theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Tom Birchenough |
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…
Nick Hasted |
“Rebellion begins with a breath,” an opening aphorism declares in this first film recounting Palestine’s 1936-39 Arab Revolt, long historically supplanted by Israel’s seismic 1948…
Robert Beale |
Elena Schwarz was back in Manchester to conduct the BBC Philharmonic only just over two weeks since her visit to the Hallé, and again conducting some mainstream heavyweight works…
aleks.sierz |
Here comes Dad – and he’s muttering a mantra: “My name is Winston Smith and only good things happen to me.” With a name shared with the everyman protagonist of George Orwell’s…
Robert Beale |
Sir Mark Elder was back on the scene of past triumphs last night as he returned to the Hallé at the Bridgewater Hall – and he has not lost his taste for the slightly unexpected.…
James Saynor |
Given that the film industry is a fairly vain business, it follows that every movie is to some extent a vanity project. So it seems churlish to describe this new Daniel Day-Lewis…
Liz Thomson
Mavis Staples, the woman to whom a young Bob Dylan proposed marriage when they met at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival and whose voice he has described as his “favourite voice”.…
Thomas H. Green
VINYL OF THE MONTHMartel Zaire (Evil Ideas)Montenegro-born, Cyprus-based producer Martel Vladimiroff is a hard man to find out about. His meagre online imprint and extensive…
Tim Cumming
Opening acts don’t always enjoy a full house, but at at the Royal Albert Hall at the end of a UK tour in support of Suzanne Vega and her acclaimed new album Flying with Angels,…
Helen Hawkins
What defines a life? Money and success? Happiness? Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams employs a narrator, much as Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven did, who fields big questions like…
joe.muggs
It’s weird, right? We’ve somehow stumbled into a world where, for all we’re told that algorithms homogenise music, actually more people than ever are exposed to very, very odd and…
Nick Hasted
Ash (Riz Ahmed) is one of cinema’s capable men, the kind of monastically devoted pro made to be a hitman or getaway driver. David Fincher’s The Killer parodied the type with…
David Nice
Janáček described his nature-versus-humanity fable The Cunning Little Vixen as “a merry thing with a sad end”. In which case, the even stranger Makropulos Case is a chattery…
Heather Neill
Perspectives on Shakespeare's tragedy have changed over the decades. As Nonso Anozie said when playing the title role for Cheek by Jowl in 2004, white actors once "concentrated on…
Katie Colombus
After cancelling his Birmingham gig an hour before curtain-up due to illness, the anticipatory hype around whether Benson Boone’s London show at The O2 would actually go ahead was…
Adam Sweeting
Directed by Lynne Ramsay and based on the book by Ariana Harwicz, Die My Love is an unsettling dive into the disturbed psyche of Grace, played with mercurial brilliance by…
Kieron Tyler
“Climb upon a bridge to far, go anywhere your heart desires.” The key phrase from the title track of Midlake’s sixth studio album conveys the perception that anything is within…
Gary Naylor
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s so very different about Belfast and Glasgow, both of which I have visited in the last few weeks, compared to, say, Manchester or Birmingham.…
Guy Oddy
During a false start to “Billy Don’t Fall”, on Sunday night at Birmingham’s iconic Town Hall, Sananda Maitreya took the opportunity to address the packed house before him. He…
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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
Rebecca Miller musters a stellar roster of articulate talking heads for this thorough portrait
Mick Herron's female private investigator gets a stellar adaptation
The director of hit TV series 'Gomorrah' examines another dark dimension of Italian culture
film
Director Annemarie Jacir draws timely lessons from a forgotten Arab revolt
The actor resurfaces in a moody, assured film about a man lost in a wood
Clint Bentley creates a mini history of cultural change through the life of a logger in Idaho
new music
The most extensive, wide-ranging record reviews in the galaxy
Two brilliant voices fill the Royal Albert Hall
classical
A look back to the Covid experience in Dani Howard’s approachable and attractive Trombone Concerto
A trusted guide and an imaginative soloist charm the crowd
From 1980 to 2025 with the West Coast’s pied piper and his eager following
opera
Katie Mitchell sucks the strangeness from Janáček’s clash of legalese and eternal life
English National Opera's production of a 21st century milestone has been a tough journey
Celine Byrne sings gorgeously but doesn’t round out a great operatic character study
theatre
Debut piece of new writing is a meditation on responsibility and emotional heritage
David Harewood and Toby Jones at odds
Sam Heughan's Macbeth cannot quite find a home in a mobster pub
dance
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
ENB set the bar high with this mixed bill, but they meet its challenges thrillingly
Like Water for Chocolate, Royal Ballet review - splendid dancing and sets, but there's too much plot
Christopher Wheeldon's version looks great but is too muddling to connect with fully
comedy
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Irish comic mixes sentiment and sauciness
US comic's slick show about relationships
books
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Broad and idiosyncratic survey of classical music is insightful but slightly indigestible
Thomas Pynchon's latest (and possibly last) book is fun - for a while
visual arts
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
At last, a UK festival that takes photography seriously
Gilbert & George, 21st Century Pictures, Hayward Gallery review - brash, bright and not so beautiful
The couple's coloured photomontages shout louder than ever, causing sensory overload
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