theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Adam Sweeting
Thursday, 18 August 2022
It was the end of an era, as Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s bittersweet epic of the brilliantly devious Saul Goodman wound to a close. Hints of redemption were in the air,...
David Nice
Thursday, 18 August 2022
Essay-writing can be a great art, at least when executed by Hubert Butler of Kilkenny, on a par - whether you know his writing or not, and you should – with Bacon, Swift and...
Aleks Sierz
Thursday, 18 August 2022
Dystopian theatre takes many forms – but this is the first which is a jury-room drama. Dawn King has previously explored the world of double-think and the use of fear and...
Sebastian Scotney
Thursday, 18 August 2022
Very good things have come to pass as a result the Mingus Centennial in April this year. A light has been been shone not just on the jazz bassist and bandleader’s uniquely defiant...
Veronica Lee
Thursday, 18 August 2022
Jake Lambert, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★Jake Lambert warms up the audience by describing how much he enjoyed lockdown (despite a relationship break-up), and he suspects that...
Joe Muggs
Thursday, 18 August 2022
22 is a pretty young age to be jaded. But this album starts out with Mancunian rapper Aitch detailing how tough it is at the top, and how traumatised he is by life: "sitting on my...
Sebastian Scotney
Wednesday, 17 August 2022
It does need saying: the RPO may receive less frequent plaudits than some of their London peers, but this is a fine and...
Gary Naylor
Wednesday, 17 August 2022
There’s nothing quite like magic, live, up close and personal. Sure there are the TV spectaculars, the casino resort mega-...
Christopher Lambton
Wednesday, 17 August 2022
It is quite some years, if not decades, since the Edinburgh International Festival had any claim to be a festival of staged...
Veronica Lee
Wednesday, 17 August 2022
Hal Cruttenden, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★ Hal Cruttenden is the kind of observational comic who talks about his...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 17 August 2022
You know those people who claim to literally only like the very first music a band does at the start of their career, then...
David Nice
Tuesday, 16 August 2022
Two quirky concertos – one for orchestra, though it might also be called a sinfonietta – and a big symphony: best of British...
David Kettle
Tuesday, 16 August 2022
"I feel I owe you an explanation." That much James Thierrée concedes partway through his sprawling, freewheeling, dream-like...
Cyrille Dubois
Tuesday, 16 August 2022
The year 2024 will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of the phenomenal Gabriel Fauré. For Tristan Raës and me,...
Veronica Lee
Tuesday, 16 August 2022
Randy Feltface, Assembly George Square ★★★★ Despite being made of felt, with a gash for a mouth and two googly eyes,...
Graham Rickson
Tuesday, 16 August 2022
Buster Keaton made his name in a series of two-reel shorts made from 1917 onwards; The Saphead, from 1920, was his...
David Nice
Monday, 15 August 2022
“Variety is the spice of life! Vive la difference!,” chirrups the ensemble at the end of this giddying double bill. And...
Helen Hawkins
Monday, 15 August 2022
The gifted writer-director Stefan Golaszewski (Him and Her, Mum) has surpassed himself with his latest drama series,...
Juliette Bretan
Monday, 15 August 2022
The businessman in Heinrich Maria Davringhausen’s Der Schieber (The Profiteer), 1920-1921 sits several floors above the city...
disc of the day
Album: Aitch - Close to Home
Manchester's great white hope on charming form as he grapples with meteoric success
tv
Better Call Saul, Season 6 Finale, Netflix review - end of the line for TV's most celebrated con artist
Satisfying conclusion lets the punishment fit the crime
Marriage, BBC One review - a brilliantly executed drama series with a big heart
Nicola Walker and Sean Bean triumph as a couple in a marital minefield
Shetland, Series 7, BBC One review - Douglas Henshall is back for the last time as Jimmy Perez
Can new series recapture the show's former glories?
film
Blu-ray: The Saphead
Buster Keaton's intermittently entertaining feature debut, with enticing extras
Eiffel review - sensuous secret history
Concocted romance gives the Eiffel Tower shaky but lavishly entertaining foundations
Nope review - more a nope than a yep
Jordan Peele fails to reach his own extremely high bar, with this so-so genre mashup
new music
Mingus Dynasty, Ronnie Scott's review - official keepers of the flame at the temple of jazz
Honouring a genius composer in his centenary year
Album: Aitch - Close to Home
Manchester's great white hope on charming form as he grapples with meteoric success
Album: Hot Chip - Freakout/Release
Electro-pop perennials latest is slick but contains delicious songwriting
classical
theartsdesk at the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2022 - a safe space to reflect on horrors
Masha Gessen, Shostakovich and Shakespeare’s Prospero wrestle order from chaos
Prom 40, Moore, RPO, Petrenko review - orchestral clarity, and a persuasive trombonist
The RPO is sounding good after Vasily Petrenko's first season as Music Director
Prom 39, Hartwig, BBCSO, Oramo review - bright and breezy followed by a curate's egg
Turnage and Vaughan Williams scintillate, but the soul of Elgar remains out of reach
opera
Salome, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Gardner, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - orchestral majesty triumphs
Malin Byström offers presence and power as Strauss and Wilde's sex-crazed princess
La Voix humaine/Les Mamelles de Tirésias, Glyndebourne review - phantasmagorical wonders
Visual and aural beauty, strong performances, in a stunning double-bill from Laurent Pelly
Rusalka, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - sumptuous rendition of a watery fable
Total triumph for replacement water-nymph Elin Pritchard
theatre
The Trials, Donmar Warehouse review - chillingly compelling
A jury of young people hold their elders to account for climate change
Wonderville Magic and Cabaret - fast-paced show delivers the promised wonder
Leave memories of Paul Daniels at the door and embrace the sweet deception inside
Room, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - decadent, extravagant, and somewhat mystifying
James Thierrée joyfully collides together dance, mime, acrobatics, music and more - but what does it all mean?
dance
theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2022 - body and soul in perfect balance
Completion of the city’s big Dante project with 'Paradiso' is only one of three wonders
The Rite of Spring, Pina Bausch/École des Sables, Sadler's Wells review - explosive and disturbing
At last, the pan-African production of Bausch's landmark choreography arrives on the London stage
The Car Man, Royal Albert Hall review - grand scale drama and decadence
An explosive restaging of the original dance drama
comedy
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Jake Lambert / Bella Hull / Jack Harris
Searching for a friend, Gen Z laid bare, and teaching teachers
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Hal Cruttenden / Zach Zucker / The Delightful Sausage
Divorce the nice way, Las Vegas showtime, and an hour of silliness
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Randy Feltface / Sarah Keyworth / Andrew Maxwell
A puppet tells it like it is, an outbreak of silliness and political gags
Books
Amalie Smith: Thread Ripper review - the tangled web we weave
AI meets Penelope meets Ada Lovelace in this meditation on text, tissue and textile
Phoebe Power: Book of Days review - the clack of walking poles, the clink of scallop shell
Powerful poems of pilgrimage, loss and belonging along the Camino de Santiago
Jessie Burton: The House of Fortune review - a muted, sensitive sequel
The ghosts gather as the miniaturist returns in Burton’s latest instalment
visual arts
Germany / The 1920s / New Objectivity / August Sander, Centre Pompidou review - expansive and thought-provoking
The vibrant world of 1920s Central Europe, in sharp focus
Gustav Metzger: Earth Minus Environment, Kestle Barton review - an illuminating glimpse of a visionary activist-artist
Ecological dirty-realism plus mass-media overload in an idyllic Cornish setting
Milton Avery: American Colourist, Royal Academy review - from backward-looking impressionist to forward looking-colourist
A slow reveal of the painter dubbed the American Matisse
latest comments
Do people really talk like them? Especially after...
I stuck with it - frustrated at times by the pace...
Careful...
I have to disagree with you about the Elgar. I...
Hilarious review though - 'Bean and Walker deploy...
Watching paint dry was more interesting
utterly boring won't be watching more than one...
I thought it was wonderful. I loved watching the...