, 18 July 2019
It's been much the same trajectory over the past few years for many of us: look through the Proms prospectus, feel a bit...
Florence Hallett
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Sculpture is as much a part of Yorkshire as cricket and a decent cup of tea, with the “sculpture triangle”, comprising four...
Saskia Baron
Thursday, 18 July 2019
This gothic yarn set in 1850s Snowdonia stars Maxine Peake as Elen. She’s left alone with two young daughters to manage...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
“All this evil and dark crap was supposed to be fun,” complains exasperated Norwegian black metal overlord Euronymous,...
Katie Colombus
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
I guess the thing with jazz is, you never quite know where you stand with it. The endless, drifting circular loops of sound...
Veronica Lee
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
It’s hard to convey in an age of equal marriage and gender fluidity the impact that k.d. lang’s Ingénue had when it was...
Ewa Banaszkiewicz And Mateusz Dymek
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
Spoiler alert: About sixty-four minutes into our debut feature film, one of the main female characters undresses for the...
Aleks Sierz
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
One of the glories of contemporary London theatre is its revivals of classic American drama. Year after year, audiences are...
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tv
The Day We Walked on the Moon, ITV review - it was 50 years ago to the day
You've heard it all before, but this was an entertaining ride
Inside the Social Network: Facebook's Difficult Year, BBC Two review - how big can it get?
A force for good or Big Brother in the making?
8 Days: To the Moon and Back, BBC Two review - intimate peek at life in lunar capsule
Insightful doco-drama combines re-enactments with real cockpit audio
film
Tell It to the Bees review - taboo love in 1950s Scotland
A woman doctor changes the lives of a struggling factory worker and her young son
Pavarotti review - enjoyable but superficial survey of a superstar
Ron Howard's portrait of the fabled tenor leaves his inner life unexamined
Varda by Agnès review - a richly moving film farewell
Her wonderful personality to the fore, Agnès Varda shares her life and work
new music
Boogarins, Jazz Cafe review - psychedelic hues and Brazilian grooves
A trippy conversation where the psyche-pop-rock doesn't get lost in translation
classical
Prom 1, BBCSO, Canellakis review - space-age First Night
Programme lacks logic, but choral spectacular opens the season in style
Classical CDs Weekly: Stewart Goodyear, Nielsen, Weinberg
Cross-cultural pianism, analogue treasures from the Decca vault, and a powerful Russian symphony
Pick of the BBC Proms 2019
Our classical music/opera reviewers choose their favourites from the next eight weeks
opera
Die Zauberflöte, Glyndebourne Festival review – high jinks in the Grand Mozart Hotel
Some delicious singing cuts through fanciful upstairs-downstairs frolics
Pavarotti review - enjoyable but superficial survey of a superstar
Ron Howard's portrait of the fabled tenor leaves his inner life unexamined
Pick of the BBC Proms 2019
Our classical music/opera reviewers choose their favourites from the next eight weeks
theatre
The Night of the Iguana, Noël Coward Theatre review - Clive Owen and Lia Williams burn bright
Star cast deliver a terrific revival of Tennessee Williams's last masterpiece
Equus, Trafalgar Studios review - passionate intensity
Lean and hungry brilliance in Ned Bennett's production of Peter Shaffer
dance
Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras, Sadler's Wells review - storming opening to flamenco festival
Sara Baras confirms flamenco as a dynamic and innovative force
Mari review - bittersweet drama with flair
Unusual mash-up of styles creates a strangely compelling film
The Mother, QEH review - Natalia goes psycho
Osipova is mesmerising in bleak dance-drama about maternal mental health
comedy
Robin Ince, Soho Theatre review - fun among the chaos
Celebration of the complexities of the human mind
Jerry Seinfeld, Eventim Apollo review - slick and smart but curiously soulless
US star makes rare UK appearance
gaming
Rage 2 review – garish but great post-apocalyptic shooter
Challenge The Authority in this 'Mad Max on mushrooms' renegade romp
Win a Luxury Weekend for Two to Celebrate Brighton Festival!
An eclectic line-up spanning music, theatre, dance, visual art, film, comedy, literature and spoken word could be yours with boutique hotel and exquisite meals included
World War Z review - bloodthirsty fun with the zombie apocalypse
Chainsawing the brain-eaters as you battle against the tide of the undead
visual arts
Beuys' Acorns, Bloomberg Arcade London review – not much to look at, but important all the same
An installation that could make a difference
Yorkshire Sculpture International review - Hepworth and Moore loom large
A new festival seals Yorkshire's bid to be Britain's home of sculpture
Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life, Tate Modern review – beautiful ideas badly installed
The Danish artist who opens our eyes to climate change
latest comments
Sounds too fussy and striving.. An excess of...
Hi I totally disagree. It’s down to the...
Well written, well said!
Your readers would be advised to consult other...
In my opinion, Keith is the most beautiful man I'...
The soprano in question was Anne Sophie Duprels,...
Wow. Rusalka is a favourite opera of mine, but I...
It's really interesting for me to read these...