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Theartsdesk
Tuesday, 31 December 2024
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
India Lewis
Sunday, 08 December 2024
On a wet, dreary, winter evening in north London, at Islington Assembly Hall, a crowd gathered for an ethereal although not always engaging set by Julia Holter. The opener was...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 08 December 2024
For John Leyton, it was third time lucky as far as his singles were concerned. The actor’s manager Robert Stigwood teamed him with producer Joe Meek, but Leyton's first two 45s –...
Nick Hasted
Saturday, 07 December 2024
Somewhere in Germany, G7 conference leaders including German Chancellor Ortmann (Cate Blanchett) and US President Wolcott (Charles Dance) repair to a gazebo to collaborate on a “...
David Nice
Saturday, 07 December 2024
“Comedy is a serious thing,” quoth David Garrick. Gilbert and Sullivan knew it, and so does Mike Leigh, having bequeathed to ENO a clear and unfussy Pirates of Penzance. It does...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 07 December 2024
Trio Mediæval: Yule (2L)Pick of my Christmas discs is this sublime collection from Trio Mediæval on the Norwegian audiophile label 2L, reflecting yuletide’s origins in...
Gary Naylor
Saturday, 07 December 2024
Growing up within a few hundred yards of a major dock, I hardly knew darkness or quiet – the first time I properly felt...
Guy Oddy
Saturday, 07 December 2024
By and large, most Christmas albums seem to fall into one of two camps. There’s either the lively poptastic soundtracks...
Helen Hawkins
Friday, 06 December 2024
On July 4, 2022, one of the most unusual performances in Hamlet’s lengthy and much travelled CV took place: an in-game...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 06 December 2024
Rachel Yoder says she wrote her debut novel Nightbitch as a reaction to Donald Trump’s first term as President, with what...
Pamela Jahn
Friday, 06 December 2024
Payal Kapadia’s lyrical fiction feature debut All We Imagine as Light, which received the Grand Prix at Cannes in May, is...
David Nice
Friday, 06 December 2024
A time must come again when British orchestras return to complete Tchaikovsky ballet scores in concert, as in the BBC glory...
Saskia Baron
Friday, 06 December 2024
It must have seemed such a delicious premise – a Buñuel-esque comedy about world leaders trapped at a luxury retreat as the...
Joe Muggs
Friday, 06 December 2024
There’s a lot of anger at algorithm-driven music discovery around – a lot of it justified, as the big platforms push the...
Helen Hawkins
Thursday, 05 December 2024
The writer-director of 2017’s I Am Not a Witch, Rungano Nyoni, has come up with another scorcher, this time taking aim at...
Veronica Lee
Thursday, 05 December 2024
Ricky Gervais begins by bringing us up to date with the latest “outrage” he has caused; two Netflix specials, SuperNature...
Jonathan Geddes
Thursday, 05 December 2024
'Tis the season for all manner of bugs, colds and illnesses. One had befallen Katy J Pearson, who struck an apologetic note...
Thomas H Green
Thursday, 05 December 2024
Amid the electro-rock crunch of “Sorry, Etc”, Lauren Mayberry spits out, “I killed myself to be one of the boys/I lost my...
Boyd Tonkin
Wednesday, 04 December 2024
“I am not better than my fathers.” Cracked, pained, occasionally rasping, rising to a fearsome roar then subsiding to a...
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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
Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet, Tate Modern review - an exhaustive and exhausting show
Flashing lights, beeps and buzzes are diverting, but quickly pall
Senna, Netflix review - the life and legend of Brazil's greatest driver
You saw the movie, now watch the TV series
Landman, Paramount+ review - once upon a time in the West
Billy Bob Thornton stars in Taylor Sheridan's Texas oil drama
film
Grand Theft Hamlet review - intriguing documentary about Shakespeare as multi-player shooter game
How two jobless actors created a novel Hamlet inside the game Grand Theft Auto
Nightbitch review - Mother's life as a dog
Amy Adams hits it out of the park in Marielle Heller's film
theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Payal Kapadia on 'All We Imagine as Light'
An in-depth conversation with the director of the instant Indian arthouse classic
new music
Julia Holter, Islington Assembly Hall review - shelter from the storm in experimental delight
A night of old and new from a leftfield virtuoso
Music Reissues Weekly: John Leyton - Lone Rider The Holloway Road Sessions 1960-1962
‘Johnny Remember Me,’ Joe Meek and the evolution of British pop
classical
Giltburg, Bournemouth SO, Wigglesworth, Portsmouth Guildhall review - seemingly effortless élan
New chief conductor turns Tchaikovsky waltz king, and a Rachmaninov partnership flows
Bach Mendelssohn Festival, Part I, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra review - the flame that never died
Top-flight performers show how a musical legacy endured
opera
The Pirates of Penzance, English National Opera review - fresh energy in clear-sighted G&S
Tenor lead shines, and conductor finds new beauties in Sullivan's score
Rigoletto, Irish National Opera / Murrihy, Collins, NCH Dublin review - greatness everywhere
Sheer perfection in Soraya Mafi’s Gilda and an Irish mezzo’s Berlioz
theatre
Hansel and Gretel, Shakespeare's Globe review - too saccharine a retelling for our times
Songs and sweeties, but insufficient sourness and sadism for fans of fairytales
The Importance of Being Earnest, National Theatre review - no shortage of acid-tipped delight
Oscar Wilde speaks just as strongly to the 21st century as he did to his own
Twelfth Night, Orange Tree Theatre review - perfectly pitched sad and merry musical mayhem
Shakespeare's comedy of identity confusion benefits from a 1940s setting
dance
First Person: singer-songwriter Sam Amidon on working in Dingle with Teaċ Daṁsa on 'Nobodaddy'
Michael Keegan-Dolan’s mind-boggling total work of art arrives at Sadlers Wells this week
Akram Khan, GIGENIS, Sadler’s Wells review - now 50, Khan returns to his roots
The dancer-choreographer goes epic in a show that unites South Asian dance styles
comedy
Kemah Bob, Soho Theatre review - Thailand, massage and mental health
Texan's full-length debut is a personal story
Books
Jeff Young: Wild Twin review - a box of tricks
Fragments cohere in this dog-eared history of an itinerant life
Interview: rising star Chloe Savage on the Arctic, outer space, and igniting children's wonder for the unknown
Beautiful books take you to worlds that are intricately imagined and a feast for the eye
visual arts
Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet, Tate Modern review - an exhaustive and exhausting show
Flashing lights, beeps and buzzes are diverting, but quickly pall
ARK: United States V by Laurie Anderson, Aviva Studios, Manchester review - a vessel for the thoughts and imaginings of a lifetime
Despite anticipating disaster, this mesmerising voyage is full of hope
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