theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Adam Sweeting
Saturday, 20 October 2018
Olivia Colman will in due course be appearing as Elizabeth II in The Crown, surely a role of a very different hue to her portrayal of Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’s The...
Saskia Baron
Friday, 19 October 2018
There aren’t many movies that cater to audiences with a passion for canine grooming, the mafia and dismal seaside resorts but Dogman more than satisfies all those cravings. Ten...
Rachel Halliburton
Friday, 19 October 2018
This blisteringly intense evening at Trafalgar Studios begins with two strangers in an Amsterdam hotel bedroom and – through a series of personal revelations – ends up spanning...
Demetrios Matheou
Friday, 19 October 2018
While much has been said of Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Dario Argento’s cult horror Suspiria, it’s the latest stylishly bizarre confection by British writer-director Peter...
David Kettle
Friday, 19 October 2018
More than 1,700 teenage finalists representing 78 countries take part in the annual International Science and Engineering Fair, virtually the Oscars for exceptional young...
Owen Richards
Friday, 19 October 2018
Watching Matthew Holness’ debut feature Possum, you’d be forgiven in thinking he was a tortured soul. Lead character Phillip (played by Sean Harris, pictured below) is a lean...
Thomas H Green
Friday, 19 October 2018
“Psychopathologies come and go but they always tell us about the historical time period in which they’re produced.” So says...
Matt Wolf
Thursday, 18 October 2018
"What could possibly go wrong?" The question ends the first act of Wise Children, the debut venture from the new company...
David Nice
Thursday, 18 October 2018
Single adjectives by way of description always sell masterpieces short, and especially the ambiguous symphonies forged in...
Marianka Swain
Thursday, 18 October 2018
The most thrilling revivals interrogate a classic work, while revealing its fundamental soul anew. Marianne Elliott’s...
Aleks Sierz
Thursday, 18 October 2018
In 2017, playwright Nina Raine's Consent, an excellent National Theatre play about lawyers and rape victims, was hugely...
Richard Bratby
Thursday, 18 October 2018
There’s always a special atmosphere when the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra returns to Birmingham Town Hall, and it’s...
Russ Coffey
Thursday, 18 October 2018
Think of Karen "MØ" Andersen and you may well picture one of her smash hit videos. "Lean On", for instance, where the singer...
Ralph Moore
Wednesday, 17 October 2018
A three-hour show? There’s no doubt that The Smashing Pumpkins give good bang for the buck but it’s rare to see a band of...
Saskia Baron
Wednesday, 17 October 2018
What do you do after playing Doctor Who, the dream dad of the nation, quirky and compassionate, the adult who every child...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 17 October 2018
The “portmanteau” form of film-making is almost guaranteed to deliver patchy results, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the...
Steve O'Rourke
Wednesday, 17 October 2018
For the first time in the 15-year history of Call of Duty games, the developer Treyarch has decided to completely do away...
disc of the day
DVD: Generation Wealth
An intriguing documentary ramble through greed, money and vicarious displays of excess
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tv
There She Goes, BBC Four review - mining disability for family comedy?
Writer Shaun Pye's family experience makes for less than parental paradise
Informer, BBC One review - keeping tabs on terror
Going underground with the Confidential Informant Programme
Barneys, Books and Bust Ups, BBC Four review - the Booker Prize at 50
The award's half-century has brought scandals aplenty, welcome publicity pay-offs, too
film
Dogman review - Matteo Garrone takes on the mafia again
Black comedy crime caper turns very dark but never loses all its heart
LFF 2018: In Fabric review – Peter Strickland’s horror comedy is dressed to kill
Plus first looks at the revolting Scots of Outlaw King and tech dreamers in The Hummingbird Project
Matthew Holness: 'I wanted to make a modern silent horror film'
Footlights alumnus leaves comedy behind in disturbing debut feature Possum
new music
Smashing Pumpkins, Wembley Arena review - Corgan and company deliver the goods
Nineties alt-rockers reconstitute to shine a light on all the hits and more
classical
Fröst, BBCSO, Oramo, Barbican review - blood, sweat and sweetness
Sheer heart attack in Prokofiev's Sixth Symphony crowns a rich and varied programme
CBSO, Leleux, Birmingham Town Hall review - oboe extraordinaire
Who needs a baton when you've got an oboe? Charisma triumphs in Haydn and Bizet
Hallé, Gardner, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review – drama and humanity
Happy return and powerful results in Strauss and Janáček
opera
Porgy and Bess, English National Opera review - strength in depth on Catfish Row
A heroic cast steers Gershwin's masterpiece home in style
Solomon, Royal Opera review - an awkward compromise of a performance
Handel's oratorio given a handsome but frustrating account
Opolais, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Nelsons, RFH review - splendid and awful stretches
New work excepted, this second Southbank concert from Germans and Latvians shone
theatre
A Guide For The Homesick, Trafalgar Studios review - warmly funny and deeply moving
Ken Urban's play is a psychological thriller crossed with a love story
Wise Children, Old Vic review - Emma Rice in fun if not quite top-flight form
Angela Carter adaptation strains to sustain its high spirits
Company, Gielgud Theatre review - here's to a sensational musical rebirth
Marianne Elliott's gender-swapped Sondheim is a revelation
dance
'It’s more fun to dance in a tutu': Tory Dobrin of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
The artistic director of the Trocks explains how he keeps his ballet parodists on their toes
theartsdesk in Riga - 43,290 Latvians sing and dance for their country
Individual souls conjoined with a passionate belief in peace and music achieve miracles
comedy
Ivo Graham, Soho Theatre review - the perils of growing up
Going deep into personal material unearths lots of laughs
Nish Kumar, Soho Theatre review - the state we're in
He's angry – but he has a lot to be angry about
gaming
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 review – less is more
Solo rations have been relegated from this benchmark war series
Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt, V&A review - gaming for all
A comprehensive look at gaming present and future has surprisingly broad appeal
visual arts
Modern Couples, Barbican review - an absurdly ambitious survey of artist lovers
Exhibition revises the notion of the artist as lone genius, but reveals little else
The Best Exhibitions in London
From the Turner Prize shortlist to the future of gaming: our guide to what to see in the city
Mantegna and Bellini, National Gallery review - curated for curators
An intriguing tale undone by loose ends