sat 14/06/2025

theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews

Tom Birchenough
Friday, 14 November 2025
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...
Justine Elias
Saturday, 14 June 2025
The opening images of Tornado are striking. A wild-haired young woman in Japanese peasant garb runs for her life through a barren forest and across burnt-orange fields. As her...
Gary Naylor
Saturday, 14 June 2025
The safe transfer of power in post-war Western democracies was once a given. The homely Pickfords Removals van outside Number Ten, a crestfallen now ex-PM and family mooching...
Graham Fuller
Saturday, 14 June 2025
On leaving prison, Lollipop’s thirtyish single mum Molly discovers that reclaiming her kids from social care is akin to doing lengths in a shark-infested swimming pool teeming...
Sarah Kent
Saturday, 14 June 2025
I first came across Rachel Jones in 2021 at the Hayward Gallery’s painting show Mixing it Up: Painting Today. I was blown away by the beauty of her huge oil pastels; rivulets of...
Guy Oddy
Saturday, 14 June 2025
Swiss electro-rockers, Young Gods have been around for 40 years, but this in no way should suggest that they’ve gone soft in their old age. These days, vocalist Franz Treichler...
James Saynor
Friday, 13 June 2025
Do the French do irony? Well, was Astérix a Gaul? Obviously they do, and do it pretty well to judge by many of their movies...
Gary Naylor
Friday, 13 June 2025
There’s an old theatre joke. “The electric chair is too good for a monster like that. They should send him out of town with...
Joe Muggs
Friday, 13 June 2025
When I was writing the introduction to my book, Bass, Mids, Tops: An Oral History of Soundsystem Culture, I came up with a...
Sarah Kent
Thursday, 12 June 2025
It’s been a long time since an exhibition made me feel physically sick. The Hayward Gallery is currently hosting a...
Rachel Halliburton
Thursday, 12 June 2025
For the first encore of the evening, it was not just the audience but the whole ensemble of Hespèrion XXI that was...
Guy Oddy
Thursday, 12 June 2025
When Neil Young releases a new album, you can be reasonably sure that you’ll get either a disc of melancholy singer-...
Jon Turney
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
The slightly overwrought subtitle, "How Digital Language Created and Connects Our World and Shapes Our Future", ...
Kieron Tyler
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Although Mary Halvorson leads the sextet Amaryllis on About Ghosts, instrumentally, she does not place her guitar to the...
Helen Hawkins
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
It’s a sign of the inroads that the term “immersive” has made in theatreland that it now gets jokily namedropped at the...
Rachel Halliburton
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
This thrilling production of Saul takes Handel’s dramatisation of the Bible’s first Book of Samuel and paints it in pictures...
David Nice
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
If, like me, chamber music isn’t your most frequent home, there are bound to be revelations of what for many are known...
Thomas H Green
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Marina Diamandis is a proper pop star, brilliantly full-on, off on her own thing. The Welsh singer is primarily known for...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 09 June 2025
The first series of The Gold in 2023 was received rapturously, though apparently it only told one half of the story of the...

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★★★★ MARINA - PRINCESS OF POWER Over-the-top but rife with pop gems

★★★★ SAUL, GLYNDEBOURNE 10 years after opening Barrie Kosky's production still packs a punch

★★★★ HESPERION XXI, SAVALL, QEH An evening filled with laughter and light

★ YOSHITOMO NARA, HAYWARD GALLERY How to make millions out of kitsch

GATHER IN THE MUSHROOMS Stylish, Saint Etienne-compiled, gateway into the world of acid folk

★★★★ A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, BRIDGE THEATRE A great night out, especially for Shakespeare first-timers

★★★★ THE GOLD, SERIES 2, BBC ONE Back on the trail of the Brink's-Mat bandits

★★★★ MARY HALVORSON - ABOUT GHOSTS Between the composed and the improvised

disc of the day

Album: The Young Gods - Appear Disappear

Swiss electro-rockers unleash a techno-metal monster

The future of Arts Journalism

 

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Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

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.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

tv

The Gold, Series 2, BBC One review - back on the trail of the Brink's-Mat bandits

Following the money to the Isle of Man, Spain and the Caribbean

Dept. Q, Netflix review - Danish crime thriller finds a new home in Edinburgh

Matthew Goode stars as antisocial detective Carl Morck

The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone, BBC Two - boom and bust in the lingerie trade

Life in the fast lane with David Cameron's entrepreneurship tsar

film

Tornado review - samurai swordswoman takes Scotland by storm

East meets West meets North of the Border in a wintry 18th-century actioner

Lollipop review - a family torn apart

Posy Sterling brilliantly conveys the torment of a homeless single mother denied her kids

new music

Album: The Young Gods - Appear Disappear

Swiss electro-rockers unleash a techno-metal monster

Album: Sam Binga - Sam Binga Presents Club Orthodontics

A thrilling whirlwind tour of bass culture across decades and continents

Album: Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts - Talkin' to the Trees

Musical titan reflects on his life as he careers towards his 80th birthday

classical

Hespèrion XXI, Savall, QEH review - an evening filled with laughter and light

An exhilarating exploration of innovation in 16th and 17th century repertoire

theartsdesk at the Dublin International Chamber Music Festival - musical revelations, nature beyond

Artistic director Ciara Higgins’ programming ensures plenty of surprises

Müller-Schott, RSNO, Søndergård, Usher Hall, Edinburgh - spectacular Shostakovich to end the season

Brilliant orchestral results, while the cellist walks a tightrope in the Second Cello Concerto

opera

Saul, Glyndebourne review - playful, visually ravishing descent into darkness

Ten years after it first opened Barrie Kosky's production still packs a hefty punch

Così fan tutte, Nevill Holt Festival/Opera North review - re-writing the script

Real feeling turns the tables on stage artifice in Mozart that charms, and moves

La Straniera, Chelsea Opera Group, Barlow, Cadogan Hall review - diva power saves minor Bellini

Australian soprano Helena Dix is honoured by fine fellow singers, but not her conductor

theatre

Hamlet Hail to the Thief, RSC, Stratford review - Radiohead mark the Bard's card
An innovative take on a familiar play succeeds far more often than it fails
The King of Pangea, King's Head Theatre review - grief and hope, but no connection
Heart and soul proves insufficient in world premiere of therapeutic show
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bridge Theatre review - Nick Hytner's hit gender-bender returns refreshed
This Dream is a great night out, especially for Shakespeare first-timers

dance

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support

Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community

Ballet to Broadway: Wheeldon Works, Royal Ballet review - the impressive range and reach of Christopher Wheeldon's craft

The title says it: as dancemaker, as creative magnet, the man clearly works his socks off

The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - brains, beauty and bravura

Once again the veteran choreographer and maverick William Forsythe raises ENB's game

comedy

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support

Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community

Mr Swallow: Show Pony, Richmond Theatre review - magic tricks and mayhem

Nick Mohammed gives his creation's origin story

Books

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support

Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community

Samuel Arbesman: The Magic of Code review - the spark ages

A wide-eyed take on our digital world can’t quite dispel the dangers

Zsuzsanna Gahse: Mountainish review - seeking refuge

Notes on danger and dialogue in the shadow of the Swiss Alps

latest comments

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